Wall features

[janis]

Taking time out from white balance studies to play with Silver Efex Pro. One of the things I liked about this photo, apart from the pattern of light and shadow on the wall, was how the texture of the building complemented the bark on the tree. Heavy sharpening plus a Silver Efex Pro preset seems to have brought out all these features nicely. What do you think? Is it overdone? Just plain uninteresting?

[robmarshall]

Yes, it's interesting. It has a reach-out-and-touch quality. The exposure looks good too on my monitor. Interesting textures. SEP is so good, isn't it? I couldn't do without it now.

[chrisc]

You might want to do another curves edit and reset the black point using the area where the tree boughs split as your black then rework your curve into a more aggressive "S."

[chrisc]

Insomnia, Rob?

[janis]

Nov 27, 2011 3:47:13 GMT @robmarshall said:

Yes, it's interesting. It has a reach-out-and-touch quality. The exposure looks good too on my monitor. Interesting textures. SEP is so good, isn't it? I couldn't do without it now.

Thanks, Rob. I haven't even really begun to learn the program; just started exploring the presets. But I think I'm going to love it...

I was doing some reverse engineering with the presets in Colour Efex earlier this evening, comparing the histograms between my edits and the Colour Efex presets and trying to figure out to replicate the latter in Aperture. I'm finding it a useful way to learn about colour processing.

[janis]

Nov 27, 2011 3:49:31 GMT chrisc said:

You might want to do another curves edit and reset the black point using the area where the tree boughs split as your black then rework your curve into a more aggressive "S."

So, you're saying I need more range in the mid-tones?

[chrisc]

Nov 27, 2011 4:23:02 GMT janis said:

Nov 27, 2011 3:49:31 GMT chrisc said:

You might want to do another curves edit and reset the black point using the area where the tree boughs split as your black then rework your curve into a more aggressive "S."

So, you're saying I need more range in the mid-tones?

To some degree, but try and keep in mind, I do tend to go a little more contrasty than some others on here. Using a more aggressive S curve, you can extend the foot and shoulder a bit more as well which will contain the midtone shift without damaging the rest of the tonal range in the tree.

[janis]

Nov 27, 2011 13:51:15 GMT chrisc said:

Nov 27, 2011 4:23:02 GMT janis said:

So, you're saying I need more range in the mid-tones?

To some degree, but try and keep in mind, I do tend to go a little more contrasty than some others on here. Using a more aggressive S curve, you can extend the foot and shoulder a bit more as well which will contain the midtone shift without damaging the rest of the tonal range in the tree.

So, if I told you that I started with a backwards S curve (to bring out detail in the highlights), what would you say? You have to spell it out for me, Chris, I am still in PP 100.

This also brings up a monitor calibration issue. Even if I turn my monitor up to full brightness, I already see black where the boughs split, though the lowest value in there seems to be only 17. At what value do you start seeing shades of grey?

[jjbacoomba]

Very well done Janis. I miss the snow. Wish it would snow here.

[chrisc]

Curve adjustment - to brighten and darken



Duplicate the layer and change the blend more, then drastically reduce the opacity - this does to a B&W what SEP does to a color image



Final edited image - but, as always, it is my vision of your work and it may or may not work for you.

[janis]

Thanks, Chris. It helps to see what you were going for. Things get complicated when it comes to dealing with layered edits (in my case, Aperture + SEP).