Sunday, December 19, 2010

Which Perfume Smells Like Baby Powder

Tutorial: the sky in landscapes (and the blend mode)

Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi Finally after a long tutorial!
Uhoooooooooooo! \u0026lt;- crowd into a frenzy:)

For the occasion, I fished out a couple of pictures of landscapes (no comment, me and landscapes are worlds apart) taken last spring on the outskirts of Madrid.
Rule No To take a good landscape "would" have the appropriate filters: this is because (I'm sure you already noticed there without my enlightening revelation) the sky is often much brighter than the rest of the scene, especially (as in this case) with the twilight and above (as in this case!) when there is so determined to photograph the brightest part of the sky ... the one with the sun!
In the absence of filters (and experience ... because the filters then you must also know how to use ... and I also know if I had them NOT to use), the best thing to do to not lose that glimpse that left us breathless is "take the lesser evil" to try to get a picture with as much information as possible.
Warning: I'm not gonna talk about HDR . For ideological not practical HDR ^ _ ^
No, Seriously. I'm sure that the HDR is pretty cool. Really. And 'that just is not in my comfort zone. Happily left the topic to someone more knowledgeable than me.

Back to the premise above, that is
  • sunset / landscape beautiful
  • I do not have suitable filters
  • not want to do more shots at different exposures and then mix them (HDR)
  • want to do a single shot and then retrieve it in the best possible post
L 'I choose exposure in these cases (and I have to practice very well in Scotland, where I believe there is heaven fucking the most beautiful and bright in the world) is what allows me to
  • not burn sky (or burn a minimum area in the zone adjacent to the sun)
  • not underexpose too much ground
NB: can be a good idea to turn on the histogram display on your camera;)

We come now to the case study:
Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
A beautiful gray sky with flashes of "Vanilla Sky" potentially scorched , but beware: the histogram tells me that there is no burning. At the time of shooting, this is the only thing that interests me.
The earth is underexposed but I did not lose the shadow detail (see trees in the middle). A black eye can seem all but the histogram tells me that there's anything we should be.
I take for good the histogram, all packed together, I the plane and go back home, where I check if the photo is actually recoverable or not.
In this case what should be recovered are:
  • details of the high lights of the sky
  • details in the shadows of the trees in the middle
  1. how to check if you have burned the detail of the highlights ?
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi in other words, an area burned (completely white) is lost, you can not recover. While an area that seems to burn but is only very overexposed (not all white) can be recovered.
    To check the other lights, I act on the level: I take the indicator of the shadows and the shot to the right, stuck to the indicator lights, as you see here on the side.
    The burned areas appear white, overexposed areas but not
    burned, red and yellow, everything else turns black.
    This is the detail of my sky, after the test levels: there is a small burn in the area adjacent to the sun, more than acceptable, while everything else (in red) can be recovered.

    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    If I had a result of this kind, however, I learned that the white areas are still not recovered.
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    In summary
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    overexposed sky but not burned
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    sky burned
  2. How do I check that it did not "wash" the detail of the shadows?
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi Same thing, but in reverse. With
    levels, move the slider to the left of the highlights (the "flattened" into the shadows. See here next.
    In this way, I have almost everything except the white areas of "holes" (ie all black) black and underexposed areas in yellow and green.
    These trees are at center stage after the second test levels: even if the area is very dark, the shadow detail is was kept at 100%. You can recover.

    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    If the result was something like this, I would have known the details of the area had been lost in black (too underexposed pierced =)
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    In summary
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    detail of recoverable trees
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    detail of the trees lost
    Warning: know that these first two points seem a bit 'difficult and Pallos, but when I have a picture with a very wide tonal range (landscapes, ... backlit portraits exhibited bad, why not:)) I prefer to lose those two minutes to do fast this occurs, rather than wasting time on a photo and then realize that last some areas can not be recovered!
    so please read these two good points and if something is unclear ask ... and I will try to explain ^ _ ^
  3. End of conversation, starting a "dirty" work: mostly a bit 'all
    There is a sure way to make a clearing to the scene without running the risk of burning the high lights: with layers, working only on the range (ie the lever in the center, the gray).
    This is the result, increasing the range of 0.1 points (ie, bringing it to 1.10): pull out the detail of the trees. Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
  4. Now we come to the most "tricky" create a mask to act only on the lighter areas of the sky .
    I assume (I deluded!) You already know how they work forms, ie white = total opacity, black = total transparency ... if not, I suggest a review ... ^ _ ^
    In this case the nature of the image makes us the things we do for a first copy of the base layer, and a subsequent conversion b / w
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    look for the type of conversion that leaves the most possible contrast in the sky, darkening the most of the land (if is black, even better)
  5. Also on the duplicate layer (we will call for convenience "Layer Mask"), we apply the levels to increase the chiaroscuro : bright area of \u200b\u200bsky almost completely white, black earth (it means pulling a bit ' right indicator of the shadows, and a little 'to the left of the lights)
    This is our form of adjustment to the sky, for now let's keep it in a separate layer (invisible) and then see what to do: There Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
  6. are many ways to darken the sky: what I like best is apply a copy of the layer blend mode subtractive . Translate to Italian: I make a copy of the base layer (We will call for convenience "DARK LEVEL"), and set the layer blending mode to "Multiply". In this case, I also made a conversion b / w and I adjusted a bit 'i levels for maximum contrast in the most overexposed .
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    So in a nutshell: 1) Duplicate Layer, 2) convert to b / w and adjusts the levels, 3) change the blend mode to "Multiply".
    As you can see, we have recovered in an instant all the details of the high lights of the sky, but we have darkened over the rest. Now we see how to apply this effect only where necessary.
  7. mask the effect. Let's take our mask layer, copy it and apply it as a layer mask on DARK LEVEL. Question
    $ 1,000,000. How do I apply a layer as a mask to another level?
    With Photoshop:
    - active mask layer, and copied it, ctrl + A, CTRL + V
    - Unmark all
    CTRL + D - the active form fast (in the bottom of the toolbox, hotkey: Q)
    - paste, ctrl + V
    - off quick mask (Q) will see a selection.
    - DARK LEVEL active and apply the selection as a layer mask Dark (just create a new layer mask is automatically taken and the selected area)
    With Paint Shop
    - active mask layer, and copied it, ctrl + A, CTRL + V
    - DARK LEVEL active and add a blank form
    - Active Layer Mask in Dark and paste (ctrl + shift + L)
    Done :)
    Layer Mask is no longer needed, you can trash!
    The result should look something like this:
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
    Experiment with different blending modes and see how it changes the effect.
    We could have ended here, but I wanted the landscape to a more fabulous:)
    So here begins the phase of fake:) I want a sky
  8. less saturated, and then change the blend mode to "Multiply" to "Darker Color"
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
  9. Not satisfied with this, do a tone violet with DARK LEVEL to adjust hue and saturation of (mode "colors", the purple hue, and saturation is not very high)
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
  10. There is still a slight red dominance I would like to eliminate, especially the green of the vegetation to recover. I apply the color balance this:
    Shadows: +16 green (for trees)
    Halftone: Cyan and +12 Blue +16 (to eliminate the red color of the sky and cool)
    Lights: Red +9 (to recover the heat in the highlights)
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
  11. Finally increase slightly with the pitch adjustment of hue and saturation: +13 on a tone allows me to have a green "greener" and more a purple sky. You can also increase very slightly the saturation . Without exaggeration, though!
    Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
Conclusions
This of course is just how I wanted to follow for this particular photo: different shooting situations require a different post and I will tell you more, I often shoot in the type of post- I'm going to do. So
I could take a picture intentionally dark (as in this case) because I know how to intervene in post.
Recommendations:

  1. familiar with the histogram of your camera, do not rely on the thumbnail you see in the display
  2. learn how to use layer masks in a "smart" (today we saw how to use a layer mask obtained directly from the image, with a more natural compared to a form edited manually)
  3. EXTREMELY levels of fusion ... I must have said this already:) but when working with very strong light and shade levels can be a big merger.
The picture today was very bright, hence the decision to use a subtractive merge (Multiply, Color darker ... but try Color Burn)
Tutorial, migliorare il cielo nei paesaggi
In other circumstances, perhaps, may be more useful to lighten or increase the local contrast: a try combination of mergers Screen, Color Dodge and Dodge ...
or, to increase the contrast, experience the Overlay mode ... and also worked on the transparency of the level;)
In any case, I repeat what I said at the beginning: this is not the right way to take pictures of the landscape. I'm not good taking pictures of landscapes. This is a way to save the situation when you make a trip somewhere and want to take away some nice card, but you're too lazy to learn how to use filters;)

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