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Author Topic: PS technique  (Read 3912 times)

Jeremy Roussak

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PS technique
« on: May 06, 2016, 12:56:06 pm »

I have a colour photo which looks a bit bland. My b&w conversion has lots of detail in areas which in the colour shot appear featureless. I'm sure I used to know how to blend the two in PS so that the detail in the b&w shot would appear in the colour one. Something to do with the blending modes to be used, perhaps? I'm fairly clueless when it comes to PS.

Help!

Jeremy
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howardm

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2016, 01:16:51 pm »

I dont have PS in front of me but I suppose my first guess would be to use the Luminosity blending mode since 'detail' in B/W is nothing more than changes in luminosity and you want to superimpose that on the bland color.

Jeremy Roussak

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2016, 02:17:48 pm »

I dont have PS in front of me but I suppose my first guess would be to use the Luminosity blending mode since 'detail' in B/W is nothing more than changes in luminosity and you want to superimpose that on the bland color.

That's the one. I said I was clueless. Thanks.

Jeremy
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Lundberg02

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2016, 08:06:23 pm »

Maybe you should just recover highlights
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LesPalenik

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2016, 09:43:20 pm »

One quick and easy way to make bland photos to pop up is to convert them from RGB to Lab, steepen a and b curves (possibly also the Lightness curve), and then convert it back to RGB.  Of course, this would address the colors, not the details.


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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2016, 04:05:00 am »

Maybe you should just recover highlights

Maybe I'd done that already and it hadn't worked. Thanks for the tip.

Jeremy
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LesPalenik

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2016, 04:10:11 am »

it would help to see the image
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2016, 04:14:02 am »

it would help to see the image

I have several that I think might benefit from the technique. This was one for which I used it immediately. It helped a lot.

Jeremy
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LesPalenik

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2016, 05:03:01 pm »

Jeremy,

I looked at your image and tried two quick adjustments:
1. Exaggerated slightly the curves in Lab space
2. Applied light sharpening in Topaz Detail (using the standard Overall Detail Light 1 Preset - 5,15,5)

Before and After:


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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2016, 03:32:54 am »

Les, that's interesting. The major improvement I was attempting with the luminosity blend technique was to add texture and detail t the snow, particularly towards the lower left, which I'd not been able to do in LR; it worked quite nicely.

I'll try your method: I think I have one or two of the Topaz plugins, although I've not used them much.

Mainly, I think, you've demonstrated that there's more than one way to skin this particular cat. Thanks.

Jeremy
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2016, 07:11:01 am »

Les, that's interesting. The major improvement I was attempting with the luminosity blend technique was to add texture and detail t the snow, particularly towards the lower left, which I'd not been able to do in LR; it worked quite nicely.

I'll try your method: I think I have one or two of the Topaz plugins, although I've not used them much.

Hi Jeremy,

Topaz Detail is one of their IMHO 'must-have' plugins, and it can be called directly from Lightroom via their free Fusion Express plugin. Except for one control, it doesn't really sharpen, but it allows to modify the visibility of surface structure detail. It also uses their 'Intellicolor technology', which avoids unnatural saturation and color changes when brightness is altered. It also has built in masking capability, so adjustments can be applied locally.

Cheers,
Bart
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LesPalenik

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2016, 11:18:35 am »

Les, that's interesting. The major improvement I was attempting with the luminosity blend technique was to add texture and detail t the snow, particularly towards the lower left, which I'd not been able to do in LR; it worked quite nicely.

I'll try your method: I think I have one or two of the Topaz plugins, although I've not used them much.

Mainly, I think, you've demonstrated that there's more than one way to skin this particular cat. Thanks.

Jeremy
Indeed,  there's more than one way. Another alternative to achieve a very similar effect would be to run the image through Topaz Clarity plugin.
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howardm

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #12 on: May 08, 2016, 11:28:13 am »

+1 Topaz Clarity

I've not tried their 'Detail' product but their Clarity tool has saved more than 1 of my images, similar to yours except instead of snow I had blazing yellow & orange New England Fall colors that seemed to be hopelessly blocked up although it did leave it w/ a tiny bit of that HDR look

Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #13 on: May 08, 2016, 12:50:48 pm »

+1 Topaz Clarity

I've not tried their 'Detail' product but their Clarity tool has saved more than 1 of my images, similar to yours except instead of snow I had blazing yellow & orange New England Fall colors that seemed to be hopelessly blocked up although it did leave it w/ a tiny bit of that HDR look

Hi Howard,

Depending on what you wanted to accomplish, maybe a bit less of 'Clarity', and a bit of added 'Detail' would have been even more to your liking.

'Topaz Clarity' affects the effect that lighting has on subjects, the formation of light and shadow, by adjusting local and global contrast. It also has good HSL controls, with separate masking capabilities, to affect the color rendering.
'Topaz Detail' affects surface structures, either amplifying them or reducing them, but with a lot of control.

I consider both as 'must-haves' in my workflow, besides Capture and Output sharpening tools.

Cheers,
Bart
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howardm

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Re: PS technique
« Reply #14 on: May 08, 2016, 01:08:43 pm »

I'll definitely look into it.  Thanks much!
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