Curvemeister Forum

Brian S,

I have seen that you have made a nice picture of the Challenge 5 out of 1948.

That picture is what puzzles me.
I have made it once before.
And by seeing your picture I was enthusiastic in the first and second glance.
I  have reading the way you have done it.
But I have P.S.E 4.0 and I could not doing yours.
So I tried it again, now with the extra of Hidden Powers of Lynch.
First I studied you picture at 100%.
Then I saw strange things.
So I tried to do it better.
I don't know it is better.
It is better then the last time I made it.
there is progress.

Frits
P.S: first below your picture........

ADDUM:
My picture :


Frits

Hi Fritz,
Thanks for your comments.
No contest! Your latest attempt is much better than mine!

I had put a time limit of about 20 mins to 'discover' my best basic approach for this one.

The time I assume you spent on adding some variation details, such as the father's shoe, clothing, truck sides etc and better masking has clearly paid off. It has created more distinction between items.

I probably blurred the sky a little too much, and had lost some of the graduation from left to right.
The auger colour is much better in yours, although maybe just a bit bright (it seems to drag my attention away for the people who I think are the more important items).

Great work,  I will be voting for yours. I think it the clear leader in this challenge.

Brian S

PS, please check out my cliff challenge entry,  I'd like your thoughts on how this compares to the others, considering I basically used a simple 3 step process as shown in the Dan Margulis' LAB book. 

Hi, Brian,

PS, please check out my cliff challenge entry,  I'd like your thoughts on how this compares to the others, considering I basically used a simple 3 step process as shown in the Dan Margulis' LAB book. 

I have seen your earlier cliff before,  then he was more orange.
Of course I have studied before all the other Cliff's before I did mine.
And there are more orange cliff's.
But on the picture, is it in the early morning or is it sunset.
I don't know.
Mostly , you can see it on the sky then.
So I think it is in the middle of the day , and made it not so orange.
But your last Cliff is indeed better.

Dan Margulis' LAB book, I have also. But so I wrote it earlier, I have no LAB and other things in my P.S.E. 4.0
So I must approach it a little different.

I had put a time limit of about 20 mins to 'discover' my best basic approach for this one.

I have spent more time, I think a couple of hours. I must get the possibilities of the three prgr's in my fingers and do a lot of experimenting and reading in the book of Lynch about Hidden Powers.

The time I assume you spent on adding some variation details, such as the father's shoe, clothing, truck sides etc and better masking has clearly paid off. It has created more distinction between items.

I probably blurred the sky a little too much, and had lost some of the graduation from left to right.
The auger colour is much better in yours, although maybe just a bit bright (it seems to drag my attention away for the people who I think are the more important items).
Brian S

So, it was late yesterday, so I hope to remember what I have done on the picture.
I did it on a little other way then the first time.
I know that the blue channel has a lot of rubbish.
The first time, I copied the green channel to the blue etc..
But in my opinion , I could not good correct the colours after that.
So this time I leave the blue channel intact.
( In P.S.E 4.0 , I have no channels, only layers, so I must separate it with Hidden Powers)

I used Curvemeister 2.0 to set in RGB mode a white point on a cloud, a blackpoint on the car beside the tire and a neutral on the tire.
After that you get nearly the original colours and you can investigate at 100 or 200% magnification the details.
After that I placed a Skin point on the arm of the boy.
The colours change more to the original colors.
After that I lowered with Curvemeister 's lab  the whole green part.
After that I masked the sky and did vanish the green and also a little read.
I had the most problem and time  to get the sand or  or something, to have it the right colour.
I did it with Curvemeister. But after that the rest of the picture was aw-full.
But that is no problem for me now.
I used History Airbrush from hidden powers.
So  I could paint -brush the right colour to the right picture.
When you looked good , you could see green plants under the car and on the left.
They must be left intact.
After the colours in the whole are right, I have still the rubbish in the picture.
I tried different things, but the best was  filter/dust and scratches on 2.
After that I did  the smart retouch panel on the rest of it.
Sometimes I used the clonestamp.

That's all about it, I think.
The goal for me, is to discover the best way, I can do the recovery on my own photo's.
So, I am studying different books and do a lot of experimenting.

thanks for your comment!!

Frits

Frits, thanks for those detailed comments, I must remember to pin the highlights, neutral, shadow first.  I forgot to do this with the Harvest test.  It's almost always the best starting point.  These challenges are great for finding or rediscovering methods to use (or not use!), especially from other members.

Re the my "earlier cliff",  you must be referring to another member, this is the first Cliff post/attempt I have made.

Re the time of day on the Cliff being midday, I tend to disagree with you, for two reasons.  Firstly the shadows in the cliff face, and the distant cliff faces tend to suggest to me the sun at an angle of at least 45deg, on the left. Prob not sunrise/sunset, but no more/less than just after/before.  I think the sky to the left is showing the effects of this.  (I think my sky and mid distant sea were too blue, should have backed off the B curve more).

On the yellow/red of the cliff, I feel the wet sand tends to justify the cliff colour, i.e. a good part of the sand is from the cliff erosion/local soil.  I agree with you that getting a reasonable result with this one was fairly easy. 

By the way, you mentioned that in PSE 4, you can't convert to LAB. Does his also extend to using Curvemeister?, i.e. one of the good things of CM is I don't need to convert to LAB etc, just check that curve mode.  Or are these grayed out/not available when using CM in PSE?

Brian S

Frits, thanks for those detailed comments, I must remember to pin the highlights, neutral, shadow first.  I forgot to do this with the Harvest test.  It's almost always the best starting point.  These challenges are great for finding or rediscovering methods to use (or not use!), especially from other members.

From that is the neutral the most important.
Also a skin pin or other pin can work as a neutral on the proper place.
I have asked a couple of times to everyone to place his results of the class lessons on this group so that others,
(of course myself included) can learn from that.
Also the results can send to Mike.
But  till know I  see nearly anything.

Re the my "earlier cliff",  you must be referring to another member, this is the first Cliff post/attempt I have made.

You are right.

Re the time of day on the Cliff being midday, I tend to disagree with you, for two reasons.  Firstly the shadows in the cliff face, and the distant cliff faces tend to suggest to me the sun at an angle of at least 45deg, on the left. Prob not sunrise/sunset, but no more/less than just after/before.  I think the sky to the left is showing the effects of this.  (I think my sky and mid distant sea were too blue, should have backed off the B curve more).

On the yellow/red of the cliff, I feel the wet sand tends to justify the cliff colour, i.e. a good part of the sand is from the cliff erosion/local soil.  I agree with you that getting a reasonable result with this one was fairly easy. 

I have studied the original basic Cliff again. I can't discover 45 degrees shadows. Only very small shadows.
But you are probably right, then on the top of the cliff at right , the green has low light. So it is about  45 deg.

By the way, you mentioned that in PSE 4, you can't convert to LAB. Does his also extend to using Curvemeister?, i.e. one of the good things of CM is I don't need to convert to LAB etc, just check that curve mode.  Or are these grayed out/not available when using CM in PSE?

In P.S. E. 4.0 , there is no Lab.
But I can Fully explore the Curvemeister 2.0 in P.S.E. 4.0.
But I can't do all the things in Dan's book from chapter 6 on.
But I can copy Curvemeister channels to p.S.E. 4.0. in layers.
So I have 3 layers and what can I do with it.?
Sharpening the "L"and perhaps other things.
But I can not reverse the 3 channels ( layers), that's the problem.
I have searched for a LAB plugin for P.S.E. 4.0 but there is not.
Yes Hidden Powers has something like LAB.
But first, it worked not automatically in P.S. 4.0 ( it should)  , and I must do it by hand so written in Lynch book of hidden powers.
So i have then LAB.
But what I have ?
This Lab exist  out off Luminosity and a combined a+b and of course the source picture.
I don't know to handle that.
There are several methods described in the book to get Luminosity but not on getting the "a" and "b" channel each.
i like to do the things written in the book off Dan so that I understand it better what he is writing.
Till now I must do it with the possibilities from P.S.4.0 and the several plugins. (Cuvemeister, GML) and the effects from Hidden Powers.
It's is difficult enough for me, but I am still learning.

Frits