My Week 2 Exercise 1

[mikemeister_admin]

Hi all,

Hope I send this right........brain dead from doing the exercises all day!

Tykee (Peggy)

[ggroess]

Hi Peggy...

Glad to see an image from you...

Taken from your image and working forward.....

Shot1...Set a neutral....
Shot2...Adjust the highlight threshold until you get some of the whites to be over the top...
Shot3...On the shadow side grab the curve real low and push it as shown...here I have a point at 4 on the curve that I move to 10 this lightens the shadows.  Don't panic about the rest of the image...
Shot4...Add a control point and bring the curve back twoards the center until you are satisfied with the overall image.  Mine was quick and dirty but you can take as much time finding this as you want...
Shot5...Increase saturation until the colors just start to get to be unreal...then back off a bit...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Tykee,the merry go round is really a tough one.Try the tutorials that come with the program. The pictures,Bath England,StoneHenge and flowerpot are good to start with. GregM-the other Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Thanks Greg,

I am still stumbling around CM right now.  The neutral using the wizard is about step 3.......I was missing the point that I should set the neutral first. 

How do we know the sequence to use, does it depend on the photo?  or personal preference? 

I will try example 1 again in your sequence and repost.

Peggy

[ggroess]

I try hard not to dictate workflow...but...

I usually work Highlight, Shadow, Neutral...Then I look for saturation in LAB.
If I do a RGB correction I try to go by the numbers there will be a workflow video on that later in the course.

Sometimes you cannot fix everything in one run of CM, so I try to fix everything I can within reason and then I apply the curves. I then go back into the image with CM to finish the job, it is hard to describe when that occurs but it usually happens when the required changes undo or damage the changes you have already completed.

for now...start with Shadow highlight and neutral..you cannot go to far wrong that way...
Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Here is my shot at correcting the Merry Go Round photo:



I might have been able to bring the highlights up a little more, but the white part at the bottom of the curtain was getting blown out so I backed off a little.  Maybe we shouldn't care about that.

  -- Russ 

[mikemeister_admin]

Russ,why don't you give it one more pass in Lab.Use the saturation slider and put a bit of rose in the child's cheek and see what it does to the image.GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

OK, Greg, what do you think of this one?



It almost seems too vivid to me, but I think I have a tendency to stay on the conservative side when "enhancing" photos.

  -- Russ 

[mikemeister_admin]

Looks good to me.In two weeks go back and do it again,see what you've learned.GregM,the unofficial Greg

[ggroess]

GM  There is no trademark on the name...LOL...

Russ,

My test for an image is to push it to the point that I really think it's over the top and then back off until I think it's "real"  GregM is right...the colors could use some pop.  The real problem when you over saturate is that you neutral can take a beating.  the ponies got a bit pink as well as the child.

It is good to push the boundaries of what you might think of as acceptable...this is a safe place to play....
Greg