Lightening up..

karlyh

New member
This is one of 'those'...... if I didn't get it when I snapped.... I don't deserve it?..lol But.. I like editing when I can but having troubles with this one.

Any suggestions on editing this? It needs lightening but I'm having trouble bringing up the light.......while keeping the fact that it was evening and without blowing out the lamplight and keeping the highlights upon the water.

Thanks

 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
I'm not a Lightroom person. I use Aperture 3 for my post processing. So I can't help much. One question I have, what is the format of the shot, JEPEG or RAW? If you shot it in JEPEG that may be the problem. The options for a JPEG in post processing is limited.
 

Carolina Photo Guy

Senior Member
dsc_6259-2.jpg

Is this what you had in mind?

Pete
 

karlyh

New member
Thanks Joseph, no problem.... this was jpeg..

@Pete... I can tell a little difference thanks! I think it was a combo of things.... Really was a gloomy sky so not much light to work with there and also the fact as I said... one of those that should have been captured at the moment. I use Photoscape sometimes, it has a backlight feature that is easy peesy and it helped a little as well.
Thanks both...
 

Carolina Photo Guy

Senior Member
I used Photoshop 7. I went to the Brightness & Contrast controls and increased the contrast whilst reducing the brightness. I was trying to preserve the mood of the image while gaining some definition around the light fixtures.
I feel a little guilty about downloading your picture without your express permission and so, for that, I apologize.

I guess what I am trying to say is that just about any photo editor has brightness/contrast controls. Sometimes, just a little tweak is all you need.
Hope this helps.

Pete
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Karlyh - Have you tried shooting in RAW? I know that Lightroom has a RAW converter that will handle these files when downloaded. If this had been a RAW file you probably could have found the picture you wanted with a few adjustments.

Happy shooting,
Joseph
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Karly:

The sky is kind of messed up because I was working from a jpeg, but I used Topaz Adjust's Color Stretch in Photoshop CS5. Interesting effect. What do you think?

I also slightly cropped the left side.

One comment is that I think you over sharpened the image.

dsc_6259_ejd.jpg
 
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karlyh

New member
Karlyh - Have you tried shooting in RAW?
Joseph

I have but my reasons are probably silly I'm not sure...... 1. Seems to take up more space on my camera and 2. I'm not sure about saving to a file...and I've had trouble opening it up once I did. *Reasons are from lack of using it, I'm sure
 

karlyh

New member
Karly: One comment is that I think you over sharpened the image.
View attachment 397

I love it much better, thanks! I have the original.......if you want to give the same thing a go....LOL *Hint hint*

It may have been the backlight effect from Photoscape.... cool app.. but can be really harsh if not careful... because I don't remember having to sharpen too much.
Thanks!!!
 
dsc_6259.jpg


My take on this image. I brightened the sky ~10%, then added structure to the clouds by approximately 30% using Nik Viveza 2.
From there, my eyes move toward the bridge, and bringing out the colors just slightly - around a 8% adjustment, and of course I had to match it with the reflection in the water to bring out the detail in the water by bringing up the brightness by ~8%.
Hope this works. I do have to agree this was oversharpened.
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Oh yes a RAW shot takes up a lot more space. It's a much larger file. A RAW shot is exactly what the camera saw at the time of the shot. (Not necessarily what you saw.) Because it captures a lot more pixel data post processing programs like Lightroom have a lot more to work with and can be a lot more versatile and can make broader adjustments. The JPEG file was originally designed to be a final product that could be emailed, sent electronically to print shops or customers etc. It was never intended to be subjected to the artistic manipulations that todays digital photographers like to apply. You can make adjustments to a JPEG but as you are finding out it's limited. And you are correct there is a learning curve to RAW but it should not be that difficult. Take a few RAW practice shots download them into Lightroom and play with them. You'll get the hang of it in no time.

Happy shooting, :)
Joseph
 

goz63

Senior Member
For pictures such as this, have you thought about doing HDR? You take several pictures at different exposure levels. Some blow out the lights but bring up the dark areas, others highlight the street light areas and then the shadows are dark. Then you combine the pictures and you get some striking results. Works great for situations like this.
Mark
 

karlyh

New member
DSC_6259.JPG

This is the original....... I probably applied too much of something but I don't think it was too much sharpening.
I've kind of got hooked on the 'clarity' tool in Lightroom.... most likely what blew out the pixels (I assume).

Without going back to look, I think I was set on 200 ISO... would that make a difference?

Joseph, I'm going to try more with RAW... when were out visiting places that I want to make sure I get photos of (more like snapshot concept).. I guess I'm guilty of going with what I know. But as I am getting more acquainted (still a long way to go, I know) with post editing... I will definitely try more in the future to go with RAW.

Still working on replying to all.. Sorry if I miss anything..
@Mark ... I'd like to try that ... Still so much to learn about being a 'straight' shooter..lol It may have to wait a bit! I'd love to learn more about it though!

*About the photo... I think I was trying to bring up the highlights and emphasize the lamplight.... is why the sky ended up darker than the original.
 
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karlyh

New member
dsc_6259.jpg


My take on this image. I brightened the sky ~10%, then added structure to the clouds by approximately 30% using Nik Viveza 2.
From there, my eyes move toward the bridge, and bringing out the colors just slightly - around a 8% adjustment, and of course I had to match it with the reflection in the water to bring out the detail in the water by bringing up the brightness by ~8%.
Hope this works. I do have to agree this was oversharpened.
I can definitely see more highlight in the water... you're right about the sky... really shows the light coming through but I can tell the over editing too.
Thanks
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Sent to your email...

I sent you back the file. Let me know if you didn't get it as TIFF files can be big.

Since I didn't have a raw file, I took advantage of Photoshop CS5's new feature to open a jpeg as raw. (Once again I relied on a trick from Terry White to show me how.) I selected a spot on the water to set white balance, minimized all sharpening and opened it.

Once I had it in PS, I did a slight crop and then applied the Topaz Adjust 4 filter effect Exposure Color Stretch at default settings. After I cropped I used the clone tool to remove the slight extension of the light pole on the left edge and the power line towers over the middle of the bridge. Finally I used the new content aware fill to remove the small part of a light fixture on the right edge.

I resized the image for the forum but sent you the full size.

DSC_6259_edited.jpg
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
One more thing, I tried a crop on this just to see how it looked. I think it makes the bridge more of a focal point this way. I should get some billable work done now. ;)

DSC_6259_edited_crop.jpg
 

karlyh

New member
Wow! I think it works both ways... I love the crop, but I love the highlights on the water too.. But who says there can't be more than one depiction of a photo!
Really an awesome fix..... Thanks to everybody, I'm really impressed with all the editing on this photo. Personally I think this is one that can be taken either way.. Gloomy and dark.... or sun shiny! I would never thought that this could have been made to look like the sun was out though!

Thank you everybody!

When I fully absorb all that I've learned thus far..... I'll have to get some tips and tricks how-to's on the things you all did!
 
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