Jake's Backdoor Hippie-palooza, 2014 Edition

BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Moab Man said:
That picture seems odd, is their a story?
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Not that I know of. Was driving up a back street today in a direction I normally don't take and noticed the statue. It's against the back wall of the local Episcopal church, or what's likely the back entry to the church hall. I've been passed it hundreds of times but almost always in a direction that would have trees and a fence block the view. I liked how the color of her cloak looked against the red roof.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
2014-003:

20140103-_D621704-Edit.jpg

 
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BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
2014-003: SOOC

At the risk of turning this into a "Biblical Characters In Odd Situations" themed 365...

20140103-_D621712.jpg



Note: I likely would have gotten rid of the leaf in post were this not "SOOC".
 
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P

Pretzel

Senior Member
Glad to see ya jump into this year's fun! Looking forward to the SOOC side of things, as I'm sure you'll challenge us all.
 
W

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
Not that I know of. Was driving up a back street today in a direction I normally don't take and noticed the statue. It's against the back wall of the local Episcopal church, or what's likely the back entry to the church hall. I've been passed it hundreds of times but almost always in a direction that would have trees and a fence block the view. I liked how the color of her cloak looked against the red roof.
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I like the contrast of the statue with the geometric objects all around it. It can represent some of the many conflicts we encounter in today's world.

WM
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
So thankful to @wud for pointing out the frozen bubble blog a week ago. Did my best to try it this morning and did alright for a first effort (forgot to add karo syrup to the mix). If it stays cold enough I may try again just before sundown.

I strayed from my Nik work this time and tried onOne Perfect Effects 8, which I'd bought a while back. It's got a dynamic contrast tool that is extremely good at pulling details while preserving highlights and other things. You need to be able to use layer masks to use it effectively, but I'm really liking the way it pulled the detail from this bubble. I used the brush tool in Lightroom afterward to add clarity to the crystal lines in the bubble, a trick I learned in a snowflake tutorial.

2104-004:

20140104-_D621756-Edit.jpg


Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/backdoorhippie/11756019923/


If you're curious, here's the uncropped image straight out of camera.

_D621756.jpg
 
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hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
The bubble shot is awesome, Jake! It reminds me of a frozen hatched egg that was encased in ice. :)
 
wud

wud

Senior Member
So beautiful! I love how you pulled out the details of the frost, but also the light in the image, so soft.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
wud said:
So beautiful! I love how you pulled out the details of the frost, but also the light in the image, so soft.
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Thanks. That's all the onOne software. Perfect Effects 8 has a filter called Dynamic Contrast that is very interesting. It's not so much a traditional contrast filter as it is a selective detail extractor, allowing you to increase and decrease details based on size (small, medium & large), varying each simultaneously (Nik allows you to do one at a time using the Detail Extractor filter in Color Efex Pro 4). You can also adjust the basic light information (highlights, shadows, whites & blacks), and also "protect" certain aspects of the photo from being effected by the detail adjustment (highlights, shadows and skin tones). From within Perfect Effects you also have control over layer masks and blending modes so outside of Photoshop, so you can blend it with the sending layer in whatever style you wish before sending it back to photoshop. I did not save my layers, but I attempted to recreate the adjustment before adding the mask within Perfect Effects. You can see that it does impact the light as well, but it's easy enough to paint it out in the layer mask. After this I did some color balance adjustments and sharpening in Photoshop, and then the Clarity brush in Lightroom.

Screen Shot 2014-01-04 at 2.46.55 PM.jpg
 
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wud

wud

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
Thanks. That's all the onOne software. Perfect Effects 8 has a filter called Dynamic Contrast that is very interesting. It's not so much a traditional contrast filter as it is a selective detail extractor, allowing you to increase and decrease details based on size (small, medium & large), varying each simultaneously (Nik allows you to do one at a time using the Detail Extractor filter in Color Efex Pro 4). You can also adjust the basic light information (highlights, shadows, whites & blacks), and also "protect" certain aspects of the photo from being effected by the detail adjustment (highlights, shadows and skin tones). From within Perfect Effects you also have control over layer masks and blending modes so outside of Photoshop, so you can blend it with the sending layer in whatever style you wish before sending it back to photoshop. I did not save my layers, but I attempted to recreate the adjustment before adding the mask within Perfect Effects. You can see that it does impact the light as well, but it's easy enough to paint it out in the layer mask. After this I did some color balance adjustments and sharpening in Photoshop, and then the Clarity brush in Lightroom.

View attachment 65313
Click to expand...

Pretty amazing what that program can do!
 
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