DPP-Part 3; Exercise 7

Exercise; Colours in to tones 1

I have to choose an image which contains at least two strong contrasting colours and use the channel sliders in the black and white section on Photoshop raw, to create two opposite versions of the same image, so to understand and refine my sense of hue in an image.

This is the original photograph, I chose this as it had very strong red and green colours.

I first started off with a ‘default’ black and white image, a basic, no frills black and white image to keep as a reference, which is below.

Then, I have to convert the black and white image and adjust the channel sliders to change the photo in to two very different tonal ranges.


 

First image;-

 

To create these tonal ranges, where the rose is light and the green is dark, I put all of the channel sliders at the dark end and kept the magenta  and red slider at the light end.

Second image;-

 

For this image, I did the opposite and put the magenta and red at the black end of the channel, then all other channels at the light end.

This shows that you can saturate and de-saturate the tonal ranges of any colour and by doing what I did above, enhanced the colours in two very different ways.

DPP-Part 3; Exercise 6

Exercise; Strength of interpretation

This exercise is to experiment with the removal of colour and tonal range, I have to choose two images that would best suit the following adjustments;-

·         A strong increase in contrast that will include clipping (loss of detail) in at least the shadow areas

·         Low or high key treatment in which the entire brightness range is shifted down or up the scale

I have to create these effects in colour and black and white, to be able to recognise how each colour would appear, whether light or mid-tone or dark.

 

1^st image - Original

This is my original image, I have not edited this in any way, I think it’s a good image to use as I can lose the detail in the shadow areas in the water.

 

1^st Black and white-strong increase in contrast

I feel this is a really dramatic effect, a very dark and light one, as the key notes suggest, I used a strong S curve, although I had not pronounced the light areas as much, as the image already had a very strong white element to it, I knew the image would end up like this, as I use my curves all the time, whether it to make an image “Pop” or to drastically change it.

 

2^nd Black and white-low or high key treatment

For this image, I first used my levels and brought down the mid-tones and moved the highlights to the left to gain a high key treatment but to make it look like a low dynamic image. After that, I used the curves to make it a lot less dynamic, I think I prefer the dramatic image in the black and white.

 

1^st Colour-strong increase in contrast

 I did the same in this image as I did in the first black and white image. As the notes suggest, this does not work as well in colour as it did in the black and white, it’s so over exaggerated, it looks fake and unnatural.

 

2^nd Colour-low or high key treatment

Again, I used the same procedure as with the black and white images by using the curves and levels.  I actually like this image, although, I do actually prefer the original. I like the colour in the water, the sky is a bit ‘off’ and some of the detail is lost in the building due to the overexposure when lightening the image.

 

2^nd image - Original

This is the original image, I chose it because there is a bit of detail in the branch and I knew that I could lose the detail when editing, but also gain it back, as before, I have not edited this image in any way.

 

1^st Black and white-strong increase in contrast

I really like this adjustment, as with the previous set of images, I used exactly the same components for all of the following four pictures.

As previously mentioned, I knew the detail of the branch would be lost and the ground and rocks in the background would be accentuated.

 

2^nd Black and white-low or high key treatment

I never thought I would, but I like this image. I think the detail is good and there is a sort of tonal difference in the branch, almost a slight hue of metallic to it.

 

1^st Colour-strong increase in contrast

Again, as the notes suggest, the colour version looks extreme, but I think this photo works better than the photo in the first set, I really love the way the background colours come to life and are very pronounced.

2^nd Colour-low or high key treatment

This high/low key treated image is good, but by losing the blue in the image, it loses the mountains in the background, the branch does look goo though, maybe if I were to process this image, I would splice the two together to get the look I want to achieve.

All in all, this exercise was very helpful in the strength of the tonal ranges and understanding them, by using my curves and levels, I rarely experiment with the mid-tones and will do so now more often so to achieve an exciting new look.

DPP-Part 3; Exercise 5

Exercise; Black-and-White

I have to choose a subject, lighting condition or picture situation that I believe will look better in black and white, starting off with a colour image and processing in to black and white.

Here is the original image I have chosen to change;-

This was inside a derelict church, I think it would make a great black and white image due to the high contrast. 

 

 

Here is the black and white processed image.

For this post production, I used raw and converted to grey scale, I moved the colours sliders around a bit, but I really wanted to make it an extremely dramatic image by using the curves after converting it to black and white.

The reason for this is due to the strong light coming through the windows and the dark corner on the left hand side. In hindsight (which is always a wonderful thing!) I wish I had adjusted the composition slightly and had some of the light that was reflecting on the floor of the window closest to me, in the frame as well, it was a difficult choice as I also wanted the light from the top window, that’s reflecting off of the ceiling in the shot as well.

 
I am happy with the finished image and the exposure that I used on the day as I wanted to get the left hand side corner a bit darker than the rest of the frame.

DPP-Part 3; Exercise 4

 

Exercise; Interpretative processing

This exercise is to make different interpretations for a creative purpose, I have to create three different versions of the same image.

Here is the Original image;- 

 

 

 

 

For the first image, I decided to go with the “norm” of black and white, I thought it would be good as when I was taking this photo, I imagined it in black and white, mainly because it’s quite a high dynamic image with a lot of contrast.

 

 

 

 

So as the directive suggests…get creative!, I used the filter settings on Photoshop and chose the chrome filter, after selecting this filter, I had to adjust the brightness of the image to make it look like there was a shine in the picture. I chose this filter as I thought the image worked well on black and white, so I thought I would test this filter.

 

 

 Another one from the filter range!, I used the stained glass one this time. After using it I felt there was no adjustment needed as it was quite effective.

 

 

 

Now I know there was only supposed to be three images, but I was having a lot of fun experimenting, I decided to do a fourth!.  For this image I used a lot of the colour filters of the hue and saturation, selective colour etc.  I wanted to achieve a really explosive unnatural colour combination that was warm and vibrant.

I think all of these images work really well, it also helps that I am very happy with the original image, I enjoyed this exercise and could have probably kept going!.

 

DPP-Part 3; Exercise 3

Exercise; Managing colour

I have to find two images, one with significant colour cast and the other to contain a surface that is grey, firstly to examine the image and see what colour cast it is and then, edit the image to eliminate the colour cast. like the previous exercise, I have to use the two approaches, depending whether or not I shot in Raw.

The first image is the grey image, I shot in Jpeg and Raw, the second image is only in Jpeg format.

1st; Grey/slight colour cast

Original image

I think this image has a slightly cool blue hue to it, it’s not overly apparent, mainly because I shot it on program as time was of the essence in getting the shot I wanted, but the tinge is there. I have this image in Jpeg and Raw.



This is the edited jpeg image;

With this image, I did as the manual said and used the grey dropper on the levels adjustments. It works quite well, I suppose mainly due to the amount of grey area in the photo, I feel I did not have to play around with the RGB selective colours in the levels.



This is the edited Raw image;

As with the previous exercise, the raw image has turned out better, in my opinion anyway!, the image overall, is lighter in comparison and the grey mid-tones seem t be more exact. I changed the WB to cloudy, as it was a cloudy day and that seems to have taken away the slight tint of blueness in the image.

 

 

2^nd; Colour cast
Original image

This has an overly blue tone to it, which is deliberate as I used a tungsten white balance setting when shooting, this is the image that does not have the Raw file.

 

This is the edited image;

I had a bit of trouble with the grey dropper on this one, as I found out, if you don’t use it exactly on the grey area, it goes a bit funny and the photograph becomes extreme colours, I put the grey dropper on the on the little roof at the very bottom of the image, on the front of the cathedral and the spire, that seemed to do the trick. I tried experimenting with the RGB channels, however, the blue in the sky went a bit doolaly!. So I decided to leave it like this, the difference is kind of minimal, but it is a vast improvement in colour tone and the blue hue has almost disappeared.

DPP-Part 3; Exercise 2

 

Exercise; Managing tone

 

For this exercise, I need to choose one image and manage the tone with post production software, a photo that ideally needs and matches the following adjustments;-

·         Set the black point and white point

·         Adjust the brightness of the mid-tones (If necessary)

·         Adjust the contract (If necessary)

·         Make corrections on localised areas (If necessary)

The above will be done in Jpeg, as I have a camera that shoots in Raw and Jpeg, I have to adjust the image in both formats, to start off with I will do the Jpeg adjustments.

I chose an image that had quite a bit of over exposure and is low dynamic, so to show how different the finished result will be.

 

Original image;-

 

 

1; Set the black point and white point

With this image I actually “set” the black and white points by using a threshold layer, instead a of just using the histogram.

 

2; Brightness of mid-tones

I only had to adjust the mid-tones slightly at this stage as the setting of the white and black points had done quite a good job.

 

 

3; Contrast

 

Again, as before, I only had to adjust this stage slightly. The image is clearly better since the enhancements, hence the reason I didn’t correct the localised areas.

Now on the Raw post processing, I have to do the following ion the raw format;-

·         Set the black and white points by adjusting the exposure and ensure the shadow and highlight clipping warnings are activated

·         Adjust the exposure, brightness and tone curve, I have to experiment with all

·         Experiment with Contrast and tone curve

·         If necessary, make corrections to the localised areas.

 

1; Set the black point and white point but adjusting the exposure

 

 I didn’t use the recovery slider for this as I wanted to follow the directive set out by the manual, so, I had to bring the exposure way down and create quite a dark image to work with, so to eradicate a lot of the over exposed areas as shown on this image, there was a lot more and this is the least clipping I could get the image too without blackening everything out.

2; exposure, brightness and tone curve

This is where I brought the image back and experimented with all three of the elements mentioned, again it was difficult to eradicate fully the over exposed area. But at this point, it was coming together quite nicely.

 

 

3; Experiment with Contrast and tone curve

I tweaked the tonal curve again and then experimented with the contrast to make the image really “Pop”. I couldn’t use the localised editing as I don’t seem to have it on my software.

4; Finished image

I think the Raw post processing is far superior than the Jpeg processing, the image stands out a lot more and everything, especially the clouds are more defined.

 

 

DPP-Part 3; Exercise 1

Exercise; Raw

 

 The first of the exercises in part three, is about Raw post production possessing, to be able to demonstrate the advantages of using Raw. I have to shoot in Raw and high quality Jpeg and choose three photographs in three different lighting conditions; - Daylight, artificial light and one high dynamic range. I then have to process the Jpeg image and the Raw image and note the differences between the two.

Daylight

1^st Original

This image has had no processing what so ever, I shot this with a WB of daylight.

 

 

2^nd Jpeg edited

For this image I adjusted the levels and curves and also used the auto tone, I’m very happy with this photo as I think it’s turned out well.


 

3^rd Raw edited

With this image, I only used the Raw processing software, I adjusted quite a lot with it, there were a lot more options than in the Jpeg editing options, I particularly like the sharpening option to make the image crisper, however, this sometimes doesn’t work so well depending on the image and you can also over sharpen it.

I was actually quite impressed with the Jpeg image, I have never used the auto tone function before and I think it’s done a really good job. I found it difficult in the Raw format to eradicate the orange hue, so for these sets of images, I actually prefer the Jpeg image, which I was not expecting at all.

 

 

 

Artificial lighting

1^st Original 

 

This image was shot inside with a flash and flash WB on my camera, so to eradicate the orange hue, there has been no editing done to this image.

 

2^nd Jpeg edited

 

This image didn’t need a lot of editing, the levels were fine, I did a bit on the curves and I used auto tone and that was all that was needed.

 

3^rd Raw edited

 

I much prefer the Raw image in this set, I edited it so the contrast was stronger and sharpened it ever so slightly, I think the only difference between these images is the richness in contrast colour.

 

High dynamic range

1^st Original

 

For this shot, I used auto WB and no processing was done.

 

 

2^nd Jpeg editing

 

I quite like this after the processing, I did the levels and curves, but not the auto tone, well, I tried the auto tone but it looked horrendous!.

3^rd Raw editing

 

With doing my usual editing in Raw, recovery etc, I also had to lighten the oranges and yellows to enhance the trees and darken the blues so that it wasn’t so bright. Out of the two images I prefer the Raw, it’s much cleaner and bright, it also shows the true colours a lot more. This would be one of the images that wouldn’t benefit from sharpening, due to the water, it would distort it so much and wouldn’t look right.

I have pretty much always used Raw, so I am really familiar with it, but I do always learn new things with Photoshop as there are so many programs. I normally start in Raw and finish in Photoshop, with the levels and curves, sometimes I do other things, depending on what the image needs.