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01/05/2007 02:46:22 PM · #401 |
Yay Catherine! Yay all Team Suckers in the 6'osphere! I'm quite happily hanging in the upper 4's to mid 5's with my entries. Sadly, I probably won't have anything for the challenges coming up. I keep putting off thinking of something for procrastination, and don't have access to anyone for portraits. Maybe a happy accident I can tie to a song title, huh? It could happen.
For Best of, I'm contemplating a picture that's already had 270 views. Is that tacky?
And yes, Jeb, we are pulling your chain on the "it's the one with the subject in the middle." :-) |
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01/05/2007 02:52:24 PM · #402 |
| It had to have a subject? in the middle? |
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01/05/2007 02:56:04 PM · #403 |
Originally posted by Melethia:
For Best of, I'm contemplating a picture that's already had 270 views. Is that tacky?
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Nope, not tacky at all. There happens to be a thread about this floating around somewhere, and everyone pretty much agrees that your Best Of has probably been seen. I hid mine in my port and happily entered it.
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01/05/2007 04:24:39 PM · #404 |
Originally posted by bmartuch:
I like the idea of editing other members photos. It's interresting to see what others would do. I would like to have someone see what they could do with some of mine. |
If you're not familiar with PPChallenge, take a look. You can post your shots there in hopes that they will be used in the challenges. They used one of mine for Challenge #22, and it was very interesting to see the variety of treatments.
Message edited by author 2007-01-05 16:26:45. |
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01/05/2007 04:41:41 PM · #405 |
| Since "Best of" is 720 pixels, I'll re-edit mine - but I'll still keep the other one in the portfolio after the challenge to save the comments. It'll be weird to have the same shot twice, though. |
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01/05/2007 04:52:08 PM · #406 |
Originally posted by Melethia:
Since "Best of" is 720 pixels, I'll re-edit mine - but I'll still keep the other one in the portfolio after the challenge to save the comments. It'll be weird to have the same shot twice, though. |
That's exactly what I did. Also, the first one had two favorites. LOL.
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01/05/2007 05:33:19 PM · #407 |
Originally posted by noraneko:
Okay, team, I've gotta toot my horn a little, 'cause this will probably never happen again. I've got TWO scores hanging just above 6.0!
Free Study XVI
Votes: 123
Views: 158
Avg Vote: 6.0894
Comments: 6
Favorites: 0
Wish Lists: 0
12 Days Of Christmas
Votes: 174
Views: 266
Avg Vote: 6.0172
Comments: 18
Favorites: 3
Wish Lists: 0
This is a beautiful feeling while it lasts...
Oops, edit to include title of second challenge |
You da man! sorry wo-man. |
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01/05/2007 06:05:42 PM · #408 |
I have a shot to enter for Best Of that I have had since April. I'm glad I can finally enter it.
I don't really have any ideas for procrastination, BW portrait, or Song titles. Hopefuly, something will pop into my head. I wish we could just use any song title. |
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01/05/2007 06:08:24 PM · #409 |
| I've entered Procrastination and B&W Portrait. I think I will reshoot the procrastination shot tomorrow, because I see a score in the low 4s for the one I uploaded today. |
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01/05/2007 06:53:17 PM · #410 |
The National Gallery of Art in Washington,D.C. has an exhibit entitled "Streets of New York" which I saw last week. This is the website.
I was impressed with Walker Evans using a concealed camera under his coat with a shutter release down his sleeve.
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01/05/2007 07:57:30 PM · #411 |
I've been meaning to do procrastination...
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01/05/2007 09:17:41 PM · #412 |
Originally posted by raish:
I've been meaning to do procrastination... |
Me too, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. ;P
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01/05/2007 10:19:34 PM · #413 |
What is a layer mask anyway?
It̢۪s really easy once you get the hang of it.
Before you go any further –
LAYER MASKS ARE NOT LEGAL IN DPC BASIC EDITING!
So, what is a layer mask? It’s a mask you ‘put on’ a layer to block out areas you don’t want affected by a filter. Imagine laying a piece of clear plastic over your image and painting on that with black paint to block out areas. That’s what you’re doing with a layer mask.
Only here, you̢۪re working on a copy of your background layer (your image) or an adjustment layer.
NEVER WORK ON YOUR ORIGINAL IMAGE, OR ON YOUR BACKGROUND LAYER!
All the following is for Photoshop Creative Suite 2, using a PC. It̢۪s probably similar for other programs and versions of PS, as well as for Macs, but I don̢۪t know. I̢۪ve only used this version.
So, here we have a pretty plain pic of my son, taken by my Aunt last Christmas. Snapshot! The highlights are very bright, the shadows are harsh, and the background is very distracting. I̢۪m going to try to do something about this.
The first thing to do is to open it, duplicate it, and then close the original. See obnoxious note above.
On the right of the screen you can see the Layers menu. Right click on the background layer. You̢۪ll get a pop-up menu. Select Duplicate layer
At the top left of the Layers menu, you̢۪ll see a drop down menu, which reads Normal now. This is the blending mode menu. You can also access this by double clicking on the layer itself, or by going to the layers menu at the top of the screen, but this is much easier. Click on this, and you̢۪ll be given a range of options. Play with them, see what they all do. It̢۪s really cool. But, for now, I̢۪m going to choose Multiply. This darkens and intensifies colours and tones. Look, it̢۪s darker.
You will see two identical layers in your Layers menu now. Now comes the fun part. On the bottom of the Layers menu, there are a row of buttons. Third from the left is the Mask button (I̢۪m not calling it the Layer Mask button as there̢۪s something else it does called a vector mask, and I have no idea what that is).
Click on that, and you̢۪ll see a white rectangle appear to the left of your layer thumbnail. See how it̢۪s the same proportion as your image? It̢۪s the mask, covering your image.
So what? I hear you ask. It hasn’t changed anything. True. The white mask is like the clear plastic layer I mentioned earlier – you can see through it. But now, we’re going to change that.
Select the brush tool, and select black as your paint. Make sure the mask is selected – it should have a white border around it to show it’s active. If the thumbnail has the white border, just click on the mask to activate it.
Then, directly on your image, paint on the area you don̢۪t want affected by the multiply. You don̢۪t have to be too neat yet. When you release the mouse button, you̢۪ll notice the mask on the layers menu looks like what you painted, and the image is not affected in the areas you blacked out.
Now you need to refine this a bit. Go and change the brush parameters to smaller and harder. This just helps to get the details. Not too hard, or it looks fake. Change the brush colour to white. Paint around the edges to neaten it up. Don’t make it too clean – that isn’t natural.
Then, in this image, I want to paint some of the mask back in, as it̢۪s pretty bright over the Sprog̢۪s hands and face, and that red sweater̢۪s pretty obnoxious too.. So, I soften and enlarge the brush again, and lower the opacity.
I change the colour to white, and then carefully paint over the areas that are too bright. This will bring the multiply layer up gradually, in lower opacities, a bit more subtly. You can see on the mask thumbnail that where you painted is grey.
Now we̢۪ll try to lighten that horrid shadow behind the Sprog̢۪s head. Duplicate the layer, and set it to Screen.
This lightens the layer. Now alt+click on the Mask button. Ooo, a black layer mask. And the Screen effect has gone. With the black mask it̢۪s like you have laid a black sheet of plastic over your image, and you will wipe away the black with your white paint.
So, select the brush, and paint out the shadow. This actually looks pretty sucky, and doesn̢۪t really do anything here; I just wanted to show a black layer mask and how to get one.
Now we̢۪re going to do a gratuitous eye enhancement. Again, the really won̢۪t make any difference here, but it̢۪s a cool trick using masking, so I̢۪ll throw it in. Duplicate your background layer. Select Filter, go down to Other, select High Pass.
Don’t ask me to explain High Pass; I just like what it does. When the High Pass dialogue comes up, select something not too outrageous – 10 pixels is good for a RAW image. Play with it, see what you like though. Here we’re just using it to sharpen the eyes a bit.
The image has gone grey! Agh! Never fear. Click on the blending mode and select Soft Light, or something in that section.
It gets a bit sharper and more emphatic. Create a black mask, then paint in the eyes with white. Tadah! Slightly pimped eyes! OK, this image is too small and sucky to see it, but it works well. Really.
Now we̢۪re going to create a Gradient Layer to have a vignette on the image. The background is pretty distracting. So, make sure you̢۪re on a thumbnail, not a mask, and your paint and background are black. Click on Layers, select New Fill Layer, then click on Gradient. In the Gradient dialogue box, choose Radial, and Inverse. Slide the Size slider to what size you want (you̢۪ll see it happen as you do it). When it̢۪s applied, you̢۪ll see there̢۪s already a layer mask on the layer. Cool!
I usually put my vignette layers on the top, so you can see I̢۪ve done that here. I then paint out the mask so my subject isn̢۪t too vignetted.
Now right click on the background layer, and select Flatten Image.
After it̢۪s flattened, duplicate it again. Select Blur, then click on Gaussian Blur under the Filter menu. I'm doing this to lower the detail in the rather horrid background.
Select the amount of blur you want in the dialogue box that pops up. As it is a pretty small image, and we want it to look natural, I̢۪ve selected 3 pixels here. For larger images, I can blur more.
Create a mask, and select the Gradient Tool, selecting the Radial Gradient, and Reverse (top left-ish of window).
Place the cross hairs in the area to be the clearest, click then drag to create a gradient circle of blurriness.
Then select the brush, at a lower opacity, and paint in any other areas you want sharper. Here, I also blurred the shoulders more, as there were yucky jaggy edges there.
Flatten image again.
O, you'll notice any Adjustment Layer also has a layer mask built in. true, but you can't use a mask in Basic, so just leave it alone in Basic. In Advanced, go ahead, play!
Tadah! You’re now a layers master. Ok, a total lie, but you know as much as I do, and I’m getting along okâ€Â¦
Message edited by author 2007-01-05 22:29:00.
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01/05/2007 10:29:35 PM · #414 |
there, done. i'm living the house of sickness now, so i'm going to bed.
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01/05/2007 11:52:25 PM · #415 |
That should be in Tutorials. Very well done. I'll even forgive you for showing people how to do vignetting... :D
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01/06/2007 12:06:02 AM · #416 |
| Nice going Xianart. That was a lot of work and very informative. Hope you all feel better soon. |
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01/06/2007 12:16:49 AM · #417 |
Wow, Christian - that's a lot of work and I'm VERY grateful! I'm about to pop up a picture and give it a shot. And Don is right - you should submit it to the tutorials section. In addition to looking easy enough for me to understand, it's very well written and presented.
And hope you all get to feeling better. There's a cold going around these parts I'm desperately trying to avoid but woke up with a sore throat this morning. Orange juice... think I'll go get a glass of orange juice..
Thanks again, my dear - you're awesome!! |
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01/06/2007 12:33:04 AM · #418 |
Well, now I needn't work up a tutorial on layer masks as I was planning to do. :) Get your $5, Christian!
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01/06/2007 12:34:25 AM · #419 |
| Oh, and I do think we probably should honor Larus with the Yappie award this week - he's commenting in Fireworks, too. |
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01/06/2007 01:30:34 AM · #420 |
This whole layer masking thing has potential! Of course it's more photoshopping than I've probably done in a month, but it's got potential! (And I promise not to overdue the vignetting, Don.)
Before:
After:
Maybe I should revisit a challenge submission or two, but only those from advanced editing challenges. Now to remember that I can't do all of this in basic! |
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01/06/2007 02:39:07 AM · #421 |
Originally posted by xianart:
congrats jeff, for your abstract ribbon on daily awards contests! i thought it looked familiar! |
Right back atcha with your wins over there. :)
Noraneko's there, too (but she goes by her super-secret-spy-ring name "User3099"). Any other suckers on Daily Awards?
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01/06/2007 02:41:46 AM · #422 |
I can barely keep up with this place. I have no idea how people manage to compete/read/be on more than one site!
And I need to find a way to "save" Christian's directions, at least for awhile - I can do it if I follow along step by step, but I keep forgetting if I don't have it open while I'm editing. I'm a step slower in my declining age... :-) |
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01/06/2007 02:49:04 AM · #423 |
Originally posted by JuliBoc:
Originally posted by kdsprog:
On a side note... I got a comment from  Larus on my Harsh Environment today! He didn't like the processing but liked the composition. |
I got a long comment from Larus on my Harsh too. I think he is trying for a Yappie. May be the only award he hasn't gotten yet. ; P Actually it was very informative, and started me on a treasure hunt that has paid off. I learned quite a lot. I was just getting ready to thank him. |
One problem with not reading this thread for a few days is that so many of you say so many things I want to respond to. :)
Larus voted low on two recent entries of mine but left very clear comments as to why. I actually sent him a thank you PM. I'd MUCH rather get a thoughtful explanation of a low vote than a mediocre vote without explanation. Okay, I'll admit I'd take a high vote without explanation over either of those (grin), but if it's low, at least tell me why!
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01/06/2007 02:55:57 AM · #424 |
Okay, one last post from me tonight, since so many folks congratulated me on the rip-snortin' start for my free study entry. It's fallen some, but I'm still very excited about this:
Votes: 126
Views: 178
Avg Vote: 6.5397
Comments: 15
Looking good for a new 3rd best, and with a little pickup before Sunday night, could be new 2nd best.
Meanwhile, centered comp's doing just fine, too:
Votes: 129
Views: 150
Avg Vote: 5.6822
Comments: 4
But I really want to shout "hooray!" to bmartuch and noraneko. Bob, it's so great to see you smashing your old personal best by 0.7 points! :) Maybe you and I are in the running for this week's momentary lapse of suckage award? I keep getting close but never quite winning that one.
And Catherine! Talk about exploding into 6dom. :)
And um, anybody else I missed who's working on personal bests, 2nd best, etc: yahoo!
Lessee - what else did people post? Ah, right. Noraneko: vote 'em as you see 'em. But yes, comment when you vote lower than 5.
I've given plenty of 4s, a smattering of 3s, and a couple of 2s or 1s in my 4100 votes so far. I try to comment on everything below 5 to explain it.
Finally, Melethia: you're not boring. Stop it. *poke* For anyone who's wondering, go check out her self-portrait 30 day shots. She posed nekkid, for crying out loud! *grin*
Message edited by author 2007-01-06 03:00:06.
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01/06/2007 03:00:28 AM · #425 |
Hey! I've got clothes on in that shot. Illusion is a wonderful thing. :-) (I hid the other one.)
Message edited by author 2007-01-06 03:00:49. |
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