Assignment 5 – Personal Project

This project explores some of the standing stones and crosses of the North Yorkshire Moors. Lots of the crosses are worn and some are reduced to stumps. Because of the number of images required for this project, I’ll concentrate on those which are more impressive, whether for their situation or character. I may continue with this project at a later date, in which case these images could be an introduction to the greater plan.
The plan:
I plan to visit as many sites as I can, depending on the weather conditions, to show the more accessible standing stones and crosses in a creative way. It may be necessary to forgo some of the more remote sites if weather doesn’t permit, as walking on the moors with limited survival equipment would not be reasonable in adverse conditions. I want to show them in their splendour and awe inspiring surroundings. I consider myself very fortunate to live in this area and it’s one I’d like to share using my images.
I’ll limit my equipment to one camera (Nikon D300s), one tripod (Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 with 324RC2 head) and two lenses (Nikkor 18-200 mm VR and Sigma 10-20 mm). Travelling light is advisable in the terrain I’ll be crossing. The rest of my bag will be taken up with spare battery, lens cloths, water, maps and a cape. Hiking / navigation equipment and clothing are a foregone conclusion. I’ll have a set course for each trip, which my wife will be aware of. There’ll also be an ETA for arriving home which I’ll update her with as the trip progresses. I’ll only change the route if I can contact her by mobile phone, just in case I need rescuing.
The sites I visit will, as far as possible, be within relatively easy striking distance of each other, so I can possibly visit two or three in a day. It will be necessary to concentrate on a single site on some days, as hiking time to some sites could be up to 3 hours each way.
I’ll use 5 frame, one stop bracketing for all images, to enable later editing and / or HDR production, leaving selection until I return home – As I’ll be on my own in remote locations, I don’t want to spend any unnecessary time in the field and having a range of 2 stops each way for each image should provide a satisfactory range to work on.
The type of image I produce will vary with each set of photographs – some may suit monochrome, some duo-tone, some HDR etc. – it’ll depend on the circumstances for each shoot.
The collection of images for this project could take weeks, especially at this time of year. The first images were taken on 29^th February and it’s still ongoing in May.
The images:
Many of the images were taken into the light to produce high contrast scenes.
Starting with some of the standing stones – these vary in ancient use, from boundary markers to road markers, to religious groups and superstitious markers.

The first image shows part of a line of boundary stones.

This line of stones is followed by part of the old Lyke Wake walk. This image was enhanced by converting to B&W and altering the red and blue channels, to show more detail and increase the effect of the haze, then placing the monochrome image above the original in ‘soft light’ blending mode.

The second image shows another boundary (or possibly road marker) stone overlooking Farndale

I used Photomatix Pro 4.0.2 HDR software to enhance this image.

Staying with boundary stones; the next images is of the Turnhill stone which also stands on the same Feversham / Danby boundary. It is also located on the old Lyke Wake walk.

I converted to B&W and using the blue channel to bring out the background detail from the haze – and using ‘soft light’ blending mode over the original image to bring back the colour.

Also on the route of the Lyke Wake walk we see the Simon Howe stones:

These stones are thought to have a religious / superstitious meaning. They lead to a stone circle in which the relatively modern cairn has been built. My main problem with this was access across wet ground in fairly windy conditions (hence the moving heather).
I converted to B&W and used luminosity mode over original. Duplicated B@W layer and used Soft light mode at reduced opacity.

Also with a religious / superstitious connotation we see the High Bridestones on Sleights moor.

The stones were captured on a late evening – the sky was added for effect, using the selection method.

On Wheeldale moor, marker stones follow the route of the old Roman Road.

This was a straightforward HDR conversion with increased saturation.

At the roadside between Castleton and Hutton Le Hole stands the ‘Young’ Ralph’s Cross.

This image had a lot of lens flare, which I removed using the spot healing tool and cloning.

200 m across the moor we find ‘Old’ Ralph’s cross:

Another HDR image to capture the sky and retain detail in the cross shadows. Again I used the spot healing and cloning tools to remove lens flare.

Above Rosedale is the tallest cross in the National Park – Ana Cross:

I used split tone mode in Topaz Adjust 5 plug in to separate the cross from its background, then blended it with the original to bring back some of its colour.

Mauley Cross stands in the trees of Cropton Forest:

Topaz Labs BW Effects were used here – Opalescent – Tea Green fall off then blended over the original.

2 miles walk from the Hole of Horcum is Malo cross:

This used the same treatment as for Mauley cross. The climb up that hill was no joke!

Then the Lyke Wake walk is again taken to reach Lilla Cross:

Access to this cross was again my main problem, skirting the MOD property (The monolith of RAF Fylingdales can be seen on the skyline) over very wet ground. I changed the sky in this image using a layer mask (softened over the horizon) and used Adjust 5 split tone for this image. Lens flare was cleared using spot healing.
 

Standing Stones and Crosses of the North Yorkshire Moors

The project explored some of the standing stones and crosses of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. The plan for capturing the images went fairly well as planned. There were some delays due to weather and some of the sites became out of the question due to days of heavy rain which made the crossing of peat bogs impossible. Maybe I’ll be able to add to the images in the summer. On occasion I made better time and took in an extra site, so that was a deviation from the plan, but the contingency of contacting my wife regarding any alterations worked well – and I didn’t need rescuing.
I think the way I’ve presented the stones and crosses has met the creative criteria I set out to use and the scenery of parts of the moors has been shown as I intended, so I’m happy with that.
I miscalculated the difficult terrain somewhat, so the earlier walks I undertook lasted well over my estimates. I travelled the Lyke Wake Walk almost 50 years ago and knew that parts of it were difficult, but I hadn’t considered that it was now almost impassable in places and had been closed due to moorland erosion. So maybe another time I should research this part before setting off. The mobile phone was an essential for this type of project.
Using automatic bracketing was a good move, as the time spent taking the images was less and getting the best exposure was a lot easier – although there were several hundred images to work through when I got home. I like the benefits of HDR. For the majority of captures I used aperture priority and matrix metering, which seemed to give good results – I used ISO 200 throughout and always used the tripod.
At each site I moved around the objects, to get a variety of views and angles, using the available light as much as I could, being aware of the different levels of contrast and composition that could be attained this way. In some cases the terrain made it inadvisable to move 360 Deg around the site (there are streams, ponds, bogs and cliffs to consider) and I was on my own throughout the project, so any risks had to be carefully weighed up. Another point for future expeditions would be to take somebody with me.
The main problem I had, technically, was the lens flare – in some cases I was able to shield the lens with a map, but in many cases I didn’t realise until I viewed the images at home. In this case I used spot healing and cloning. I didn’t have any problems regarding manipulation of images, as I’d decided from word go that it was to be a creative project.
I’m generally pleased with the images I captured during this project and the way the selected images have turned out. My only regret is the lack of narrative to go along with the images. Having researched the objects there is a fascinating history to be shared. This may be something to look at if I take this project further. I really enjoyed the project, particularly getting out in the remote areas and enjoying the freedom and sometimes desolation of the moors. It’s been a good topic to choose and one I intend to follow up in more detail.

References and Evaluation

Websites referenced during this section:

http://photo.net/learn/digital-photography-workflow/advanced-photoshop-tutorials/sharpening/

Books referenced during this section:

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book – Martin Evening

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-68070-9

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers – Martin Evening, Jeff Schewe

ISBN 978-0-240-81483-4

The Complete Guide to Digital Photography – Michael Freeman

ISBN-13 978-0-500-54325-2

How to Design and Build the Coolest Website in Cyberspace – Nick Nettleton

ISBN 1-904705-06-5

Web Design: Start Here – Nick Nettleton

ISBN 1-904705-03-0

Web Photoshop: Start Here – Peter Cope

Evaluation:

I don’t feel as though I’ve gained much from this part of the course. I was already conversant and practicing the requirements for backup. Similarly I was up to speed with printers and printing. I have gained a little more knowledge about sharpening, but mainly on the ‘capture’ sharpening, rather than the ‘output’ sharpening which has been looked at here. Still. At least it’s been good to know that I was doing it right. I’ll look further into capture sharpening.

Looking at the course as a whole, it’s been mainly going over things that I already knew. I’ve learned about linear capture and camera dynamic range (and so learned more about my equipment). I’ve learned to use the histogram and highlight clipping displays on the camera and controlling the exposure for optimum dynamic range and clipping. In Photoshop I’ve seen some quick fixes for white balance correction and looked further into the advantages of Black and White conversion. With regard to ethics, I don’t feel as though I’ve had my stance altered in any way – what I’ve seen just bears up what I already thought.

But still – I have enjoyed the course. It’s good to practice with equipment and it’s good to be involved with the process. AS I’ve said, I’ve learned some new things and that’s what it’s all about! With the personal project it’s been good to get out and enjoy the moors and what it has to offer. I’m pleased to have done it.

Project – A web gallery

Project – A web gallery
Looking at other photographers’ websites, there are some that stand out as being excellent – www.michaelfreemanphoto.com is one easy to navigate, using either a slideshow where the images are smaller, or individually selected where the images are larger. Returning to the main menus is straightforward.
Others are not so good – www.paolowoods.net has some excellent galleries, with reasonably sized images – sometimes with too much text and navigating back from individual images to the main menu is hopeless. www.chriskillip.com doesn’t show his images well – just a slideshow of his latest exhibition, over which there is no control – so if you want to look at his work one needs to search elsewhere.
There are many ups and downs on the various websites I've looked at, but the key seems to be to keep it simple, with large images and easy navigation. One thing that isn't mentioned in the text is- keeping the site up to date. There are several that haven't been updated for years, so credibility is lost as soon as the viewer visits the site.
Our own website is one I was given as a birthday present several years ago. While this is not required in this part of the course, I’ve spent a little time looking at our website layout (which is just a fun thing) and rearranged the image galleries, in line with what’s been suggested in the course material. Have a look at www.estills.net at ‘Steve’s Galleries’ to see what I’ve done.
This site is managed by ‘Mr Site’ which has its own specific, fairly limited image gallery options. There’s either a slideshow with small images, or as I’ve done mine, with a stepping mode through the images. At least the navigation is OK. I like the Flash galleries available in Lightroom 4, which I may use if I create my own site.
Maybe I’ll look at another site if I decide to become more of a professional in the future, but in the meantime I’ve rearranged things slightly, with different categories which I may add to and populate with more images.

Exercise 5.01 – Sharpening for print

Revisiting the portraits taken for Part 1, I used an image that had not been used in the exercise.

The original image is shown without any sharpening:

With the image zoomed in to 100%, I used the ‘unsharp mask’ to vary the amount of sharpening as follows:

First copy settings:

Amount 42%

Radius 4.0 pixels – OK because of the high image resolution.

Threshold 2 levels – applied to minimize sharpening in smooth areas.

At these settings there was little difference to be seen on the screen.

Second copy settings: Amount 100%

Radius 4.0 pixels

Threshold 2 levels

The highlights in her face are now becoming too light for me and her hair isn’t as soft as I’d like to see it.

Third copy settings: Amount 200%

Radius 4.0 pixels

Threshold 2 levels

Even with this media and size, artefacts are clearly visible. The smoothness of her skin has disappeared and her eyes / eyelids have become rougher.

The tif images for printing were saved at 300 dpi at full size. With the images at 100% they were cropped to allow printing at A4 – using Fotospeed EG Platinum Matt paper on the Epson printer. I chose this paper because of its smooth, flat finish – no texture to influence the look of the print.

The images were then viewed on the screen at 100% zoom to compare the prints at the same size. A daylight lamp was used, to view both the screen and the prints. A magnifying glass was used to examine the prints more closely.

On the first image the print and viewed image were both clear, with the smooth skin areas looking just that. The print showed no sign of additional artefacts.

On the second image (42% sharpened) the print and screen images were still clear – both have slightly more clarity in the eyes. On close examination the print is showing a slight breakdown in the shadow areas (skin around the eyebrows and in the shadows by her hair) but they still look quite acceptable to me.

At 100% sharpened the highlights in eye pupils are much more pronounced, making them appear brighter and sharper, but the artefacts are increased, again in the shadow areas. The edge sharpness is more pronounced – more on the print than on screen, so her chin line now looks more angular. The sharpening has had a detrimental effect on the hair, making the individual strands more visible, which makes it look harsher than the first image. So on balance I’d say this level of sharpening is too much for this image.

At 200% the artefacts are more visible on both print and screen images, across the lighter areas. It now looks as though her eye makeup has been plastered on, whereas in the first image it’s hardly visible. Every slight blemish and follicle now stands out, making the originally soft features look hard. Her chin has now acquired a lighter outline, making it even more exaggerated than the previous image. The edge sharpness is now unacceptably high and her clean hair now looks lank. The print looks slightly better than the screen image, but not much.

I think the prints may be generally more forgiving than the screen when it comes to artefacts (to a degree) – the action of the bubble jet heads may tend to merge some of the pixels, so artefacts will not be so pronounced – this is more prevalent with matt papers increasing with textured ones. It seems that sharpening between 42% and 100% would be acceptable to me, for this image and at this radius and with this printer / paper. The larger sharpening radius also helps to reduce the effect of artefacts, but the original size of the image needs to be taken into consideration. Obviously more experimentation with trial and error would be required.

Taking the images further we can maintain the smooth skin while sharpening the eyes (just pupils) and lips, by placing the sharpened image over the original and using a layer mask to show only the required parts of the sharpened layer – this way we get the best of both:

Project – Finishing

Backups

I always copy images directly to a 1TB external hard drive into a ‘download’ folder with subfolders by date captured.

Also on this ‘Photographs’ drive I have an ‘in progress’ folder, which is where I have all the images I’m working on – also with subfolders – e.g. OCA. All ongoing work done in Photoshop, Lightroom, On-one etc is saved there, rather than on the main PC.

The ‘Print’ folder on the external drive contains all the finished, flattened images again in subfolders – e.g. OCA > DPP > Part 3.

Doing it this way, I always have my images separate from the main computer hard drives.

I also have another 1 TB external hard drive – Photographs Backup – Every fortnight I format this drive and copy the whole of the contents of the ‘Photographs’ drive. So this gives me a complete backup of all my images should the ‘photographs’ drive fail – at worst I’ll have only lost images from the previous fortnight.

My third external hard drive – 2 TB ‘Backup’ – is used to back up my main computer once a week, so saving everything I have worked on, including Lightroom catalogue and any images located for easy access in learning logs / blogs etc.

So I think I’ve got the backup system pretty well boxed off – I had to use it last month, as my PC hard drive broke down. I was so pleased that it was in place – transferring it to a new machine saved me days of hardship. I’m not too concerned about saving documents remotely – if the house were to burn down, I’d have more pressing things to worry about and I can always take more images.

Prints:

I have a 24 in Dell monitor which I calibrate at least every 4 weeks, using a Gretag Macbeth eye-one display 2 calibrator. This is set up for a 4 weeks reminder, but if there is a significant change in lighting conditions I recalibrate it anyway.

I have two A3+ printers – Canon i9950 and Epson Stylus Photo R2880 – using a variety of papers – Olmec, Fotospeed, Hahnemϋhle, Ilford Galerie, Harman. I create ICC profiles for the individual papers for each printer using a datacolour Spyder 3 print calibrator.

I feel that my prints generally have a good resemblance to what I see on the screen.

Part 5–The final image

Assignment 4 – Real or fake

I decided to make an illustration for Stephen Laws’ ‘Ghost Train’. I envisaged a flying train in a very dark sky.

For this I took two images – the first being a steaming train on the moors railway (f/7.1 at 1/400 sec – shutter priority mode for a relatively fast shutter speed)

and the second being a turbulent cloudy sky (underexposed 2 stops at f/25. 1/1600 sec).

On the sky image I adjusted the Raw image, increasing the exposure by 0.55, decreasing the white balance temperature to 4300 ^oK, increasing the blacks (22%), highlight recovery (30%) and contrast (69%). The layer was duplicated and treated with Topaz Adjust 5 in ‘solarized dreams 2’ mode. This was placed in ‘lighten’ mode. I then stamped up the layers.

I selected the train from its background, using Topaz Remask3 and then detailed erasure using small brushes on the layer mask. Some cloning was necessary to remove foliage from the tracks and rear carriages. The selection was then dragged onto the sky layer.

I duplicated the train layer and used Edit > transform > warp to make the train sweep down from a height. I then duplicated this layer and treated the new layer with Eye Candy 6 – gradient glow, with an orange colour and used ‘Color’ blending mode. The two ‘curved’ train layers were then stamped up after hiding the sky layer. The sky was then made visible again.

The stamped up layer was duplicated and the top layer treated with Redfield fractalius in 50% glow mode. This layer was placed in ‘saturation’ blending mode – I used a layer mask to bring back the detail of the front of the engine.

I wanted to have a portrait orientation for the book cover, so I increased the canvas size by 50%, leaving the train pegged to the centre. This allowed the image to be cropped to the required format. I filled the blank parts of the canvas with sky, using the clone tool on a duplicated layer of the sky. I was aware that this additional area could be used for text.

I then created two blank layers to paint in smoke / steam, using white for the steam on one layer and grey for smoke on the other. I used a large soft brush on both layers and erased the parts not required using a very large soft eraser.

For the author’s name I the horizontal text tool, with ‘Bright red bevel’ style and treated it with Eye Candy 6 ‘Drip’ filter. For the Title text I used the same style with Eye Candy 6 ‘glass’ filter.

The layers were then flattened and saved as tif, Hi res jpeg and lower res jpeg.

The creation of this image went as I expected. I usually experiment with the blending modes as I work through this type of image, so this was always part of the plan. The parts that were added to the original plan were the use of the Eye Candy and Redfield Fractalius plug-ins, as I thought they would enhance the image as it progressed – I’d planned to use Eye Candy for the text. I didn’t think about the orientation of the image until later in the proceedings so the changing of canvas size and cloning of the sky weren’t planned.

Regarding the ethics of this image, I don’t have any problems – it’s a fiction book with a fictional cover – all I’ve done is manipulate and combine images to provide a cover which may stand out in the bookstands.

Discussion, further study and evaluation

Discussion:

The ethics around what should or should not be acceptable in digital imaging processing is an area which is debatable. A purist would say that a photograph should be an exact representation of what was seen at the time of capture. In photojournalism, this may well be the case, but even that would bring into question any alteration to white balance, exposure, cropping etc. This area hasn’t had any significant change since the dawn of photography, as the final prints would be down to the adjustments made in the dark room.

Making alterations to an image so that it has significantly changed brings a completely different debate – is it a hoax or has it been maliciously altered? Generally I would say that if an image has obviously been altered then that’s OK – it should also be acknowledged in any supporting text – but if a significantly altered image is designed to mislead or misguide, then it should not be acceptable. Use of corrections to exposure, gamma and white balance, cropping, conversion to Black and White etc I would consider legitimate photographic techniques to enhance an image.

Douglas W. Cromer addresses some of these issues w.r.t scientific images in his essay:

http://cbe.ivic.ve/ftp/clasebioest/pdf/Digital_Imaging_Ethics.pdf

‘Catching the light’ by Jerry Lodriguss also discusses the ethics in:

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM

He says: ‘When we correct, manipulate and enhance images in Photoshop, we must deal with questions of both ethics and aesthetics. This discussion is not only limited to digital manipulation, but also includes conventional darkroom methods.

Ethics are a set of rules that we invent that define what we think is good and bad. The dictionary says ethics are "a set of moral principles or values" and that ethical means "conforming to accepted professional standards of conduct".

Aesthetics, on the other hand, deal with the nature of beauty, art and taste, and things that are pleasing in appearance.

With digital processing, there is almost no limit to what can be done to an image, and many things are done to images with the best intentions. The question is, when does the pursuit of aesthetics violate our ethics?’

So if we consider our photography manipulation to be for ‘aesthetics’ then provided that the manipulation is acknowledged it should be acceptable. And let’s face it – people want entertainment – if a manipulated image appeals to them or elicits some emotion then that’s acceptable to me.

Studied Photographers:

Lee Frost

His use of imaging software brings out the best in his images, whether it be portraiture, landscape or themed. He creates excellent works of art which although obviously enhanced / altered produce images which capture the imagination.

http://www.leefrost.co.uk/default.asp

Paolo Pellegrin

Here’s a photographer whose images are verging on the unacceptable w.r.t photojournalism, but with the right treatment their impact on the viewer justifies the editing. He uses minimal adjustments – mainly for basic conversion (curves, contrast etc) in Lightroom – he was an old-school film photographer and was reluctant to move into digital – source: Digital Camera magazine, Dec 2011.

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R13CHLN&nm=Paolo%20Pellegrin

Books referenced during this section:

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book – Martin Evening

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-68070-9

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers – Martin Evening, Jeff Schewe

ISBN 978-0-240-81483-4

The A-Z of Creative Digital Photography – Lee Frost

ISBN-13: 978-0-7153-2299-4

Surreal Digital Photography – Barry Huggins and Ian Probert

ISBN 1-904705-41-3

Surreal Digital Photography 2 – Ben Renow-Clarke

ISBN-13 978-1-905814-07-7

The Complete Guide to Digital Photography – Michael Freeman

ISBN-13 978-0-500-54325-2

Digital Photography Special Effects – Michael Freeman

ISBN 0-500-54266-X

Evaluation

I don’t feel that I’ve gained much knowledge from this section. It’s nothing that I haven’t done before. But it’s been fun.

Exercise 4.05 – Alteration

For this exercise I took two images – one of Whitby piers and one of a yacht heading out to sea.

My plan was to remove the pier extensions, to take them back to the original pier length (pre-1913) and place the yacht in the image for some interest and realism – it would also take the focus away from any obvious changes to the piers.

Original piers image

I copied the image into a second layer and used this layer for the alterations – this left the original as a reference and recovery tool if required.

The clone tool was the main implement for this task, selecting different parts of the sea to paint out the unwanted parts of the image. Using different sized tools for the more delicate parts and selecting parts from the main image to clone – for instance the waves coming round the side of the West pier were used to create a similar effect on the East pier. I then used a breaking wave from the pier wall, to break over the end of the West pier – also the West pier castellation were copied from parts of the main pier wall.

To clone the areas around the West pier handrails I zoomed in and used a small clone tool with the shift key to create straight cloned lines along the rails.

Where it was difficult to get sharp lines – for instance on the East lighthouse – I used a layer mask to bring back the straight sides of the lighthouse from the lower layer.

I selected the yacht using the polygonal lasso tool and dragged it onto the altered image, where I resized it and positioned it where I considered it should be. I used a layer mask to remove the sea from the yacht image as it was a sharper image than that of the pier – again I used the shift command with a small brush to work around the rigging. I left the yacht’s wake in place as much as I could using a lower opacity brush as I worked this part in the layer mask.

I then stamped up the layers and used the blur tool at 50% strength, on the top layer around the yacht – this part of the image was too sharp for the rest of the scene, and some blur blended it in. When I was satisfied with the result I flattened the layers and saved the final image.

I don’t have any problem regarding these changes. I set out to make a new image which won’t be used for any serious purpose – it’s just a fun image. I suppose it could be used as a spoof, but that would be obvious.

I think the objective of creating a believable image has been achieved and that’s all that is required.

Exercise 4.04 – Addition

The images taken for this exercise were from the top of Winney Nab, overlooking Wheeldale moor on a day with sunshine and heavy showers, which gave the kind of skies I was looking for and well lit moorland.

The first image was exposed for the land, using one stop underexposure from the matrix metering.

The second image was exposed for the sky, using one stop over exposure from the matrix metering.

Placing the lighter image over the darker one in Photoshop, I erased the sky area from the lighter image, using a layer mask and a large, soft brush.

This method gave a pleasing blend with the aerial perspective effect in the distance:

Using the quick selection tool, with a fairly large feather, then deleting the selection gave a line above the horizon. This was softened using a low opacity soft brush on a layer mask:

Photomatix Pro 4.0.2 in ‘highlight / shadow’ adjustment in ‘exposure blending’ mode produced the best blend of all:

Using the selection method and a different sky gave this image:

I think it still works, but the weather now looks more threatening.

As I said in exercise 4.01, I don’t have a problem with this type of manipulation. It’s down to what I perceive to be right for the image and how it’s to be used – obviously putting in tornadoes and then sending it to the local newspaper wouldn’t be acceptable, but for a view of what I like about the North Yorkshire moors, then I feel it’s justified.

Exercise 4.03 – Enhancement

This image was taken in Viv’s studio with the only light coming from the window (behind me) and the patio doors (behind Viv). ISO 200, f/4.8, 1/15 sec. I increased the exposure by 1.5 stops in Lightroom 4 then converted it to tiff for further work in Photoshop 5.1

I selected her face using Topaz Remask 3 with refinements in Photoshop using a layer mask.. In this selection I increased the brightness to 53 and contrast to 7 – any further increase in contrast was detrimental, showing more smile lines.

The next selection was of the irises of her eyes. This was done using the magnetic selection tool. I increased the saturation by 36 and the brightness by 20 to give the following image. With any further increase in saturation, the eyes became unnaturally vivid.

As this stage has lightened her natural eye colouring, I feel that I’ve moved from enhancement to alteration. Maybe it’s because the eye colour is such a major part of a person’s makeup – I think more than the skin tone, as this changes through the seasons, whereas the eyes are constant.

Finally I changed her eye colour, using the same selection as that for the saturation / brightness, I increased the hue by 151, decreased the saturation by 40 and increased the lightness by 8. I then increased the contrast by 19, to bring back some definition between the irises and pupils.

I was pleased with the result of the changes, but I think I prefer the green eyes I’m used to – so does Viv. The image has now changed so significantly that it’s gone far past enhancement and I’m not comfortable with this amount of change, but that’s probably because I know her so well. If the image were of somebody else and they were happy with a change of eye colour then it would be a different matter.

Exercise 4.02 – Improvement or interpretation

My source image was taken in the old part of town where a group of visiting students were happy to pose for me. This young man’s confidence and presence worked well for both of us.

I duplicated the background layer and used Topaz Remask 3 to select him from the main image, then a layer mask to make the final retouching to the selection.

I then used an exposure adjustment layer, above the original background layer, to decrease the exposure by two stops, giving this result:

The young man is now significantly exaggerated in the image. I felt there was no need to enhance the selected area, as the contrast between the foreground and background worked as it was. This is closer to the dodging and burning I practiced in the dark room, where the selection would have been covered by a mask while the rest would have continued being exposed.

Hiding the exposure adjustment layer, I then treated the background copy with Gaussian Blur (radius 48.6 pixels), to produce this image:

In this case, the contrast is between the sharpness and blurred areas. I prefer this treatment for this particular image.

Moving further, I applied palette knife filter to the background layer and made the exposure adjustment layer visible, increasing the exposure by one stop, to -1.0. It’s another example of what can be done using the layer mask, or selections.

It’s been a fun exercise, but not one I’ve learned much from as these are techniques I’ve used for some time.

Exercise 4.01 – Correction

The image chosen for the first part of this exercise was taken early in the morning before the mist cleared on the river – even too early for the waterfowl to arrive. This image had a relatively long exposure (1/20 sec) which makes it more likely to show up marks on the sensor.

Looking more closely there are several marks on the sensor:

At this time of day, the last consideration is a dirty sensor. I’d have to admit to poor maintenance here. This was taken with a Nikon D200. The D300s has automatic sensor cleaning which has reduced the problem considerably.

These were easily removed, using the spot healing tool in Photoshop CS5.1

With the ‘content aware’ selected, the correction is simple and undetectable.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with this type of correction.

The corrected view looks as it should, without the imperfections of the original image. I think it looks better in monochrome:

Using the supplied image, I’ve again used the spot healing brush, and also the clone tool, to remove what I believe to be imperfections due to dust on the sensor. I may have removed some of the natural blemishes in the subject, but I think the judgment call is reasonable, as I’ve left any coloured marks, rather than the grey / black marks usually attributed to dust.

 

The second image from my collection has lens flare:

This was an experiment using a Nikon D70, with the sensor screen converted for infrared photography – I wanted to see if the lens flare was apparent in infrared – it was!

To remove the lens flare I used the spot healing brush, the clone tool and the burning tool.

I know the corrected image is not exactly as the scene when I took the image, but in this case I’m quite happy with the result, as it’s an ‘art’ image rather than a documentary type, so an exact replica of the scene is not required. The original flare lines look quite good too, so their removal could be called into question anyway.

Using the supplied image for flare was more difficult, as I assumed that a reasonably accurate interpretation was required:

For this correction I had to almost reconstruct the buildings in the area of the flaring, using the clone tool. I also selected the flare polygon area and used ‘selective colour’ and ‘replace colour’ adjustments to reduce the impact of the red and yellow in this part of the image.

I also used the spot removal tool, to remove what I perceived to be extensions of the flare line in the sky above the headland.

The reconstruction involved virtually rebuilding the windows so obviously there will be some difference to what was originally seen in the view, so obviously there may be concerns here if it were to be a record image. I’ve shown what can be done to correct the flare and personally I’d be happy with it if it was my image, but other viewers may have concerns.

I was shown, over 40 years ago how different skies could be masked onto clear ones in landscape photographs in the darkroom, to produce a more pleasing image and it was old technology then. So nothing has changed here with digital imagery – it’s just got easier and better. Whether it’s ethical or not depends on the purpose of the image – I prefer to consider myself more of an artist!

Project - Digital photography and 'truth'

Part 4 - Reality and intervention

Assignment 3 – Monochrome

The theme for this assignment is ‘daffodils’. I believe that they will suit monochrome photography, because of their shapes, tonal contrast and texture. They should be interesting to adjust in the processing stage.
Many of the images were taken in our garden (I think we must be close to having the national collection here) with some taken indoors for the close-up macro photographs. Images of wild daffodils were captured at Farndale in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.
The first image was taken using 150 mm f/2.8 macro lens, f/5.0 at 1/2000 sec which was underexposed by one stop, to prevent highlight clipping.

Narcissi receding

This standard yellow daffodil, taken in strong early morning light displays texture and shape with flowers receding in the background. With increased yellow to bring out the flowers and decreased green to darken the grass / leaves; Blue and red were adjusted to give more texture.

Pink rimmed trumpets

150 mm macro lens, f/22 1/160 sec – underexposed one stop to prevent highlight clipping. Smaller aperture used, to keep the flowers in focus and give more detail.

Red rimmed yellow trumpets on white petals.

150 mm macro lens, f/2.8 1/8000 sec – underexposed one stop to prevent highlight clipping.
Wide aperture for short depth of field.

Yellow trumpets after rain.

18 - 200 mm VR lens at 200 mm, f/8.0 1/160 sec
A curves layer was used to increase the midtone contrast. Darkening the greens and making the yellows lighter further increased the contrast. Adjusting the cyan and blue accentuated the water droplets

Yellow trumpet on white petals

150 mm macro lens, f/2.8 1/6400 sec – underexposed one stop to prevent highlight clipping.
The narrow depth of field was used to make the leaves of the holly out of focus as this backlit flower looked out from the bush. Yellow was increased and green decreased to increase the contrast of this image.
We now move to Farndale, to see the wild daffodils.

A jocund company

18 - 200 mm VR lens at 170 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec
Adjustments were made to the yellow and greens to increase the contrast. The white vignette was given in Lightroom’s Raw editor.

Dancing in the breeze

18 - 200 mm VR lens at 65 mm, f/13, 1/320 sec. One stop under exposed to reduce highlight clipping and increase shutter speed – a breeze was picking up, so a higher shutter speed reduced some of the blur due to movement.
Exposure was increased by 0.71. A curves layer was used to increase the mid-tone contrast. Yellow and red channels were increased and the green decreased. This improved the ‘depth’ in the image.

Low Key

18 - 200 mm VR lens at 95 mm, f/8.0, 1/640 sec. Underexposed one stop.
These sunlit wild flowers were taken against a backdrop of a stream in the shade, with the intention of capturing a low key image. In Adobe Raw the effect was further increased by painting the over exposure in the foreground.
Yellow and Red channels were increased and the green decreased.
Moving back home again I’m going to try for high key images, using the macro lens again.

Low Key

150 mm macro lens, f/22, 2 sec
This image was captured in the shade with natural backlighting. The delicacy of the outer trumpet contrasts with the strength of stigma and stamen at the centre.
The trumpet is a very pale yellow while the main petals are white. The centre ring is a stronger yellow which was made brighter by increasing the yellow channel in the B&W adjustment layer.

Stigma and Stamen

150 mm macro lens, f/22, 0.8 sec
This macro image was taken with a stronger backlight. It was made more contrasty using curves and adjustments made in channel mixer, rather than the B&W adjustment layer, resulting in a softer merging of the yellow / green of the trumpet centre.
 
All in all it’s been an enjoyable assignment that I’ve got a lot from.