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January 13, 2011

1.12.11 Shoot and Edit: - Winters Fragile

Part 2 of Shoot and Edit weekly photo challenge.  A great way to learn and practice you shooting and editing skill.
This week's suggested photo theme was to 1st capture a shot that in some way says "WINTER". 
Do you recall my first SOOC shot that I posted Monday?  If you missed it, here it is once again SOOC -
Here is how I shot this photo I had placed a black piece of cardstock behind the cluster of snowflakes.  By doing so I hoped to eliminate the distractions in the background and help the details in the snowflakes stand out a bit more.
I know just by looking that this is under exposed, aren't snowflakes suppose to be on the white side?  The white and black through my metering out the window.
So here is my editing procedure to help fix up and bring back the snowflakes details.

  • Bring the photo into ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) changed the camera profile to vivid
  • Set white balance with eyedropper tool selecting what was suppose to be white
  • Pulled up the exposure and added in a bit of fill
Here is what the photo looks like now in ACR

There wasn't much more that I could do in ACR so it was not time for Photoshop CS4.
  • Crated a duplicate layer (ctrl J) of my background layer.  Ran noise-ware program to get rid of the pixely look in the black areas. Noiseware that I use is a plug in for Photoshop put out by Imagenomics, it's great stuff.
  • Rotated image
  • Cropped the image to 12x12
The rest can be found by looking at the photo layers file -

  • Adjusted color balance
  • Adjusted level, pulled the black and white sliders in
  • Adjustment Black and White layer
  • Adjustment Layer Black to White Gradient Map
  • Adjustment Hue/Saturation toned toned down the load colors
  • New adjustment layer painted on background color over sun spot
  • Adjustment layer levels pulled in the black and white more
  • Ran noiseware again
  • Added text
  • High pass sharpen
All the adjustment layers were added by clicking on the little half black half white ball.
Here is my new after edit photo -
Now let compare all 3 photo one after the othere:

Nikon D90 - 85mm Macro - Manual Mode - CW - Auto WB - f/16 @ 1/25 - 640ISO





23 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a gorgeous edit! Love that you really zoomed in on it & the added quote is perfect! xo

Ashley Sisk said...

Wow -that is incredible. Thanks so much for sharing your steps. I learned a thing or two along the way.

Joni said...

beautiful. i love how i can see all the details so clearly.

Lexi said...

WOW!!! this is an awesome edit! love love love it!

Anonymous said...

wow , amazing shot and beautiful edit - soo cool to see a snowflake with that much detail!

koreen (aka: winn) said...

That's an amazing photo. I love the detail and clarity of the macro! :)

Kathleen said...

AMAZING! I missed your SOOC post on Monday, or I would have said, "Keep it the way it is!" BUT your editing really brought it out - beautiful!!

Rosie@leavesnbloom said...

What a great transformation - it was a wonderful capture to begin with.

Marty Mason said...

wonderful idea to rotate...i love it. oh, and thanks for the "high pass" tip, i forget about that great editing device!

Liz said...

these are great and thanks for coming by.

Unknown said...

Barb seriously this is AMAZING!!!!

I LOVE IT!!! Thanks for sharing your own tips on editing too!

again thanks for joining us!
blessings,
jill
http://fnaphotography.blogspot.com

Charlene said...

The difference in your edit is absolutely amazing. The final outcome is stunning.

Liz said...

love it. Mine is actually tyhe second post down come and see.

Natalie said...

You did beautifullY! I wanna get some macros of some snowflakes...but our snow is gone and idk if we'll get any more now!

Carla S said...

Very cool, Barb! It was pretty before, but WOW now! :)

julie said...

What an incrediable shot!! The edit is excellent! :)

Lynda said...

Wow! The detail that shows in the edited version is really amazing. Love the crop!

BobbieCoughlin said...

the rough texture of the wood stands in contrast to the delicacy of the snowflake.

Unknown said...

Barb, you Rock! Incredible!

Pitterle Postings said...

That is so beautiful. I love how you managed to do it.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic edit! So crisp and I love that you've flipped the image and cropped close.

jillconyers said...

Wow. Amazing details captured.

Jenn said...

Wow! What an amazing shot and edit... :)