In this, the final chapter of this tutorial we get deeper into Silver Efex Pro to show how we can fine tune this high key black and white portrait. We teak the brightness and contrast with the highlights, midtones, shadows and dynamic brightness sliders. We also use amplify whites and blacks and tweak soft contrast to change the balance of tones in the image. We use a colour filter to bring out detail and finally do some spot editing with Silver Efex control points.
I'm going to tell you to do something I think you all know in your hearts that you should do - "post the pictures you love". It sounds almost fatuous but it's harder to stick to than you might think. For example, I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Welshot Imaging last weekend - normally I'm teaching workshops for Welshot so it's nice to attend one for a change and the teacher, Adrian Wilson, was excellent. We were there to learn about HDR photography and we'd made arrangements to visit Liverpool Cathedral for a few hours to shoot some material to process later.
I have a twisted streak that likes to subvert things so I'd been wondering how I could do something using HDR that didn't fit the stereotype of how HDRs usually look. I settled on two ideas and shot for them all day - black and white HDR and shallow depth of field HDR. I'm pretty happy with the results and you can see my complete collection of images from that day on Google+ and 500px but that's not what this article is about. I want to talk about selecting which images to show.
I've been posting the pictures one by one over a few days after spending some time with each and deciding if I really like it enough to post it. I came to the picture you see above of the staircase and I very nearly didn't post it. You see I'd been shooting HDRs inside a beautiful old cathedral all day surrounded by amazing stonework detail, high ceilings and stained glass windows. And this picture I was considering was just a wooden staircase - and a fairly modern one at that. I imagined that people would think the staircase mundane and out of place. So I vacillated for a while and eventually decided to post it. And to my surprise it gathered the most comments of any picture in the collection (on 500px).
The reason I shot that picture and the reason it was in contention for posting was simply that I find it visually pleasing with the lines that guide the eye and strong contrasts and detail. There are lots of diagonals to keep feeling dynamic and the contrast between the wooden stairs and the stonework is pleasing to me. It's one of my favourites from the day. But it's not really what you'd expect to see in a cathedral picture and I very nearly let that be my guide for what to post. So I have a simple call to action for you:
Find a picture you love but didn't post because you thought others might not appreciate it. Now post that sucker!
In the second chapter of our free lightroom 3 video tutorial we spend some time evening up the light on our Tender Touch image doing what I call a hand-made tone mapping to bring out detail through the whole image and make it ready for our final split toning step next week.
Today we start a new tutorial working on a tricky image with strong shadows and highlights. We use Lightroom first to recover some detail on those areas and then we do a black and white mix to bring out interesting detail throughout. Add in some dodging and burning, vignette and an interesting split tone and we'll be all finished. This tutorial majors heavily on the decision making process with an image. I talk a lot about what I'm trying to achieve with the picture and how I'm going to get there.
The final, fourth chapter of my Lightroom post processing segment on Photo Day 2009 has been released and is available to watch as part of Chris Marduardt's show, Tips From The Top Floor Ep.445. Chris took over the TWiT cottage for a day while Leo was on vacation and filled the day with Photography tips, discussion and interviews.
On today's show we've got exciting news about a special Photo Day on TWiT Live, hosted by our good friend Chris Marquardt. I'll be joining Chris on air at 4pm pacific (midnight UK time). We've also got another quick tip showing some of the new targeted adjustment features in Photoshop CS4. These features have been ported over from Lightroom and make editing your images much more natural. And of course we have a new assignment ready for our next show - the big Episode 100!
In this final chapter of Tutorial 1 we finish off our image of Weston-super-mare with a vignette, some extra steps to even up the light in the sky and add some final brightness and contrast adjustments.
In today's episode we get down to the fun part of dodging and burning our image to add shape and direct the eye of the viewer. So far we've been giving ourselves the solid foundation we need to bring the image together. Now we add expression by painting with light.
This time on Tutorial 1 we take the same approach we did to the ground portion and apply it to the sky. Once again we're bringing the levels closer together by using lightening and darkening layers with layer masks.
In chapter 4 of Tutorial 1 we take a look at how the ground portion of the image was edited to bring the tones together with the sky and add focus and detail using darkening and lightening layers with layer masks.
Chapter 3 of our re-encoded and re-released Tutorial 1. This episode covers black and white conversion with a number of techniques for bringing out the details in your picture then finishes up with the best B&W conversion technique (at the time), the channel mixer. Please remember this tutorial was recorded when Photoshop CS2 was the latest version. This was before Lightroom and Photoshop's black and white adjustment filter existed.
Chapter 2 of the re-encoding and re-release of Tutorial 1. In today's show we look at darkening layers and lightening layers. We use them to bring the sky and ground levels closer together. We also use light to start to prioritize and emphasize the elements of the shot that are going to be most important for guiding the viewer's eye.
This is a re-encoding and re-release of our first ever PhotoWalkthrough tutorial. Since first starting the show your number 1 request has been to make Tutorial 1 available for download. Well I'm happy to deliver on that at long last. I'll release a show every day throughout tutorial 1 and then we'll be back to our regular shows. In this show we cover noise reduction, spot editing and layer masking.
This week we finish up Mark Ridley's tutorial on how he produced his Urban Ugliness collection by taking a look and black and white conversion, contrast enhancement and adding vignettes all using Adobe Photoshop CS2. We also have a brand new promo code for Moo mini-cards specially for PhotoWalkthrough viewers and a special slideshow of some of the best images submitted to our Flickr group in the last few weeks.
Tutorial 16 marks the beginning of a 2 chapter screencast by Mark Ridley of www.highton-ridley.co.uk. Mark will show us how he's produced the high contrast black and white images using multiple different RAW processings from a single exposure. We also have the launch of a brand new competition where we'll give away a Plustek OpticFilm 7500i film scanner. And, of course, we have a new assignment.
Sorry it's a little late. I'm covering for someone who's off sick in my day-job at the moment so time is tight. But we got 'er done at last. This is the final episode of Michelle's Gun image and this week we add the little skulls that are hidden in the picture here and there. There are a couple of interesting applications of brushes and blending modes used there. And just for kicks I take a moment to show you layer comps as well.
I'm back from my week away and feeling great. Today we embark upon layer blending options and layer effects when we add the text layers to Michelle's image. A variety of interesting uses of blending modes and layer masks add lots of techniques to this show and once more I run longer than I intended. Someday I'm going to have to learn the tender art of editing. Or possibly just how to shut up.
Ok I know I promised to keep the show length down but I had so much competitiony goodness to tell you about this week that I kinda over-ran my 30 minutes again. Sorry! But on the bright side this week you get the chance to win a ColorVision Spyder 2 PRO in our first ever PhotoWalkthrough Challenge! The topic of the challenge is "Colour" and all you have to do to win is take a photo inspired by that topic, upload it to Flickr and tag it with "pwchallenge1".
It's another monster of a show. This week I over-ran to 33 minutes. Sorry about that - I'll try and keep it under 30 minutes in future. Lots of good stuff in there, though. Today I talk about brushes, especially how to load brush sets and modify your own brushes to get the effect you want. We use those brushes on Michelle's Gun image to add "grunge". I also take the time to go back over some more selection techniques that I missed out last week. Turns out I could easily do an hour just on making selections alone!
