Reef Sanctuary - View Single Post - Image processing in Photoshop (actions included)

Travis · 11-22-2003, 11:34 PM

This thread got some good feedback and seemed particularly helpful to some people (along with the included actions) so I'm posting it as an article here.

--------
I'm often asked "what I do" to the images... well, here it is. After this is all finished I think you'll agree that the final product is
clean, sharp, and an accurate representation of the animal I photographed. In this case, I chose a pic of a copperbanded butterfly I recently photographed at the Houston Aquarium. I chose this photo because it does a good job of demonstrating the overall changes made to both foreground, background, color, sharpness and levels.

I hope you all find this both educational and helpful with your own image editing techniques. I am certainly no Photoshop master myself, but since deciding to take the hobby of Photography to a professional level, I have learned quite a bit.

Now, let's get started.

Here's the original image. If you don't see the "foggy" look, you will. Also notice the specks in the background, that's gunk flying around the water column trying to mess up my photo. You'll notice this image looks particularly unimpressive at the moment- mostly because I keep my in-camera sharpening, contrast, etc.
settings at ZERO. This leaves me more leeway to edit them after the fact, though they're fairly nasty looking straight off the camera.

Now, here's the image after a quick levels adjustment. Much better, huh? I prefer to do it manually but you'll achieve the same or better results 90% of the time using
"image -->adjustments-->auto levels."

OK, next I ran the "10D subtlecolor" action. This really seems to overcome some specific weaknesses with the 10D's color reproduction. This action is new to me, so I use it judiciously
look at each image before and after to make sure I'm getting the desired effect.

Next, sharpening. I used to use unsharp mask but found a technique called "high-pass sharpening" on luminous-landscape.com it works great, and adds much less noise to the image. Notice the fish and rock are sharper in the resulting image, but the background isn't. Ironically, sharpening only works on the parts of the image that are relatively in focus. So don't think it will save you from a poorly-focused subject.

OK, almost done. Now I used the healing brush to get rid of those icky particles in the water column. Much cleaner, no?

Alright. Final touch. Another trick from Luminous-landscape.com- this action uses the unsharp mask to selectively add contrast to the image. It also does a bit of sharpening so watch out for noise. This action sort of "snaps" everything in a bit.

That's it. Now I save my image as a .PSD file so there is no compression loss like there would be with a JPEG.

PART II: LOADING/USING ACTIONS

I have uploaded the actions I created, "High-Pass" and "USM Contrast". Feel free to download and use them to your heart's content, just promise to keep sharing your photos with us here.

The other action mentioned, "10D subtlecolor," is the property of someone else but he has it available as a free download HERE.
The action was specifically designed to enhance the 10D's color sensor, so results may vary if you run this action on photos taken with a different camera (but well worth a try!)

After downloading the actions:

First of all in Photoshop you want to go to your "window" pull-down menu and make sure "actions" is checked.

The actions palette looks like this:

To load actions you have downloaded (like the 10D finisher action at http://www.lindev.org/10D-sharpening/ ) click on the triangle just below the red "X" on the top right of the palette.

A pull-down menu should appear. Click on "Load Actions."

Map to wherever you saved the action and choose it. The action should now appear in your palette. Then, simply highlight the action and click the Triangle on the bottom of the palette to "play" it.

A good suggestion for the 10D finisher actions or any other you may download is to first duplicate your image onto a new layer and then run the action.

To duplicate your layer, make sure "layers" is checked on your "window" palette and right-click on the shaded box marked "background" in the layers palette. Choose "duplicate layer." Now click on the new duplicate layer so that one is shaded and perform your action on that. Now if you don't like the action you can simply delete the layer (right-click on it) or you can reduce the effect of the action using the opacity slider.

The opacity is on the top right. Click on the ">" next to it and a slider will pop up. Watch your image as you move the slider.

Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed this little seminar. Please, comments and questions are welcome. Or try them out and post your results!

Travis
www.reef-life.com

11-22-2003, 11:34 PM	#1 (permalink)
Travis Smilie Bartender Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 6,330 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Image processing in Photoshop (actions included) This thread got some good feedback and seemed particularly helpful to some people (along with the included actions) so I'm posting it as an article here. -------- I'm often asked "what I do" to the images... well, here it is. After this is all finished I think you'll agree that the final product is clean, sharp, and an accurate representation of the animal I photographed. In this case, I chose a pic of a copperbanded butterfly I recently photographed at the Houston Aquarium. I chose this photo because it does a good job of demonstrating the overall changes made to both foreground, background, color, sharpness and levels. I hope you all find this both educational and helpful with your own image editing techniques. I am certainly no Photoshop master myself, but since deciding to take the hobby of Photography to a professional level, I have learned quite a bit. Now, let's get started. Here's the original image. If you don't see the "foggy" look, you will. Also notice the specks in the background, that's gunk flying around the water column trying to mess up my photo. You'll notice this image looks particularly unimpressive at the moment- mostly because I keep my in-camera sharpening, contrast, etc. settings at ZERO. This leaves me more leeway to edit them after the fact, though they're fairly nasty looking straight off the camera. Now, here's the image after a quick levels adjustment. Much better, huh? I prefer to do it manually but you'll achieve the same or better results 90% of the time using "image -->adjustments-->auto levels." OK, next I ran the "10D subtlecolor" action. This really seems to overcome some specific weaknesses with the 10D's color reproduction. This action is new to me, so I use it judiciously look at each image before and after to make sure I'm getting the desired effect. Next, sharpening. I used to use unsharp mask but found a technique called "high-pass sharpening" on luminous-landscape.com it works great, and adds much less noise to the image. Notice the fish and rock are sharper in the resulting image, but the background isn't. Ironically, sharpening only works on the parts of the image that are relatively in focus. So don't think it will save you from a poorly-focused subject. OK, almost done. Now I used the healing brush to get rid of those icky particles in the water column. Much cleaner, no? Alright. Final touch. Another trick from Luminous-landscape.com- this action uses the unsharp mask to selectively add contrast to the image. It also does a bit of sharpening so watch out for noise. This action sort of "snaps" everything in a bit. That's it. Now I save my image as a .PSD file so there is no compression loss like there would be with a JPEG. PART II: LOADING/USING ACTIONS I have uploaded the actions I created, "High-Pass" and "USM Contrast". Feel free to download and use them to your heart's content, just promise to keep sharing your photos with us here. The other action mentioned, "10D subtlecolor," is the property of someone else but he has it available as a free download HERE. The action was specifically designed to enhance the 10D's color sensor, so results may vary if you run this action on photos taken with a different camera (but well worth a try!) After downloading the actions: First of all in Photoshop you want to go to your "window" pull-down menu and make sure "actions" is checked. The actions palette looks like this: To load actions you have downloaded (like the 10D finisher action at http://www.lindev.org/10D-sharpening/ ) click on the triangle just below the red "X" on the top right of the palette. A pull-down menu should appear. Click on "Load Actions." Map to wherever you saved the action and choose it. The action should now appear in your palette. Then, simply highlight the action and click the Triangle on the bottom of the palette to "play" it. A good suggestion for the 10D finisher actions or any other you may download is to first duplicate your image onto a new layer and then run the action. To duplicate your layer, make sure "layers" is checked on your "window" palette and right-click on the shaded box marked "background" in the layers palette. Choose "duplicate layer." Now click on the new duplicate layer so that one is shaded and perform your action on that. Now if you don't like the action you can simply delete the layer (right-click on it) or you can reduce the effect of the action using the opacity slider. The opacity is on the top right. Click on the ">" next to it and a slider will pop up. Watch your image as you move the slider. Conclusion Hope you enjoyed this little seminar. Please, comments and questions are welcome. Or try them out and post your results! Travis www.reef-life.com