New lens

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

:J hehehe. TBH if i had a chance to go back in time, my ideal setup woulda been:

-Canon 100mm f/2.8 AF macro (I bought mine for ~$550, used it can go for $250+).
-3 piece set of kenko extension tubes (on amazon/ebay goes for $200)

Then you have up to 3:1 magnification AND you still have a bitchin' sharp 100mm portrait lens if you want versatility. Not even for just your macro lens-- if you have a wide angle or telephoto, it's extra range without having to buy a bigger lens. The macro lens i have is dedicated macro, can't use it for anything else. However what it does do, it does damn well.

But yeah man macro photography is FUN AS HELL, definitely still my favourite kind of photography. Every little detail around you becomes interesting. Highly recommended

[Xiz]

Re: New lens

(I dont know a lot about macro obviously)

So the 100mm can be used outside of macro?

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

The 100mm f/2.8 AF is a wonderful portrait or nature lens aswell-- works just as well as a telephoto lens as it does for macro. There's a little switch on the side that'll adjust the range of your autofocus (so you can focus fast when you're close, or focus close when you're far from your subject).

On most cameras that aren't full frame, it becomes a 140mm range lens anyhow (1.4x crop factor), so you have a bitching telephoto lens with soft 2.8 aperture to drool over.

Because it's for macro, it's been pumped up with a ton of center-lens sharpness, which carries over for portraits. Sharp lens overall.

I didn't personally take a lot of portraits with it (that I kept/were worth uploading) but this was my favourite macro shot I took with it:



100% crop, no sharpening added:

[Xiz]

Re: New lens

would you mind posting a few more? I'm very interested in that lens.
<3

[Mollocephalus]

Re: New lens

How could you repair the burned areas? they look like all information was lost there! Or is it just an artifact of the low quality image you uploaded?

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

The whites were burned in the straight from camera exposure-- because I had it in RAW format, it still retained extra pixel info that just wasn't seen at the exposure taken. As long as it was kept in RAW format i was able to get more detail from those areas. Shadow/highlights filter in PS is also very good at getting more details from an otherwise burnt out area.

But yeah big advantage over shooting JPEG is being able to repair spots like that. If it's burned with a JPEG you're outta luck.

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

~requested tutorial~

FOREWARNING; this tutorial is going to be pretty dense, and I will go into detail about what i did from start to finish.

Xiz requested awhile back that I walk through how this image was processed/edited:

edit:

original:


(PS: This will be sliiightly different than the original one you were talking about, since I don't have the PSD of the original edit :I I'll try to make this pretty close)

Tools needed:
-Photoshop (any CS2+ suite version should do)
-This plugin (allows you to open up an image in Camera Raw more than once, by double clicking on the layer thumbnail).

^TO GET THIS TO WORK, you MUST go into Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw. Under "JPEG and TIFF file handling", under TIFF, change the drop down menu to the bottom-most option.

-Original RAW/PSD image (the RAW file type is preserved when using the above plugin, instead of having it flatten).


So, to start, I first pulled a guide down to the horizon line and saw that it was a crooked. Using the CROP tool I rotated the image until the horizon lines up with the guide pulled down.



Once the horizon is straightened out, I see that the first problem is the lack of dynamic range (sky overexposed, bike underexposed), so this takes a bit of work to straighten out. You DEFINITELY need that plugin to do this part well (otherwise you'll be working destructively. For best results, use RAW images and the camera raw plugin).

We're going to start by fixing the bike exposure. Double click on the layer thumbnail.


In ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) i'm going to adjust the following calues:

- Contrast: -65
- Shadows: +20
- Clarity: + 20
- vibrance: +25

I wouldn't totally be concerned with sharpening yet, but if your image is soft, go nuts.

So now, we're going to start separating some elements. Duplicate the layer (CTRL+J) and right click on the thumbnail > Rasterize Layer.

Now, use the Quick Selection Tool (W) and make a selection around the bike. You're going to want to zoom in and adjust the brush size to get the basic contour. If it's not perfect that's perfectly fine, but make sure no parts are half selected.



After you've selected the bike, click the "Add Layer Mask" button and it'll isolate the bike (won't really be able to tell cuz of the layer copy under it). Make sure the unmasked layer is the one that's still a smart object.


Under the properties flyout menu, or the Mask panel, click the "Mask Edge" button.


Check "Smart Radius" and crank it somewhere in the 5 to 10 area, depending which gives a more natural looking edge to it.

Now that the bike is isolated I'm going to go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights. These are the values I used which seemed to give a decent dynamic range:



Now, we're gonna leave the bike for now. Have the bottom/smart object layer selected, and go back into Shadows/Highlights. I used these values:



This is to get more detail back into the sky. Double click on the layer and get ACR up.

- Exposure: -0.50.
- Highlights: -50.

Leave the rest as they are. This is just to tone down the burn in the sky a bit more.

Still on the below layer, make a Curves adjustment layer. The curve should look roughly like this-- to the point where the asphalt looks like real asphalt



You're going to want to open up the mask panel for the curves layer mask, and click "Invert". Then, start painting white into the areas where the asphalt extends to. Use a soft edged brush. I also changed the opacity of the Curves layer to 80%, looks more natural.

Now, click back on the bike layer. Click on the mask thumbnail, and start painting in any areas that look too light. For example, the tire looks too light for the darkness that's under it. So, paint in black in the mask in those areas that are too light, to give it shadow. Go with a VERY soft brush with a low opacity because the layer underneath will probably be TOO dark to go 100%.



Also mask out the windows to make it match the scene better.



Next, gonna add a new layer underneath the isolated bike layer. Select a soft low opacity black brush, and paint in some shadow for under the tire (so it matches the hard black of the side of the tire).

The red wasn't really showing up as vibrant as it should, naturally, so i added a Colour Balance adjustment layer, clipped it to the bike layer (Hold ALT and click in between adjustment layer and bike layer). I moved the Red channel to +30. Then I masked out the tires, lights, and metal so they didn't look too red.

After, added a Photo Filter adjustment layer, 45% warm filter (non clipped- should go over the whole image). The scene is a bit off in temperature so warming it up will help the tones more.

Added a Curves adjustment layer at the top of all layers, with a curve like this:



Invert the mask and paint white in the areas you want to brighten up-- think sheen on the paint of the bike, brightening the foliage, some of the grass, amplify mid-lites, etc.

The rest is really just minor tweaks to taste... but what I did to finish the image off, after I saved a copy:

-Flatten the image
-Image > Adjustments > HDR Toning

Here's the values used:



Before/After HDR



For some, the HDR step might be too much, but I like the added details it brings out, and the antiquey sorta tonal range.

If you want more natural colour/vibrancy, you can do that with the Vibrance/Saturation slider, and playing with the Colour Balance adjustment layer more.

LASTLY the image is pretty damn sharp, but I'm going to sharpen it just to unlock a few more subtle details.

With your flattened image, duplicate it (CTRL+ J), and with that duped layer go Filter > Other > High Pass. Adjust it until you can only see the sharpened details you're wanting to bring out. (In this case, a 1-2 radius). After that, change the layer's blending mode to "soft light". That should bring out some of the weaker details.

And that's it~ save it/resize it and junk.



That was prolly WAY too much info. But there you go!!! Most of these steps are generally on-the-fly decisions as I'm editing. See an opportunity to amplify certain qualities of an image, go on it. Isolate main elements, and make them stand out. Takes more time but the results are generally worth it.

This process is pretty much the same for any landscape photos I do.

[Xiz]

Re: New lens

Dude. Dude. That helps me so much. Thank you man.

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

You're quite welcome glad it's got some good info in it. Basically if you adhere to the basic idea of seeing what details you need to open up/what areas need to be lightened/darkened to have a more balanced exposure, you'll have a way easier time editing stuff. There's obviously a lot more complicated stuff one can adapt to an edit but not every topping is for everyone's cake~

[Xiz]

Re: New lens

It's kinda silly - I'm a film guy getting into photography, and i'm colorblind as hell. Editing with colors is hell for me lolz

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

hi5 I'm absolutely blind for red/green undertones. They used to be discernible but now, a red might as well be a green, or a brown-- looks the same. Blue and purple and magenta are also identical. I usually get the colours way off, but I know when or when not to change colour temperature.

Doing that all with film... yikes. I feel your pain there. I worked in the paint department at home depot for 2 years, and I became known as the "go-to" guy for paint colour recommendations. (I AM THE WORST PERSON TO ASK THAT, I happened to know colour theory like the back of my hand, and could help people choose their OWN colours by asking them a bunch of colour related questions).

[Xiz]

Re: New lens

lol damn props to you. We are in the same boat. Luckily, technology is getting so advanced that presets can work, but then again thats cheating and cheap and stupid and i dont like doing that lol. Yeah, I cant see yellows-greens and reds-oranges... purples-blues either...

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

I'm especially afraid when editing pictures of people and doing touchups on skin and whatnot. I can't tell if i'm making someone look sick or not sometimes x__x

Here's a pic from my cruise trip. I may or may not have more worthy of posting but here's one for now.

[Xiz]

Re: New lens

-boner-

[Spenner]

Re: New lens

A few, from awhile back