I want MORE out of this conversion. Help GREATLY appreciated.

[D'Buggs]

I have been approached for a specific shot to be used as a fund-raiser - This is it:

a)
<img src="http://api.photoshop.com/home_93c183238c264b21aebf84403f631f01/adobe-px-assets/d94e77f74a1746e8a030fb093bf9b5b0" width="897" height="600"/>


My conversion.
b)
http://api.photoshop.com/home_93c183238c264b21aebf84403f631f01/adobe-px-assets/48046753c6c048b0abe5f0c3fe388ba6


Kinda what I'm going for.
c)
<img src="http://api.photoshop.com/home_93c183238c264b21aebf84403f631f01/adobe-px-assets/f2eb61aff66d463ebff8de2880991a0d" width="900" height="602"/>


I really wanna "sex" this up but anything that I have tried, failed miserably when it came time to print. What I'd like from it is less contrast in the pool of dead grass he's standing in; to somehow transform it into alive and vibrant (Read; MUCH less contrast). I tried burning it out but as mentioned, crapola results.... The ultimate goal would be to transform the Bear as if it were stepping out into moonlight. I have 2 weeks time to figure this out and would really like to offer this group *something* other than what is just here.

ANY pointers that'll head me off in the right direction (tutes, perhaps) would make me feel soooo much better. :wink :wink
Also, please feel free to pony up remarks on whats here, right now. I'm working w/ PSE7 and converted using RGB level adjustments under a grad map.

Thanks.


FWIW, they're interested in the image for the example of the animal and how it was captured (wilderness setting). I just think that as a fund-raising project, it'll fetch better $$$ all done up and lookin' purrrdy, in an offering of around 8x12. :D

[D'Buggs]

bump with working image.

[Nikolai]

bump with working image.
You better post color version, and preferably with a link to a larger one.
Once it's already in b&W there is not much left to work with. :dunno
And technically, I would start with RAW file, JPEG doesn't allow for much freedom :deal

[D'Buggs]

You better post color version, and preferably with a link to a larger one.
Once it's already in b&W there is not much left to work with. :dunno
And technically, I would start with RAW file, JPEG doesn't allow for much freedom :deal

Thanks, Nikolai. :D

I added to my original post the colour version AND what the society got a glimpse of (c), prompting them to contact me. At this time I can not link a RAW file as my host only deals in jpeg. :rolleyes

FWIW,,,, I'm not wanting this mission 'done' for me, just insight on how to perform it - The only way I learn is to slam my head into concrete walls, it seems.... I got another idea that I'll try out tonight that retains the image in colour but I think the dead pool (grass) will be a sinker.


Happy Shooting!

[kwcrow]

I played with it.
27531
I used lightroom's luminance control based on color and darkened orange and yellow and left green the same to tone down the yellowish grass. Lowered contrast to -50 and set clarity to negative.
Did some local sharpening around the head. After all of that, I don't think I like it any better than the 3rd one you did :scratch

If you don't have lightroom, but have photoshop, try just using the blue channel as the start to your black and white image and adjust from there. The blue channel is where the yellow will be the darkest, so less contrast in the yellow grass compared to the rest of the image to begin with.

[Nikolai]

Thanks, Nikolai. :D

I added to my original post the colour version AND what the society got a glimpse of (c), prompting them to contact me. At this time I can not link a RAW file as my host only deals in jpeg. :rolleyes

FWIW,,,, I'm not wanting this mission 'done' for me, just insight on how to perform it - The only way I learn is to slam my head into concrete walls, it seems.... I got another idea that I'll try out tonight that retains the image in colour but I think the dead pool (grass) will be a sinker.


Happy Shooting!

Well, I was hoping it would be a brown bear, in which case jpeg would cut you some slack. With him being a black bear, the only way to work with it is RAW.. :dunno

[kwcrow]

Here is an example of what I meant by using the different channels of the image to begin with.
Compare:
Red Channel:
27534
Blue Channel:
27533

Notice how the blue channel has darker grass where it is yellow in the original color photo. This gives you a better starting point to reduce the contrast without using the burn tool.

If you have lightroom it is really handy in development mode to just go into the HSL tab and in luminance mode using the tool in the upper left of this pane. Select the grass and drag down with the tool. All colors in the color you drag will darken (even in black and white mode). It is really a nice tool.

[kwcrow]

Apparently I can only have one attachment/reply.
Here is the blue channel that I tried to post above.
27535

[D'Buggs]

YOWZA!!
I applaude the efforts and thanks for them!

kwcrow;
I don't have LR and don't expect too in time to meet this - I have just undergone some substantial hardware upgrades and software isn't in the budget at this time.... But what you have done has given me a few things to think about, thanks for that.

Nikolai;
I'm now looking into doing RAW conversions. With PSE7, there is only so much one can do with a RAW file before opening it up in the main editor and getting access to the RGB sliders. I have no idea if this is different than the 'normal' PS.... Much to learn and I do have some reading to do now.

Anyways, it's not 911 yet. I'll keep kicking away, but the photo has a lot that just works against it.

[D'Buggs]

Nik, I've been up all night getting a grip of RAW conversions; Me thinks I is on to something... More time is needed but it's now time for a nap (zzzzz). :D


Cheers.

[Nikolai]

Nik, I've been up all night getting a grip of RAW conversions; Me thinks I is on to something... More time is needed but it's now time for a nap (zzzzz). :D


Cheers.
It can be addictive, I know! :wink :rofl
I don't know what kind of possibilities are in in PSE7, but I know that both PS CS4 and LR2 use the same RAW engine (ACR5.x).. I use the first one...

[davev]

I probably over did this a bit, but I think it's close to what you want.

your shot
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/553898527_wMXnd-L.jpg

after camera raw (with CS3 you can run jpgs through camera raw)
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/553898552_9jiuy-L.jpg

Added a gradient map layer to convert to b&w
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/553898569_VvbYY-L.jpg

On the photo layer, I adjusted the hue and sat to brighten/darken area the way I thought they should be.
Turning off the gradient map layer, the shot now looks like this.
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/553898589_BcQe4-L.jpg

I then added a gradient layer (radial) to highlight the bears face.
that layer looks like this.
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/553898607_4d3vz-L.jpg

Put it all together and you have this.
I did remove a couple of wild blades of grass, I also remove a blade of grass by it's left ear, and some bright leaves by it's butt.
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/553898661_FhqbB-L.jpg

Everything that I have done can be done in PS elements.

[aj986s]

This is a very quick & dirty example. But it mimicks a technique I saw a while ago, where in PS, a layer is created, and made a solid color, usually black. Then the opacity is adjusted down from 100% to see through the color, and parts of the color are erased to show the underlying image.

[D'Buggs]

DANG!!!!

You guys are freakin' AWESOME! :clap
After my nap and a short morning shift, I got right back at it again @ 8:30AM (who needs sleep; it's over-rated). Here's a run down on what I remember doing :rolleyes :

It turns out that after I converted in RAW (ACR4.4) I then opened up PSE7 and started to play with levels (like kwcrow was doing, and I too at the start of this mess, less the RAW bit of course...). I still wasn't happy with all that and started back from scratch again this morning. Did all the same things over again, just a little differently this time ( chaulked it up to learning curves...) and then got playing with coloured grads and grad maps, opacity levels, some burn, clone, back into level adjustments, touch the bg with a little gausian mask,,,,, yadda yadda yadda. Very similar to what davek did, but different. :D


Here's what I got as of now;


http://api.photoshop.com/home_93c183238c264b21aebf84403f631f01/adobe-px-assets/8fa49955e47e4883a8498d9247382896


Now I kinda gave up on the grass, but not quite. In this image I hit it a fair bit but wonder if it needs more.... I've been looking at this bloody Bear waaaaay to long and it's time to step back for a bit.
Lemme know wattchya's think. If it's garbage, SAY SO! I hate being patronized and this is a serious job that doesn't have room for BS.


Pretty much everyone thats posted has given me ideas on how to handle this - Kudos' to all of ya!

[RogersDA]

Meh - cleaned it and worked it some...
http://www.greyleafphoto.com/photos/554116324_4cuLC-O.jpg

Though - I personally think a color shot, with some contrast adjustment, some cleaning, and some finer cropping is a better image.

http://greyleafphoto.smugmug.com/photos/554130701_ysrc6-O.jpg

[D'Buggs]

I personally think a color shot, with some contrast adjustment, some cleaning, and some finer cropping is a better image.

I agree AND it would be a whole lot easier to accomplish.... The folks that are wanting it though have seen both 'a' and 'c' images in my opening post, knowing that 'c' was a brain-fart and work in progress thing; I guess someone there got all excited and figured that they just had to have it

I explained to their Liason what the deal was with the image and wasn't sure if it would transpire.... The reply I got, was; give us what you can, we WANT that bear! All the while leaning in on wanting this one 'finished'.

But I'm begining to think that the more I kick, the more it's dead. The above image of mine (steppin' back and coming in fresh) doesn't do a thing for me anymore and it'll be off to the recycle bin too. I promised myself that I'd give it till weeks end to fulfill their desires, then it would be on to process the original colour version, to see if that were acceptable to them.


Hey, its a challenge and thanks for your post AND effort! :D
And watch out... there's about a dozen Bears wandering around here! :eek1 :rofl

[kwcrow]

I think you are getting close on the tone, but the hue in this one definitely has a purplish cast to it.
I had to try one more time.
27549
DANG!!!!

You guys are freakin' AWESOME! :clap
After my nap and a short morning shift, I got right back at it again @ 8:30AM (who needs sleep; it's over-rated). Here's a run down on what I remember doing :rolleyes :

It turns out that after I converted in RAW (ACR4) I then opened up PSE7 and started to play with levels (like kwcrow was doing, and I too at the start of this mess, less the RAW bit of course...). I still wasn't happy with all that and started back from scratch again this morning. Did all the same things over again, just a little differently this time ( chaulked it up to learning curves...) and then got playing with coloured grads and grad maps, opacity levels, some burn, clone, back into level adjustments, touch the bg with a little gausian mask,,,,, yadda yadda yadda. Very similar to what davek did, but different. :D


Here's what I got as of now;


http://api.photoshop.com/home_93c183238c264b21aebf84403f631f01/adobe-px-assets/8fa49955e47e4883a8498d9247382896


Now I kinda gave up on the grass, but not quite. In this image I hit it a fair bit but wonder if it needs more.... I've been looking at this bloody Bear waaaaay to long and it's time to step back for a bit.
Lemme know wattchya's think. If it's garbage, SAY SO! I hate being patronized and this is a serious job that doesn't have room for BS.


Pretty much everyone thats posted has given me ideas on how to handle this - Kudos' to all of ya!

[D'Buggs]

I think you are getting close on the tone, but the hue in this one definitely has a purplish cast to it.

The purple was intented..... With it, I was goin for S E X Y. Then I got thinking that the background should be wiped out with twinkling stars in its place,,, and then I thought perhaps a fire hydrant and a lifted leg, and........ ....... ............ Hey, it was a long night and bloodshot eyes with a caffine heavy bloodstream, makes the mind a terrible, terrible thing. :huh

I think I'm goin to step back from this and concentrate on the colour image. It has virtually no PP and it too needs some work because I metered for the bear - Nothing that I *shouldn't* be able to handle AND I can then at least present the society something real to look at, coming back to this later on.

I visually don't care for the image though (other than the stature of the animal). I think that people without appreciation and knowledge of blackies would look at it as boring.... But we all know everyone loves SEXY!

But I also know that everyone attending this fundraiser will also flip over it. When it's done or if I should stumble, I'll fire up a new thread for help (hopefully not) or C&C.

Every post in this thread has given me insight on the "artsy" side of PS and I've gained tremendous knowledge.... I'm not quitting just yet - Just regrouping. :thumb

[kwcrow]

I think that this is a great pictures to start with, the purplish tone gives it that moonlit appearance that you were wanting and I think that you did well on reducing the contrast between the grass and the rest of the picture without losing the contrast of the overall picture. I like it! I would clone out the crossing grass blades in front of his left shoulder and I think you have a good option to show them with this one. Good Luck.

[D'Buggs]

I think that this is a great pictures to start with, the purplish tone gives it that moonlit appearance that you were wanting and I think that you did well on reducing the contrast between the grass and the rest of the picture without losing the contrast of the overall picture. I like it! I would clone out the crossing grass blades in front of his left shoulder and I think you have a good option to show them with this one. Good Luck.

I'll clean it up once I find WHATEVER it is I'm looking for - It's trying to tell me what it wants but I can't quite understand what it is saying. I do think the purple needs to be swaped for a deepish rich blue though. I'm also going to tighten up the crop, as advised from RogersDA. My 1st round was tight but when I went to print, the image fell apart horridly and I thought opening it up would help. I'm now fairly certain that what faultered was my effects that I piled on.... We'll see, as I'm going to get a sample print of the tighter fit again, just to be sure before diving in deeper.

FWIW, I'm calibrated and have done prints from this machine before, getting what I expected with 100% satisfaction. The image that I'm now refering to looked fine on the screen (sized to print), showing no hint of the wreck I had on paper - Which I ripped up upon opening the envelope AND flushing the file.

Any ideas as to what happened (anyone)?

[kirkt]

Gave it a shot. Used some lighting effects in PSCS3 and some toning and curves. The posting here shows some dreadful artifacting in the dark areas around the back of the bear.

Kirk

[D'Buggs]

The posting here shows some dreadful artifacting in the dark areas around the back of the bear.

WOOHOOO, kirkt!

The man comes outta the closet with an opened armed approach of wanting to assist - Thanks!
"dreadful artifacting"..... this is code for ??? ?
Sounds bad,,,,, very, very,,, baaaaad. :huh

I like what ya did w/ Tubby; I've been playing around with lighting effects too.... Yours is better. :dunno

I've withdrawn the concept as an option for this fund drive. After meeting with their liason on Monday, I explained to her the difficulties I was having in making it come to be; I just need to learn more about PS and it's tools. After learning this, she was ever so GLAD to see a full sized colour image on my monitor, that I'd offer to matte and frame for them. She gladly accepted, leaving happy. I'm expecting another call on Wednesday to confirm P/U date and ironing out the wrinkles.

[kirkt]

Cool. Nice capture.

Kirk