editing software/tips

[purpledove]

I took this shot when we went to Zion National Park last month. I really like this scenery a lot however the contrast with the sunlight still shining through on the top area of the mountains( right and middle) and the shadowing/darkened areas of the mountains and the river below....made it hard for me to get a good shot. With the way i adjusted the settings on the camera with the kind of lighting on the river and trees....it made the problem areas i mentioned has an overexposed look. I was advised in the future to take 2 different pictures and merge them. The other suggestion was to tweak existing picture at Photoshop- like a sky/over exposed app/plug-in of some sort to remedy the shot. I tried doing it via CS5 and PS elements 10 with Color Efex plug in trials to remedy it and i am struggling. I need help please....any suggestions appreciated :nod:

Btw- I am able to get the CS5 at a student price, is it much better to get that than Photoshop Elements?? I seem to get lost with CS5 due to it's many features and PE seems to be a lot simpler. So is it hard to learn CS5? I am thinking it's worth the money to get CS5 now than get the PS Elements then upgrade again soon when i get better at editing/photoshopping. Thanks mucho.

1

 

[pjbleek]

nice picture!!!!!

 

[purpledove]

nice picture!!!!!

Thank you.

Altho, it needs some remedying. I am poor at that and don't wanna waste this pic

 

[Tuffdisc]

Two different shots of the same thing or something else and you want to stitch them together?

 

[purpledove]

Two different shots of the same thing or something else and you want to stitch them together?

What i was told was- take a shot of the river and trees (1st pic)= different settings given the lighting and 2nd shot wld be the mountain and sky= bright... then stitch them together.

Is there another way just in case, i go back to Zion in the future or encounter same problem in other landscape settings?

 

[Tuffdisc]

What i was told was- take a shot of the river and trees (1st pic)= different settings given the lighting and 2nd shot wld be the mountain and sky= bright... then stitch them together.

Is there another way just in case, i go back to Zion in the future or encounter same problem in other landscape settings?

You could that in cs5 and elements, its called........Photomerge..

How to access it via CS5 File>Automate>Photomerge

 

[purpledove]

You could that in cs5 and elements, its called........Photomerge..

How to access it via CS5 File>Automate>Photomerge

I watched the tutorial on photomerge yesterday and attempted to edit that pic BUT I failed miserably :24:

Is CS5 worth the money since it's a student price rather than Elements?

 

[skyblue]

is it something like this you're after?

 

[Tuffdisc]

I watched the tutorial on photomerge yesterday and attempted to edit that pic BUT I failed miserably :24:

Is CS5 worth the money since it's a student price rather than Elements?

You are going to get the same result in Elements as in CS5. Elements is a stripped down version of CS5

 

[purpledove]

is it something like this you're after?

Sort of as it's a bit brighter, more vivid on the tree areas and bit of the clouds are showing....my big concern is the middle and top right mountain tops that are golden yellow in color....imo ( I guess am a perfectionist ) there's way too much contrast given these areas are exposed to the sun and other parts are not.

Thanks for the edit. It looks nice

You are going to get the same result in Elements as in CS5. Elements is a stripped down version of CS5

Okay. thanks

 

[Tuffdisc]

Here's my edit

 

[Siphorous]

It's a nice pic. I think Ian's edit is closest to the best you'll achieve given the lighting conditions. The sun highlighting the tips looks fine and adds to the picture rather than subtract from it. Imho, it would be a more dreary picture if the the tips were photoshopped to have the same colour/shading as the non sunny bits.

 

[purpledove]

I like both edits :nod: SkyBlue's due to the clouds showing more. Tuffy's captures the real colors of the actual Zion scenery as the colors are really that red and orangey.

I guess since I've seen the actual colors of the tips of the mountains even when exposed in sunlight- makes me wanna show the real colors I've seen...that makes me wanting to achieve that. The actual tips are not purely golden yellow as per my shot but combination of these colors as attached below. That maybe if those tips are less golden yellow- it would be nearer the actual colors.

 

[Tuffdisc]

I prefer to call it a bit more contrast/sharper

 

[Tuffdisc]

With this conversion I did for you, it looks like OTz has an Ansel Adams here

 

[purpledove]

With this conversion I did for you, it looks like OTz has an Ansel Adams here

Haha :24: Thanks but am NOT by a looooooong shot.


Here's my friend's edit. He added some clouds too. I lost the RAW file on this shot so he worked with the Jpeg file which made editing quite limited.

 

[Tuffdisc]

Haha :24: Thanks but am NOT by a looooooong shot.


Here's my friend's edit. He added some clouds too. I lost the RAW file on this shot so he worked with the Jpeg file which made editing quite limited.

How did you lose the RAW file?

 

[purpledove]

How did you lose the RAW file?

I didn't realize that after I upgraded to OS X Lion that iPhoto was a separate upgrading. Uploaded my raw files then deleted them from my camera. Only to realize, iPhoto converted it automatically to Jpeg

It's all good now, I've upgraded iPhoto

 

[darkcgi]

cs5 is the bomb
once you get it down youll be looking for plugins
get a drawing tablet
from wacom
it will make your art some much easier and fun

 

[Tuffdisc]

I didn't realize that after I upgraded to OS X Lion that iPhoto was a separate upgrading. Uploaded my raw files then deleted them from my camera. Only to realize, iPhoto converted it automatically to Jpeg

It's all good now, I've upgraded iPhoto

What you should do is download it to your hard drive