Before and after Photoshop...any suggestions?

[Jdub777]

Was just messing around in photoshop. The first image straight from the camera and seemed really blurry to me so I tried to sharpen it up and add an effect to make the smoke look more detailed...What would you do?

Before

After

 

[Josh66]

What would you do?

...Move on.

This is just a case of missed focus (the door frame, or maybe that branch looks to be the sharpest thing) - Photoshop can't fix that...

Low light can make focusing pretty challenging...

 

[Whootsinator]

I would focus on the subject instead of the background when I was actually taking the picture. That's why it seems really blurry to you.


Edit - Argh, someone posted while I was typing... Need to get quicker.

 

[white]

Hooray for filter effects! :er:

 

[Jdub777]

ya I see what you guys are saying. I just really liked how the smoke looked with the light in the background. It was hard to keep the camera still for that long

 

[sovietdoc]

I personally don't see any point in that shot. Smoke looks too much OOF, and the entire shot just has nothing significant in it (for me). I suppose anyone can call it "art" nowadays. /sigh

 

[LCARSx32]

I suppose anyone can call it "art" nowadays. /sigh

Wow. Kinda harsh for a beginner's forum... don't you think?

 

[AgentDrex]

Well, perhaps harsh, but there should not be any sugar-coating going on either, I happen to LOVE LOVE LOVE the way the smoke looks after the edit...perhaps cropping everything else out but the head and smoke would look nice:

 

[flyingember]

take the photo better to begin with.

the whole photo is so dark that it's really easy to make it look bad.

 

[AgentDrex]

that was a productive comment...take a better photo...I guess I gotta do that too...take better photos...man...:???:

 

[Jdub777]

Well, perhaps harsh, but there should not be any sugar-coating going on either, I happen to LOVE LOVE LOVE the way the smoke looks after the edit...perhaps cropping everything else out but the head and smoke would look nice:

Ya it does look better without the light. Im glad someone agrees with me, there is just something about the way the smoke looks. normally I wouldn't keep this but the outline of his face mixed with the smoke looks badass

 

[KmH]

Using Photoshop you have 2 choices for making adjustment to a photo:

1. Global
2. Local

Global simply means that whatever edit you do is done to the entire frame, at the same time, and with the same value.

Local means that you select the portion of the photo you want the edit to apply to. That's why Photoshop has all those selection tools, a masking capability, and layers.

 

[AgentDrex]

Thanks KmH, you just added info to my mind glossary. Sweet! Thanks Jdub777 for sharing this with all of us and giving us the option to do our own edits. I really do like that smoke.

 

[flyingember]

that was a productive comment...take a better photo...I guess I gotta do that too...take better photos...man...:???:

sometimes that's the best answer. you can only work with what you get out of the camera. you have tons of muddy black, blur and lens flare. the photoshopping is just making it muddier and it has the bad effect of taking your focus away from the subject. even without photoshop my eyes slide back to the light constantly which I can't imagine you want.

that said, I do like the photo if you crop just the face and do very subtle and very careful edits to it so the blacks remain a solid black. it becomes more artistic and you lose the parts which make it bad

 

[AgentDrex]

That's better, I do agree with post-processing making a bad photo worse in some instances...good advice and I'd like to say what a dangerous sounding nick you have flyingember...