C&C Snow Pictures

[thomascoe]

Hi Thomas,

Here's how to edit your photo. But first; when I downloaded your photo from Flickr I discovered the ICC profile striped out of the file. You have Photoshop which shouldn't do that to your photo. If you saved your photo from Photoshop make sure the box in the JPEG dialog is checked on for ICC profile.

You mentioned above using the Brightness/Contrast adjustments -- don't.

Open your photo in Photoshop. From the Image menu select Mode and switch the photo to LAB. From the Image menu -- Adjustments select Levels. Pull the right (highlight slider) to the left until the value is 220 (end of graph). Next pull the midpoint slider to the left until the value is 1.50. From the drop down Channels menu select channel "b" and pull the midpoint slider to the left until the value is 1.20. Go back and switch to channel "a" and pull the midpoint slider to the left until the snow is white (should be around 1.10). Click OK.

Back to the Image menu -- Mode switch back to RGB. Bring back the Levels dialog again. Find the three eyedroppers. Double click on the white (right) eyedropper. The color picker will pop open. Set the three R, G, B values to 242 each and close the color picker.

Make sure the white eyedropper is selected. With the eyedropper over the photo, right mouse click (Ctrl click MAC) and pick 5x5 average from the menu. On the right edge of your photo is what looks like a wood pile with snow on top. Use the eyedropper and click on the brightest section of that snow. Now the snow in your entire photo should be white.

Hopefully the house color etc. is also close to right. I figured your dog was too orange/yellow still and also a tad dark so I lightened him a little and pulled some yellow from his fur -- don't really know what color your dog is so I stopped at that point.

Joe

Wow, thanks a lot! That's exactly what I needed. The reason the ICC profile was gone was because I didn't use Photoshop to resize the photo and add the watermark. Photoshop was having some issues earlier, so I just used Google Picasa to resize and add the watermark so I could upload to Flickr. I have a Sprint Overdrive on 3G as my main internet access, so I don't have the speed to upload large images.

You got the house color pretty close, it's just a bit too yellow. I can't seem to get the snow perfectly white, as well as make the house the right color. I really should have shot that in RAW. In the last image I posted, the house color was just right but the snow is still a bit blueish.

 

[thomascoe]

Wow, thanks to clanthar, I was able to drastically improve another one of my photos


DSC_0126 before and after by thomascoe, on Flickr

 

[mwcfarms]

A tip I learned when taking shots in snow was to increase exposure 1 to two stops but that was for a snowy nature scene that might effect your other items here. Doesnt hurt to give it a try though. Beautiful husky.

 

[thomascoe]

A tip I learned when taking shots in snow was to increase exposure 1 to two stops but that was for a snowy nature scene that might effect your other items here. Doesnt hurt to give it a try though. Beautiful husky.

Do you mean overexposing the shot when you take it, or increasing the exposure afterwards in Photoshop? And yeah, he's a great dog. He's an Alaskan Malamute. We actually got him from the humane society, apparently no one else wanted him

 

[kundalini]

They look like they were taken without composition.

without consideration

Correction made......

All of us take snapshots from time to time. Nothing to worry about, but something to consider.

 

[clanthar]

Wow, thanks to clanthar, I was able to drastically improve another one of my photos


DSC_0126 before and after by thomascoe, on Flickr

Nice job -- you learn fast. Now stay away from Picasa; it ruins every photo it touches. The ICC profile identifies the reference color space. Losing that information effectively damages the photo. Picasa strips out the ICC profile.

The next thing for you to learn about is white balance. The excessive blue in these photos is from the camera. Check your white balance setting; it's probably on auto. You'll want to learn to take control of that feature in the camera -- learn to use the WB presets as well as learn to set a custom WB.

Joe

 

[thomascoe]

Wow, thanks to clanthar, I was able to drastically improve another one of my photos


DSC_0126 before and after by thomascoe, on Flickr

Nice job -- you learn fast. Now stay away from Picasa; it ruins every photo it touches. The ICC profile identifies the reference color space. Losing that information effectively damages the photo. Picasa strips out the ICC profile.

The next thing for you to learn about is white balance. The excessive blue in these photos is from the camera. Check your white balance setting; it's probably on auto. You'll want to learn to take control of that feature in the camera -- learn to use the WB presets as well as learn to set a custom WB.

Joe

I use Picasa for managing all my photos, importing them from my camera and organizing them into folders. And then I go through all my pictures in Picasa and weed out the ones that are unusable (i.e. Out of focus, extremely noisy, etc.) and delete them with Picasa. I never use Picasa for editing or anything else- basically I just use it to copy my shots off the camera and into folders, and for looking through them all quickly. Just using it for that will not damage the photo in any way, will it? All the data seems to be there when I look at a picture with Adobe Bridge or Photoshop.

And yes, you would be correct about the white balance on my camera. I rarely switch it to anything other than auto. The next few days as I shoot, I'll try to learn the white balance. If I shoot in RAW, the white balance setting on my camera really doesn't matter at all, does it? From what I've read, it seems to me like the white balance is only applied when saving as a JPEG, and if I shoot RAW I can set the white balance later with my computer and it will look exactly the same as if I set it on my camera. Is that correct?

Thank you so much for all your help :mrgreen:

 

[clanthar]

I use Picasa for managing all my photos... Just using it for that will not damage the photo in any way, will it? All the data seems to be there when I look at a picture with Adobe Bridge or Photoshop.

And yes, you would be correct about the white balance on my camera. I rarely switch it to anything other than auto. The next few days as I shoot, I'll try to learn the white balance. If I shoot in RAW, the white balance setting on my camera really doesn't matter at all, does it? From what I've read, it seems to me like the white balance is only applied when saving as a JPEG, and if I shoot RAW I can set the white balance later with my computer and it will look exactly the same as if I set it on my camera. Is that correct?

Thank you so much for all your help :mrgreen:

Correct about Picasa; it only does damage if you edit and then save a photo.

I won't say for sure about the WB and RAW function since I don't regularly use Nikon equipment, but my understanding is yes. That is correct if you use Canon cameras and if you use Canon's DPP converter.

Joe