Help with postprocess and colours

[ntz]

Hello,

I am trying to make out of maximum from this photo .. I am blending there two exposures but I am unable to somehow do something with colours ...

Could you please help me and just in theory advise a logical steps what you would do to get maximum from colours ?

This is pure training ... Photo is not meant be any good or special .. I was trying there a blending method with:

1) stack two photos in layers with dark on the top
2) copy the lighter one to a new layer, adjust even more the exposure, desaturate by luminosity and save the image as mask, then delete the desaturated layer
3) create layer mask on dark photo from mask created in step #2
4) apply gaussian blur on the mask to restore local contrast

all these steps are in file in history ... created with Gimp 2.10

thanks much and regards, dan

 

[Ysarex]

Hello,

I am trying to make out of maximum from this photo .. I am blending there two exposures but I am unable to somehow do something with colours ...

Could you please help me and just in theory advise a logical steps what you would do to get maximum from colours ?

This is pure training ... Photo is not meant be any good or special .. I was trying there a blending method with:

1) stack two photos in layers with dark on the top
2) copy the lighter one to a new layer, adjust even more the exposure, desaturate by luminosity and save the image as mask, then delete the desaturated layer
3) create layer mask on dark photo from mask created in step #2
4) apply gaussian blur on the mask to restore local contrast

all these steps are in file in history ... created with Gimp 2.10

thanks much and regards, dan

Not sure what you mean by maximum from colours. Your photo in GIMP is flat and needs contrast, and an increase in saturation wouldn't hurt. The photo has no black point -- there's nothing black in the photo and there certainly should be.

In GIMP with the exposure blending finished merge the layers together into a single layer. Duplicate that layer and set the blend mode for the dupe layer to softlight. Adjust the opacity to taste and there's your contrast increase. Merge the layers and from the Colors menu Saturation will let you add overall saturation and Layers will let you set a black point.

But why? Why are you doing that in the first place? You camera (Fuji X100F) has the ability to capture more than a 10 stop dynamic range. One raw file from your camera makes all that work trying to blend multiple exposures a vain effort. Did you start with raw files to begin with? Are you doing that exposure blending using JPEGs from the camera?

 

[ntz]

Not sure what you mean by maximum from colours. Your photo in GIMP is flat and needs contrast, and an increase in saturation wouldn't hurt. The photo has no black point -- there's nothing black in the photo and there certainly should be.

In GIMP with the exposure blending finished merge the layers together into a single layer. Duplicate that layer and set the blend mode for the dupe layer to softlight. Adjust the opacity to taste and there's your contrast increase. Merge the layers and from the Colors menu Saturation will let you add overall saturation and Layers will let you set a black point.

But why? Why are you doing that in the first place? You camera (Fuji X100F) has the ability to capture more than a 10 stop dynamic range. One raw file from your camera makes all that work trying to blend multiple exposures a vain effort. Did you start with raw files to begin with? Are you doing that exposure blending using JPEGs from the camera?

Thank you very much for your help .. I tried to follow all what you advised ... result is here ... thank you very much for hint with Soft-Light on dupe layer, I didn't know it, never used this ..

ad.Fuji X100F) Image was taken with Nikon D7200, but it doesn't matter
ad.Why blending JPGs) It's for sport and learning purposes ... I tried to learn a new technique with using Desaturated mask from lighter image on darker, then blur on mask to restore the local contrast ..

would you say please, that the result now (link above) matches to what you suggested and that I understood to your advice ?

thanks much, d

 

[ntz]

... result is here ...

taking back, that looks terrible ... my original blend done with different blend technique is here, image below looks much more natural


42666 by ntz on ThePhotoForum: Film & Digital Photography Forum

 

[ntz]

@Ysarex ... ok, here are two images ...

this is blended with old technique using channels from desaturating layer and opacity




this one is new technique using mask from desaturated layer + blur on mask to restore local contrast + what you suggested (including mainly the copy of layer with soft light blend mode)



thanks much for your comments

 

[Ysarex]

@Ysarex ... ok, here are two images ...

this is blended with old technique using channels from desaturating layer and opacity

this one is new technique using mask from desaturated layer + blur on mask to restore local contrast + what you suggested (including mainly the copy of layer with soft light blend mode)

thanks much for your comments

The first of the two here -- your old technique is the better choice. The second photo adds too much saturation to the colors to the point of appearing unrealistic.

Still the first photo would benefit from more contrast and neither photo has a good black point especially the first. Both photos also clip the highlight in the clouds.

The scene is mildly backlit looking into a bright sky without sunlight on the foreground. Not at all difficult to capture in a raw file.

This is shot with the Nikon 7200, even better than the Fuji, the D7200 can record 11 stops of dynamic range in a single raw file. All of what you're doing here is unnecessary, more time consuming, requires more skill, and yet must produce an inferior end result since damage to the image caused by editing JPEGs is unavoidable and uncorrectable.