One Photo Edit for C&C

[Lockeseven]

Hey guys, I've been messing around with Photoshop CS5. What do you think of the editing of this one pic? As always, I really appreciate this forum =)

1. This is the original

2. And here is the edit

 

[Bram]

Too blown up. IMO. You can see dust particals or something in the bottom left don't know if that's the table or the camera, much more noticable in #2 though.

 

[DirtyDFeckers]

I think the original looks better... .In the edit, the upper left side of the glass looks blown out, where as in the original it doesn't.

 

[oldmacman]

Hey guys, I've been messing around with Photoshop CS5. What do you think of the editing of this one pic? As always, I really appreciate this forum =)

1. This is the original

I agree with DirtyFeckers that the original is the better image. If you want to play a bit, consider whether the setting is really that important. Adjusting the black point will also help sharpen and bring out the details in the crystal. A side note... there is something about the angle of the shot or lens distortion that warps the right side of the image. Anyway, here is a quick edit to simplify background and boost black point.

 

[KmH]

1. This is the original

2. And here is the edit

and without the blurred background:

The original is underexposed a full stop.
In ACR, if you hold down the Alt key as you click on the Exposure slider it will change to the Clipping display mode. Any white spots/areas mean all 3 color channels are at 255. If a spot/area is red (or blue, or green) only, the red channel is at 255. A spot/area may be another color indicating 2 of the 3 channels are at 255. The same can be done for the Blacks slider, but it is showing channels that are at 0.

I adjusted the Exposure, Blacks, Contrast, Clarity, and Vibrance if the color image in ACR.

In Photoshop I rotated the image 1° CCW and cropped the resulting wedge shaped white areas and some extra off the bottom.

I then used the Spot Healing Brush tool in 'Content-Aware mode to clean up the dust bunnies on the table top and all the colored specular highlights in the decanter.

I then made a B&W adjustment layer and adjusted the sliders to minimize the background distractions by increasing their density (darker).

I then selected the decanter and the table top using the Quick Selection tool (I saved the selection) and then under the Select tab clicked on Inverse so all except the decanter and table top were then selected (I then saved the selection). I made an Exposure adjustment layer and reduced the background exposure 3 stops. I then retrieved the selection and used the Lens Blur filter on the background.

Lastly I added a thin black border.

 

[Lockeseven]

Wow that looks much better with your edit. I love the blurred background! Is that something I would be able to achieve without PP by using a lower f stop and a higher shutter speed? And I just picked up a Nikkor 55-300mm VR lens. Should I be using that for this kind of shot rather than my kit lens?

 

[KmH]

Wow that looks much better with your edit. I love the blurred background! Is that something I would be able to achieve without PP by using a lower f stop and a higher shutter speed? And I just picked up a Nikkor 55-300mm VR lens. Should I be using that for this kind of shot rather than my kit lens?

You control how blurred the background is by varying 4 factors:

1. Lens focal length
2. Lens aperture
3. Subject to image sensor distance
4. Subject to background distance

The background you selected for your subject, pretty much sucked. It was to busy and had some large areas of attention grabing tone (like the white window blinds).

You can use an online depth-of-field (DOF) calculator to help you visualize how deep, front-to-back, the area of an image will be in focus.
DOF Tutorial - Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

DOF calculator - Online Depth of Field Calculator

 

[akazoly]

@oldmacman I like your edit, nice bookeh

 

[o hey tyler]

Yeah, it seems you used f/32, which is a very small aperture, along with a very long exposure (30 seconds).

Did you have a particular reasoning behind that utilization of depth of field?