Wedding/DR trip

shootermcgavin · Feb 1, 2012

Well that lapse in time had more to do with starting a new job working for the man again... and I started living like a rock star down here in O-town and luckily I crashed and burned with my family around to help out instead of in some gutter. It probably saved me thousands of dollars in gambling, drinking, girls and who knows what else cuz the three nights prior all involved a substantial loss of money, police or hotel security, and large amounts of alcohol consumption. I might be the only person who will lose a couple grand at the casino and then spend an hour arguing with police over a $10 bend me over I'm a gringo charge. I am the gringo that stands up for gringo rights! Well actually that's not true normally I would pay it but they didn't take away my beer while we were arguing so I was like this is way more entertaining than being in the bar so luckily I won before my drink ran out! I've been in a lot of countries and Dominican Republic is the only one I've been to that is pretty close to lawless. Except for drugs anything goes. I can't wait to go back! ha ha

oldmacman · Feb 1, 2012

shootermcgavin said:

How about this tweak? You original isn't bad, just a tad soft. If you like it, I can send you the high res TIF edit.

shootermcgavin · Feb 1, 2012

Wow that's way better... yeah that was pretty underexposed. I actually didn't remember cropping it, but I'm pretty sure that was the same file cuz I can see the guy I cloned out or whatever they call it.

MLeeK · Feb 1, 2012

It's a really great basic image to start with. Here's my quick, dirty edit. The sky/water are a bit dark to the left, but I'm lazy and not spending more than a minute on it!
It's pretty clear & sharp for the lens you used and de-fog's really well! You just need to stay clear of that clarity slider!!!

shootermcgavin · Feb 1, 2012

Dang what the heck are you using on it? Mine went from Eh to horrible real fast. I would love it if you posted the photo shop file if you didn't merge everything. I must be processing things the wrong way totally. The clarity slider is something I always use, and then usually throw a high pass layer over it... I guess clarity is not sharpness... Maybe not the best image to display sharpness but it looks 100x's better. Especially for an under exposed picture which I'm still not sure how that group of shots was all under exposed it looks good in the histogram maybe that is something I can't rely so heavily on.

jaicatalano · Feb 1, 2012

It's a little too processed for my taste but being that I love DR I can let it pass.

MLeeK · Feb 1, 2012

No, clarity is not sharpness and should be used VERY sparingly. Most of what I did was in Adobe Camera Raw. I did merge two layers-one for the sky and one for the subjects. A bump in exposure. A good raw sharpen of amount 59, 3px, 25 detail and masking about 85% on both.
Medium contrast point curve, Parametric curve of 0 highlights, +15, +10, 0. ***HSL!!! Luminance on the oranges is +17 and reds +10, Saturation of the oranges -10*** That is the skin tones.

Your histogram on this one will lean to the right. There is a LOT of bright sky, sand, white shirts, dress, water, etc all of which are above your 0 exposure mark. There is a lot less dark here in the trees, a little of the water, hair, etc. So, a perfectly arched histogram wasn't what you needed in this one. It would be leaning to the right and probably have some color channels blown in the sky/water.

MLeeK · Feb 1, 2012

Here is the full sized image if you want it! IMG_1900 as Smart Object-1.jpg

shootermcgavin · Feb 1, 2012

Oh I think I see, you used like a blue curves adjustment or something like that after you got it correct in raw? The sand looks a little blue, I can see why weddings can be pricey to process this photo correctly could take awhile with the trees and water... I guess I have a lot of work in front of me... it'll be a fun little project

GeorgieGirl · Feb 1, 2012

I think the content of the wedding shots themselves are quite nice. I hope you can fix them up easily...The shot of the junker...maybe not an album piece.

MLeeK · Feb 1, 2012

shootermcgavin said:
Oh I think I see, you used like a blue curves adjustment or something like that after you got it correct in raw? The sand looks a little blue, I can see why weddings can be pricey to process this photo correctly could take awhile with the trees and water... I guess I have a lot of work in front of me... it'll be a fun little project

No. I didn't mess around with the colors or color curves. Just the luminance of the blues and exposure is less in the sky and water. Luminance and saturation on the oranges/reds. That's it. I don't really do any editing in photoshop. I just combined the two different exposures and did a final high pass sharpen in PS. That's it.

shootermcgavin · Feb 1, 2012

Sorry I noticed that after, I never played with those other curves they really help though, got another photo I did and will upload tomorrow to see if I nailed it or failed it. Who would have thought camera raw was so darn great.