A Scenic World

One of the Pentax forum members at dpreview asked me about the post-processing of some of my photos from northern Europe, and unfortunately I haven’t had time to make a detailed response.

Until now.

Hold on to your seats, fellas, because we’re going to take a wild ride through Mr. Adobe’s Lightroom Extravaganza!

Seriously, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make my post-processing process a bit more universal. It’s straight-forward enough if you also use Lightroom, but how to make it transferable to users of Photoshop or Elements or GiMP? I took screenshots of the tonal curves and histograms this time; hopefully that helps. If you have any other ideas, please let me know!

Now, for the actual photos =)

Case Study #1: Fisherman on the River Meuse

Original:

I loved the framing of this one, but it definitely lacked punch as I shot it - not surprising, actually, since I have all my settings in-camera set to either 0 or negative values (saturation, contrast, etc. etc. ). I like to add all of that in post-processing.

For this one, I added almost all of the punch by adjusting the basic values.

Exposure: +.38
Recovery: 0
Fill Light: +31
Blacks: +57

Brightness: +32 (this actually decreases blackness, as Lightroom starts at a value of 50)
Contrast: +41 (from a Lightroom start value of +25)

Clarity: +17
Vibrance: +67
Saturation: -45

This gives us rather slight modifications, as evidenced here:

Next we have the Tonal Curve adjustments (”curves” in almost every other software). I made the following adjustments, all from start values of 0.

Highlights: +25
Lights: +12
Darks: -14
Shadows: -50

The tonal curve went from this:

to this:

and the photo looked like this afterwards:

We’re getting there…

Next I made some adjustments to the Hue/Saturation/Luminance as follows, all coming from a start value of 0:

Red:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Luminance: 0

Orange:
Hue: +33
Saturation: -7
Luminance: 0

Yellow:
Hue: -12
Saturation: +100
Luminance: +100

Green:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Luminance: +100

Aqua:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Luminance:0

Blue:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -52
Luminance: +64

Purple:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Luminance: 0

Magenta:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Luminance: 0

The reds, purples, and magentas were desaturated fully because there was some chromatic aberration on the fishing pole, and as nothing important in the photo were those colors, I just did away with them.

The photo now looks like this:

Next, for the split toning. When I want a duotoned photo, I find its easiest to add by using split toning rather than adjusting the individual colors. In this case, I wanted yellowish-green highlights and blue shadows. In Lightroom, I chose a value of 60 for the hue of the highlight, with a saturation of 80. For the shadows, I chose 240 as the hue with a saturation of 85. To give you an idea:

I adjusted the balance between highlights and shadows to +17 (the highlights have more weight when it comes to the distribution of color), and the photo looks like this now:

The next category in Lightroom is Noise Reduction and Sharpening. I have a confessions: I never adjust these or even bother looking at them. So, moving on to the next:

Vignetting! My favorite!

Once again, Lightroom has a start value of 0 for the vignette amount.  Negative amounts refer to a dark vignette added; positive values add a white vignette. I added -88. The other adjustment you can make in Lightroom is to adjust the midpoint of the vignette - whether the vignettes starts from the middle of the photo or affects only the corners. For this, Lightroom’s start value is 50, which is a pretty standard vignette. At 0, the vignette encroaches to the very middle of the photo; the edges are entirely black and all shadow detail in the bridge is lost. At 100, the vignette just barely darkens the edges of the photo. I opted for a value of 100. Here’s what the photo looks like now:

And that’s actually the finished version!

The histogram, by the way, started out looking like this, which I think would generally be considered to be an acceptable histogram for the challenging contrasts in this photo:

to this:

which is basically an example of what a histogram should NOT look like. ;)

So how does this whole creative process work, anyway?As far as my self-portraits go, they can be put into two categories. The first category is spontaneous shots. These probably account for the majority. They occur when I’m really busy that day, or when I don’t have any ideas, or when I just see some good light somewhere and try to capitalize on it.

The second category is the planned shot. By far, these are my most popular photos. Some of them require far more set-up than others, but the one I took yesterday reflects how most of these planned shots work.

I wake up every morning and have a cup of coffee on my porch. I always have a pen and paper handy so I can write down anything that comes to mind, whether it’s a to-do list for the day, an idea for a project in the future, or my self-portrait for the day.

At the moment, I’m doing an Olympics-and-book theme (yeah, whatever, it helps me to have some structure to the project). So yesterday, I threw around some ideas on paper: “High Bar,” “(Track and) Field,” “Floor Exercise.” Since it was raining, I knew I would have to do an indoor shot, so “Floor Exercise” it was.

Next I sketched out how I wanted it to look. I don’t do this for all my shots, but I do it at least once a week, and these are the ones I usually execute best. Nothing fancy, of course, because I’m not an artist. Just something like this (this is the actual sketch):

Next I had to setup the shot. This involving moving a fair amount of furniture (a bench, my bedside table, my computer chair, and some random cords that usually run behind the bench). I’ve moved my entire bedroom around before for a shot before, but thankfully this one was minimal.

I lost my remote control in Germany, so I had to set the focus for the shot first. The book served as an excellent stand-in for me.

Next, all I had to do was insert myself. I started out wearing a floral print dress and wound up in white pants and white shirt when I saw how nicely the light was bouncing off the white. The exposure was a bit tricky - it took four shots with me changing settings in “Manual” mode to get it right (I almost never get a shot right the first time I try). Note how the reflection on the wall behind me was purely from the reflection:

And there you have it: the making of #47, which made the front page of Explore, yay!

For three straight days, the rain has fallen. When I wake in the mornings, the soft pitter-pat has reminded me that me and my camera would be staying inside. I sat by my open window and watched the rain fall, waiting for the moment I could go outside.Today, the moment finally presented itself. The last drops fell just as the sun broke through the clouds. I threw together my kit - my K200D, the D-FA 100mm Macro, and the FA 31mm in case a self-portrait opportunity should present itself.

I made my way to the duck pond, a place that has become as familiar to me as my own backyard. Almost as soon as I got there, I was faced with all that the rain had wrought: while the grass was greener and the weeds flourished, the flowers had all been pummeled to the ground.

I picked up one purple blossom and twirled it in my fingers. The sun played off the still glistening raindrops. I knew I had my self-portrait for the day.

I continued down to the place where the dragonflies play. I sat for a moment, just breathing in the life around me: damselflies darting from stalk to stalk, lizards scurrying in the bushes, butterflies flitting by. Then I saw a shot. I laid my bag on the grass above me and made my way carefully over the slick rocks to take this:

Almost immediately after I snapped the shutter, a huge snowy white bird soundlessly flew from the bushes to my right, its wings spread so majestically that they seemed to go on forever. It flew directly over me, blacking out the sun for a moment. It could not have been more than two feet above me.

I didn’t breathe.

I watched it soar to the other end of the duck pond and knew I had just had a moment I would never forget.

But there was more to come. I walked to the other side of the stream and found either the most beautiful moth I’d ever seen or the smallest butterfly I’d ever seen. I got down on my knees, my bag jostling against me, to photograph him. He was shy at first, flying nervously about, but he finally saw fit to pose for me.

I decided to make one more pass around the pond. I settled back into the place where I’d taken the first photo and waited to see what I’d see. While I got a secure grip on the rocks, I heard the velcro of my bag. It wasn’t closed properly. I looked inside.

The 31mm lens wasn’t there.

My heart stopped. This is the most expensive lens I’ve ever bought. It’s among my most prized possessions.

My bag had been lain all over the duck pond during the course of the day. The lens could be anywhere. I quickly searched the area where I sat - hard rocks covered with weeds with the stream only inches below me. It occurred to me that the lens could have rolled out and soundlessly made its way into the water.

I walked as quickly as I could around the pond, stopping everywhere I’d stopped on the way, trying hard not to go so fast I wasn’t looking carefully.

Finally, I came to the place where I’d seen the yellow moth/butterfly. And there was the lens.

So many things lost today, and so many found.

Lightroom Settings:

Exposure: +1.62
Recovery: 0
Fill Light: 0
Blacks: 11

Brightness: +46
Contrast: +100

Clarity: 100
Vibrance: N/A (I used grayscale)
Saturation: Ditto

Highlights: +31
Lights: 0
Darks: -55
Shadows: +90

Grayscale Mix:
Red: +21
Orange: -16
Yellow: -21
Green: -7
Aqua: +83 (my eyes are a mix of aqua and blue)
Blue: +14
Purple: -17
Magenta: -31

No Split Toning

No Noise Reduction

Sharpening set to default

No Chromatic Aberration (um, it’s grayscale anyway)

Lens Vignetting:
Amount: -69
Midpoint: 60

Camera Calibration:
Red Primary:
Hue: 0
Saturation: +19

Green Primary:
Hue: 0
Saturation: +62

Blue Primary:
Hue: 0
Saturation: -100 (hello, freckles!)

I really didn’t like the photo I posted for my self-portrait photo today. So while I was at work, I had an idea. It would involve buying more sparklers, because Mike and I went through all his stash the night before, but it was worth the $1 I’d have to spend.So tonight I got off work, bought my sparklers, and headed home to change. I lugged my tripod, my K200D with the 31mm lens attached, my remote, a lighter, and the sparklers outside. I set up the shot I wanted and made sure the focus was locked in the right position (Pentax AF isn’t exactly known for being perfect in the dark).

Then I realized that my idea wasn’t going to work. In fact, there was a very good chance I was going to end up setting my house on fire.

Time for Plan B! Except there wasn’t a Plan B. So I set up my tripod so it faced a different direction, lit a sparkler, and stood in one place. Yeah, very original.

I went through all 12 of the sparklers in the box and prepared to pack everything up.

But wait!

There was one sparkler left! The box had only advertised a dozen, but there it was: Sparkler #13!

I lit it, waited for the magic to begin, and changed things up. I danced. I twirled. And I pressed the remote release.