Nice sky grabs, with settings and thoughts...

MatthewC

MatthewC

Well-known member
I've really been enjoying just fooling around with colours and outdoor shots.
Well, I took a few shots on my deck today.


Off the bat, my Iris was closed too much on the last two. There's some noise up in the sky, in the before and after shots.
The last two screens:

24P
Detail Level+1
V Detail:0
Detail Coring:+2
Game: Cine Like
Matrix: Normal
Chroma Level+5
Pedestal -5


Now the very first shot has the exact same settings, except I opened the Iris more and changed the Matrix to Cine Like.
Regarding the Gamma, I did some fooling around afterwards I actually like Low Gamma better than Cine Like.

I see though that by closing the Iris a little extra and then tweaking in post I can make the sky a deeper blue without losing too much in the picture like my first shot.
That's pretty neat, although that satellie dish and cloud are overexposed now. Will a Polarizer filter help that out a bit?

Any tweaks for getting bright colours on the ground and the sky without overexposing? Dropping my Knee to Low will help, will it not?

hoot6mz.jpg
 
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TimurCivan said:
i like the origional better.

The others look to bright.
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I agree that the first one looks bright as I stated, cause I was trying to pull the greens and blues up a bit and it led to overexposure, but I kept it like that just for experimentation purposes.

The second and third though, the left ones don't look as life like to me, as the ones on the right. It was very bright out there. The left ones look a little bit washed out into the darkside a little bit, but I see on the right side that the shadows are a bit dark actually, my contrast is a little too steep.

Then again, maybe I just have an eye for bright things and that's what pleases my eye. Maybe most people don't like things bright like that. Hmm.
 
the contrasty tones of the modified ones are much more appealing to me. Some people do like the lower-contrast, more subtle look, but for my taste I like the "pop" in the contrasty ones...
 
i think you raised the lightness value too high. in the first shot the satellite dish is almost gone because of the glare. i can understand wanting to boost things, but if you lose image detail in the process then...just compare the bottom pics. in the first you can see the eyes and on the adjusted it's too dark. did you use he brightness/contrast or did you adjust the levels?
 
novelt said:
i think you raised the lightness value too high. in the first shot the satellite dish is almost gone because of the glare. i can understand wanting to boost things, but if you lose image detail in the process then...just compare the bottom pics. in the first you can see the eyes and on the adjusted it's too dark. did you use he brightness/contrast or did you adjust the levels?
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I'm just curious, did you read my post at all? :-)
I wrote that I knew I had overexposed but I kept it in there for experimentation purposes. I was adjusting the contrast and brightness in all the shots.

On the bottom two shots, I rather like the dark shadows, it adds a little mystery. :-)

Yeah Krummi, me and you got the same tastes then. I much prefer poppy contrast adjusted shots. Of course they won't be coming through as heavy as they are now if I was actually making a movie or anything like that, but I do enjoy achieving that look. I just wish there was a way to make the grass that green without having to adjust the contrast and brightness in the first shot.
 
Getting adequate subject brightness while not overexposing the sky is always a challenge. Here are a few tips:

1) shoot with the sun at your back. This is the easiest way to get deeper blue skies and brightly-lit foregrounds.

2) If you can't put the sun at your back, try to get 90 degrees away from the sun and use a polarizer filter. At 90 degrees from the sun a polarizer can really pull the blue out of the sky. You may need to fill in some of the side shadows with reflectors or bounce cards.

3) Consider a graduated ND filter. This is a filter that's dark on half of the filter, and clear on the other half. Align the filter so that the dark (ND) part is blocking some light from the sky, and that'll deepen the saturation of the sky while leaving the rest of the frame brightly exposed.

4) bounce bounce bounce. Bounce light onto your subject! Bounce light into your foreground. Use silver reflectors to bounce the sunlight onto your subject, that lets you stop down the iris and bring the sky back under control.
 
How do these look like on a tv screen?
Have you adjusted the gamma to match the look of a TV screen?
My feelings as usual, these will look very blown out.

What is the detail coring +2 and chroma +5 doing for you, really?
 
There's nothing wrong with the originals. The exposure is good and the colors are fine. The only problem... they're pretty bland. They just have that "pick up the video camera and shoot" feel. Like you said, the first one with cc is a little bit blown out, but the others look much better, IMO. The colors are more saturated, and with the extra contrast, you get more detail in the trees (or at least it looks that way because you can actually see the dark spots now).

Take Barry's tips into your heart. They're great. :)

EDIT: I do have one suggestion/tip/whatever for you though. Like Pukki was saying, you may risk a little blow out on a tv screen. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but unless that is what you're going for... it's a bummer. Just be careful with the contrast adjusting and watch out for your brights! Other than that... they're pretty. :thumbsup:
 
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i dunno if anyone else noticed, but your gravity is overexposed

:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :thumbsup:
 
OregonDank said:
i dunno if anyone else noticed, but your gravity is overexposed

:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :thumbsup:
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Haha, oh ****. I didn't notice that. Thank you.
I was sorta sad to see you dissappear from that chat mate. :-(
 
Pukki said:
How do these look like on a tv screen?
Have you adjusted the gamma to match the look of a TV screen?
My feelings as usual, these will look very blown out.

What is the detail coring +2 and chroma +5 doing for you, really?
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I have my PC sending video to my TV fullscreen so I can see it as I play it back or after I've exported it.
Coring blends it a little bit, making noise in dark spots less noticeable. Chroma+5 makes all the colours more vibrant and stronger.



Barry_Green said:
GODLIKE KNOWLEDGE
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Barry, thanks for all your tips, those are excellent. I've already got a Hoya polarizer filter on the way, but I think I'm going to buy a Tiffen used from a member here.
A gradated filter would be nice, but not necessary at this point in time. I will definately be buying it. I've got a few items lying around that I want to use to bounce light on my subject, sadly it was only me around at the time. Probably a good thing. :-)
 
you can adjust colors without adjusting the brightness/contrast...and yes i read your post.

there's a free application callled "cinepaint" that some studios use to retouch frames from motion picture film. i don't have it, but if it's good enough for "the last samurai"...anyway...just saying it might be worth a look.

Cinepaint
 
novelt said:
you can adjust colors without adjusting the brightness/contrast...and yes i read your post.

there's a free application callled "cinepaint" that some studios use to retouch frames from motion picture film. i don't have it, but if it's good enough for "the last samurai"...anyway...just saying it might be worth a look.

Cinepaint
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Oh sweet! Thanks!
I saw this a year or two ago but didn't need it. I'm defiantely going to look into it now! Thank you very much!

Regarding adjusting the colours, yes I know I can, but I haven't quite gotten down the ability to just adjust a colour here or there and not the whole picture. Secondary colour correction I can do this to a degree, but it's a little hard sometimes.
 
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i don't know how cinepaint works, but if it's similar to photoshop (which is what they compare it to) then you can do a lot of color correction that way.
 
Man. Today was crazy -- not a cloud obscured the sky. It looked like a giant blue canvas... just waitin' to be painted....


Oh, nice grabs, but some of the originals are better..
 
Adam Crabbe said:
I think you've made a 3 chip look like a 1 chip.
I like the originals better. - No offense.
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Hmm, I don't think its decreased the image quality at all, except the overexposed shot. It's a different look and feel, but it's not like it lost quality.

Wow. It's amazing how some people really like them, and other people think the originals are better. I guess it just comes down to personal taste in the end.
 
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