Nikon User Thread

[Matt Grunau]

I didn't really know what I was looking for with a finished image with this picture, but it is starting to come together and I think with a lot more playing around I can finally get close to what I want.
-Jeremy

And therin lies a major problem. If you don't know what you are looking for or where you are going with an image, you you are going to have a hard time getting there.





take a gander:

Grab this:

http://www.paramm.com/jess.psd

Notice the adjustment layers not only affect the pic, but by lowering their opacity, you decide how much of that effect (curves in this case) is used.

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

Jeremy, I definitely prefer the orginial. The cc's is far too blown out, I can' even see her freckles anymore.

I was actually trying to remove the detail of her face by dodging it to an almost gothic looking smoothness without blowing it out... I didn't do that

And therin lies a major problem. If you don't know what you are looking for or where you are going with an image, you you are going to have a hard time getting there..

This weekend I am going to go out shooting and start the whole process with an idea of what I want. Hopefully that will aid me in taking whatever it is that I shoot and help me manipulate it in post.

Grab this:

http://www.paramm.com/jess.psd

Notice the adjustment layers not only affect the pic, but by lowering their opacity, you decide how much of that effect (curves in this case) is used.

I will check that when I get home tonight. I'm curious to see how you balanced the image while being able to get the results that you did.

What is harder, getting the image that you wantin the camera or taking that image and making it the way you want in post... I'm voting for post.

-Jeremy

 

[Matt Grunau]

What is harder, getting the image that you wantin the camera or taking that image and making it the way you want in post... I'm voting for post.

-Jeremy

For me, it's getting the image the way you want in camera. Post work should be about enhancing what's already there, not drastically changing it.

 

[cheezweezl]

what's wrong with blowing stuff out? makes for cool effect a lot of times. as long as you're not blowing out something that is important in the picture, who cares?

 

[cheezweezl]

Original

Adjustment

for example, if you are going for a normal portrait, the second one has her face way too pale. but really, the second one is way more interesting. to me, keeping this one "inside the lines" cuts down on the potential added excitement of the second one here. rules are meant to be broken right?

here's how i would cc it. yes, blown out in the hair but it gives a sense of light i think.

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

Here is another one of my dodging and burning things. I had a bit of time before I head out tonight so I figured it was worth a shot...

When I took the picture I really wanted that dark and dirty type image. Her skin got a little overexposed, so I tried to compensate with some levels, but I think there is just one step that I'm sort of missing in this process...

Regardless, here is the image.

Original

Corrected

EDIT:
I am still sort of prefering the original just because I'm missing a step to make the skin still retain the look of skin and not... well death. I think I'm getting closer though.

-Jeremy

 

[Dirty_Ass]

WOW, Yankee. Love the CC, I'd say you slap a grungy border on that bad boy and send it to the presses

 

[Chris Messineo]

Wow, she looks like Marilyn Manson's kid sister.

Chris

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

WOW, Yankee. Love the CC, I'd say you slap a grungy border on that bad boy and send it to the presses

How much sarcasm in that comment?

OK, one last one before I head out for the night. I finally took Rapier's advice and just applied it throughout this image and I actually like the way it turned out.

A duck from the park on June 10th...

Original

Corrected

Shot on the 70-210 Nikon 4-5.6. This park has nasty water...

-Jeremy

 

[MattinSTL]

The second duck shot looks good. In the previous two shots of the girls the second one is too much. I wonder how much difference there is from monitor to monitor? I'm on a pair of viewsonic gs771 graphic series monitors that are supposed to be pretty accurate... and both the second girl and the second fence shot are overprocessed on my monitor.

 

[alpha omega117]

How much sarcasm in that comment?

OK, one last one before I head out for the night. I finally took Rapier's advice and just applied it throughout this image and I actually like the way it turned out.

A duck from the park on June 10th...

Shot on the 70-210 Nikon 4-5.6. This park has nasty water...

-Jeremy

beautiful, nice correction.

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

Just one more corrected image. Going out to go see what I can find now and shoot some stuff. These were shot on the 17-55 lens, 5.6 f-stop, focal length 55mm.

Original

Corrected

-Jeremy

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

One last one... 70-210... 9, 210mm, 500shutter

Original

Corrected

-Jeremy

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

OK, here are a couple of more that I took this afternoon and played around with. I'll list them in order of how I feel about them. All were taken on the 18-55 lens, mostly at F5.6 or F8. I shot in 'A' priority mode, so shutter was auto depending on the F-stop and the ISO was set to 200. Thanks to Rapier for the Photoshop help!

Original

Corrected

Original

Corrected

Original

Corrected

Comments, suggestions, death threats, or insults welcome and appreciated.

-Jeremy

 

[MattinSTL]

You're honing in on it for sure... they're looking much better.

I'm about to blow up another D50 vs. d70s thread over at dpreview... they've got me losing my mind! If you do thorough research through the archives... it can really drive you nuts. It's giving me sympathy to those who don't search much... I'm finding d70s guys popping blood vessels in a rage about how much better the 70 is over the 50... and then 2 months later I find a post from that same guy who has since bought a 50 and the SAME GUY is saying that Nikon screwed up and accidentally gave the lower end too much performance so it'll kill off the 70s...

It's like the audio threads... where people just want to hear one final concensus on some sh*t... now I get where they're coming from.

All I know... is you can go to dpreview and check the galleries of the people who own several bodies... and the best pics came from this little D50... which is how I intend to start a flammable thread over there. (not for the flames, but to make people take responsibility for the huge argument they had going the opposite way of the huge argument they have going now)

Just look at those pics... Jeremy I gotta' get my cam soon so you don't get too far ahead of me.

 

[cheezweezl]

hey yank, your cc is rockin. the dead leaf on the storm drain is really nice.

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

Just look at those pics... Jeremy I gotta' get my cam soon so you don't get too far ahead of me.

You got nothing to worry about. All of these were taken about 50' from the front door of my apartment in this little wooded area between my building and the one across the street. Just went walking through to see what I could find and looks like I got some gems. I took about 130 pictures and then went through and kept 50 of them...

hey yank, your cc is rockin. the dead leaf on the storm drain is really nice.

With Rapier's help I'm getting a little better at Photoshop and trying to visualize when I snap something what I want it to look like, but I'm still such a neophyte with the software that sometimes it's just trial and error. Thank you for the encouragement. That storm drain actually turned out really well, a little burning on the cement, lots of levels, selecting the leaf, color adjustment, then desaturate the background, more levels, more contrast, and then final image.

I'm liking those two leaf pictures though, they just turned out almost exactly how I imagined them except not as sharp.

When ya'll are shooting do you do sharpening or hue adjustment or saturation adjustment in the camera at all?

These were also shot in JPEG Fine.

I'm going to take the 70-210 over into the woods in a little while, first gotta go sit and think on my throne

-Jeremy

 

[Matt Grunau]

That storm drain actually turned out really well, a little burning on the cement, lots of levels, selecting the leaf, color adjustment, then desaturate the background, more levels, more contrast, and then final image.

-Jeremy

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

You are turning into a Photoshop geek, complete with P-shopspeak and all!!!

Great work on the pics. Your work and things are getting tighter. You can see it as you go through the thread.

Mind your mids on the leaves in the storm drain one, they are getting just a little blown, unless that was intentional, in which case disregard this sentence.

Good work.

And the duck looks cool as hell. The greens are popping.

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

OK, sort of raining here so I'm not going up to the Raptor Center today (plus there is a Yankees double header on TV), but I thought I would post this...

I got this picture of this leaf yesterday and loved it because half of it looked alive and half looked as if it had already decayed away in the summer heat of the Carolinas.

Shot on the 17-55mm lens, A priority, Fstop 8, 55mm, shutter of 200.

Original

Corrected (unsharp, levels, curves, hue, contrast, levels, contrast, burn, curves, selective color adjustment, levels, crop, unsharp mask).

Comments, suggestions, and everything else welcome.

-Jeremy

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

Another One

Another One

OK, took this this afternoon on my porch looking towards where the gutter ends right at we had a break in the rain. Shot on the Vivitar 70-210 2.8 @ 2.8 shutter of 500. The only reason I wanted to post this was because I used some of Rapier's layer techniques to help with the reflection in the water... Here is a PSD of what was done (I'm sure most people know these techniques, but if you don't then hopefully some of this stuff can help)

Original

Corrected

-Jeremy