PuntaColorada Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 "Another weekly challenge. If, anyone else would like to post next week please give it a go, upload a High resolution jpeg. Just indicate your intentions by Thursday or early Friday. Remember there are no rules you can do what you wish in your interpretation, please can you give information of the steps taken and software used to add interest. It is not meant as a competition just a bit of fun." (Gerald Cafferty) Just a little suggestion. I post the original for the challenge at approx 4500px by 3000px and 300ppi so that you have lots of data to work with. It's a 6.7MB file! However, you may consider posting your response at a smaller size (say 1000px on the largest side) and 72ppi. That will save bandwidth when people view your work. At that resolution, your image will appear normal but the file size should be under 300KB. For those of us with slow connections, that would be appreciated. So, let's get things hopping! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill J Boyd Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 A great image this week. Thanks for posting. I didn’t do much to this. Shadow & highlights in LR. A bit of Tonal Contrast in NIK 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemorrell Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 (edited) I went for a 'creepy creature' look (think 'Aliens' ;)). Colored and sharpened with a bit of grain in the background. At the last moment, I discovered the Photoshop 'artistic' filter e-sumi which (at 50%) added some harsh contrast. Edited February 1, 2019 by mikemorrell 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Cafferty Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Thanks again for posting. Decided to zoom in, all done in LR. Cropped to the front end, used auto as a starting point. With highlight slider reduced highlights. In HSL reduced the orange luminance and increased yellow and green to lift the little fellow from the background. Tweaked a little and finally sharped a bit. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuntaColorada Posted February 1, 2019 Author Share Posted February 1, 2019 In case you need some motivation for this challenge... Masked and selected the hopper. increased the canvas size 200% in H&V directions. pasted the hopper into 3 new layers, did some flipping and then gradient masks on each hopper layer clipped to each hopper layer. A solid black fill on the bottom and text on the top. It is as ugly as sin but aren't all motivational posters? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaellinder Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 An interesting change of pace, Punta! Initially, I decided to convert to b&w. Before doing so, in PSE15, I cropped predominantly from the left, and then used levels to adjust the tonality. Converted to b&w using Silver Efex, then back to PSE for further tonal and sharpness adjustments. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaellinder Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 In case you need some motivation for this challenge... Masked and selected the hopper. increased the canvas size 200% in H&V directions. pasted the hopper into 3 new layers, did some flipping and then gradient masks on each hopper layer clipped to each hopper layer. A solid black fill on the bottom and text on the top. It is as ugly as sin but aren't all motivational posters? [ATTACH=full]1281246[/ATTACH] Thanks for infusing a bit of humor. It's good not to always take ourselves too seriously. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaellinder Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Second version. . .. I started with using PSE's camera distortion filter to alter the image's perspective horizontally. Then used levels for serious darkening. Next, used ink outlines for dramatic effect, then used dodging tool to bring out some midtones in the grasshopper's body and wings. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemorrell Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 This could have been Andy Warhol's '4 grasshoppers' statement;). In case you need some motivation for this challenge... Masked and selected the hopper. increased the canvas size 200% in H&V directions. pasted the hopper into 3 new layers, did some flipping and then gradient masks on each hopper layer clipped to each hopper layer. A solid black fill on the bottom and text on the top. It is as ugly as sin but aren't all motivational posters? [ATTACH=full]1281246[/ATTACH] 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemorrell Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Great job, @michaellinder! As an image, this version definately has a lot of 'presence'! I really like your tones and color palette too. Second version. . .. I started with using PSE's camera distortion filter to alter the image's perspective horizontally. Then used levels for serious darkening. Next, used ink outlines for dramatic effect, then used dodging tool to bring out some midtones in the grasshopper's body and wings. [ATTACH=full]1281251[/ATTACH] 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn McCreery Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 (edited) Now Playing on MST3K: Cricket invasion from Planet Z Edited February 1, 2019 by Glenn McCreery 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_r Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Interdimensional Travel? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuntaColorada Posted February 1, 2019 Author Share Posted February 1, 2019 For interest sake, I'll post a couple processed from raw in On1 Photo Raw 2019. I like it for some things but IMHO is not a replacement for LR and PS (with NIK extensions). I find On1 Photo Raw exaggerates any noise in an image (such as a low ISO image). Still, I use it often. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuntaColorada Posted February 1, 2019 Author Share Posted February 1, 2019 The second On1 example. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_r Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Here I fear I 'purtied him up to where he lost advantage of his natural camouflage. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikehegarty01 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Punta thanks for posting again this week. This is a very nice image. All work in Gimp and I made two versions and combined them. My first take I used luminosity mask to in cress contrast and saturation. Take 2 was a split tone. I liked the way the creatures eye looked in the split tone so I combined the too by stacking the two layers with take 1 on top. I used a mask and the blend tool to fade in the split tone layer from just behind the head forward. Then I adjusted the opacity on the top layer to get a little smother blind and look. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuntaColorada Posted February 2, 2019 Author Share Posted February 2, 2019 I wondered how Hoppy here would feel surrounded by a swarm of his locust friends. I had Hoppy already isolated so I turned him into a brush and then painted in the horde using jitters in size, orientation etc of the brush set at a fairly good spacing. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemorrell Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 One more (slightly less weird) version from me. If someone asked me what color grasshoppers were, I'd say "green". So this is a green grasshopper :). From time to time, I've experimented with color look-up tables (LUTs) without much success. You never really know what each LUT does, so it's a question of trying some out to see what effect it has on a specific photo. That's why I generally prefer to adjust colors, luminosity, contrast, etc. manually. Occasionally, you find a LUT (or LUTs) that's useful for what you want to achieve. For this version I used Photoshop LUTs 'Hyla68' at about 40% and 'Tension Green' at 60%. I reduced the sharpening to 25%. I've downloaded some LUTs in the past so I'm never sure which are standard Photoshop and which are 'add-ins'. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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