Autumn on the Poudre

Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

I guess it's about that time of the year. Beautiful colors and I like how the river winds. Nice composition.

Great shot. Maybe crop a bit tighter at the top? Stunning colors.

Terrific color and composition!

Oh, you win for best first autumn photo this year! Beautiful! The shimmer on the water is wonderful! Was it like that, or did you make it better with the UM trick? I accidently did the UM "trick" twice one day with the same river photo, and was amazed by how much better the water looked after the second UM treatment. (you don't have to say, if you'd rather not!)

Thank you Thai.

Thank you Justin.

Thank you Steve.

Thank you Kim.

 

Justin I have to admit you may well be right about the tighter crop.

 

Kim when I took the photo I stacked a polarizing filter on top of a neutral density filter. That in effect takes out about 4 stops. I also used the lowest ASA setting my camera has and bumped the aperture up to f13. I did that so I could use a slow shutter speed of about 1 second to get a more flowing look on the water. That more than anything caused the shimmer on the water.

 

When I was processing it I only did the USM trick once. I used a selective color layer and added about +5 to black in black. Try that some time. It really bumps up contrast.

 

In the red I took out about -15 of cyan. And in both blue and cyan I took out a little yellow. I don't remember how much. Taking yellow out of blue and cyan had the biggest effect on the river color.

 

Hope this makes sense to you. I don't think I explained it very well.

Well, what you did sure worked, but I don't understand the selective layer part. Something else for me to print out and save for trying to learn later!

Selective color is a tool in Photoshop that allows you to target specific colors within an image and make adjustments to that color and only that color. Its one of the more useful features IMHO.

 

The best way to use this tool is use it on its own layer. To do that, use the select pull down menu on the top of screen as follows:

 

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color

 

When your new layer opens up, you will see a block at the top that shows the target color to work on. It will come up with red selected when you first open the layer. With the arrow you can open a dialog box that allows you to change the target color. If memory serves, you have your choice of: Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, White, Neutral, and Black.

 

Underneath the color selection box you will see four sliders that are labeled Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Each slider is adjustable from +100 % to -100%. Use negative values to subtract that color from the color selected. Use positive values to add it to the target color. For example you have white selected as a target color. If you move the magenta slider to the left to -20%, you will subtract 20% of the magenta content from any area in the photo that is white. If you go the other way and move the magenta slider to +15%, you will increase the magenta content in any white areas by +15 %. The nice thing about it is that you can visually monitor the process on screen. You can salt it to your own taste so to speak.

 

To use this tool it helps to know a little about color theory. You have the primary colors of red, green, and blue. These colors are additive. You can generate any color by blending the appropriate amounts of those three. That's what your monitor uses.

 

There is also a subtractive color scheme that consists of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. You also generate just about any color using the appropriate combination of these colors as well. These are the colors that your photo printer uses to do its thing.

 

A subtractive color scheme is also used when printing color negatives in the chemical darkroom. In that situation you use various amounts of magenta, cyan, or yellow filtration in the enlarger to get the color right. Even if you record your filtration settings and exposure values, trying to get exactly the same color at a later date in a chemical darkroom can be a real pain. Trust me it's a whole lot easier and faster with digital images in Photoshop.

 

But I digress. Without getting too technical it helps to know that red and cyan are linked, as are magenta and green. And if you are guessing that blue and yellow are too, you get a gold star for being correct.

 

For example you have a photograph of some beautiful red rock country in southern Utah. But the photo looks too red to you. It is easy to rectify. Select red as the color you want to work on. Use the cyan slider and increase the amount of cyan in the red. For the sake of argument say you increased cyan by +25 %. The rocks will definitely be less red than before. But suppose you went too far and the rocks are now not red enough. No problem. Just take some cyan back out and the rocks will get redder again.

 

You want the leaves on that tree to be a little greener? Select green as a target color and take some magenta out. If you go too far and its now TOOOOOO green, put magenta back in.

 

Want more blue in the sky? Select blue as the color to work on and use the slider to take out yellow. Now its too blue? Put yellow back in.

 

If you simply want to boost your overall contrast, try selecting black as the target color and increase the black content just a fraction. It will make your on screen images look better. But it will also make you use more ink when printing.

 

Don?t be afraid to experiment. Move all the sliders around on each color and see what happens. If you don't like the results you can always undo them. In the worst case you can simply delete the layer. That is one of the great things about using layers. If you don't like the effects of your experimenting, you can always use the trash can and your underlying image will be unchanged. If you do like it, you can always merge or flatten the image. Or you can leave it like it is, with the layers intact, just in case you might want to make other changes later.

 

Beautiful colors Larry, Autumn celebration...good warm colors against the cold ones of water. Pnina

Thank you Pnina. I appreciate that.

Larry, thanks so much for all your tutoring! You must have the real PS. I have Elements 3, and it's a little different. I don't get "selective color" as a choice; I get "Hue/saturation". The only way I've figured out how to select out one color to work on is to use the magic wand or some other selection tool to isolate...the one I'm working on right now is two red leaves against a gray rock, and I've been experimenting with the colors. I also don't get black as an option. I must have to do that another way (which I haven't learned yet) To increase contrast, I've been using levels, and USM mostly. I usually like that better than the actual contrast slider. I'm learning layers a little bit, but not much yet. You inspire me...man, I want to learn to make water look like that!

You are welcome.

 

I edit my photos with Photoshop 6.0. I also own about three copies of Elements 2 but never use them. I would love to upgrade to CS but have difficulty convincing myself its worth the outlay of funds. On top of which my wife would NOT consider it an absolute necessity. And truth be known I still haven't mastered 6.0 yet.

 

The key to getting good looking flowing water shots is to slow things down. That means using a stable tripod and a good polarizer or neutral density filter. (Sometimes both)

I'll surely keep trying! Thanks!

Looks like you found some nice color this weekend too, Larry :) I like the winding of the river there, and of course - the wonderful yellows and greens. But unlike Kim - the water isn't working for me here. It seems a rather strange color - parts are a brownish color, the highlights are sort of turquoise, and there seems to be a red fringe along the left bank. (I think that might be reflection from the trees actually) In any case though - this is definitely and appealing scene :)

I put together a presentation on some photos I took this weekend if you care to take a look:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=301032

Thank you Kathy. I can't do it at the moment but a little later this morning I will check out your presentation.

Wonderful colors. Very nice scene and very good post processing. High saturation reminds Velvia. Very beautiful image.

Thank you very much Dimitris.