Enhancing Wildlife Eyes

Posted on May 21, 2013 by admin

A little enhancement to the eyes of your subject adds a little extra pop and elevates the whole image.

Whether using Lightroom adjustment brushes or Photoshop, the basic principle is to add contrast, brighten the iris and perhaps add some spectral highlights. Professional retouchers have a detailed process for this, but simple edits have good effects.

This image was taken with a flash so there is the added problem of the cat equivalent of red – eye.

I will be using Photoshop to make the enhancements. It is possible to make these changes in Lightroom, but the adjustment brush is a bit awkward for me so I prefer the fine control possible in Photoshop.

Replace the Red Eye caused by flash

Open the image and make a selection of the the pupil. You can start with a circle selection, but it may not be perfectly round so add to the selection if necessary.

Fill or paint black into the selection.

The black looks a bit flat so mix in a bit of dark gray to help give a shiney, reflective look.

Eyes usually have a white spot reflection in them called a spectral highlight which gives a lifelike effect. Add a dot of white off center in the pupil. Place the highlights in the other eye as if it is made by the same light source or the eyes will look a bit crazed.

Eye with Specular highlight added

Now we can add some pop. For those not concerned with non-distructive techniques (because you have the original raw file or another copy), you can use the Dodge and Burn tools. If you are less confident and want to make the changes on a separate layer(s) that it can be adjusted, use a layer and a paintbrush.

This image shows areas to dodge (lighten) start very lightly and build up the contrast .

Burn Areas

Dodge Areas

The next step is just a tiny bit of color. The eyes are such a match to the color of the fur, a slight shift in hue will help them stand out. I added a bit of green to the eyes to set them apart from the color of the fur.

Other species have different shaped eyes, but the same principles can be used to enhance their eyes. Because careful not to overdue this technique because it can look fake and odd if too heavy handed: better to understate the enhancement than to overstate.

Enhancing a Safari Image using Contrasts

Posted on April 18, 2013 by admin

Sometimes an image with great subject matter and good “technical bones” still needs some enhancement to take it from good to great and make it something you would want to print.

Finished image

Using some artistic techniques to draw the viewer’s eye to the subject and to downplay negative or unimportant features in the image will enhance the impact of this image.

I will differentiate the subject two ways:

Brighten the subject/ darken the background

Provide exposure contrast on the subject as well as contrast the subject from the background with hue and color temperature .

I will use a combination of Lightroom (Camera Raw) tools and Photoshop tools to achieve this. I like the adjustment tools in Lightroom and can make some very pleasing results with only these tools but often I will call on the more advanced and flexible tools available in Photoshop to complete the job especially when the adjustments need to be applied selectively to only some areas. Lightroom has some adjustment tools enabling application of adjustment just to specific areas, but I find them clunky and not very precise compared to the high level of detail possible in PS.

The original photo

Brighten Subject and Darken the Background

One way to draw the attention to the subject is to present the subject brighter than its surroundings. In this image, the scene if fully lit so there is no dramatic light to help us out here. I will need to add brightness to the cheetahs to pop them from the similar colored soil and background vegetation.

My process always starts with getting a proper exposure over the whole photo. For this photo, it will require brightening the lighter tones to gain a wider contrast overall. Since many of the light tones are contained on the subject, this will serve our mission. I choose a few features to adjust first: brighten the belly fur, darken the bush in the left background, and darken the grass in the right foreground. This should represent a bright, dark, and middle tones.

After exposure adjustments

After this adjustment, the subject lighting looks good, but there is no way to darken the background in LR so that will wait for PS.

Provide Hue contrast between foreground and Background.

While still in LR I will enhance the hue and color temperature contrast using the HSL sliders. I can do this PS with a similar tool, but I like the LR version and I apply further adjustment if needed in PS.

I wish the cheetahs to have a warm tone while to background to be cooler – a characteristic of shadows. To do this, find the color differences between the cheetahs and the background. Green is the obvious difference, but also the the cat is tending to the yellow/orange hue where the soil is more toward the red/orange hue (while darkening the luminance). I will use the sliders to push the soil more to red and the cat more to yellow (while raising the luminance). For the green I adjust the hue toward blue/green to keep it cool. Now there is some separation. I made add more once the background is darkened.

after color adjustments

Now I right click to open the image in Photoshop. Now it is a matter of making a selection of the background and using a curves adjustment layer to darken it.

background darkened

Correcting an Underwater Image Taken Without Flash

Posted on April 4, 2013 by admin

Images taken underwater without a flash will have a color cast due to the loss of the red spectrum of the light as it travels through water.

the image right out of the camera

Final result

This is a method I use to process my photos that adds back in some of the red. I prefer to leave a bit of a blue cast to the images – they are depicting underwater after all.

I use the tools in Lightroom to do the initial work: they are great tools and easy to use. I might move later into Photoshop to utilize layers for adjustments to specific areas taking advantage of layers, masks, etc only offered in Photoshop. I could do everything in PS, but like the way the tools are presented in Lightroom and some of them have logic built into them that makes them better than the PS version. By the way, Lightroom tools are the same as in Camera Raw, but I find LR’s presentation easier and I have the bonus of all the organization tools in LR.

The first step is to optimize the exposure. I like to eliminate the distraction of color so I can really analyze what needs to be brighter, darker, and more contrasted. To do this I temporarily desaturate the image to black and white using the Saturation Slider

Desaturating so that I can better judge exposure adjustments

Now it is time to analyse the image: The Histogram is the first step. According to the graph, there are clear shadows, midtones, and highlights, but the whole image is too dark

Exposure: I move the Exposure slider up until the whites on the shark’s belly read around 62 (pass the curser over areas and read the numbers under the histogram). The overall change was +1.05

In Lightroom the group of tools under Exposure (Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks) are adjustments with smart logic behind them that helps the tool adapt and decide what is “whites” or “blacks” in this specific image.

For this purpose they are not doing exactly what I want so I will try the tools under ToneCurve first. In this tool, Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows are marked by regions on the tone graph. I want to adjust the pointers to change the default “definitions” of Highlights, etc.

The dark wetsuit and dive gear need some contrast between them. To do this I first measure the value of the dark equipment watching where on the

graph this area registers by picking up the tool at the top left of the ToneCurve (“adjust the tone curve directly”). I want to define everything darker than his arm as “shadow” so I move the marker at the bottom of the graph over to this spot. Now the Darks tab needs moved to the left. Using the slider for Darks you can detect what it is adjusting – I want it to just do the wetsuit and some of the shadow areas of the reef. Same with the Lights tab – here there is a natural break in the graph, a trough before the spike that is the highlights. Place the tab right in the trough so Lights is working on everything light except the shark’s belly and some of the brightest sand.

Now I revisit the set of tools between Exposure and ToneCurve for some fine tuning. I find I like the Blacks a bit darker (-18), the Whites a bit brighter (+15), and the Shadows down (-30). Now I add a touch of the Clarity slider to pop the midtone contrast – this really brings out the stripes on the tiger shark. Not lets put back the color and see how I like it.

Adjusting exposure using Curves and adjustment sliders

Everything is brighter and more contrasted, but besides the colors being more intense, the color cast is still there. I use the White Balance eyedropper tool and pass it over the image. In the Navigation window it shows you a preview of the white balance correction. When I choose a spot on the belly of the shark it makes the correction, but it is too much for my taste. I back off the sliders a bit back to the left toward the original cool tones.

Sampling areas for white balance adjustment

fine tuning to taste the white balance adjustment

Fine Tuning blue colors with Hue, saturation, luminosity sliders

Now I have the problem of the water not having as nice of a color so I go down the panel to the HSL/Color/B&W tools. I set the tool to the Color version. Dropping Saturation on the Aqua slider a bit helps the color case and increasing the Luminance to +20 helps the contrast as well. On the Blue slider I increase the Saturation to make the blue water pretty again and then a decrease of the Luminance darkens the water and makes it a richer tone with more contrast to the whole image. I also push the Hue of the blue up a tiny bit without going too much or the water becomes purple.

At this point the photo is good for a smallish presentation on the web. But to really finish it I need to flip over the Photoshop. I use the right-click function “Edit in Photoshop” and if it asks, process it all the lightroom adjustments.

In Photoshop my objective will be to remove the scatter and some spot adjustments such as the hot spot on the shark’s side. If I decide to print, there will be alot more work including checking the gamut warnings for the blue colors.

Final result

Photoshop and Lightroom Techniques – Past Posts

Posted on December 19, 2012 by admin

Below is a list of some of my best past posts with Photoshop and Lightroom tips and techniques

Using Photoshop to make a Super Sharp B&W Portrait

Posted on November 17, 2012 by admin

I wanted to create some portraits of big 5 animals that show the unique characters of the animal in sharp detail. Buffalo are maybe the most difficult of the tbig 5 to make look unique – they have many similarities to cattle. To me it is their massive horns that make them unique and I wanted to make and image that shows off the impressive size of a good rack. I selected the starting image because it shows all the important features of the face: both eyes, ears forward, nose , mouth and both horns.

The original image

Crop for drama

At this point the composition is not too exciting; it is centered, colors are muted and boring, shadows are distracting, etc. A crop with add drama by making the horns act as sight lines from one corner of the image to the other. Unnecessary space is eliminated. The perpective even works in my favor here making the right side horn feel closer to the viewer like it is popping out of the picture and saying “this thing is big”. The horns are the star here.

Switch to monochrome

The color does not work toward the goal of making a portrait of big scary horns attached to an exotic animal. They actually make the buffalo look too common and color patches in the ears draw attention away from the horns. I will switch this to a monochrome treatment.

I have a favorite preset in Lightroom “Creamtone” under B&W Toned Presets. This is actually a duo tone treatment whereby highlights are tinted in one color and the shadow in another. A balance control will set the “break point” as to whether the highlight color or the shadow color is used. This preset also applies a high contrast to the image with bright highlights which works here because it simplifies the background detail. I add a darkening vignette to burn the edges. This concentrates the viewer’s attention onto the subject in the center and adds to the high contrast mood.

You can duplicate the effects of the Lightroom preset in Photoshop by using the Mode< Duotone command. First the image must be converted to 8 bit grayscale. Once this is done the command will be available and you will find many preset duo, tritone, and quad tone settings. Go crazy picking from these or select your own color combinations. Use an adjustment layer to increase the contrast. Use a mask or other technique to create the burnt in edges.

At this point in the Lightroom workflow I switch over to Photoshop for fine details and the sharpening step.

I make a copy tweaks to the image such as a touch of brightening just under the chin to bring out some detail there and using dodge and burn techniques on the eyes.

Make the Details Pop

Now the image is ready to add the sharpening that will make details pop right off the page.

Before the sharpening technique

after applying the effect

If you have made multiple layers in your document, create a flattened version by pressing Shirt-Option-Command – E ( or Shift-Alt-Ctrl) to create a new flat version of the image and leave the layers intact. Now make 2 more copies of the image by pressing Command-J (Ctrl-J). Make a new layer group and place both of these layer copies inside. The blend mode for the group should be set to Overlay.

Step 2: Click on the top layer in the group and press Command-I (Ctrl-I) to run an Invert command. This command basically changes dark shades to light and light to dark. This will be used later to highlight edges of details and thus provide the sharpening. Change the layer Blend Mode to Vivid Light.

Step 3: The inverted layer will be run through a blur filter. Use Filter>Blur>Surface Blur. Converting this layer to a smart object first will allow you to come back and adjust the settings later. In the Surface Blur options, keep the Threshold low: under 25 and a Radius of around 50. Adjust to your taste.

Step 4: Use a mask on the group to limit the sharpening effect to just the face and horns.

This sharpening technique is not appropriate for every image. The high drama works particularly well with dark and monochrome images. Keep this technique in your bag of tricks to create a dramatic look. Also you may want to check out a more subtle but similar sharpening method using the High Pass Filter.

Composition in African Wildlife Photography

Posted on May 15, 2012 by admin

In this article I describe three typical types of African Wildlife compositions and the features that make them successful. My goal is to get you planning ahead, analyzing the scene in front of you, and consciously using your knowledge of composition to achieve the best rendering of the exciting animals you will see on safari.

Looking through my catalogue I can put most of my images into three categories images: animal portraits, animals with environment or landscape, and groups of animals

Animal Portraits

These images have one center of interest; the animal. All other elements that can be distracting are eliminated and all the viewer’s attention is on the animal, its textures, and eyes.

Setting the Camera for the Portrait

When setting up for animal portraits try to include the following camera techniques

- Include an uncluttered background of solid color. Best way to achieve this is by blurring out the background so it is monochromatic and has little texture leaving the subject in sharp focus.

- Use apertures such as f2.8 f4.0 or f5.6

- The background should be at least 2 feet behind the subject

Placement of the Subject in the Frame

Most portrait subjects will be too large in the frame to worry about Rule of Thirds placement (more on that below). If there is space around the subject, it should be in front of the subject or in the direct that the subject is moving or looking.

Get close and fill the frame – cropping can be done after the fact to add impact if the aspect ratio is not flatter or you just were not sure how to frame the shot.

Other Elements that add to the Portrait

Light and shadows enhance interest. Light from the side reveals texture and gives the 3D pop effect. Shadows can play down less important features. Light can create leading lines that help viewers discover all the details of the portrait.

Some external elements can enhance the portrait almost like props: a bit of fresh kill, flights buzzing around the head, a bit of the branch gripped in a talon.

The carcass bits in this image add to the portrait explaining the look of bliss on the lion’s face and tail attitude

Animal in its Environment or with a Landscape

The goal here is to show the animal interacting with its environment. In these images there can be more than one center of attention. The smaller the animal is in the frame, the more importance lies in the composition and its success at getting the viewers attention on the subject

This image not only describes the shape of the young lion, but it’s hunting conditions and challenges. The eye goes from lion, then up and across the open space.

Place Elements Using Rule of Thirds

Position the subject in one of the strong points of the Rule of Thirds grid.

The subject should be walking, looking, or flying into the centre of the frame. If it is larger than the frame, there should be more space infront than behind it. As the subject gets smaller the importance of correct placement increases.

Lead the Viewer Around the Scene

Leading the viewers eye to the subject, especially when the subject is smaller relative to the rest of the image is achieved through careful composition.

Make the subject easy to spot : in contrast to the background

Look for and use leading lines: these are straight or curved lines that lead from a corner or edge of the frame to the subject (rivers, paths, tree branches).

Present a Story. Begin to think in terms of a still image as a story with a beginning (where the viewer’s eyes go first), middle (what they will notice next), and end. Think about what other elements should be in the image to complete this movement and discovery.

Leave some active space for the subject to move into. Space also helps tell the story: it leaves the viewer space to use imagination to fill in off camera elements that complete the story . Space is good for anticipating and catching future action: leave the subject room to spring.

Light can serve as a leading line drawing a path from the light source to the subject. The shadows that will result tell us what is not important. If shaded items are important, consider using HDR techniques or open these areas in postproduction.

Resizing and Cropping is part of the toolbox. Don’t forget about vertical shots and consider how vertical can enhance the composition (emphasizing trees and giraffes). Cropping can be done after the fact , but adding space back in to improve a composition is much harder so don’t squeeze your animal in a landscape images too much in camera or you will be removing creative flexibility.

Depth and Vanishing points tell a story. Use depth to place story elements such that viewers are drawn into the 3d scene. Depth and the correct lens can create movement, record proportions and distances. An element in the background can make the whole composition more interesting as long as it is part of the story and not a distraction (a lion moving toward the viewer or shade tree with a carcass in the background).

Animal Groups

These images are not tight enough to be portraits and do not show many elements of the environment. The center of interest is the group rather than any particular one animal.

Combinations of 3’s work well and have a harmonious balance. Symmetry such as all looking the same direction or each in an opposite direction gives a balanced feel. Odd numbers, odd shapes, triangles are more visually interesting and should be included. This is a chance to show different poses and sides of the animal all at the same time (front, ¾, and side view all at once). Mixing sizes (juveniles and adults) of animals or species is interesting content.

See the Negative Space. Negative space is the outline created by subject(s) as if it was viewed as a silhouette. African animals are perfect subjects for their interesting shapes. Catch poses and groups that are creating an interesting shape and place them against neutral backgrounds for strong compositions.

Composition Does not Stop after the Shoot

Once back in front of the computer you can still enhance composition. The following are all useful tools for furthering your compositional goals.

- Use creative cropping: You may wish to make several versions of an image each with a different crop.

- Use tonal adjustments to enhance the impact of the subject, downplay distractions, and otherwise lead the viewer as you intended through contrast and proper lighting.

- Use color adjustment in a similar manner to lighting to announce the subject (perhaps through saturation) and downplay secondary elements (desaturate or limit color variation and texture).

- Use Blur to fade out distracting detail.

- Clone or Heal elements that are really distracting and can not be cropped out.

Learn to quickly analyze a scene for story, interesting elements to include, what not to include, textures to highlight, light direction, and movement. Good composition is mostly achieved in the field as you plan the shot and read the animal.

Creative Black and White Treatments

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

With the right image, black and white and monochrome effects can take the image to levels more striking and full of impact than color. African animal portraits are often perfect candidates for experimentation and statement through black and white.

Black and white can envoke the classic and romantic notion of African safaris, but there are some attributes that make some images better fuel for black and white than others.

Low Color Contrast: Many animals have coloration that blends them into their surroundings and to be successful they must use this effectively. An image of a lion in dry grass can be flat, but when treated in black and white, shape and texture that was previously washed out comes to life.

Neutral Color Subject: Elephants and rhino are more or less grayscale naturally and it is hard to make them pop out as a subject when surrounded by flashier colored skies and vegetation. In monochrome they can stand out.

Animals with texture: Fur detail, skin texture, whiskers, and face features are often more apparent in a black and white. Details lost to our eyes because of color variations are easier to interpret.

Images with color or lighting issues: In many cases images with great composition and content that suffer from some lighting or severe color cast problems can show better in monochrome.

Below I present 3 creative ways to use monochrome each of which goes beyond the desaturate slider.

Enhanced High Contrast Portrait

This style is characterized by detail presented in an aged, almost studio style with a historic feel.

Features of this style include:

Portrait style subject with lots of texture and detail

Burnt edges

High contrast subject

Dark textured background

Start with a portrait with a neutral background. Use Photoshop to clear elements from the background then open in Lightroom Develop Mode. This technique works easily in PS using layers and masks, but I will work on this in Lightroom.

Mostly desaturate the image and add high contrast using the Tone Curve. We want a dark background so lower the Exposure a little bit and add a pretty large Vignette.

Use the Graduated Filter tool to further darken from the edge in. Setting Exposure down while keeping Contrast high and Highlights way up will keep some texture in the darkened areas. Drag several graduated filters out from the edges to frame the subject.

Now we need to finish darkening the background and add a “spotlight” onto the subject so it pops. Use the adjustment brush with a large feathered brush set at a low flow to darken background around the subject. Decrease the brush size to get in close to the subject while leaving a slight halo effect around.

Click New to start an adjustment brush to brighten the subject. Paint all over the face and use the sliders to intensify the effect. Add final touches like a crop, Dodging effect on the eyes and nose and it is finished. Use Split Toning to add a color tint to the monochrome.

Duo Tone / Split Tone

A duo tone image is one in which is printed in 2,3, or 4 colors. It is a way to get subtle richness to a monochrome image. Lightroom supports using two tones (under Split Toning). The control allows you to set one tone for the Highlights and another for the Shadows and then lets you control the balance between the two. In Photoshop the Duotone option lets you choose up to 4 colors.

In Lightroom, desaturate and correct the contrast of the image. Under Split Toning , select a highlight color or use the Hue slider to set the Highlights. Saturation will control how subtle the effect is. Next select a color for the Shadows. Play with the saturation sliders and Balance until you are happy with the results.

In Photoshop, open the tonally corrected image either already in black and white or in color then convert to grayscale. Make sure the image is in 8bit mode then the option under Image – Mode – Duotone will be available.

In the control box you can browse through the preset to get ideas or find one you like. Make your own or begin with a preset and modify it. To switch to 3 tones or 4 change the value in the Type box. The curve will control which range of tones is affected. The possibilities are endless. When you find one you like you can save it for easy reuse.

Hand Tinted Effect

Start with a image and convert it to black and white. For this technique I prefer a conversion to black and white that is lower contrast. I like the Lightroom preset called Creamtone” . It uses a range from a dark in the the gray-green range and a light tone in the beige range. Open the image for editing in Photoshop to finish the hand tinting.

For this effect you will want to use just a few highlight colors applied to areas that are part of the subject.

In Photoshop, create a new layer for each color you will use. Create the layer and rename it for the color. You will want to keep the original luminosity fo the image as you add color so a good way to do this is to put each layer in Color blend mode. This will ensure that you wont get any hard-edged opaque looking patches of color. You might also want to start with each layer at less than 100% opacity. Use the airbrush tool or a soft edged brush at low opacity: you can overpaint to add intensity. Perfect application is not the style here. Use the eraser if you make a mistake.

For the final balancing you can change opacity, add a saturation layer, even do a bit of dodge and burn to the color layers.

In the finished image I used one shade of red to color the meat, a bit of pink on the tongue, yellow in the eye, and two shades of green lightly applied to the grass in the foreground.

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