Home › Forums › Photo Critique › Macro Bud
- This topic has 17 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 2 months ago by James Staddon.
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October 19, 2014 at 7:39 pm #7922Mr. QuebecParticipantOctober 20, 2014 at 3:37 pm #7924Ezra MorleyModerator
Wow, that is definitely ‘tack-sharp’! The bokeh is nice too, the background is blurred enough that there aren’t any distracting elements. Well, except maybe for the bright spot on the left. I would try darkening it a bit, maybe use a graduated filter from the left.
Oh wait, I guess you don’t have Lightroom do you? And I don’t know that Windows Live Photo Gallery can do local edits either. I would recommend that you try out the GIMP for the times when you need editing capabilities that are beyond what Windows Live Photo Gallery can do.
In the case of this picture, I merely painted some black onto a transparent layer, then lowered the opacity till it looked about right. If you’re interested, I can give you some tips for using GIMP, just let me know!
October 20, 2014 at 7:45 pm #7926Mr. QuebecParticipantThanks, buddingphotographer!
I had already downloaded GIMP, but I thought it was too complex for me, so I returned to Windows Live Photo Gallery. So any tips about GIMP will be greatly appreciated!!!
I attached a different crop of this picture. It seemed to me that since the ”leaves” of the bud are pointing up, there should be more space above it. But at the same time the bud is getting centered in the picture. Any thoughts about that?- This reply was modified 54 years, 3 months ago by .
October 21, 2014 at 12:40 pm #7930Ezra MorleyModeratorYes, actually, I do like that crop better! It is definitely more centered, but the subject is still closer to the right. Anyways, the rule-of-thirds does not always apply!
Did you do some more editing to this second one? It looks to me like the shadows are a bit brighter, which I also like, the former one was a bit too dark.
As for GIMP, I can surely sympathize! I remember when I started using it, I couldn’t figure out how to do the simplest things, the interface was quite confusing, and I was lost! But I stuck with it; I wasn’t about to spend a whole lot of money on Photoshop, as I had already spent more than I liked on Lightroom! 🙂 I use it all the time now, and I don’t know how I would function without it. A large portion of my 2015 calendar was designed at least partially in GIMP. I’m starting to get called upon to help others with their designing jobs, so it is becoming even more indispensable!
Here’s a link to a little tutorial that I wrote up describing how I edited your image. Perhaps I’ll come up with some others later on, if you let me know something specific that you would like to learn.
October 21, 2014 at 6:36 pm #7934Mr. QuebecParticipantFor editing in the second one, I just went back to my original picture and edited it again, so it was nearly impossible that the two pictures were identical. However, I’m glad you like the second one better!
For your tutorial, I like it a lot! It is really well done. Thanks!October 22, 2014 at 12:37 pm #7939Ezra MorleyModeratorI see, yeah, it’s definitely better. Did you apply sharpening to it? It is definitely sharp, but I don’t see any sharpening artifacts, which is a good thing. I know that Windows Live Photo Gallery is very weak in the area of sharpening…
You’re very welcome for the tutorial! I rather enjoyed creating it, maybe I’ll try another one on sharpening with GIMP next!
October 22, 2014 at 7:11 pm #7948Mr. QuebecParticipantI did sharpened this picture. It was already sharp, but I just sharpened a little more to make sure it was ”tack-sharp” because I had to crop it. I agree that Windows Live Photo Gallery is very weak for sharpening, but it can be of some good if the picture is already sharp. I’ll try to understand how to add sharpening on a picture with GIMP.
October 22, 2014 at 8:12 pm #7949Ezra MorleyModeratorI agree that Windows Live Photo Gallery is very weak for sharpening, but it can be of some good if the picture is already sharp.
Exactly, unless the picture is sharp in the first place it doesn’t do much good to sharpen, especially with the “dumb” sharpening that Windows Live does. I’ll try to write up a tutorial in the next day or two… Keep tuned!
October 31, 2014 at 7:14 pm #8055Ezra MorleyModeratorHere’s the promised tutorial on sharpening with GIMP! Sorry, it took longer than I expected, I was busy with other things.
(It’ll probably take a while to load, there are a lot of graphics in there)
October 31, 2014 at 8:10 pm #8061Mr. QuebecParticipantWow!
Excellent tutorial!November 4, 2014 at 10:56 am #8104James StaddonKeymasterYeah, love your tutorials too, @buddingphotographer.
Two comments on your tutorials: after you blurred the “dark spot” layer and changed it’s opacity, can you re-edit the layer? to make the dark spot smaller or larger? Secondly, the link “Sharpening in GIMP” on the right sidebar appears to be broken. It takes me to an Error 404 screen.
About the picture, sharpness is terrific. The bud facing inward is key, but the reason why it looks ok that the bud is nearly in the middle is because the majority of the weight in the picture is on the right, so it doesn’t appear centered.
I don’t like the square crop as much because there appears to be too much blank space above that’s not really properly balanced by anything. The first crop was great, in my opinion. Perhaps a tiny bit more space on the right (between the edge of the picture and the second bud facing away from you), but you’ve got the balance correct there, with the weight on the right being balanced by the “dead weight” of nothingness on the left.
November 4, 2014 at 12:28 pm #8105Ezra MorleyModeratorThanks @JamesStaddon for your critique of my tutorials, I fixed the links.
After you blurred the “dark spot” layer and changed it’s opacity, can you re-edit the layer? to make the dark spot smaller or larger?
Certainly! One way would be to simply scale the layer, make it large enough to cover the area you want to cover. Alternatively, you could take the brush tool again and paint more black on to your “dark spot” layer. You might have to blur it again to make sure that you’re not making too hard of an edge. I’ll update the tutorial to add those options.
November 5, 2014 at 8:26 am #8128James StaddonKeymasterOk, that’s good to know. The reason is because it is common to want to change the “effected” area after you have decrease your opacity. It’s always nice to have that flexibility to easily tweak it to perfection.
January 7, 2015 at 6:13 pm #9078Mr. QuebecParticipantI have a bird picture which needed to be darken at one place. Is there a way to adjust the color too in the darken spot? I’ll attach the two pictures (before/after) to let you know of what I’m talking about. Maybe it’s just me, but the darken background just don’t seem to match the foreground.
January 7, 2015 at 7:34 pm #9084Ezra MorleyModeratorIs this something more like what you’re looking for? It’s not perfect, I didn’t spend much time on it, and it shows… 🙂
I took the liberty of “warming it up” a little since the whole picture seems a little too cool.
I basically just used a dark blue layer (set to overlay) to tone down the bright spot. Then I added a light yellow layer (also set to overlay, with opacity reduced to about 20%) over the whole thing to “warm up” the whole image.
The reason I used blue, is that the sun is extremely “warm”, and the shade is very “cool”. If you merely darken the bright sunlight, you don’t compensate for the “warmth” and end up with a muddy looking image that doesn’t look very natural. When you use blue, it compensates for all the “warmth” and “balances” out the uneven-ness.
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