Project 2: Shadows, Midtones & Highlights - Adjustments Photo

Steps in recreating the method to the madness..........

1. First I opened both images in Photoshop and Duplicated adjustment-1 photo.

2. Opened the Histogram and compared this with the 2 photos.

3. Refreshed Histogram and opened All Channels View and Show Colors in Channel View.

4. Image - Adjustments - Levels - Raised the Gamma to 1.3 - white Highlights value changed to 243 - black Shadows value changed to 35

5. Contrast - 85

In steps 4 and 5, I was trying to bring out the details in the road and darken the truck. I also was looking at keeping the windows in the buildings in sharpness. Figured playing with the contrast would help.

6. Shadows/Highlights - Shadows 80 - Tonal Width - 50 Radius 100; Highlights 10 – Tonal Width – 50 Radius 100; Adjustments Color correction +10 - Midtone Contrast +50

7. Levels - black 24 - gamma .58 - white 255

8. Hue/Saturation Hue +180 – Saturation -74 – Lightness +5 This took out a lot of the color in the photo leaving just a hint of red tone, which was good. Green was still in the picture and I needed to lighten up the photo more, get rid of the clouds also. I keep going back and forth between the 2 photos looking at the Histogram and Channels trying to match them up. Not an easy thing to do.

9. Adjustments - Color Balance. Here is where I played with Tone Balance - Shadows, Midtones and Highlights and played and played and played. Its getting better but I still have GREEN in the picture and clouds visible in the sky.

10. Then I tried Curves - HELP!

Now I am starting over…. Once again I duplicated the adjustment-1 photo. This time I played with the Brightness/Contrast. I can’t remember the exact input numbers, but I bumped the contrast up quite a bit. Then I played with Color Balance and Hue/Saturation. Image - Adjustments - Color Balance. I liked Color Balance because you could separate the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights and also the red, greens, and blues colors. Hue Separation was nice because of the separation of colors for individual adjustments. Using Hue Separation I pushed the sliders to the max and min to see what colors affected what areas of the photo.

The hardest parts for me were trying to bring out the contrast in the road and in the windows of the buildings and at the same time fade out the clouds and blur out the mail logo on the mail truck and the Alaska 50 celebration sign next to the mail truck all the while keeping the photo a sepia color tone. I could play with this forever trying to get it just right. Still not satisfied with my results, because now the green hue is gone and there is too much of a pink hue, but I’ve got to let it go for now.

ORIGINAL PHOTO

FINAL REDO

CIOS 152 Orientation Quiz

A. What is something that is going well in my life?
My New Year's Resolution. - Everything will be fine in 2009.

B. What are my specific goals for this class?
My specific goals for this class are to learn photo restoration and manipulation, and learn new Photoshop techniques that I can apply to website development.

C. What was my first experience with computers and imaging technology like?
My first experience with computers was how do you make this thing work? My first experience with imaging technology was WOW this is way cool, I want to learn more.

D. Do you usually work on a Mac or PC and why?
I usually work on a PC because that is what I own. MAC’s are great especially when working with graphics.

E. What is my experience level with Photoshop or image editing programs?
My experience with Photoshop is somewhere in the middle range; I’m no beginner and no expert.

F. What is something I liked about my day today?
It is warm outside today, 42 above and not 45 below (I live in North Pole, AK). Also the sunrise this morning is BEAUTIFUL!

G. How do you plan to use what you learn in this class?
Website development and photo restoration.

H. What would make this class go very well for you?
Fun, challenging, and creative assignments. Feedback from other students, positive criticism, likes and dislikes of projects and why, etc.

I. How do you make plan to make this class go well for you?
Giving my 110 percent :)

J. What do I do for creativity?
Lately not much, but I like playing around with graphics on the computer, photography, and creating websites. Working with code is fun too. I like the idea of putting numbers and letters together and seeing what you get.

K. Who are John and Thomas Knoll?
John and Thomas Knoll are brothers and are creators of Photoshop (or if not thee creators they are right at the top of the list).

L. Do you own or have access to a color image scanner?
Yes, I have access to a color scanner.