The Before Image

Overall a good image to start with.  Unfortunately it was not shot as a RAW file, so my options in ACR for recovering details in the shadows was somewhat limited. Fear not, though, as Topaz Adjust was able to help out there.

The After Image

The first change I made was in ACR to adjust the White Balance, since this was taken indoors and before I really knew how to use the Custom WB feature on my Canon 20D. You can see that effect in the white sheet under our furry friend here. From there, I increased the exposure compensation just a tad, but not too much because this was not a RAW file.

Next up, Topaz Adjust had its turn using the Exposure Correction preset and tweaking the Detail tab just a bit. You can see from the detail around his eyes and nose where there’s more detail and texture from his fur.  In the resulting image, his fur does end up looking a little lighter than it was in real life, but I’m willing to except that for the additional detail it provides.

Missing Our Little Friend

The photo is more special now than ever because our furry little friend is no longer with us. He passed last summer while fighting with a few medical issues on and off. This is by far my favorite image of Sky, and seeing it makes me wish I could still take more.

Thoughts?

Just like all editions of the Before and After series, let me know what you think of these adjustments and any other suggestions you might have.

– Kris

After two incredible helicopter tours over Maui, this shot was from my first aerial shoot from a two-seater airplane. To say I learned a lot would be an understatement, and if you’d like to read more, checkout my Above Door County post.

Now, onto the photos!

The Before Image

Not the most technically sound image I’ve captured from the air, but given the conditions, I was happy with it. I really liked the composition, so I felt it was worth saving.

The After Image

Not too drastically different at this size, but there are more subtle things to discover when viewing them at the next size up – which you can do by clicking each photo to view on Flickr.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the color is different, which I took care of by altering the White Balance. My original intent of the entire flight was to capture the autumn colors from the air, but the first pass was just too yellowish/orange for my taste. I decided to tone it down.

The other main difference in the after shot is the additional detail I recovered using Topaz Detail. That’s another plug-in I’m still learning my way around, but I’ve been happy with my first few experiments.  In this case, I used the Micro Contrast Enhancement preset with a few minor tweaks around the detail levels.

When looking at the larger version of the image, you’ll see more definition in the lighthouse itself and the trees behind it. I tried to suppress the additional noise the best I could, but given the rewards I saw in the main subject of the photo, it was worth it.

Thoughts?

As always, let me know what you think about this latest entry in the series. Also, if you’ve played around with Topaz Detail or similar tools before, please share your experiences there as well.

Thanks,
– Kris

Being able to view the sunrise in Hana was a special moment for me personally, so now that I look back one year later and relive those moments, I wanted to make this image a little more special.

The Before Image

This image does a pretty fair job as-is for taking me back to that moment. There were a few things I wish I had done differently back then, and here’s a short list.

• Scout out a location the day before – it was a pretty long day driving all the way to Hana, but I still could have taken 15 minutes to find a spot before we went to dinner that night.
• Remember the tripod – left it in our cottage, and by the time I realized that I needed it (because of the low light), going back to get it would have meant missing the moment.
• Shot bracketed exposures – I wasn’t shooting HDR at the time, and I’m not necessarily saying it was a strong HDR candidate. If I had bracketed shots – and that tripod – I could have used a few other multi-RAW techniques in post.

Okay, enough with what didn’t happen and onto the after image.

The After Image

Although I may still go back and try to recover some of that orange glow around the sun, this image is where I’m leaving it for now. Wanting to make this one special, I played around with a few tricks to get to this look.

• First up was a little cropping. It ended up putting the sun closer to the middle than I prefer, but there was too many distractions in the foreground otherwise.
• Next was multi-RAW processing in ACR using a gradient layer mask to blend separate exposure adjustments for the sky and the foreground.
• To bring in more detail, I used two different tools from Topaz Labs. The first of which was Topaz Adjust by applying the Clarity preset and tweaking the Noise tab to clean up the clouds a little bit.
• Topaz Detail was then used by applying the Feature Enhancement preset to add just a little more definition to the clouds and the surface of the water.

Thoughts?

Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions of things I should try differently. I like the after image being a little brighter, but tried to avoid getting to bright so that it didn’t feel like dawn anymore.

– Kris

The Before Image

Most people will recognize that as the Big Dipper constellation, which I captured here over the waters of Sturgeon Bay in Sept. ‘08. It’s a neat little shot, but I wasn’t happy with the orange tint. Also, I had took a few liberties when I cropped this image initially, so I thought there might be something worth bringing back into it on the redux.

The After Image

I took a few different approaches to redoing this image. What I ultimately ended up with was processing the RAW image twice – known as mutli-RAW processing – to preserve some of the darkness in the sky while adjusting some of the foreground elements.

By processing the elements of the scene independently on separately layers and applying the changes using a gradient mask, I essentially keep the best of both worlds and have an image more to my liking with relatively little extra effort.

Thoughts?

For one, I definitely like the detail on the right with it’s color more in check and not gushing orange hues.  However, each time I look at that after image, I still think to myself, “is the foreground too bright?”. Since I save checkpoints at each step in my workflow, it wouldn’t be that difficult to go back and just darken the chairs on the pier just a tad.

Well, what do you think?

The Before Image

This image was taken at D.T. Fleming Beach in September ‘07, in the early afternoon. I really liked the composition, with the symmetry between the water and the clouds above. The rocks add a nice touch in the foreground, although the horizon is off and the colors are a little dull.

The After Image

A little color saturation, straightening the horizon, and a little cropping (notice the difference in the rocks) in ACR set this one up for Topaz Adjust. I chose the Photo Pop preset in Topaz Adjust to help achieve the look you see here.

Another Old Photo Saved

I like to think the next time I’m at D.T. Fleming Beach with my camera gear to find a scene like this, I would have learned enough in the last 2 1/2 years to get it better in-camera first. I also like to think I’ll be back to Maui sooner than later.

Until that next 9 hour plan ride to that beautiful island in the Pacific, I will continue pushing my post production skills and working on new tools and techniques to create these “new” images, while at the same time reliving the great memories of capturing the originals.

Stay tuned for another edition of Before and After next week as more of my early works get a new look on the digital life.

– Kris

In the meantime, and to keep the stream of images coming, I thought I’d start a new series to showcase some of my work in the digital darkroom and touch on some of the tools I use from time-to-time. These aren’t going to be full tutorials, more of just a little peak under the covers and maybe a little inspiration for others in the process.

For the first image in this new series, the featured tool is Topaz Adjust.

The Before Image

The image below was one I was already particularly fond of. It was taken back in April ’08 on a visit to Maui’s east coast.

To me, this misty view of Koki Beach had a certain mystique to it, and my original attention was to enhance that aspect of the image. What happened, however, was the creation of an entirely new, maybe even more powerful, image as a result of using the Spicify preset in Topaz Adjust.

The After Image

Since I hadn’t visualized this artful look as my intended output, my initial reaction was a surprising “Whoa!” It certainly was an entirely new image, and it was love at first sight. I toned down the saturation just a tad, removed a little noise, and that was it. Sure, that mist is all but gone, but it’s not missed that much now.

More About Topaz Adjust

Topaz Adjust, from Topaz Labs, is still relatively new to me. I first heard about it from a keynote presentation by Rick Sammon entitled “Awaken the Artist Within” at the ‘09 Maui Photo Festival. I will have more to say about Topaz Adjust when I feature it as part of my revamped Software series here at the blog, but if you haven’t experienced it for yourself yet, go ahead and grab the 30-day trial from their website.

If you’re still not convinced, stay tuned to blog for more before and after images, and I assure you that you’ll be a little curious about what it can do for the large archive of photos you have on that hard drive of yours.

Thoughts?

I admit beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as we all have different tastes and dislikes. Please share your thoughts on the particular outcome shown above, as the broader range of opinions and feedback I receive helps me to gauge which direction my little experiments are headed.

As this is the first post in the new series, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on it. As stated, my goal is to showcase a little of my creative side and maybe inspire others out there to tinker a little bit outside of what they do now. Future posts in this series will likely be less wordy, so I hope to crank them out with a decent amount of frequency.