How would you process this?

[gonzobluefuzz]

New to the dslr world, (previous slr rig was Canon A series stuff http://smilies.sofrayt.com/fsc/grandpa.gif) all this RAW processing is a bit overwhelming. Been playing w/ adobe lightroom and cs2. lots of settings but don't know how to apply them.
Been reading in various spots, workflow seems to be the buzzword but a clear tutorial and explanation is still outside my grasp (either that or I'm just too dense to comprehend the obvious). Still no further ahead. Take this pic for example, I don't know what it is but it just don't look right.

Any and all comments welcome

Cheerz

Gord

Original
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/gonzobluefuzz/Par_Hill_nightorig.jpg

My processing
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/gonzobluefuzz/Par_Hill_night.jpg

[alanhill]

Here;s my twopenn'orth

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Revised/Par_Hill_AH.jpg

If I remember rightly, this is what I did
crop, correcting perspective
levels, to lighten mid-tones a little
colour correction, adding blue and a little red to highlights and midtones
hue/saturation, to darken blue
unsharp masking

This is never easy because I don't know exactly what the scene looked like. It seemed to me that the yellow lighting clashed with the blue sky, so I tried to reduce both a little.

Alan

[gonzobluefuzz]

Thanks for the input, much improved thanks for taking the time.
I've gotta find this crop for perspective feature. With the measure tool and arbitrary rotation, I adjusted for the peace tower but that threw the roofline out http://www.geocities.com/smilies_and_avs/smiles/10_1_131.gif . Your technique even squared out the ends which I assumed there was no hope for. Is this a component of PS or a third party plug-in?

Thanks
G

[alanhill]

Is this a component of PS or a third party plug-in?

It's a part of the package. Just use Help to find out about it. I came across it when I wanted to square up a shot of a fish tank. It's not awfully precise or easy to use, I had to take 3 or 4 tries to get your shot the way I wanted it, but it works like magic! Recommended.
The trouble is that I suspect Photoshop has got dozens of features like this, which you only need from time to time. I know a couple, but I think there are many more out there . . . .

Alan

[gonzobluefuzz]

thanks alot, I'm gonna look for it now

Cheerz

Gord

[JakezDaniel]

Hi,

On CS2 it's very easy to find it, too easy maybe.
In the crop's toolbar there's a small square with perspective written beside. Just put a cross in the square and this will let you drag the sides of the shoot to get the sides parallele with the side of the building, tank...

Just be carrefull that nothing strange appears on the shot after that.

[Simonauv]

If you open the imaged and then press control-A you will select the whole image. Then press control-T and that will add manipulation nodes to the corners and the midpoints of each side. Then if you put you mouse over the node and hold the control button down you will see the cursor change allowing you to click on the node (with the control button held down) and drag the edges and corners around to help correct the persepctive. What I do is drag out a guideline from the rulers (click on the top or bottom ruler and holding the button down drag a guide out) and place it near a strong vertical or horizontal line so you can see, when you are correcting the perspective, how close you are getting to straight.

If you want to try and balance the shadows with the highlights, try this:

* Open the layers view (press F7).
* Duplicate the background layer (Layers -> Duplicate Layers..).
* Convert the top layer to grey scale (Control-Shift-U).
* Press control-I to invert it.
* Set the blending to overlay (in the layers view - you'll see a drop down box that says normal -change it to overlay).
* Add a gaussian blur (the strength of the blur will depend on the resolution of the image. If working on RAW images I will often make the gaussian blur 250 - much less for lower resoltuions) - do this in the filters section.
* If the effect if too great the you can always alter the transparency of the top layer (transparency is in the layers section - called opacity).

It should look like this if you add the above contrast mask:
http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/2028-Par_Hill_nightorig.jpg