2nd sp by Christina Conroy by ctfchallenge

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sp
by Christina Conroy


6 September	Christina Conroy

2nd
sp
by Christina Conroy

Southern California

I had a really hard time with the saturation levels on this.
Everytime I desatted it, it went all wonky with noise.
Then neat image made it look awful.
Any suggestions?
I do like the deep colors, but it might be too much...

Canon PowerShot S1 IS

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arminb		11-Sep-2006 19:52
very well done...maybe a bit too pale in the face - nevertheless, wonderful improvement! :o)

ctfchallenge		11-Sep-2006 01:38
Christina, this looks excellent!!! i was busy during the weekend and couldnt leave a message here but I am glad you found the directions in my gallery. very good work. -Abstract

Brent		09-Sep-2006 23:28
Definitely an improvement with the PP here Christina. I'll have to try out some of these great tips from the guys myself. I think it's great to be learning new techniques from participating here- one of the things I enjoy a lot from these challenges myself. Hmmm, I wonder if having different color profiles set for your browser and PS explain how it looks different when posted to you? Are you on a Mac? I think Macs actually use something like a 1.8 gamma profile compared to Windows which defaults at 2.2. Maybe you need to run the Adobe Gamma program (probably in Elements too) to do a calibration and be sure the gamma is set to 2.2, as I was told this was best for a universal setting. Good entry with a lot of effective post effort put in.

ctfchallenge		09-Sep-2006 17:46
This has to be my last try. This is crazy how much PP is being done to this... Not usually my style. Anyway, I incorporated some of Armin's suggestions along with the Fly's and Abstract's. It still looks really light here... lighter than in PS. Anyway, this must be it. (Unless someone has some really great suggestion. Or I go crazy and try again!) Thanks again for all the comments and help. I've learned a ton! -Christina

ctfchallenge		09-Sep-2006 17:06
Maybe this is better? It's hard to tell... It looks worse here than when it's in PS... Strange.... -Christina

ctfchallenge		09-Sep-2006 16:50
well, here's an attempt at a combination of what Abstract has suggested and what the Fly suggested. What do you think? It looks too light here to me, so maybe I'll work a little more on it... (The original is in pending for comparison if you care to compare...)

Squared C		09-Sep-2006 16:05
Abstract, just got the directions from the website where you posted the pic. Thanks so much! I'm going to give it all a try...

Squared C		09-Sep-2006 15:46
Wow! Thanks for that tip. That's revolutionary for me. Color balance has always been something I had a hard time fixing. Thanks for the tip! You guys all rock!

Canon DSLR Challenge		09-Sep-2006 11:38
You can also quickly fix the white balance. In PS or PSE: Duplicate the layer. Filter / blur / average Filter / adjustments / invert Set the blending mode to color and adjust the opacity as needed. theFly

Squared C		08-Sep-2006 16:11
Thanks Rod! I didn't know you could download profiles. I'll go check that out right now. I just kind of fiddled with it until it looked pretty good, but on this once one part looked good another looked bad. I'll check out the profiles though and thanks!

Rod		08-Sep-2006 07:28
Do you use the profiles that you can download from Neat Image Christina? I used to use Neat Image with my G2 & I never got soft images or that plastic look (top of right leg) when only using the G2 profiles. I never twiddled my own settings in just used the right Iso profile. If this shot is too noisy for PP can you re shoot it in much brighter lighting to keep the noise at bay? Easier said than done I know:-) The only thing I don't like here is the shadow going into your eye, great effort though well done.

Squared C		07-Sep-2006 19:22
Yeah, abstract, I'd love to know what you did here. It looks great! Please share your technique! CJ - I shoot on ISO 50, the lowest I can go. The camera just doesn't deal with low light levels well. There's always a lot of noise. And yeah, it's the PP that does it too. Oved - Thanks for the suggestion. I tried Noise Ninja, but without paying for a license you get a nasty watermark all over it. Sucks. I'll try selective noise reduction, I'm not sure how to do that, but I'll see what I can make happen! Thanks all!!!

ctfchallenge		07-Sep-2006 18:52
I love this kind of portraits...with attitude, unusual angle and moody lighting. excellent!!! as you were experimenting with post-process, i tried something really quick. let me know, if you have any questions about my post-processing. its nothing fancy or complicated though...only basic layering/masking, bluring (instead of noise removal) and selective sharpening. hope you like it. http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1864531/1/93677950 -Abstract ps: i will remove the image by the end of this week

ctfchallenge		07-Sep-2006 18:26
It did get a tad soft and you lost most of the school girl plaid look in the skirt but don't forget you can select the areas for noise reduction and select specific areas for sharpening, like just the eyes for instance. Keep playing with it, it's an interesting shot but if you do decide to reshoot, try as low an ISO setting as you can and watch the PPing so you don't introduce too much noise. CJ

ctfchallenge		07-Sep-2006 18:06
Cristina, you may also try noiseware - I have the free ("community edition") program, and I think it does a great job. Also all these NR programs have quite a few parameters that can be changed in order to get the desired effect. BTW, colors look warm; you may want this sometimes in your pictures... I like the warm feeling here. /Oved

Squared C		07-Sep-2006 17:00
Oops. That didn't work... Look here: http://www.pbase.com/image/66441865

Squared C		07-Sep-2006 16:59
There's another version to be seen here: It's gotten some noise removed, but I think it is now too soft...

Squared C		07-Sep-2006 16:29
Thanks for all the comments. Thanks for the suggestion on Noise Ninja. Maybe I'll give it a shot. Neat Image just really softened this a lot. I have done this in B&W and it wasn't quite so successful. It gets really noisy and then Neat Image makes it too soft. Way too soft. I'll try the Ninja...

arminb		07-Sep-2006 15:11
clever and beautiful :o)

ctfchallenge		07-Sep-2006 11:34
Nice portrait Christina - made me smile! You look like a little school girl although without the hands, maybe a captive one? Nice composition and perspective. Noise Ninja might work better - I have a downloaded trial version and I think I'm going to buy it as I really do need a better noise reduction progam than what's available in PS Elements. I tried it on a B/W version of this image and one of the options smoothed out the texture of the skin, although it may have softened the image. Anyway, just a thought if you're not that happy with Neat Image. Nice shot! CJ

aam1234		07-Sep-2006 09:10
Very nice Christina. I like the colors there, not a problem at all.

elips		07-Sep-2006 06:50
This is marvelous, Christina! I like the colors just the way they are although it would be interesting to see what it looks like in b&w. The warm yellow highlights on your face really give this an interesting feel, like a painting or even comic book art. I am afraid I don't know enough about the technical things you are asking about to be much help. Well done! ~Sharon

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