Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tinkering with CS3




Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f4.0, 1/800 & ISO 100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Threshold Adjustment Layer in “Multiply”>Merge Visible>Levels>Merge Visible>Find Edges Darken Mode & 48% Opacity
I had this kind of flat image of a coal processing unit on the backside of the Champion Paper Plant at the Washburn Tunnel in Pasadena that I wanted to try and pep up. The subject was already mostly white vessels, and black structure and product so a B&W conversion seemed like the way to go. To boost the blacks I created a layer then selected the dark colors using a “Threshold” Adjustment Layer. I selected as much of the color range as I could, sacrificing some detail, to attain what I thought would add interest and boost contrast. I then change the mode of this layer to “Multiply” and merged the visible layer to a new layer. I also used “Find Edges” on a second layer in “Darken” layer mode at 48% to highlight detail having the effect of a quasi sharpening effect. The combination of these two techniques gave the image a moderate posterizing effect that I ended up like for the image. I’ve included the before and after shots here.




Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f4.0, 1/800 & ISO 100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Threshold Adjustment Layer in “Multiply”>Merge Visible>Levels>Merge Visible>Find Edges Darken Mode & 48% Opacity


1 comment:

Larry J. Patrick said...

I think I like the color one better; but, I might think of really pushing the color and doing something with one of Barry's Topaz filters. Give it an surreal quality.