Make Your Pictures Pop!

[wulf]

I was reading the "4 Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop! (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/4-easy-photoshop-techniques-to-make-your-pictures-pop/)" posting on the blog this morning and decided to try some of them out on a picture I took last weekend. Here is the before image, cropped but otherwise unedited:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wulf/361868506/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/361868506_0e68da055b.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Ladywell Gymnastics Club Tower - Cropped" /></a>

I tried all of the techniques (although I couldn't figure out exactly what the Gimp equivalent for the neon glow one would be). You can see them all on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=59987629%40N00&q=digitaldarkroom+20070113&m=tags) but my favourite was a combination of the filtered background with a "contrast overlay" technique I discovered before Christmas (more details on the description of the photo below).

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wulf/361883268/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/361883268_777f25ce93.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Ladywell Gymnastics Club Tower - Combined Techniques" /></a>

It was definitely a useful tutorial although the obvious lesson was that not all techniques work for all types of photo.

Wulf

[jiminyClickit]

Just to echo, in Adobe PhotoDeluxe it's Copy>Paste>(change however)>Overlay. And I'm amazed what difference it makes. Keeper tutorial.

(DOT 5 PM in 'Get Down and Dirty' done this way)

[jiminyClickit]

Starting a new thread didn't seem right so, if Wulf doesn't mind . . .

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47146451@N00/363830691/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/138/363830691_69e248a285.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Pencil" /></a>

This is a Dollar Store mechanical pencil on a cheap notebook that I shot to see how close was too close in Macro. Just for kicks before deleting it, I tried the 2-layer / blur & unsaturate one / 30% opacity / Darken method.
PhotoShop will be different, it does work in other programs. Atmosphere for anyone not buying a better camera this year.

[jiminyClickit]

Before, fresh out of Fuji:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47146451@N00/364189395/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/364189395_a5f83aaeef.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="2007_0120Image0002" /></a>

Wulf, did your tutorial mention desaturating before blurring? Before joining, I was reading all sorts of good stuff about taking better Christmas pics.

[wulf]

Wulf, did your tutorial mention desaturating before blurring?
Yes, desaturating is an important part of the process so that the overlay layer just affects the value of the layer below rather than warping the colours.

Wulf

ps. nice job on the pen shot!

[loosestring]

Does filters > edge-detect > neon not produce the same effect? I see in the Script-Fu menu there is one under Alpha to logo for Alien Glow and Alien Neon as well, but I'm not sure what they are for as they are greyed out. If those don't do it maybe the filters > artistic > soft-glow will...?
I was having a similar issue with the softening article where you were to set the layer mode to overlay, but in the GIMP I got better results setting the mode to screen.
I just noticed another neon under the same Script-Fu menu. When I made a new layer that menu was no longer greyed out...

[wulf]

Perhaps someone with photoshop could give a description of what the neon glow filter does?

Wulf

[loosestring]

Looking at the tutorial (and after goofing around with it some) I think the edge-detect > neon is what we'd use in the GIMP.

[jiminyClickit]

Wulf / loosestring:

Can't tell the difference after doing Neon Glow, no layers. Good find. Thanks!

[gstettner]

I'd like to learn more about how you did the pencil photo.

[jiminyClickit]

gstettner,

It's easier for me if I know what part of it you want to know about. For instance, the macro on my Fuji works great now that I've read about half the tutorials on DPS. This was a 'throwaway shot' for measuring how close I could get to subject before blur set in. I was careful to set w/b and exposure for the conditions (desk, cloudy-day window light on right)

Adobe PhotoDeluxe edit program: wording might vary from others, concepts are the same. The layering can be anything you want, lightening, softening, directing attention to subject. I did the top layer desaturate/blur thing (play with blur - this was about 20%), then Darken Mode/30-40% for that layer. A third layer which darkens from center out gives a focus on subject. As described above (wulf, loosestring - Neon, Alien Glow), experiment in your program to find a Soft Focus effect. If your program allows for Glow Color, this can relate the glow to your subject as well. The golden brown of the pencil tip was used here. The rest is a little tweak-up on contrast and clone out bits of desk debris. Questions?

[Plaz]

JiminyClickit -

The effect on the pencil/paper photo is great. It adds that high-end rich look that reminds me of Madonna's "Vogue" video (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2voq_madonna-vogue)...

Which was directed by David Fincher (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/)...who also directed Alien 3, Fight Club and a bunch of other movies and videos.

Your work on the pencil/paper shot seems less commercial (in a good way) but more refined than the above mentioned examples.

I think we would all be interested in seeing a more detailed step-by-step to your process... With step-by-step images would be ideal.

Nice work.

[jiminyClickit]

Plaz,

That'll keep me busy. Screen-shots would help only PhotoDeluxe users, so I'll save at each change of mode or tool. Maybe by Saturday afternoon. Thanks for comments.

[jiminyClickit]

Plaz, and interested others,

A general explanation of the Pencil Shot; you may connect the actions with how your edit program labels its functions. It's how I do the PhotoShop tutorials: get the meaning, find the corresponding tool. Best of luck, feel free to ask questions.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47146451@N00/378824300/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/378824300_6f177c236f.jpg" width="285" height="500" alt="TutorialPEN" /></a>

This is medium size - large goes over. Flickr has the large.

[Plaz]

Great tutorial. Thanks for that. I'll have to give it a shot and post back some images. Nice work!

[jiminyClickit]

Plaz,

Please do post back, that's how I might learn to better present what has become familiar (to the point of 'just doing it' without noting how I did it). So if it makes sense, I hope it's useful to you, too. And post what you have found enhances photos, too. I just tried to reproduce HDR (see Chit-Chat) and believe it worked. I'll put one in Critique soon.