Courtney, befoer and after

[DanaLane]

This first shot it right out of the camera, RAW file converted right to JPG with no processing.

For the 2nd image, I processed the RAW file twice, once for Courtney and once for the sky and layered them over each other. I then used the blue channel to generate a mask for the sky so just the sky on the 2nd image would show through. I then used the healing brush with a sample from a clear space of cheek to "heal" away the stray hairs on her face and any temporary blemishes. Lastly, I painted over her eyes with white on a separate layer, changed the blend mode to overlay and lowered the opacity to around 20%, to brighten them up just a tad.

[Jessia]

Good job on the processing. It looks great!

[hazeline]

Looks great..good work.

[shutterbud]

Great work, DanaLane! Looks like you pretty much covered all the right bases. Her eyes were probably most accentuated in the touch-up, as they were unfortunately close-to-overexposed in the original.

[mushroom-eater]

That's pretty smart. You're a genius.

[abarickman]

Hey Dana, Nicely done. Can you provide more details about how to make the mask for just the sky using the blue channel? Thanks.

[zespri]

really lovely, not only did you do a good job with the PP, but the photo itself is wonderful.

[DanaLane]

Originally Posted by abarickman

Hey Dana, Nicely done. Can you provide more details about how to make the mask for just the sky using the blue channel? Thanks.

Sure, this is a technique I picked up from Katrin Eisman's book "Masking and Compositing". This is a FANTASTIC book and for anyone doing any sort of masking/selecting/compositing in photoshop should make this required reading. This is not my original technique, but one learned from this book.

Basically, find the channel with the most contrast between what you want masked out and what you want to keep, with sky its normally going to be the blue channel. Then make a copy of that channel and copy it onto itself using a fade set to Color Burn blend mode. This will darken the dark areas and lighten the light areas, boosting the contrast. Then use the dodge and burn tools to fine tune the blacks and whites and here's your mask.

So, I processed the RAW file to expose Courtney and the grasses properly, which left the sky blown out and opened this in photoshop, then I processed the RAW file again to expose the sky exactly how I wanted it to look and added that as a new layer over the original. Then, select the new channel I made (control click to load the channel as a selection) and with the selection active, make a mask and if you tuned the mask right, new sky. That's the simplified version. Hope that helps.

[prince]

Thats brilliant. Its not just learning.. its also the execution.. You did it very nicely..

The original I thought was nice with rich colors except the overexposed areas..

[DanSir]

i agree with everyone... very very well done, you should be very proud of yourself. i was wondering, if you would not mind mentioning any other books that you find/found useful in post processing of pictures...


Danny