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Digital Processing Issues and Fixes: Favorite Electronic or Glass filters: Give examples!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
If it's just the lens and camera that define our pictures, then that's fine. They are so good toaday that just the out of camera images are often all one needs.

However, we have the opportunity to get rid of the Yellow of Tungsten Light, abolish glare or after the shot, actually alter hte level of clarity or importance and realism of any component.

so what are your favoirtie and give examples of how you have beneiftted from them.


Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
First some backgrtound for htose not famiilar with the early days of photography when each improvement shook the planet!

In the early days of photography, once the analog process of making negatives and printing contact prints had matured, a dilemma for portraitists was increasingly obvious. The pictures were far sharper than the impression the hun=man eye and mind developed with natural eye sight.

This was the challenge for which the Petzval lens, the invention of whirring central butterfly mechanical filters or "Visual Quality" lenses by Pinkham and Smith, were invented as solutions to the machine tool precision of the lenses in vogue at the time.

What was done was to selkectively degrade the imagec so that sharpness and critical definition was pretty well reserved for the eyes and lips perhpas but the rest of the face and body had a much more and gradual subdued character, and no longer confronted us as if it was a prosecuter in a murder trial!

Portraits now became softer, kinder and more etherial.

So I am happy to see you use filters.


Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I like Topaz filters. They run in Photoshop and Lightroom and likely others programs too.



_DSF1652-Recovered copy.jpg


Asher Kelman: Pink-Lavendar Watchers
Fuji GFX 32-64
1/16 sec, F 11, ISO 1600
Photoshop CC 2018 from RAW





So I opened the developed JPG file above image in Topaz collection of filters. I selected "Impression" as this configures the image in homage to styles and looks of various painters. I chose a look, "Liquid Liunes" that was very defined, and somewhat "funky", like laser-cut stained glass.




_DSF1652-Fluid.jpg


Asher Kelman: Pink-Lavendar Watchers
Fuji GFX 32-64
1/16 sec, F 11, ISO 1600
Photoshop CC 2018 from RAW
Topaz Imopression - "Liquid Lines II"




What happens is that the sweep of the composition of the petals and stems and leaves become so obvious and lyrical.


I hope you enjoy this simple example.


Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The bedrock of Photography is black and white for showing structure, texture and form without the emotive and fashion influences of seductive or shocking colors.

B&W, is not better than color but a different investigation of subject matter, celebrating the form more than the evocative spirits of all our color sensibility and associations.

In a way, B&W goes below the coating of color to look at the heart and soul of what we see.

So how do we get B&W today, when we shoot mostly in color. Actually there is a great advantage to having representations of all the hues we can essentially swop out film types at will. Here, I am, going to select the look of Ilford Delta Preo 100 B&W film.

Nike filter collection has Silver Efex Pro, a well respected conversion package for transforming color to B&W.


Here is the original color picture of Kirstie with the out of the camera JPG, as shot in the last 20 minutes. of departing sunlight at 4 pm in Beverly hills California, No relfecters. I used the Fuji GFX with the 32-64 mm lens.



_DSF2482_out of camera jpg, eyes, lips, hair sharpened.jpg


Asher Kelman: Kirstie Sunset #1

January 2018
Fuji GFX 32-64 mm
64 mm, 1/250 sec, F 5.6, ISO 800
Out of Camera JPG
Eyes, hair and lips sharpened
No filters




I downloaded a new copy of Nik Collection from DXO who now owns the program as Google, who gave it for free also, has ceased to develop or support it.




Silver EFEX PRO 2.jpg


Asher Kelman: Silver Efex Pro Dialog Box



Of the conversions, the Pinhole simulation provided drama ans isolation in the space around the. model. I then selected the Ilford Delta 100 as the film type and left everything else to default settings.




_DSF2482_out of camera JPG eyes hair lips sharpened, Silver EFFEX Pinhole Ilford Delta 100.jpg


Asher Kelman: Kirstie Sunset #1 - a

January 2018
Fuji GFX 32-64 mm
64 mm, 1/250 sec, F 5.6, ISO 800
Out of Camera JPG
Eyes, hair and lips sharpened
Nik Silver Efex Pro - Pinhole
Ilford Delta 100





I like the over-exposure of the pillow she is higging as it really helps with the drama and isolation of the person in the more stark milieu.

I do hope you lile this brief demonstration of the magic of Silver FX Pro.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I must let folks now about this, although for sure a lot of you already discovered this hardly advertised secret.

One can access the wonderful Photoshop "Dehaze" fliter from the FILTER menu in Photoshop CC. That was a revelation to me.

Actually one can access all of the Adobe RAW filets and that is superb!


Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 12.16.53 PM.jpg


Adobe: Filter Menu Photoshop CC 2018


So how good is it?


Here I have taken a picture, purposely shooting into the sunlight with my Fuji GFX and the 32-64mm zoom lens to get flare haze and flare.



_DSF2709_CROPPED_HAZE.jpg
_DSF2709_CROPPED_Dehazed.jpg


Asher Kelman: Original and Treated with Adobe Camera RAW filters

I used the Dehaze filter at 90%, that is most of the improvement.
.................... as well as adjusting the curves and a tad of clarity.



The flare is another matter, of course.


Asher
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Photoshop made a nice job.
I do not understand the need to go through Camera RAW filter...
I introduce small adjustments and never correct to much, leaving this part of the job to CC itself.
One can introduce for example, an adjustment on the temperature color but - if ever you come back to the RAW filter the setting are reset. I am confuse on this !
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Photoshop made a nice job.
I do not understand the need to go through Camera RAW filter...
I introduce small adjustments and never correct to much, leaving this part of the job to CC itself.
One can introduce for example, an adjustment on the temperature color but - if ever you come back to the RAW filter the setting are reset. I am confuse on this !


Camera RAW has some unique features that are not in Photoshop, such as the dehaze filter. Shooting in a white room with a strobe, for example has light reflecting many times over the room and gives a slight haze. The same strobe in a larger room or darker walls does not give problems.

Also, shooting directly into the sun doesctge same thing. Also, where do you store the profiles for different lenses and cameras? I make profiles with a color checker that are better than standard Adobe settings.



Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I do not have neither camera, nor lens profiles. Shame on me ! :)

For B&W, the colors are anyway remapped to tones to your taste, so color profiles may not help you a lot. However the delicate skin hues of a pale redhead with freckles in soft light, depend on perfect color.

Asher
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
I do not know what I post now, fits in the thread.
(BTW - No notification received, so far)

I have been reading Guy Tal's book and with minor adjustments in Camera RAW Filter and major adjustments in CC 2018 and just guided by my own feelings, I came to the second image.

The first image is the original with just the RAW adjustments. The second one was just produced with experimentation and taste (mine). Much in the trend of Guy Tal's images, indeed. He is very inspiring, I think.







i-tMPN88f-XL.jpg

















i-Ccgmqft-XL.jpg





Antonio
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Antonio,


I took the great liberty of separating the images with a lot of white space so as to allow each one to impact our brains and perceptions without interference from its neighbor.


The first picture is already interesting.


The second, akin to a black and white images, puts in a frame of mind where we can focus more on the texture and shapes than the ordinary, everyday differences in color.

Essentially, your edits transformed your nice photograph into a distinguished rich world of "sienna" and that is very pleasant and respectable, elegant and comforting like Magrittes beautiful pipe or oak furniture or a walk in the forrest in the fall!

What was your methodology?

Asher
 
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