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TrailGators

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Here's version number 2 for the San Diego County Geocachers Geocoin !!!

 

fbe2b7c7-2f16-48e6-af07-1145abd3fd13.jpg

Very cool coin!

 

Also, I've been looking for information about SDCG. Has this been formally established or is it still in the works?

I have seen the cool new banner at the events.

Can I get some? Pretty please?

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Hee hee he!!! Photoshop CS2 arrived today. time to step into the lab and create a monster.........

O dang! I'll just bet that you got the full suite as opposed to just the editor and Bridge.

 

Now you need to buy two Wacom Intous graphic tablets, one for me of course.

 

Have a ball pal.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Not helpful at all. Harmon has been giving lessons for Photoshop (which most people have) so we better just stick with that!  :D

Well, unless I become a student (unlikely) :D , CS2 is a bit out of my price range, so I'll do my best to interpret the lessons!

Actually those lessons go down pretty well with many of the low-cost editing packages.

 

For example Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and even Photoshop Elements, and Corel Paint Shop Pro are darned useful. Photoshop 7.0 can be found online for peanuts but without Adobe technical support. I paid only $30.00 for Photoshop Elements 2.0.

 

Paint Shop Pro and now Paint Shop X are comparatively inexpensive but quite useful.

 

There's no question that CS2 is top of the line but lesser packages can achieve most of the effects seen on these Forum threads.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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There's no question that CS2 is top of the line but lesser packages can achieve most of the effects seen on these Forum threads.

Harmon is 100% right! I've used Photoshop Elements for many of the photos that I've posted on this site. The last one was done with CS1 but I wanted to use the clone tool (Lesson 8...I think). However, I could have done it with Elements with some other tricks but it just would have taken longer. But figuring out how to do it is half the fun! It's important to note that if it wasn't for Harmon I wouldn't know how to do any of this stuff!

Edited by TrailGators
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Not helpful at all. Harmon has been giving lessons for Photoshop (which most people have) so we better just stick with that!  :D

Well, unless I become a student (unlikely) :D , CS2 is a bit out of my price range, so I'll do my best to interpret the lessons!

define "price range" teachers like me can get it for a really nice price. i don't mind sharing the wealth.

Edited by The Dillon Gang
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define "price range" teachers like me can get it for a really nice price. i don't mind sharing the wealth.

It looks like it's around $400-$500 for a non-student. I could probably swing $100-$150. How nice a price do they offer students/teachers? :D

Yes it is almost the time of the year for ho ho ho and like always I have no clue what I want.......until maybe now!

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define "price range" teachers like me can get it for a really nice price. i don't mind sharing the wealth.

It looks like it's around $400-$500 for a non-student. I could probably swing $100-$150. How nice a price do they offer students/teachers? :rolleyes:

i can get the CS2 Suite for about $359

 

Just photoshop CS2 is about $268 (should be cheaper than that..have to look into it at other educaiton supply houses)

Edited by The Dillon Gang
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Oh Harmon....can you do your magic to those photos????

If you want the full file let me know, those are just ~50kb versions of ~1.9mb files. I always shrink my files before posting them.

For sure the result will be far better using the full resolution image. I'll do a quick fix on the posted one just for fun and stand by for the mojo image.

 

Here's a quick-and-dirty teaser from one of the posted images just to encourage you to send the full res' image. Looks like there's enough detail in the dark areas.

 

Once I have the large image I'll give it the full treatment and we'll see a much-improved result without washing out the sky. This shot will take some careful work due to the bushes appearing against the sky. You'll be surprised how well it can turn out.

 

Also I'd like to remove the bushes that stick out from behind Jess's head. Let me know if you are opposed to that. Any chance those bushes were just stuck in her hair?

 

By the way, who posed the dawgs?

 

573d80a0-1c92-4de4-a538-3efff370be8d.jpg

 

Thanks for asking.

Hi Harmon, did you ever get a chance to fix this photo? I think Richard sent you the full-res photo already! ;)

Plus could you please share some of your tricks on the best way to do it!!

It's been awhile since we had a Photoshop lesson and I have the itch plus many dark photos that always come out grainy when I try to do this! ;)

Plus Steve has new software and I'm sure he has the itch too!!

Edited by TrailGators
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Oh Harmon....can you do your magic to those photos????

If you want the full file let me know, those are just ~50kb versions of ~1.9mb files. I always shrink my files before posting them.

For sure the result will be far better using the full resolution image. I'll do a quick fix on the posted one just for fun and stand by for the mojo image.

 

Here's a quick-and-dirty teaser from one of the posted images just to encourage you to send the full res' image. Looks like there's enough detail in the dark areas.

 

Once I have the large image I'll give it the full treatment and we'll see a much-improved result without washing out the sky. This shot will take some careful work due to the bushes appearing against the sky. You'll be surprised how well it can turn out.

 

Also I'd like to remove the bushes that stick out from behind Jess's head. Let me know if you are opposed to that. Any chance those bushes were just stuck in her hair?

 

By the way, who posed the dawgs?

 

573d80a0-1c92-4de4-a538-3efff370be8d.jpg

 

Thanks for asking.

Hi Harmon, did you ever get a chance to fix this photo? I think Richard sent you the full-res photo already! :cool:

Plus could you please share some of your tricks on the best way to do it!!

It's been awhile since we had a Photoshop lesson and I have the itch plus many dark photos that always come out grainy when I try to do this! :huh:

Plus Steve has new software and I'm sure he has the itch too!!

Actually I just sat down to do that job. Now that I've become the third Geobabe my Wednesdays are filled with power caching. I'll whip that one together and post some Banter remarks about the process.

 

The first thing to know is that you must separate the foreground from the background so that they can be handled on separate layers. That amounts to a tedious selection job that has the tough challenge in this case of separating the branches and leaves of skyline bushes and trees from the sky.

 

Because separate layers will be used then it's worth knowing how to avoid fringing when the layers are recombined. Fringing is one of the most common faults with composited shots, fringed selections stick out like sore thumbs. I'll go over the simple business of defringing.

 

Another thing worth learning is how to examine an image in advance of editing to determine whether or not there is enough detail in dark and/or washed-out areas to support improvement. Sometimes there's just no detail hidden in those areas so time will be wasted trying to save that sort of image. You can observe this problem in the image where I placed SallyM of Senior Sleuths on the music box, her clothing was so washed out in the original image that recoverable detail just wasn't there. Too bad too because I wanted to give her image the same texture as the porcelain music box.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Here's a small proof copy of the edited CITO Black-Canyon group shot. Turned out pretty well.

 

Note that the background remained as is while the foreground has been enhanced, except for the fact that I removed background stuff, the branches and leaves, from behind Jess'es head.

 

I'll send the high resolution version as an email attachment.

 

Tonight I'll put some notes and images together showing some interesting aspects of the effort.

 

Nothin' to it except for a need to be patient with the tedious work involved.

 

0b69a887-6dbb-43a8-a20e-557aaff03e4b.jpg

 

Who would know?

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Here's a small proof copy of the edited CITO Black-Canyon group shot. Turned out pretty well.

 

Note that the background remained as is while the foreground has been enhanced, except for the fact that I removed background stuff, the branches and leaves, from behind Jess'es head.

 

I'll send the high resolution version as an email attachment.

 

Tonight I'll put some notes and images together showing some interesting aspects of the effort.

 

Nothin' to it except for a need to be patient with the tedious work involved.

 

0b69a887-6dbb-43a8-a20e-557aaff03e4b.jpg

 

Who would know?

Wow! That looks great Harmon!

That photo has now been "Harmonized"! :cool:

Thanks again for taking the time to do that! :huh:

Edited by TrailGators
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Note that the background remained as is while the foreground has been enhanced, except for the fact that I removed background stuff, the branches and leaves, from behind Jess'es head.

I'm looking forward to the lesson on turning the dogs around! :blink:

Hmm, there's several other shots with the dogs already turned around so one could replace them in this image I suppose.

 

Actually I'd rather see a backside shot of the four perp's.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Actually I'd rather see a backside shot of the four perp's.

I have random backside shots of 3 of them. :blink:

Oboy, go for it.

here is one I have already uploaded. is this the type you are looking for? I know I have a shot from behind as we were all walking up the hill. I was the slow one of the group.

 

95f60ad4-aa0b-424b-baad-2ea8a33af54d.jpg

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Actually I'd rather see a backside shot of the four perp's.

I have random backside shots of 3 of them. :blink:

Oboy, go for it.

here is one I have already uploaded. is this the type you are looking for? I know I have a shot from behind as we were all walking up the hill. I was the slow one of the group.

 

95f60ad4-aa0b-424b-baad-2ea8a33af54d.jpg

We will need Chuy's rump as well as yours by the way. :P

Edited by SD Rowdies
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Enhancement of Black Mountain CITO Group Photo

 

The Problem

 

The bright-sky background caused the camera to reduce aperture with the result that the subjects appear in unwanted silhouette.

 

The Objective

 

Enhance the photo so that the subjects and the background are equally pleasant.

 

Discussion

 

Simple enhancements such as increasing overall image brightness will result in a washed-out background. Doing so will take away color and texture from the sky and the landscape.

 

Enhancing an image using only brightness changes usually produces a poor result.

 

A good approach is to select the desirable foreground features of the image and place them on a separate editing layer all by themselves. That way the foreground and the background can be processed separately.

 

In this particular case little or nothing needs to be done to the background and so processing can be confined to the selected foreground features.

 

Selecting the foreground features in an ordinary way will prove difficult because, first of all, those features are very dark and secondly because they are not isolated from complicated background features such as bushes, leafs, and twigs. Beyond that are many small instances of the background showing through the foreground; for example, between legs and arms and between the foreground subjects. Simply said it will be hard to see what one is doing when using a selection tool.

 

A method will be shown that, to a large extent, reduces the difficulty of accomplishing a decent foreground selection. This method makes use of image color channels to make foreground features much easier to see. Of course this approach dictates the need for color channel features within the image editing application used for enhancement. Both Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS2 editors provide the needed channel editing features.

 

Foreground enhancement will be carried out using the Photoshop Levels Dialog Box to alter the tonal range and color balance of the image by adjusting intensity levels of image shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. Because the foreground features will be isolated on a separate layer then the bright sky will have no effect whatever on adjustment of foreground levels.

 

Procedure

 

a. Open the original image in Photoshop 7 or Photoshop CS2. On the layer pallet, right-click the Background Layer and open a Background Copy layer. Deactivate the background layer by clicking the associated eyeball icon.

 

b. Select the Channels Tab that’s adjacent to the Layers Tab. Now deactivate the RGB, Blue, and Green channels. Note that the foreground features of this image are much easier to see using the Red Channel when compared to the original color image or, for that matter, the Blue and Green Channels. It will be much easier to guide a selection tool along the edges of the Red Channel. For other images it could be any one of the color channels that offer most advantage for clear visibility.

 

c. For this exercise select the Magnetic Lasso Tool and go to work carefully selecting the foreground features of interest such as the subjects, the dogs, and the large rocks.

 

d. A word or two about proper use of the selection tool. Note the many controls of the Options Bar. Make good use of the Width, the Add to Selection, and the Subtract from Selection controls as your work on the foreground selection. The Add and Subtract buttons allow you to subdivide your task by adding or subtracting small areas of the image at a time. Be very careful to accurately define the selection to include only the desired foreground features, and spend a lot of time with the edges where foreground and background come together.

 

e. Use the Mouse scroll wheel to enlarge the image significantly while drawing the selection marquee. Don’t worry if the image is far larger than the Photoshop work area. For Windows you can use the Space Bar to switch back and forth between the Magnetic Lasso Tool and the Hand Tool so that you can move to new areas of the image while you are drawing the selection marquee.

 

f. Use the Edit in Quick Mask Mode button and the Brush Tool to refine your selection work. The red quick-mask can be altered to improve the selection by using Black foreground color for the Brush Tool to exclude image areas and White foreground color for the Brush Tool to remove red-masked areas. Change Brush size as needed to nibble away at the boundaries between foreground and background. Yes, it is very tedious but impatience will bring a sad result. Hey, deal with it o.k.? :blink:

 

g. When satisfied with the work you have done in the Quick-Mask mode then click the Edit in Standard Mode button and view the final selection marquee. Now return to the Channels pallet and recheck the RGB Channel check-box so that full color returns to the image.

 

h. From the Menu Bar select Layer/New/Layer via Copy. On the layer palette note that a new layer named Layer 1 appears above the Background Copy layer. Verify that the selected foreground features appear alone on the new layer. Try clicking the eyeball icon of the Background Copy layer on and off. Verify that you have achieved a layer that isolates the selected foreground features.

 

d7890d4b-1daa-4c1f-ba1f-d04ccde76c32.jpg

 

i. Make sure that this new layer is selected or, if need be, click the title area of Layer 1 and note that it is highlighted as blue. Using the Magic Wand Tool click each transparent area of the layer. Once each transparent are is outlined by a selection marquee, on the Menu Bar select Select/Inverse. Note that the selection marquee now outlines just the foreground features of layer 1.

 

j. On the Menu bar select Image/Adjustments/Levels. Now click and drag the white slider that is below the histogram chart to the left until foreground features increase in brightness to a level that complements the background areas of the image. Don’t overdo this setting or the foreground will show signs of being washed out. At this point you might wish to save the entire project in .psd format by using the “File/Save As” dialog boxes.

 

k. Assuming that all went well click the tiny little arrowhead at the top-right of the Layer Pallet and choose Flatten Image from the popup list. Save your enhanced image as a renamed .jpg file. For best result use the JPEG Options Dialog to set Quality to 12 Maximum.

 

NOTE: This is a first-draft document so do mention any problems you find and I’ll get around to improving it.

 

Nothing to it huh? Enjoy.

 

Harmon

Edited by SD Rowdies
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As for me, pictures of me are rare in the first place since I don't like my picture taken. I can't say I know of a back side photo of me taken in many years.

See how you are. If you want to be a co-conspirator then you have to toss your rump into the ring. :blink: Thanks for the great photos by the way.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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