Sherman
Has Met Willis
Several have asked "How'd you do that?!" in my photo thread. I thought I'd put together a quick step-by-step of what I'm doing in Photoshop, to help explain how much is being done post-process, not just with the camera.
First, the photo has to have something to start with. I look for decent sharpness primarily, then also something to work with as far as composition. The photo I used for this is sort of disappointing because I cut off the tang's tail, but we'll go with it anyway.
I've resized the photos for Web presentation, obviously, as the Canon 20D I took these with takes 8.3mp photos.
Here's the raw, unedited original. This was taken with a few standard steps I always use.
1: Shoot perpendicular to the glass. Always. Glass distorts.
2: Underexpose just a little bit. -2/3 EV
3: Use a tripod.
4: Fire away with TONS of shots, this is digital, you're not wasting film. This same afternoon I took about 100 shots of a rose-headed wrasse, and still didn't come out with anything good. I probably took about a dozen shots of this tang, but he wasn't moving around much. This one was the sharpest.
Unedited:
So then, the first steps I took was to crop the image. I'm generally looking for a good balance, and a focal point. In this case, it's the eye. I also use Photoshop's AutoBalance feature, which is pretty accurate about 99% of the time. I'll tend to tweak the colors just a tiny bit later, but AutoLevels is usually a pretty good place to start.
Crop and AutoLevels:
Next, I "Clean up the junk." I use the Heal Tool primarily, but also some Blur and Stamp Tools. I rub out all those little specks and water debris. On this shot, the owner had a little bit of coralline on the glass, also, which I removed. The differences are subtle, but you can find them. Removing the specks and scratches helps eliminate visual distractions.
Clean the Junk:
Once I have a clean image, I go through and make color corrections. Here, I brought just a hint of the blue back (to help with the underwater look), as well as a slight overall brightness bump, to make up for the underexposure. I also do some dodging/burning here, though I never use those two tools. I'll select dark areas and bring them up a little, or bright areas and bring down the brightness a little. You have to be very careful here, as you can create a lot of grey and washed out areas very quickly.
Color and Brightness:
Finally, I resize the image (I tend to use 800 pixel width for Web), and sharpen and add a border. I sharpen with the Unsharp Mask dialogue (Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask). There are three sliders here: Amount, Radius and Threshold. Two of these are *ALWAYS* the same, radius and threshold.
Radius is always 0.3 pixels. Any more, and the halo/glow effect gets out of hand. If you can't sharpen enough with a 0.3 pixel radius, the image didn't have enough to work with in the first place.
Threshold is always 10. This just gives a little room for error (overuse of the tool) and helps remove the harshness out of the tool.
The other slider, Amount, is in percentage. I find myself in the 200-400% area most often (range is from 0-500%). This particular photo happened to be 382%.
Then I add a border to help with the focus of the subject. Different people have different methods and colors. I use straight black and white. I Select All, then go to Edit/Stroke and use white with a pixel width of 7 pixels, on the inside. Then I go back to Edit/Stroke and use black with a pixel width of 6 pixels. This creates a 1 pixel wide white stripe surrounded by a 6 pixel wide black. It's just what works for me. Totally preference.
Sharpened and Border:
First, the photo has to have something to start with. I look for decent sharpness primarily, then also something to work with as far as composition. The photo I used for this is sort of disappointing because I cut off the tang's tail, but we'll go with it anyway.
I've resized the photos for Web presentation, obviously, as the Canon 20D I took these with takes 8.3mp photos.
Here's the raw, unedited original. This was taken with a few standard steps I always use.
1: Shoot perpendicular to the glass. Always. Glass distorts.
2: Underexpose just a little bit. -2/3 EV
3: Use a tripod.
4: Fire away with TONS of shots, this is digital, you're not wasting film. This same afternoon I took about 100 shots of a rose-headed wrasse, and still didn't come out with anything good. I probably took about a dozen shots of this tang, but he wasn't moving around much. This one was the sharpest.
Unedited:
So then, the first steps I took was to crop the image. I'm generally looking for a good balance, and a focal point. In this case, it's the eye. I also use Photoshop's AutoBalance feature, which is pretty accurate about 99% of the time. I'll tend to tweak the colors just a tiny bit later, but AutoLevels is usually a pretty good place to start.
Crop and AutoLevels:
Next, I "Clean up the junk." I use the Heal Tool primarily, but also some Blur and Stamp Tools. I rub out all those little specks and water debris. On this shot, the owner had a little bit of coralline on the glass, also, which I removed. The differences are subtle, but you can find them. Removing the specks and scratches helps eliminate visual distractions.
Clean the Junk:
Once I have a clean image, I go through and make color corrections. Here, I brought just a hint of the blue back (to help with the underwater look), as well as a slight overall brightness bump, to make up for the underexposure. I also do some dodging/burning here, though I never use those two tools. I'll select dark areas and bring them up a little, or bright areas and bring down the brightness a little. You have to be very careful here, as you can create a lot of grey and washed out areas very quickly.
Color and Brightness:
Finally, I resize the image (I tend to use 800 pixel width for Web), and sharpen and add a border. I sharpen with the Unsharp Mask dialogue (Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask). There are three sliders here: Amount, Radius and Threshold. Two of these are *ALWAYS* the same, radius and threshold.
Radius is always 0.3 pixels. Any more, and the halo/glow effect gets out of hand. If you can't sharpen enough with a 0.3 pixel radius, the image didn't have enough to work with in the first place.
Threshold is always 10. This just gives a little room for error (overuse of the tool) and helps remove the harshness out of the tool.
The other slider, Amount, is in percentage. I find myself in the 200-400% area most often (range is from 0-500%). This particular photo happened to be 382%.
Then I add a border to help with the focus of the subject. Different people have different methods and colors. I use straight black and white. I Select All, then go to Edit/Stroke and use white with a pixel width of 7 pixels, on the inside. Then I go back to Edit/Stroke and use black with a pixel width of 6 pixels. This creates a 1 pixel wide white stripe surrounded by a 6 pixel wide black. It's just what works for me. Totally preference.
Sharpened and Border:
