News flash - Carol just came in. I showed her the things I talk about below and
a version of "Pounding Pemaquid" with
masked sharpening. Her comment was that I have the same problem as a person
with perfect pitch, I see little
imperfections that others don't notice or can't see.
So maybe all this doesn't matter to anybody else. Still - here it is.
On 9/10/2011 8:34 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Been playing with black and white conversions using Nik Software's Silver
> Effex Pro 2.
>
> http://www.bobwhitmire.com/blackandwhite.html
>
That's pretty interesting. Took me a little while to figure out what makes it
not quite right to my eye:
1. The tonal crunchiness visually implies to me an equal level of sharpness,
which isn't quite there in the web image.
Almost certainly not an issue in a print, and likely not for the aging eyes of
many here.
2. I don't know anything about Silver Effex Pro 2. The tone mapping looks OK
except at the ends. I think a very similar
overall effect could be done without any highlight clipping and with less
shadow clipping - and might look better. I'm
not sure what you are looking for with Silver Effex. Have you tried
Image=>Adjust=>Black and White in PS? It gives great
control of tonal mapping. You can use their presets and make your own,
especially nice for several shots that should match.
3. You've got a technical problem with this that's minor, but a big issue to me
in Day's End. There are thin, bright
halos around dark things in silhouette. Only really noticeable in this image on
the lighthouse cupola, but very
noticeable all around the silhouetted objects in Day's End.
In PS itself, they are generally a result of LCE and/or Shadow/Highlight. They
are generally possible to avoid by
masking the sky or other bright background as a layer by themselves, on top.
Then whatever you do to the lower layers
that bleeds across the dark-light line is covered up. The sky can then be
processed separately. LCE can still cause
problems if used there, but the needed sky effects can generally be done with
other tools.
Carol says anything silhouetted against bright light has a halo. I say not one
that is of exactly the same width
everywhere and of uniform brightness. "Real" halos are artifacts of atmospheric
conditions and/or our vision systems,
including glasses. Also, they taper away in intensity with distance from the
object.
Moose
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