# some cabo pics i am playing with



## rangerjohn (May 15, 2006)

these pictures i took this weekend in cabo at the melia san lucas hotel.
one night time about 9 pm one daytime the same day about 3 pm i guess and one of my wife i am going to work on. so far nothing has been done to these pictures just the raw image straight of my nikon d 100.
i really want to remove the white globe from behind my wife (it is a light that was not on during the day but she was not cooporating enough to get in front of it when i took the pic. 

ANY SUGGESTIONS?


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

What software are you using? I would probably clone out the globe, replicating the rest of the background. For other changes it would really depend on what you are trying to achieve.


----------



## rangerjohn (May 15, 2006)

i have photo shop elements
i like the night shot but the day shot just looks somewhat bland now that i look at it here


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

rangerjohn said:


> i have photo shop elements
> i like the night shot but the day shot just looks somewhat bland now that i look at it here


You can adjust the light with the shadow/highlights tool and you could also increase the contrast and tinker with the saturation. You could check to see if eliminating a color cast may help as well.


----------



## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Here's one with some alteration


----------



## rangerjohn (May 15, 2006)

that looks pretty good i have been messing with my photo shop and keep getting fixes that look pretty "obvious" guess i need more pratice.


----------



## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Played with the "Curves" and Saturation in Photoshop with this one. I always tend to overdue it though and it looks doctored. The folks good at photoshop do it without any clues shown.


----------



## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

*PS altered image*

Used Photoshop to auto adjust shadow/highlights, bumped up saturation a few notches, and sharpened.


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

In every case, if you want someone to take a shot at reworking it for you it works better if you send them a copy of the full image file. If you just want tips or hints this works fine.


----------



## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Weird, when I look at these on the same monitor in photoshop making edits, they're a lot darker than they appear when I upload them back to this site. How do yo make them look the same in PS as they do through a web browser when looking at them posted on a site? I've got the right profile loaded for my monitor model too.?????


----------



## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

*One more alteration, darker this time*

tried to go a bit darker on the daylight shot.


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

Slightly different edit -- not really happy with the clone job but without a larger file with more pixel data I am not sure what else I can do.


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

Next try -- it is always difficult to balance, especially when you did not see the original scene.


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

Last one.


----------



## rangerjohn (May 15, 2006)

the edits you guys have done look pretty good to me. i have PS 4.0 but i am still learning how to do it. i am still new to the digital thing so i am used to doing these type of fixes in the dark room by hand or not at all.
i appreciate the touch ups.i have a couple hundred more pics (althought alot of them are my wife and some others dancing the night away at the bars lol)


----------



## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

The second night shot looks really good to me, as the second touch-up of the wife. Jury still out on the day ones although the second looks to be more real.


----------



## Charles Helm (Oct 22, 2004)

rangerjohn said:


> the edits you guys have done look pretty good to me. i have PS 4.0 but i am still learning how to do it. i am still new to the digital thing so i am used to doing these type of fixes in the dark room by hand or not at all.
> i appreciate the touch ups.i have a couple hundred more pics (althought alot of them are my wife and some others dancing the night away at the bars lol)


 I am barely scratching the surface with Photoshop but what I usually do is check for level horizon and framing. If there is a horizon problem I will turn on the grid overlay and rotate the image to correct it. I will then crop to re-square the image and change framing/composition if needed.

At this point or perhaps a bit later I may use the clone stamp tool or blur tool if there are specific elements in the image that need to be replaced or blended.

Then I may check for a color cast correction and see if that improves the color balance and realism. Same for skin tone correction.

After that I will probably check lighting with shadow/highight and play with the parameters to see if there is an improvement. You can easily go overboard with this one so I try to keep realism in mind. At the same time or later I may make a change to the contrast levels to see if that helps the image quality.

Usually the last step is to apply an unsharp mask and see if that helps. Then I will save the image as a high-quality progressive JPEG with a new name.

I don't know if this helps at all but if you start playing with these things you may find an approach you like.


----------



## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

I do not use photoshop.
Used 2 layers. Used contrast enhancement on upper layer then erased the the sky and water letting the original photo show thru the the upper layer. Then combined the two layers.

Here is what I came up with.


----------



## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

Maked the foeground and woman. Altered the backgrounds contrast and tint slightly to bring up the foregroung. Removed mask and brightened slightly the entire picture. 
Added just a few highlights to the edge of the hair to seperate it from the dark part of the building.


----------



## galbayfisher (May 28, 2004)

Nice shots. Really wanted to purchase a dslr (n-80) prior to my Trip to Tulum. Maybe next time.

Your subject didn't seem too excited about being "snapped!"


----------



## rangerjohn (May 15, 2006)

thanks for the insite guys sorry it has taken so long to thank everyone we had some family issues arise and have been out of town.

galbayfisher, she was giving me the evil eye for sure, she doesnt like having her picture taken for some reason. i always tell her she looks to good not to be photographed but she say yeah what ever.


----------

