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Manipulation question: "what should I do with this damn hard light?"


musashi

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Bailarina low-res.jpg Hi! So: I've been trying to get rid of those 4 spots of light to the right of the image for hours and I can't seem to do it without messing up the color of the wall/the vertical shadow which I intend to keep/my entire life.


Tips? Teachings? I welcome your knowledge and gentleness.
 

ALB68

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I think if you use an Exposure Adjustment Layer, bring down the offending lights to where you want them, then Invert the layer (Ctrl I) and paint the lowered exposure over the areas required. Then maybe use a Content Aware fill to finish it off. I did that with this and it's not too bad and you can probably do better with more care. (Maybe clone in some of the color you want to retain)
Edit: Before you apply the layer adjustment layer, select the offending area and put on a new layer below. Click the down arrow on the adjustment layer to put the adjustment on that layer only.
light.JPG
 
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Rich54

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By the way, I think I could do a better job if I knew what these shapes actually were. Are they curtains? I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.
 

musashi

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ALB68 and IamSam, thank you for your patience! I had tried those before, but the result I was looking for was Rich54's. That looks awesome. If you saved it, Rich54, could I study your .psd file? You are my hero for the day.

Thanks again ヾ(@⌒ー⌒@)ノ
 

musashi

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By the way, I think I could do a better job if I knew what these shapes actually were. Are they curtains? I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.

They are actually the shadow of a chair I put in front of the light :)
 

Rich54

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I do have the PSD file, but I'm not sure how to attach a PSD file to this thread. It's not one of the allowable choices for file uploads.
 

MrToM

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I do have the PSD file, but I'm not sure how to attach a PSD file to this thread. It's not one of the allowable choices for file uploads.
Rich54 ...just go through the motions for uploading an image but select the psd file instead.....it'll embed it into your post as a link.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Rich54

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Mr. Tom... I can't seem to get it to work. I'm in the upload window and I selected the PSD file, which appears in the "browse" area. But when I click "upload file" nothing happens.
 

Rich54

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No, it's 43MB. I guess that must be the problem. Any suggestions for reducing the file size? I could try merging some layers. Or I could actually reduce the image size, which would cause a loss of pixels but might still be ok if Musashi simply wants to see what I did.
 

MrToM

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I managed to compress a 46MB down to just 2MB with 7zip (Set to ultra compression).
If you have that (And I can recommend it if you don't) then try zipping it.

Here is 46MB into 2MB...

View attachment 16million_colours_01.zip

If you do the same upload procedure for a zipped file you may get a message saying it failed....'no image uploaded' or something like that but the 'attach' code will be placed in your post.....hit the 'Go Advanced' button, (Or 'Preview Post' button), at the bottom of the 'Quick Reply' box and the preview will show your file embedded in the post as a link.....see above.

Otherwise, yeah, a smaller image size would be best unless you use a file sharing site or dropbox or carrier pigeon.

At least the OP will get the workflow which is the main thing.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Rich54

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Musashi,
For now, I'm attaching a PSD file where I reduced the image size. I'll experiment with a zip file later on and see if i can get that to work on the full-size file.

If you look at my Paths pallet, I created several paths with the Pen tool that define the major shapes. All of the many layers are simply a gradual build-up of gradients, the Clone Stamp, and blurring---both inside these paths and between them---until I was satisfied that it matched the rest of the image. Then I applied some noise and other blemishes to match the grainy texture of the rest of the image. Not knowing that this was a projection of light shining through the back of a chair (very cool effect, by the way), I was never quite sure when I was "satisfied" because I didn't really know what I was drawing. Hope this helps. View attachment ballerina3.psd
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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ALB68 and IamSam, thank you for your patience! I had tried those before, but the result I was looking for was Rich54's. That looks awesome. If you saved it, Rich54, could I study your .psd file? You are my hero for the day.

Thanks again ヾ(@⌒ー⌒@)ノ

Your welcome, My assumption was that you were trying to do it within the confines of adjustments without re-building, which is always an option.
 

Tom Mann

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@Rich54 - You did a technically superb job responding to the request of the OP to remove the hot spots. It's hard to tell where you filled in those areas.
@musashi - I am not familiar with that ballet / production, but considering the image completely on its own terms, by itself, independently of the context / story behind it, just from the point of view of classical photographic composition, I think that leaving the hot spots remain in the photo actually strengthens the composition of the image. This is because there already is a strong diagonal formed by the dancer's arms. However, without the hot spots (as can be best seen in Rich's version), the arm diagonal immediately leads your eye right up and out the top of the frame. On the other hand, leaving the hot spots in forces your eye to switch from the strong ascending diagonal to the descending and weakening diagonal formed by the hot spots. (See attached GIF animation.)

If it were my image, I would make a few other changes to this image. This suggestion may be in opposition to the story line, or perhaps, a soft feeling that you want to convey, but purely from the point of view of the dynamics of this one image, I would brighten it up, crop it tighter (to work with the diagonals), and clean up the litter, scuff marks, and other odds and ends ("stand-here" cross formed by tape) on the floor.

The GIF shows a cropped version of my starting image (...I liked Sam's the best, so I started with it...), my tweaked version, and then the diagonals that I mentioned above.

Just my $0.02,

Tom M

PS - BTW, the posterization around the lights in the 2nd frame is only an artifact of the limited color palette in GIFs. To show this, I also included a jpg of the 2nd frame. It has vastly less posterization.
 

Attachments

  • BallerinaBlur_02_Sams-tjm01_acr0-ps03a_annotated_sRGB_cropped-698px_wide_red_lines.gif
    BallerinaBlur_02_Sams-tjm01_acr0-ps03a_annotated_sRGB_cropped-698px_wide_red_lines.gif
    350.5 KB · Views: 14
  • BallerinaBlur_02_Sams-tjm01_acr0-ps03a_annotated_sRGB_cropped-698px_wide_red_lines-02_2nd_frame_.jpg
    BallerinaBlur_02_Sams-tjm01_acr0-ps03a_annotated_sRGB_cropped-698px_wide_red_lines-02_2nd_frame_.jpg
    217.8 KB · Views: 14
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musashi

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@musashi - I am not familiar with that ballet / production, but considering the image completely on its own terms, by itself, independently of the context / story behind it, just from the point of view of classical photographic composition, I think that leaving the hot spots remain in the photo actually strengthens the composition of the image. This is because there already is a strong diagonal formed by the dancer's arms. However, without the hot spots (as can be best seen in Rich's version), the arm diagonal immediately leads your eye right up and out the top of the frame. On the other hand, leaving the hot spots in forces your eye to switch from the strong ascending diagonal to the descending and weakening diagonal formed by the hot spots. (See attached GIF animation.)

If it were my image, I would make a few other changes to this image. This suggestion may be in opposition to the story line, or perhaps, a soft feeling that you want to convey, but purely from the point of view of the dynamics of this one image, I would brighten it up, crop it tighter (to work with the diagonals), and clean up the litter, scuff marks, and other odds and ends ("stand-here" cross formed by tape) on the floor.


Thank you for the feedback, Tom! I had not thought of a crop, and I do agree that it looks a way better composition if done that way. I have the photo in Camera Raw file, so it wouldn't be hard to make those tweaks. Maybe cropping and blurring the hot spots is indeed a good combo.
I actually like the dirty spots on the floor, although I hadn't realized one of them was a marker (X)... D'oh (ˆ~ˆ). Some cleaning will be welcome.

Now... ¡To work!
 

musashi

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Musashi,
For now, I'm attaching a PSD file where I reduced the image size. I'll experiment with a zip file later on and see if i can get that to work on the full-size file.

Awesome. I am now going through the steps you took. Thank you for this teaching.
 

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