photoshop help

[breakingnews]

So, I'm trying to make a poster print of this photo, but I'm having trouble toning down the brightness of the flood lights on the left side. This is what I've done with adjusting levels/curves. Anyone have other suggestions?

Original:


Adjusted:

[breakingnews]

Ugh, I just noticed how crappy the sky looks. Might have to work on that some more.

[zippyt]

it looks like sin city to me

[BigV]

have you used the dodge tool? does one exist in your image editor?

[footfootfoot]

'News,
I'm not sure what you are going for in the shot so my advice may not be in the right direction. To my eye, the top picture is better as in more shadow detail and a longer tonal range. The bottom picture seems contrasty, especially in the shadow area. The lighter values are brighter and a bit more open, but don't need to be at the expense of the shadows.


What version of photoshop are you using? I'm most familiar with 6.

Here is what I did with your image and a screen shot showing a few steps. This is how I would interpret the image. To get real detail in the blown out flood lights it would have to be in the negative in the first place. If it is a digital capture, it would help if you started out in raw format.

[footfootfoot]

something didn't translate in this whole thing. It looked a lot better on my screen before I compressed the crap out of it (or into it as the case may be) so it would fit within the 121k parameter.

I'll be back tomorrow, if I can get out of the darkroom again.

[Gromitspapa]

I have Photoshop Elements 3.0. On that I would use the magnetic lasso (to avoid darkening the surrounding area) to encircle the bright lights, then click on "Enhance" in the toolbar, then select "Adjust Lighting," then select "Brightness/Contrast" and reduce the brightness.

[breakingnews]

Sadly, I'm using Photoshop 5.5. Would upgrade but I don't use it enough to justify it.

I tried to lasso and adjust from there, but the whole area is too light to get a good grab on the area I actually want to dim. Made the flood lights look really odd compared with the rest of the photo.

In the end, I reduced the white output using curves (and discovered that there is, in fact, a building and darkened windows visible through the flood lights) and raised the contrast moderately. Then sharpened with unsharp mask (about 60%, 2 pixel radius). then lightened.

I thought it would be better as a darker, clean-cut print as opposed to more shadow and neutral light throughout the scene. It still looks like the adjusted image I posted, but there's significant difference between dark and lit areas of the photo. Kind of like stars against a black sky at night. I dunno. I guess we'll see when the print (18x24) comes back next week.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You should have the burn/dodge tool. 7th down in the right column of tools in 3-foots capture. It's a hand.

[Promenea]

I used several tools, selection plus burn tool and then the contrast and light dark control and then did a couple of rounds of unsharp mask. If you want me to take a stab at the higher res image, let me know and I'll send you my email address.

[footfootfoot]

WOW!
Promenea kicks some serious photoshop hinder! Look at that detail in the flood lights.
There is a building. and still deatail in the shadows.

[breakingnews]

So, I recently had an opportunity to go back to my friend's apartment and shoot the same photo during the daytime. It was decidely uninteresting compared with the nighttime shot.

The print came out pretty well, btw. Thanks everyone for all the pointers.

Daytime color:


Daytime b/w:


Nighttime color (original):

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think the night time color with Promenea's magic touch would be very cool.

[breakingnews]

Yah, it really has potential. I dug up this digital photography/photoshop book I suddenly remembered that my brother gave me for my birthday last year - there was a lot of shit in there that I was not aware of. Who knew reading had such power?