My fun in ART and GIMP L-a-b
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The really hard part about working on pictures like this (for me) is separating “sky” from “not sky”. Green leaves are easy. Bare branches, utility lines, utility poles are hard. @dqpcoxeas and @Roger.Wilco look like nice edits to review in detail.
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Could someone please teach me how to mask the sky in this photo? We could start a new thread so as not to ruin this topic.
I have been through Boris’s videos, but he does things so quickly and easily that I just don’t get the details. He draws a mask rapidly, and when I try that, I just get a mess. I also tried doing it parametrically by the color of the clouds, but that seems to take in almost all of the photo. I don’t even understand which masking tool to try to use (i.e., circle, brush, etc).
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Ok, here is what I have been trying to do: more contrast from the trees and down, and less contrast in the clouds. I managed to get my mask looking pretty good with a brush and fooling with the feathering radius and blur radius. But, there is still a “glow” above the trees at the far left. The mask looks right to my eye, but it seems to not be in effect in that small area.
23-04-29__MG_2999-3003_01.dng.xmp (31.8 KB)
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I’m not a teacher but I can maybe show this quick example to get you going:
This uses a parametric mask (g = grey based) to get the light part and a drawn mask to limit it to the top of the image. Knowing which data channel to use is not always clear at first sight. Just try and see what works best for the given situation, you get a feel for it the more often you do it. As shown you can, and most often have to, fine-tune the selection. Use the feathering, opacity and contrast sliders to refine the selection even more.
Very fine details (the bare branches sticking into the sky in this image) might be problematic, especially if you want to change the selected part significantly. In that case you either remove them or end up with a visible glow/halo around them if you’re not careful.
Making good masks is based on practise and being precise. My above example could be further fine-tuned…
EDIT
I just checked and Bruce Williams made a new, updated, series on masking. 7 parts. Haven’t seen them myself, but his previous (old) masking videos I did see and they did a rather good job explaining it.
Have a look here: videos. You’re looking for episodes 108 up to and including 115.
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This one was interesting; rawproc wanted to use libraw’s supplied camera matrix, which was all zeros. I had to go to camconst.json and retrieve the correct set for the Canon EOS 70D. After that, as-shot white balance a rather toe-nailed filmic curve:
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Thanks very much.
If you hover over the channel and press C you’ll get a visualization of the mask on the image. That way you don’t have to diddle the slider for the mask to see if its the “correct” one.
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Wow! I just watched Bruce’s Ep 108 (masks part 1). He showed me about a hundred things that were not apparent to me from reading the docs and watching Boris’s videos. And there are seven more parts to the current masking series!
Thanks, again @Jade_NL
I got to something I can settle with, and I learned a lot about using drawn masks. I used three instances of Color Balance RGB, one for the entire image, one for the cloudy sky, and one for the “subject” from the trees down. It was a lot of trouble, but I’m learning as I go.
23-04-29__MG_2999-3003_04.dng.xmp (23.3 KB)
Guys, take a moment and look at what you’ve done here - this is freakin’ excellent.
I especially like your tenacity @Tim. You put way more effort into that image than I did - Tenacious T and the Mask of Destiny!
And is @Jade_NL gonna give our favourite YouTutors a run for their money???
Great work, y’all gave me lots to consider.
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No masking … just kicked-up the color contrast … all very plane-Jane with a very interesting image.
A true relic … just a pile of concrete to go with the loss of employment.
