Help with grass and leaves color

[GoddessE]

Here is a link to the picture I've been working on. I didn't want to put it in here because it was too big and I thought that a link would be better for viewing purposes.
Family xmas photo

So far, I've whitened our teeth a little, taken the white glare out of our eyes, covered a drain pipe with the clone tool (which helped me out a lot!), and cloned some tall grass over a long strip of unattractive white rock.

I would like to make the grass greener, and then add grass underneath us where there is nothing but dirt. I've looked for tutorials, but I may not be using the right search terms as all I get are brushes, etc. and I am thinking there must be a better way to do so, although brushes were my initial first plan. Any suggestions? I would surely be very appreciative. I'm new at photoshop, of course (couldn't make it any easier on any of you, sorry.) and I am using ps 7.0.

[tamlin]

Here's one way to make the grass greener (although in Photoshop there are always lots of different ways to get the same effect):

1. Add a Color Balance adjustment layer above your original image (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance...)

2. In the Color Balance dialog box, do the following:

• Uncheck Preserve Luminosity
• Ensure that Midtones is checked
• In the Color Levels boxes, type: 0 (left box) +20 (middle box) and -100 (right box)
• Click OK

This will give your whole image a green cast, but don't worry.

3. Click on the adjustment layer's Layer Mask thumbnail in the Layers palette.

4. Select Edit > Fill... and fill the layer mask with Black. The green colour will disappear, but again, don't worry.

5. Now make White your foreground colour, select a soft-edged brush for the Brush tool and paint on the layer mask where you want the green colour to show through. You can paint in different shades of grey to subdue the colour effect in some areas if you like. You can also try playing around with Black to White gradients.

Obviously, since this is an adjustment layer, you can alter the colour at any time just by double-clicking the Color Balance layer thumbnail to bring up the dialog box. You could also try other adjustment layers such as Hue/Saturation or Selective Color instead of Color Balance.

As for covering up the area at the bottom of the photo: why not just crop it out? If you select the Crop tool, click outside the photo at the top left and drag down and to the right, you can position the bottom of the crop area along the underside of the stone bench (careful not to cut the kids' fingers off!). I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor - the simplest solution is usually the best.

Hope this helps - any questions, feel free to ask.

[GoddessE]

Cries...oh I wish I'd seen this last night when I got totally absorbed in my project! I think I will go back and see what the difference is from what I already have. You're so helpful. I know it's a lot of work to reply to everyone; requires you to read all new posts and keep up. I just want you to know, it definitely is making a huge difference for me that you do. :-D

[tamlin]

You're welcome - I enjoy a challenge!

[GoddessE]

Yay. I am sure I'll be giving a few especially in the beginning. LOL.

[NikonErik]

Okay . . . here's my take on this . . . You have a very nice composition here. In fact, I wouldn't even try to add leaves or grass to the dirt behind this group. It looks like you used some sort of non-round 100% soft brush to do your cloning (in the background, right above their heads). Pretty good, but I think you need to try a different, simpler approach to your cloning.

I cropped out the bottom, but kept the image an 8x12 aspect ratio. I didn't feel the bottom help the photo at all.

I copied your picture into photoshop and used size 15 round brush @100% softness. Opacity 100%, flow 75%, Alignment: UNCHECKED

Using the Rubber Stamp (clone) tool I sampled an adjacent areas to the left and right of the sections I wanted to fix and clicked-clicked-clicked my brush over a section to clone from the source. Don't drag here because doing so will fuse the fine texture that you want to clone here. Notice when you use the tool un-aligned you'll always clone from the same source every time you click and reclick.

For the color correction:
First thing I notice is that the contrast is low, and your whites, as in the boys pants are very bright. There's not much pixel information to work with there. That is to say the RGB recipe for areas like the WHITE parts of the pants would be 255,255,255 or nearly so. That being the case we would only get shades of gray with no variation if we toned the pants down . . . so we'll look for other areas to kick-up.

I used a technique that is great for those who get a kick out of the mysterious things that photoshop does. I'm not really sure what's going on, but it works well enough for shots like this one:

With your flattened image open in photoshop, duplicate the background layer so you have an original image to revert to.

Go to Image>Mode>Lab Color. This uses a recipe for color that is NOT a combo of RGB . . . Lab Color actually separates the "color" info from the lightness/darkness info, the "L-channel" or luminosity channel. It then uses a ratio of Green to Magenta "a-channel" and Yellow to Blue "b-channel". -Hence "L-a-b".

Next, with your image layer selected, go to Image>Apply Image

In the Apply Image control panel, change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Now in the Source section, use the Channel drop down. Choose which channel seems to look like it might give you what you want. I like the "a" channel here, HOWEVER I lowered the Opacity in the Blending section down to 40% for this image.

I don't really know what's actually going on in the Apply Image engine, but i like it sometimes!

After this conversion and correction, go to Image>Mode>RGB to convert back to RGB mode, so we're Jpeg friendly again.

I opened the Levels tool (Image>Adjustments>Levels) and slid the black triangle slider to the right for 17 more points of black to fix the contrast. Using the Contrast tool would have added white levels too. There more than enough white in this image.

I then ran Smart Sharpen (Only in PS CS2+) with Amount=68 / Radius=1.0

Here's my result, I hope you like it:

[stiney51]

The cropping NikonErik suggested definitely adds to the picture. I love the grass behind and across the water in the newest version, but cropping out below the log would definitely improve the image as a whole. Especially given the odd angle of the legs of the older girl in the photo (kind of looks like the legs belong to the younger girl if you look quickly).

[NikonErik]

You realize that the sharpening doesn't really look as good as it could because we are looking at screen resolution images that have been saved and re-compressed a few times.

Please just notice how a simple application of Smart Sharpen (or USM for pre-CS2 Photoshop users) has improved this image quality greatly. The soft "before" image is not a result, or example of the photographer's efforts. With current technology all digitally produced images must be sharpened after capture. This is due to how the image is collected and how the file is created. If you feel your images are sharp out of your camera or scanner, then please consider the fact that the camera or scanner system is sharpening the image automatically to some degree.

I reccommend that Goddesse increase the in-camera sharpening setting a little, if possible. I have it dialed up a bit on my D200 in order to save a step when I opt to create in-camera jpegs plus Raw files for wedding work. This way I can create my proof set as quickly as possible.

[GoddessE]

Originally Posted by NikonErik

Okay . . . here's my take on this . . . You have a very nice composition here. In fact, I wouldn't even try to add leaves or grass to the dirt behind this group. It looks like you used some sort of non-round 100% soft brush to do your cloning (in the background, right above their heads). Pretty good, but I think you need to try a different, simpler approach to your cloning.

I cropped out the bottom, but kept the image an 8x12 aspect ratio. I didn't feel the bottom help the photo at all.

I copied your picture into photoshop and used size 15 round brush @100% softness. Opacity 100%, flow 75%, Alignment: UNCHECKED

Using the Rubber Stamp (clone) tool I sampled an adjacent areas to the left and right of the sections I wanted to fix and clicked-clicked-clicked my brush over a section to clone from the source. Don't drag here because doing so will fuse the fine texture that you want to clone here. Notice when you use the tool un-aligned you'll always clone from the same source every time you click and reclick.

For the color correction:
First thing I notice is that the contrast is low, and your whites, as in the boys pants are very bright. There's not much pixel information to work with there. That is to say the RGB recipe for areas like the WHITE parts of the pants would be 255,255,255 or nearly so. That being the case we would only get shades of gray with no variation if we toned the pants down . . . so we'll look for other areas to kick-up.

I used a technique that is great for those who get a kick out of the mysterious things that photoshop does. I'm not really sure what's going on, but it works well enough for shots like this one:

With your flattened image open in photoshop, duplicate the background layer so you have an original image to revert to.

Go to Image>Mode>Lab Color. This uses a recipe for color that is NOT a combo of RGB . . . Lab Color actually separates the "color" info from the lightness/darkness info, the "L-channel" or luminosity channel. It then uses a ratio of Green to Magenta "a-channel" and Yellow to Blue "b-channel". -Hence "L-a-b".

Next, with your image layer selected, go to Image>Apply Image

In the Apply Image control panel, change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Now in the Source section, use the Channel drop down. Choose which channel seems to look like it might give you what you want. I like the "a" channel here, HOWEVER I lowered the Opacity in the Blending section down to 40% for this image.

I don't really know what's actually going on in the Apply Image engine, but i like it sometimes!

After this conversion and correction, go to Image>Mode>RGB to convert back to RGB mode, so we're Jpeg friendly again.

I opened the Levels tool (Image>Adjustments>Levels) and slid the black triangle slider to the right for 17 more points of black to fix the contrast. Using the Contrast tool would have added white levels too. There more than enough white in this image.

I then ran Smart Sharpen (Only in PS CS2+) with Amount=68 / Radius=1.0

Here's my result, I hope you like it:

Oh my goodness this is gorgeous! Thanks so much, and thanks for including what all you did...it helps me so much as I have a lot to learn. Very sweet of you to take the time to help me out. I love this picture, it looks great! Sorry it took me a while to reply, Christmas shopping and editing other pics as well...but this is the biggest picture I'll be printing up, so again, thanks!

[GoddessE]

Originally Posted by stiney51

The cropping NikonErik suggested definitely adds to the picture. I love the grass behind and across the water in the newest version, but cropping out below the log would definitely improve the image as a whole. Especially given the odd angle of the legs of the older girl in the photo (kind of looks like the legs belong to the younger girl if you look quickly).

Older girl...thanks. :-) That's me, the mommy; 34 yrs. old. I haven't been called a "girl" in a long time; brightens my day.

[GoddessE]

Originally Posted by NikonErik

I reccommend that Goddesse increase the in-camera sharpening setting a little, if possible. I have it dialed up a bit on my D200 in order to save a step when I opt to create in-camera jpegs plus Raw files for wedding work. This way I can create my proof set as quickly as possible.

Thanks! I'll do that...I'll have to look in my instruction manual that came with the camera, but I'm sure there's one in there. I appreciate the suggestion.

[tamlin]

I don't want to put you off, but I'd be a bit wary of increasing in-camera sharpening (or even using it at all). The technology used by cameras to sharpen images is somewhat crude compared to what you can do in Photoshop, either with the built-in filters or with third-party plugins like FocalBlade. Also, once your camera has sharpened your image for you, that's it - you can't "undo" or otherwise alter the sharpening afterwards, whereas in Photoshop you can always backtrack. However, if you're just taking snapshots and don't want to spend time messing about on the computer, then in-camera sharpening (and contrast and colour-management etc.) are fine.
Just something to consider.

[NikonErik]

Hmm . . . good point Tamlin! As I read the above post, I realize that I am used to my D70s and D200's sharpening algorithms . . .

GodessE, please consider my advice very carefully, because Tamlin raises a very good point. You have to be pleased with your cameras output, not me or anyone else. You can always sharpen later in your workflow.

I'm glad that you're pleased. If you'd like me to help you with the full res image/full size, PM me here and I'll give you my Email addy to sent it to me.

-E!

[tamlin]

Originally Posted by NikonErik

As I read the above post, I realize that I am used to my D70s and D200's sharpening algorithms . . .

That's a good point, Erik. The key is to experiment, and to familiarise yourself fully with your equipment. There's no harm in a little trial-and-error, and you may well find that in-camera image adjustments give you exactly what you want.

[NikonErik]

Originally Posted by tamlin

That's a good point, Erik. The key is to experiment, and to familiarise yourself fully with your equipment. There's no harm in a little trial-and-error, and you may well find that in-camera image adjustments give you exactly what you want.

It does give me what I need . . . consider, for example, I recently came home from a 10 hour day of wedding photography with over 1200 jpegs. I have the in camera sharpening (and other settings) dialed-in so these will be ready for printing as 4x6 proofs.