Before And After

[Jay Beckman]

Feel free to add on below if you feel you've performed a miracle in post processing or just want to show off a comparison!

Flagship Detroit @ OSH SOOC:


After running it through Nik Viveza (I'm demoing it) and some other CS5 tweaks:


I may have to buy a license for Viveza (if I can catch my wallet...)

[Joe Copalman]

Whoa.  What tool allows you to "polish" the metal in editing?  The difference is remarkable.

[Jay Beckman]

Viveza from Nik Software: LINK

[Jeff D. Welker]

Great idea for a thread Jay. Here are my efforts with a recent photo. As Jay notes, Viveza helps add serious "POP" to the image. You can use this tool to reveal and/or emphasize detail that was suppressed in the original capture.

NASA Talon getting ready for departure from Willie.


POP! If you look closely, you can really see the extra detail and structure that has been revealed.

[jslugman]

Wow, look how the canopy reflection pops on the backseater's visor....

[Chris V]

Great more stuff to buy that I can't afford lol! looks like it works awesome though.

[John B.]

Wow.  I am really impressed.  I have only glanced through the website, but is it as easy to use as they describe it in their ad copy?  Also, would I be correct that it works best with RAW type files?  Great tip guys!

[Jeff D. Welker]

James, Chris and John - I'm glad you like the photos. As far as Viveza being easy to use, if I can do it anyone can. I don't use it on every photo I take and I don't use it the same way every time. I evaluate my image and decide what post processing technique or tool to use that will help me achieve my vision for a particular image. I've never tried using Viveza with JPEG's so my experience is limited only to RAW files.

[Paul Dumm]

I hope Jay will chime-in and post his thoughts. Recently I read a post by Jay (can't remember where right now) where he made a very simple and yet important statement. The better job we do in capturing an image with excellent exposure, depth of field, focus, etc; the less post processing work we will have to do. In my opinion, I hope to reach a point some day where I only need tools like Viveza when my camera's sensor is not capable of creating my vision without help. I think that is ultimately much better than spending a bunch of time post processing images that were not properly exposed, white balanced, etc. I've got alot of learning and work ahead of me. However, the journey has been a hoot thus far.

Where's the "like" button at??

[Jay Beckman]

Just a point of clarification regarding raw, jpeg, buffers and fps.

As far as I know, no camera will shoot at a higher fps using jpeg instead of raw but you will generally see a higher buffer capacity that will also clear faster.  This is with all else being equal (card speed, camera model, etc...)

[Joe Copalman]

Which, in turn, impacts fps significantly.  High-speed continuous burst shooting RAW on the 50D converts frames-per-second into seconds-per-frame rather quickly.

Putting the mod-hat on, can we get the discussion back on track and not re-hash the now-ancient RAW v. JPEG discussion (at least not in this rather specific thread)?  Thanks.

[Jay Beckman]

Before


After


- Slight crop around the edges
- Perspective Correction for building lines
- Another slight crop
- Cut out plane and mask
- Process Plane (Viveza and Curves)
- Select sky and mask
- Add slight sunset gradient to sky and to windows in upper right
- Clone out "For Rent" sign in upper center window
- Select every window and promote to layer .. "Multiply" property for that layer to give those windows some pop
- Black to Transparent Gradient applied from bottom up (approx to bottom of hangar door) to hold back sun on grass
- Overall Curves tweak
- High Pass Sharpen to taste

[Jeff D. Welker]

Jay - I hope this does not seem like a back-handed compliment; however, this is the best natural looking processed image I've seen in quiet some time. The balance you've achieved with your hue, saturation and luminance values is tremendous. IMHO, the best images are those that don't appear to have much processing at all. You really nailed the both the initial image/vision capture and the later post processing - well done.

[Jay Beckman]

Thanks Jeff.  Far from perfect but it's nice to have some new weapons in the war on pixels.

[Jay Beckman]

Another miracle of modern pixel bending (and still a work in progress...)

Note the vehicles behind the Firefly...


Note the lack of vehicles behind the Firefly...


Lots of little fixes to make and lines to straighten back out.  I'm not usually up for these kinds of fixes but the straight lines and square windows made it a tad easier.
Now I just have to figure out how to attack the chunk of pickup truck that's behind in the middle.