Before And After

[Mike Franzone]

Love playing in PS, NIK, etc.

Great stuff Jay. I like the post and creative side of your shots.

Mike.

[Matt Ottosen]

• Exactly as it came out of my camera.
• After a little work in Photomatix Pro and PSE.

Let me know what you think, I'm not sure I have ever worked this hard on editing a photo.

The edit is posted here:
http://azaerophoto.com/forum/index.php?topic=1536.msg29870#msg29870

[Lynn Evans]

We had a lot of gray on gray in Yuma. It is really tough. I hope some of our members have some tips.

before

after

I used Lghtroom 4 to process this one.

[Joe Copalman]

Looks a bit overcooked on the underside of the tail and the flaps.  Did you do selective adjustments, or was everything global?

[Matt Ottosen]

Looks a bit overcooked on the underside of the tail and the flaps.  Did you do selective adjustments, or was everything global?

Everything was global.

[Jay Beckman]

SOOC


All Prettied Up


Cropped
Rotated Slightly
White Balanced
Removed Yellow Tape & Supports
Nik Viveza for Details And Shadows
Masked and Tweaked Sky + Mountain Range
Added Clouds
High Pass Sharpened

[Jay Beckman]

More from today's "Raptor Wash"

SOOC


Fixer Upper


Crop
Remove Yellow Tape
Remove Circle Around Wind Sock
Remove Plane in Porta-Hangar in Background
Remove Concrete Fixture at Camera Right in Background
General Cleanup in the Rocks
Nik Viveza for Detail and Shadows
Invent New Sky via Layers, Brushwork, Blur and Multiply
High Pass Sharpening Layer

[Lynn Evans]

That is good work Jay. I just joined NAPP. I hope I can improve my post processing skill.
Just watched the intro lessons. Boy I have a lot to learn!

[Daniel DeSart]

Spent close to two days in Photoshop and light room on this one. First time really getting deep into editing.

[Jay Beckman]

I see some digital artifacts in the sky Daniel but that may be due to jpeg compression when exporting for upload.  You pulled the details out quite nicely I think...

Here's a "save" I just finished:

SOOC:


After Digital TLC:


Can't say enough about the power of Smart Objects in CS6 + Masks + Nik Products!

[Jeff D. Welker]

Considering what you started with Jay, this is a wonderful save. I fell like you got the balance of light, tone and contrast spot-on. A suggestion to try on a "virtual copy". How about using a graduated ND filter to fill light from the wings down to introduce light into the entire bottom half of the image. It might help reveal the exhaust smoke a little more and enhance the look of a late afternoon shot. Just something to think about. The image is very nice as is.

[Jay Beckman]

Go check it out on MA2A Jeff...

It reads much better over a dark background.  The white here fools the eye...

Oh, and Thanks!   

[cpasley]

Wow Jay I didnt know that was even possible, that does it im signing up for a class come fall 

[Daniel DeSart]

I see some digital artifacts in the sky Daniel but that may be due to jpeg compression when exporting for upload.  You pulled the details out quite nicely I think...

Yeah I had to go into photoshop and clean up quite a bit of extreme noise and bring some of the details back. I wanted to work with the original RAW format, but photoshop can't read them for some reason so I had to compress it and then begin editing, which was a massive pain.

As for your photo Jay,  I love how dramatic the lighting is, it really brings out those clouds. I will have to check it out with a black backdrop.

[Jay Beckman]

What software do you have at your disposal Daniel?