Help with Swan Lake image

dinneenp

Hi,

This is a picture I took on a rainy day, could have been very nice but is flat/dull.


It was raining and it was about to go under a bridge so I didn't have time to adjust settings.
I'm wondering what the ideal settings would have been if I have more time. I would guess exposure a lot less- 1/300 maybe, aperture f8, ISO lower (if lighting allowed it). But I'd like to know what more experienced people would have done (if you had time).

Here's some of the Exif data:
Camera Pentax K-x
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 108 mm
Focal Length 108.0 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Metering Mode Multi-segment
ISO 3200

My second quesiton-
I did some basic editing in Picasa, which is almost very nice expect that the neck and face of the swan is too dark. How could one fix this in Photoshop, Lightroom or any other tool?




Thanks,
Pa.

5uspect

Install GIMP and play about with Curves and Levels.

You need to shift the histogram to the right to bring the entire image up in brightness and then perhaps apply a mild S curve to boost the contrast. You've completely over baked the contrast in Picassa.

Usersname

Yeah just mess around with Levels, Exposure, Gamma, etc. Putting the swan on a separate adjustment layer might also help. I'll give it a shot later and see what I can come up with.

5uspect

I would also read this article:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml
This should arm you with the knowledge you need to mess about with levels and curves.

Usersname

I got a pretty good result from just making a simple levels adjustment. But, in case you still think the neck was too dark or whatever, just make 3 layers, one for the backgound, one for the swan, and another for the swan's neck. Adjust each layer's levels to look how you want it. So adjust the background one to have the water look how you want it. Then adjust the swan one to have the swan look how you want it. And finally adjust the layer for the swans neck. When you do the neck one, the swan and background will look way too bright, but this doesn't matter for now..

Once you have all the layers, apply masks to them and use a brush to blend the 'swans neck' layer onto the layer for the rest of the swan. Then, place the adjusted background layer on top of the other two, apply layer mask, and use the brush to make the adjusted swan layers come through. When everything looks right, merge all layers and use auto levels.

If you do it right you should come out with something that looks like this. If you have no understanding of layers and masks you need to learn. Everything you want to do in Photoshop will usually require these two tools.