[Ali]

The heather is looking wonderful at the moment, so Murphy took a moment to go all 'Heathcliffe' on me.

I was rather pleased with the shot, but wonder if Murphy is a little 'lost' amongst the background and needs bringing out a little - and if so, how?

All comments welcome as ever

[KenCo]

I don't think "Murphy" is lost but at the same time I feel there is room to bring him out and make it pop just a little more (only if you wished)......but honestly I think it's fine as it is.
Really like it!!
Ken.

[_MB_]

Modded quickly - changed curves to increase difference in highlights and shadows, applied j sotelo's colour boost method: link here, dodged highlights and shadows around the eye 5% slightly, then lassoed the sky, scrunched levels together to get a bit more detail (didnt really work though!). Sharpened very slightly.

Lovely dog btw

[P-E]

Nice shot and a good pimp by MB

[Dabhand16]

Slightly different one here, but I think I prefer MB's.

[Markulous]

Is a lovely shot - can see why you're pleased with it!

Very quick edit - maybe overdone the sharpening!


Dodge Murphy, darken sky, touch saturation, sharpen

[Ali]

Thank you all for comments, the 'pimping' and the tips!
I am thinking the dodge tool is something I should get round to playing with!

Just another couple of questions;
- To make the changes just to the sky, eg. to darken, would this have been selected* (lasso)? And then what? Or is it done by cloning?
* If it is by selection - are the trees included in the selection, or the bits of sky peeping through selected separately?

- Sharpening, with the 'pimps' above - would the whole image have been sharpened, or is it being done selectively. Until now, I've always sharpened the whole image. Should I making smaller selections? (by lassoing?)

Dabhand, could you let me know what changes you've made please. It all helps me understand what all the tools do. Thank you!

[_MB_]

Sharpened the whole image but used Smart Sharpen in CS2 which knows what to leave alone and what to sharpen. You could try selecting an object of interest and sharpening it on its own - it works but you've got to be careful as it can look very strange if its overdone.

There's a load of different ways to work on one part of the image - duplicating the whole image, adjusting levels, curves etc for the part you are interested in then using eraser to carefully expose the unaltered background is essentially what I did. I lasso out of habit as I get put off by the rest of the image going black when I'm working on something light.

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Ali

Dabhand, could you let me know what changes you've made please. It all helps me understand what all the tools do. Thank you!

Did all changes on new duplicate layer from top layer in stack.

1 Select top half of picture with lasso - across top of Murphy's back - feathered 7 pxls - subtracted Murphy's head - applied gaussian blur.
2 Selected Murphy feather 4 pxls - and lightened a touch with levels.
3 Sharpened Murphy with USM - 0.5 radius and not too much sharpening.
4 Still with selection, dodged head (set to highlights).
5 Selected sky with magic wand and re-set levels - black point slider only.
6 Flatten image>dup>levels for whole picture.
7 Flatten.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Ali

Just another couple of questions;
- To make the changes just to the sky, eg. to darken, would this have been selected* (lasso)? And then what? Or is it done by cloning?
* If it is by selection - are the trees included in the selection, or the bits of sky peeping through selected separately?

Used a gradient layer to darken sky - I try to avoid lassoes as it's often difficult to get the overlap/edge right. So, yes, the trees were effectively darkened (tho' I countered this, to a degree, by lightening the green/yellow saturation)

[Ali]

Thank you! All very helpful stuff.