(Darren) Workshop: Mother and her baby

[justrob]

I pretty much did everything I knew how to do to bring out more detail in this. First, I ran the contrast mask, then I made ajustment layers in curves and levels to try to level out highly vs. lower exposed areas, slight desaturation layer, slight decrease in contrast and increase in brightness. I also did some dodging and burning through a method I really like. I create a new layer directly over the original(background) layer, then change that layer's properties to overlay. Then, I go to edit->fill->50% gray. On to that layer, I can burn and dodge using the brush tool, white for burning, black for dodging, both at about 9% opacity. This works far better than the dodge and burn tools I think. Finally, I made a duplicate layer and sharpened that layer quite highly. Then, I added a layer mask->hide all, from here, I can paint in, using a white brush how much sharpening I want. Sharpening here did bring out more details in the dark areas for certain, but sharpening the background made it even more distracting. The method I just covered above allows you to only sharpen where the benefit is needed. I think that pretty much covers it all on this shot.

[justrob]

I tried the layer/grey white/black dodging <a href="http://www.trekearth.com/workshop.php?pid=24798&wpid=4398">here</a>. As you can see, it's a very powerful technique.

Very well done, Darren! Very well done.

[Keitht]

It really is incredible what detail can be brought out when you know how.

[Etienne]

This is a very interesting workshop, thanks very much for this. I looks a little bit complicated but it is really efficient while looking at the result.