Tuesday, August 7, 2012 – It’s funny. When you think you have a process figured out you realize that something new has come up (in my case Chromatic Abberation) that will test you to do tons of research, reach out to friends, spend hours wanting to give up, and finally I have followed my instincts to what I consider the end of this journey 🙂 So this journey actually began for me in early June on the 6th to be exact with a set of pictures that I took in Lunada Bay. One picture was of a spot that I have wanted to surf but have been advised not to and the other was of a huge tree that I saw on my way home. Some of these trees have to be pretty old. Not that I know anything about trees but it must have taken some time to get so big!! So my new process is as follows:
- Open files in ACR.
- Apply Lens Correction to all CR2 files, Synchronize, and Save as TIFF Files.
- Merge and Tone Map TIFF’s in Photomatix, Apply Finishing Touch (if applicable), Save TIFF as filename_tonemapped. This file will typically be either my sky or the focal point of my image. I then leave Photomatix open.
- Open Noiseware and apply NR on the file naming it filename_tonemapped_filtered. I then leave Noiseware open.
- I return to Photomatix, undo Finishing Touch, undo Tone Mapping, Re-tone map, and create another TIFF named No Halos_tonemapped.
- I return to Noiseware and apply NR on that file naming it No Halos_tonemapped_filtered.
- I then repeat the process as needed for foreground elements.
- I use bridge to select the layers I want, Load Files into Photoshop Layers, Select the layers in photoshop, and finally Auto-Align layers to make sure the content is lined up properly
- Then…I mask in or out what I want. This usually includes adding the sky, removing CA, boosting contrast, etc.
I’m sure there will be something in the near future that will cause me to change how I currently post but I am enjoying the process in the meantime 🙂 Until then this is my process and I’m sticking to it. I hope you all are well!!
