My first real edit

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Spent about 30-40minutes on this project, I know a lot of the work might not be noticeable but the idea was to make it look real with out going over the top - other than the obvious blurring of the background I did a lot of dodge and burn work on the plane itself, e.g. the cockpit is noticeably edited. I also tried to make it look very clear rather then making it look more real by hiding computer effects using noise or bloom.

 

Anyway I was having trouble trying to edit certain sections such as the mid-fuselage as this area is fairly bland and it's easy to over do the editing - anyone have suggestions on how to do that?

 

 

Thanks for any critique.

[rockwelder]

Looks good.... clean and simple - often times the best result.

 

if you want a little more detail and contrast try unsharp mask a little and if your using CS3 the smart object layers are really empowering with practice. Especially the exposure adjustments.

 

Over all - you have Skillz.. keep up the good work.

 

My crack at this stuff below...

 

[JaNk0]

That a really nice edit there :thumbup:

 

I'm no expert here but how would it look with some blur coming out in the back?

[rockwelder]

That a really nice edit there :thumbup:

 

I'm no expert here but how would it look with some blur coming out in the back?

 

Not quite sure you would notice this effect as there needs to be detail to blur...blue sky makes it a very hard task to pull off but it would be not impossible.

[Storm.i]

The plane looks awesome, really nice job there. But the ground is far from awesome if you ask me. While the plane looks very realistic, the ground looks very... lock on.

 

My suggestion to make it look even better is to find some real picture of grass with trees in the background, and use that to make the screen more realistic.

 

Another, very small, point of critique is that in my opinion the motion blur has been done to much diagonal (sorry for the bad english), the angle with the horizon is a bit too big in my opinion, but that could be me aswell.

 

But again, great great plane! Really nice.

[SuperKungFu]

Some of you guys might find this site useful, it teaches you one small, but nice, technique in photoshop

http://ebin.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/how-to-turn-your-photo-into-movie-like-effect-using-photoshop/

 

And great screens guys.

[EscCtrl]

Looks good.... clean and simple - often times the best result.

 

if you want a little more detail and contrast try unsharp mask a little and if your using CS3 the smart object layers are really empowering with practice. Especially the exposure adjustments.

 

Over all - you have Skillz.. keep up the good work.

 

My crack at this stuff below...

 

 

Nice work you got that - do you or anyone else here have a gallery on deviantart or a similar website I could visit?

 

I tried out the unmask technique - makes a huge difference so yet again I was careful not to go overboard (yeah I have a thing with very obviously edited pictures)

Only problem is though that the contrast has brought out the stepped gradient of the sky and other artifacting which I'm in no mood to edit out yet.

 

That a really nice edit there :thumbup:

 

I'm no expert here but how would it look with some blur coming out in the back?

 

I'll give that a go soon for you but as was mentioned blurring requires some subject detail to work effectively

 

The plane looks awesome, really nice job there. But the ground is far from awesome if you ask me. While the plane looks very realistic, the ground looks very... lock on.

 

My suggestion to make it look even better is to find some real picture of grass with trees in the background, and use that to make the screen more realistic.

 

Another, very small, point of critique is that in my opinion the motion blur has been done to much diagonal (sorry for the bad english), the angle with the horizon is a bit too big in my opinion, but that could be me aswell.

 

But again, great great plane! Really nice.

 

I didn't like the original LOMAC background as a lot of work would be required to get that looking vaguely real, even editing in real backgrounds is hard as the lighting needs to be right a long with focus and various other effects, it's very easy for someone to see what's wrong but very difficult for someone to make things look right, maybe when I get better like rockwelder :D. As for the motion blur angle that was done deliberately as a flat blur would have been too boring and unnatural (it's rare you'll see perfect panning) the plane also was not flying truly level.

 

 

Thanks for the critique everyone.

 

 

By the way rockwelder how do you use the smart object layers and what exactly is it for? could you point me in the direction of a good tutorial for using it?

[-flanker-]

i would say this pic needs more NOISE! The Quality of the picture itself is too perfect :music_whistling:

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i would say this pic needs more NOISE! The Quality of the picture itself is too perfect :music_whistling:

 

I tried that but I personally prefer without noise, the way I see noise is either a phony newspaper effect or a cheap way for people to hide anomalies and imperfections in their pictures. I'm all for clarity, since when do people see with noise in their eyes?

[Paralyzer]

Very nice shot. Looks like a photograph taken with an extremely expensive digital camera.

 

No need to add noise I like it perfectly clear :)

[666th_birdy]

Looks good.... clean and simple - often times the best result.

 

if you want a little more detail and contrast try unsharp mask a little and if your using CS3 the smart object layers are really empowering with practice. Especially the exposure adjustments.

 

Over all - you have Skillz.. keep up the good work.

 

My crack at this stuff below...

 

 

Awesome work. The heavy drama is overwhelming. Keep this stuff coming

[Storm.i]

I didn't like the original LOMAC background as a lot of work would be required to get that looking vaguely real, even editing in real backgrounds is hard as the lighting needs to be right a long with focus and various other effects, it's very easy for someone to see what's wrong but very difficult for someone to make things look right, maybe when I get better like rockwelder :D. As for the motion blur angle that was done deliberately as a flat blur would have been too boring and unnatural (it's rare you'll see perfect panning) the plane also was not flying truly level.

 

Mmm, I think it would be pretty easy to add some real grass texture to the picture, without anyone really noticing its put on there (nobody really looks at the grass anyway, it's the plane that's got the attention, so a bit unreal isn't that much of a problem I guess)

 

And the motion blur angle, I didn't say you had to make it flat, just the angle a bit closer to flat.

 

Comparing the first and the second I think the unsharp mask is a bit too much, I guess in between would be most perfect.

 

Sorry for the whining, great picture it is for sure.

[EscCtrl]

Mmm, I think it would be pretty easy to add some real grass texture to the picture, without anyone really noticing its put on there (nobody really looks at the grass anyway, it's the plane that's got the attention, so a bit unreal isn't that much of a problem I guess)

 

And the motion blur angle, I didn't say you had to make it flat, just the angle a bit closer to flat.

 

Comparing the first and the second I think the unsharp mask is a bit too much, I guess in between would be most perfect.

 

Sorry for the whining, great picture it is for sure.

 

Heh no problem at all, I'm not too good at adding in different photos, it's so easy to get wrong, was thinking of using one of those grass effect brushes but those are so easy to spot in a picture :P. I'll make a mid range unsharp picture if you like;

 

[rockwelder]

Smart object layers are basically a way of applying multiple filters to a layer with out commiting - each change can be edited afterwords.

 

When doing Screenshot art you need to become very familiar with layers and smartobject layers as these two things are very powerful.

 

Search for some Tutorials on smart object layers - you should find many hits...

[EscCtrl]

Smart object layers are basically a way of applying multiple filters to a layer with out commiting - each change can be edited afterwords.

 

When doing Screenshot art you need to become very familiar with layers and smartobject layers as these two things are very powerful.

 

Search for some Tutorials on smart object layers - you should find many hits...

 

Thanks, am familiar with layers but never heard of these smart ones before - surely you can use the undo feature instead of the smart object layer? I can think of many ways around what I think this feature does.

[rockwelder]

yes you can do it the old way but with a smart layer it gives you a sub layer which you can edit to give certian strength in some ares and less in others....this is my favorite function as blending and bluring can be modified to much greater levels...once you start using them and experimenting you will swear off the old method.

[EscCtrl]

yes you can do it the old way but with a smart layer it gives you a sub layer which you can edit to give certian strength in some ares and less in others....this is my favorite function as blending and bluring can be modified to much greater levels...once you start using them and experimenting you will swear off the old method.

 

So it's a bit like selecting an area feathering it somewhat then applying filters to that area except with better control and the ability to use several filters then edit them once they have been applied and others used upon them?

[rockwelder]

Think of it this way; Convert the layer to a smart object layer then apply the blur filter- once finished you shoud be able to edit a sub layer that allows paint bushes, gradients and fills to be used all in greyscale spectrum. Lets say you used a gradient fill for this sublayer ; This would essentially give you a gradient blur effect - perfect for distance or focus blur. This simply is not easily achievable with the old method of blur.

[EscCtrl]

Think of it this way; Convert the layer to a smart object layer then apply the blur filter- once finished you shoud be able to edit a sub layer that allows paint bushes, gradients and fills to be used all in greyscale spectrum. Lets say you used a gradient fill for this sublayer ; This would essentially give you a gradient blur effect - perfect for distance or focus blur. This simply is not easily achievable with the old method of blur.

 

Ah that makes sense now, so you apply filters to filters effectively. Now I know I need to try that out :D

[AKULA_OPTIMUS]

Wow, very nice shot:thumbup: