October 2007 Archives

I've been struggling with Photoshop's masking features forever.  For some reason i've had a mental block against them for quite some time.  As a result I always get images that I know I can make better using PS and some masking tools; yet, I give up because it was just too hard.

Well, I finally decided it was time to learn.  I picked up a book titled "Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers," written by Ellen Anon and Tim Grey.  Their explanations are really good and I am happy to say I now "get" how to do masks.  I don't know what my problem was, they are so easy!  

Anyway, here's a pic I processed in my usual way using a few steps in Apple's Aperture software:

The dynamic range for digital cameras has not quite caught up to the range that can be captured with film.  So, I always shoot for processing to the middle.  That is, balance the light and the dark areas.  The results, as you see here, are a sky that's too bright with lost detail in the clouds and a dog that is too dark with lost detail in the fur.  

Now that I can do masks, I decided to try again using photoshop to add two curves layers to this image and mask part of it so that I could maximize the exposure settings for both the dog and the sky while maintaining a natural look.

I think this second image is much more visually exciting than the one above... What do you think?  Did I over do it?