How to bring out details?

[tcom]

Hi

Most have probably seen my series of photos of the Sion Air Show on a thread of this forum, or under http://www.pbase.com/tcom/sas2011.

I have been asked to rework on a photo of the Eurofighter to better bring out the contrails and details.

Here the original:


I played a bit with photoshop and finally found a way to bring out more details with the help of Silver Efex Pro 2 (the B&W conversion plugin for photoshop) to get the following result:


What photo do you prefer? The contrails do not come out this well on the first, while the second looks over processed to me...

[blackcloudbrew]

I prefer the second one but the sky does look a bit overworked to my eye. However, the fighter looks much better in the second one.

Not sure what capabilities are in the software you mentioned but, this might be a case where going into photoshop selecting the jet and doing some selective dodge/burning work might be more profitable rather than trying to adjust the whole image.

[Ron Kruger]

I like the second image best. If it bothers you, just drop the exposure a couple of notches (less than 1/3 stop).

[tcom]

Interesting results.

While on European forums, the users prefer the original one, the users on american forums prefer the second one.

On a short press article I wrote about the event, I finally do use the second one which comes out much better on the small size featured in the article (see http://ipaimpress.com/sion-air-show-2011/).

[spyglass]

The result looks like the "shadow / highlight" tool. I like this particular tool but find that I have to use it sparingly or it is easy push an image to start looking a bit illustrated. You did reveal detail by lightening the overall image but I feel that it was at the expense of the dynamic range / depth of the image. The burner is one example where I would like to see the original shine through. One approach you might like to explore is to layer the modified version over the original and apply and layer mask to it (white reveal all). Then using a black paint brush, paint the mask to let the original come through where you want the rich / darker depth. Using a brush to introduce the original back in via a mask allows you to slowly work up the result.

All that said I do like the quality of the detail you achieved on many portions of the aircraft.


Spyglass 

[tcom]

Thank you Spy for your input.

It does look a bit like the "shadow / highlight" tool. I used Nik Silver Efex instead trying to get a detailed B&W photo with local increase of contrast, details and amplified white and black levels on the plane. Then, I used this B&W layer as luminosity layer over the original color photo and adjusted the opacity. I should probably have used a different local correction on the burner.

[blackcloudbrew]

Nice to see the finished result in the article you wrote (+1) for that. Your images are wonderful and quite appropriate. Well done.

[tcom]

Thank you blackcloudbrew.

I was pretty surprised to see the photo entering fluidr's "Today's Explore" (http://www.fluidr.com) yesterday and going up to position #42 before landing finally at #55 for the 20/09/2011!