An Ah-Ha Moment

I've touched base in other posts about the constant search for better ways to edit my photos. I took an online webinar course yesterday at OnOne University, the free software site for OnOne Software's PerfectPhoto collection of Photoshop plug-ins. I've discovered that the brush tools in the PhotoTools module give me much more exacting control over blur & sharpening without any halos. I can lighten/darken the white of eyes by painting away color instead of painting with color. The difference is dramatic because painting with color doesn't allow for the graduated decrease in color accounting for a round eyeball. Erasing color does, and in an extremely controlled way. The same technique works equally well with teeth.

I'm glad I save all my RAW files because I went back & reprocessed a number of photographs using my newly acquired knowledge and am amazed at the difference.

Wow, sounds like you learned a lot in a day. Would love to see some 'before' and 'afters' as examples

Ask & yee shall receive Hali.

Before











After










Notice the lightening of the color of the eyes to bring out more detail and punch. Also note the darkening of the pupils to draw even more attention to the eyes. The twig in the upper left under his ear has been removed. The fur on the ears, nose and chin have been selectively sharpened. The whiskers have ben sharpened. I've added a masked edge to lessen the appearance of distracting elements along the outside edge, and then selectively removed it on the legs and torso. Finally I morphed the green moss covered rock along his back to remove the dark shadow. I hope this gives you the idea of what types of post processing I do to make photographs more pleasing to the viewer's eye. I try to make the adjustments as subtle as I can so the viewer has no clue what was done.

Thanks

as you say, subtle changes, but they do make quite a difference