OK, I’m home sick today with a man cold. I still don’t know why women don’t fully understand the seriousness of man colds!!! I’m not getting any sympathy. Anyway, with some spare time on my hands I thought I’d do another tutorial. I processed the above image yesterday. The reason that I am doing a tutorial on it is because I had to use a number of methods to get the detail and drama into the water. You can see from the original file (bottom) there wasn’t much detail in the highlights, I had to coax the detail out in post processing.
I hope you enjoy it.
Brent
Brent Pearson's Photo Journey 
another brilliant tute Brent.
Great tute Brent, you poor little thing you. Hope the man cold is on the mend!
Awesome stuff! When you were in Photoshop, we’re you editing it in 16 bit mode?
Hi Evan
Yes, by default I edit in 16bit mode. I will convert to 8 bit in one of two scenarios.
a) When I’m doing my output processing for web
or
b) If I need to run Freaky Detail. Otherwise when I apply a surface blur filter in 16bit mode it takes forever. Only a few seconds when I do surface blur on an 8 bit image.
Brent
Thanks for the tute, picked up a few ideas from it. Interesting to see how others work. Nice image too.
Great work yet again Brent. Hows the man cold coming along??
Sweet tute mate! And thanks for the heads up on the freaky detail in 8bit…man that takes a while in 16 bit eh!
Picked up a few other tricks in the tute as well…ta!
Just getting over a mancold myself, the wife was totally unsympathetic.
Great shot, thanks for the tutorial too!
Bloody bitches eh! Don’t they know how serious man colds are! 🙂
I too have one…I reckon Brent must have spread it all around eh!
Great tutorial Brent. I find them very helpful and really appreciate you taking the time to make em.
Thanks for another good tutorial. I never really got involved with photoshop unitl i found your blog 2 months or so ago (still just touching the surface) but your tutorials have certainly made me see the use of it.
Also finally checked out Freaky Detail and didnt realize how simple it was.
Great stuff Brent another good tute from you.
Shouldn’t you be fighting off the cold by not sitting in front of the computer and working? Actually it may be a good idea to get more of these colds then we get to see more tutes from you 😛 Just kidding hope you feel much better now.
Thanks for another great tutorial.
Looking forward to your next seascape workshop!
How do you add the NIK software part? have you created a new layer or a thumbnail.im a newbie
The Nik layer is created with a 3rd party plug-in that I purchased… You run the Nik Silver Effex plug-in and it creates this layer.
However if you don’t have Nik Silver Effex Pro, then you can get a similiar effect by adding a new black and white adjustment layer and choosing “high contrast red filter” from the presets.
BP
Look, don’t get me wrong. I really like some images that are photoshop’t. But seriously ! Are we as photographers forgetting the true fundamentals of photography and relying on editing software to make our images more acceptable ? I think so ! I can see where photoshop & other applications can be of use to a certain degree. But If you are, and want to continue to be a good photographer. Use the bloody camera !! The digital world of photography is easy enough. Soon anyone with software will be a photographer and will kill our industry dead !
Hey Gus, not sure where you fit in on the overall scheme of things but let me offer my comments on both photo shop and Brent himself.
For one I know Brent pretty well having been on a number of shoots with him and also having spent a week up in Karijini this year. Brent would unequivocally be the most technically savvy photographer that I have met and he is also very generous with his knowledge. The photographic community should be applauding people like Brent who tirelessly put posts together etc to train others,
I have learned heaps from him as have many others who attend his blog and his workshops.
The facts remain that there is not a camera today that can capture what the eye sees and none even come close actually. Photo Shop and other programs simply give the photographic community the ability to bring images they capture back to an image that represents what we see whilst out and about.
Then there is the artistic side which I for one admire those who have the talent and ability to use tools like photoshop to create amazing artistic images and Brent for sure is a guru who knows a huge amount of tips and tricks to explore the endless world of photographic art.
I therefore suggest to you Gus, that rather than bagging the man, maybe you should attend one of his workshops and see what you can learn and maybe then you might join us all in the 21st century!
Hello Brent
Great tutorial and thanks for sharing!
Cheers.
Mark.
Hey Gus
I saw your comment about Photoshop etc. and I appreciate your perspective, but let me give you my point of view on it.
First of all, you say that are we forgetting the true fundamentals of photography and relying on editing software to make our images acceptable.
I can only speak for myself, but I grew up in an era of film and wet darkrooms and was learnt how to shoot without automatic light meters etc. So I totally get the fundamentals. When I shoot, I try to get the shot as right as I can in the camera, I shoot using filters even though for some of the effects I could recreate them using bracketing and photoshop. So I am all in favour of getting the best image that you can out of the camera.
Having said that, we live in the digital world, and I practice digital photography. The world has moved on from the old film days and I don’t plan to be left behind. I believe that if you don’t coax the best out of your images using tools like Photoshop, then you are missing out on one important aspect of the art of photography in the digital world.
I enjoy the post production, and for me this is not “cheating”, its about using a set of tools to get the most out of the image.
I do laugh when I hear the traditionalists arguing about “getting it right in the camera”. Does that mean you condone masters like Ansel Adams who were experts at manipulating their images in the dark room? They used whatever tools they had in their day to make gorgeous images.
I strongly recommend you learn Photoshop… you might just like it 😉
Brent
Hi Brent
Thanks for the feedback. I’m not saying using software is cheating. I’m more concerned if in the near future it will make us all self reliant on software to achieve good images. If you know what I mean. Or will it continue to open new doors for us and how far can software be pushed.
Maybe we’ll just have to wait.
Gus
G’day
Good to know you have a friend.
But I’m not bagging the man or questioning his technicality and the question is not directed at Brents work. I’m clearly asking an opinion from an experienced person and what his thoughts are, that’s all !
Chill out & have a beer.
Fantastic tutorial Brent….thanks for putting in the time to make it 🙂
Thanks for the great tutorial! I was blown away by the detail and drama you pulled out of those highlights in the whitewater.
I find that when I try to stretch the detail in my shadows, I often end up with a lot of noise. Did you run into this while editing those highlights, or is highlight detail just more pliable than shadows?
Hey Chris
Manipulating highlights is easier than manipulating shadows (in terms of noise).
BP
[…] To see the technique in action, Brent Pearson has published a post-processing video tutorial on Water Intensification. […]
[…] Tutorial – My Cousin Scott – Kombination einer Porträtaufnahme mit einer Langzeitbelichtung Sick with a mancold – Bildbearbeitung einer Küstenlandschaft Post Prosessing Forsaken B&W – Bildbearbeitung […]