Looking Down

I've been using the workflow that I described in my last post with a few additions. First I have been using a new way to sharpen certain parts of the image. I duplicate the background layer and the use the high pass filter. In this case I adjusted the settings so that all the detail on the snail came out and ignored the rest. Then I masked the layer and only revealed the snail hiding the rest. Then I set the blend mode to overlay. I like the way the high pass sharpening works better than the photokit sharpener does. I still need to experiment a little more with how to sharpen stuff for print.

Another thing I am doing different is using layers for everything, including simple image adjustments in photoshop. This prevents me from ruining any of the pixels on the original image so I don't have to go back to the raw file if I don't like something in photoshop.

Lastly, if you do not have color profiles enabled on your browser you are probably not seeing exactly what I'm seeing when I adjust my photos. Firefox 3 now has support for color profiles, but you'll have to enable them, so do it.

Canon 350D (RAW)
1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200
300mm (70.0-300.0mm f/4-5.6 IS Canon)

Adjustments made in Lightroom 2 beta:
- Basic tone, Brightness/Contrast, Clarity, Vibrance, Post-crop Vignetting

Adjustments made in Photoshop CS3:
-Noise Ninja, Highpass sharpening, Levels, Multiply blend with an adjustment layer, Output sharpening with Photokit, Border action.