P&P Workflow: #6

by Jason D. Moore

Before:

Taken near the corner of 72nd Street & Central Park West, NYC 1/30/2007, 11:08 AM. Taken with available light, no flash.

• Nikon D50
  Auto Exposure Mode
  18.0-50.00 f/3.5-5.6 lens
  1/640 at f/4.2
  ISO 200
  Focal Length 26mm
  RAW

In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0:

• Cropped to constrain proportions and make sure the right side of the subject was roughly along the left-hand third.
• In Develop Module:
  -Basic:
  White Balance: As Shot
  Temp: 5150
  Tint: -12
  Exposure: +0.61
  Recovery: 100
  Fill Light: 0
  Blacks: 28
  -Tone Curve:
  Highlights: +8
  Lights: +11
  Darks: +4
  Shadows: -18
  -Split Toning:
  Highlights: Hue-42, Saturation-12
  Shadows: Hue-229, Saturation-8

In Photoshop CS3 Beta:

• Lab Sharpening:
  -Duplicate the background layer
  -Convert for Smart Filters
  -Convert to Lab Color
  -Select the Lightness channel
  -Apply an unsharp mask with the settings (Amount: 149%, Radius: 1.1px, Threshold: 0 levels)
  -Convert back to RGB. (Don’t rasterize or flatten when prompted.
• Apply a radial gradient (white to black) from the center of the main subject outward to increase his sharpness while leaving the rest of the image, as is.

After:

*If you would like to contribute to the P&P Workflow, please email Jason.