Feedback welcome - IC 1396

Jon Pither

Hi,

Where would you go with this image? I'm not sure which direction to go in. 

Try to pick out the background and aim for more contrast? Not sure my skills are up to it! Also the dark/black dust, I'm trying to keep from being too dark and prominent. Feedback would be welcome.

BlockHead

Hi Jon,

Well.. you have hit upon an important distinction. Where to go from here depends sensitively on the choices you have already made. This is a point I stress in Stretch Academy. Once you have stretched the image- if you are not entirely happy you can either:

1. Continue to manipulate the image from this particular point.

2. Go back far enough in time (generally the stretching) to give you more freedom to make the adjustments you want and attain your goal. 

You are asking me for #1.... but I just want to remind you that #2 is actually the way to learn have things work and play together given different choices in stretching and other adjustments.

So from the perspective of number 1... I would try the following and see what you think. You should try applying UnSharp mask to the image at the largest scales. (The largest available on the slider.) I demonstrate this as a quick method for contrast. Then you will see what happens. As you note, you will need a mask (or two) to protect the darkest and brightest regions. What you *could* do is the following.

I demonstrate this in a video on ImageBlend and splitting contrast:

1. Make a mask to protect the highlights a little. (Copy the image, use the range mask process...etc).

2. With this mask in place apply Unsharp mask.

3. Now take this enchanced image and the original image and load into ImageBlend. The original should be the base image and the enhanced is the blend image.

4. Change the blending mode to "lighten" . Now all contrast adjustments will not darken anything... only brighter enhances will show.

5. Use the opacity and other sliders to get the right mix.

That is what *I* would do.

-the Blockhead