Unicorn Lake - Geese
I did two versions of this scene. The first exactly how I took the
picture. Since I knew the lake would be be primarily flat, I was
generous with the stereo base but I made 3 sequential shots, each a little
further apart so I could later select the combination that gave me the depth I
wanted. I believe it came out good, basically because I was able to
include some foreground weeds, but the trees were of course so distant that not
much perceivable depth is noticeable (at least in the X-View).
After I completed the stereo processing, I had an idea to digitally add
birds between the foreground (weeds) and the background (trees) using some
paintbrush birds I had downloaded from the web and set in the PS paintbrush
preferences. (I said I like experimenting). Although the "A format"
seemed to have enough depth without the additional bird elements, the "X" might
have been lacking in comparison.
Processing...
For the first version I aligned the stereo pair in X format with SPM and
saved as a lossless BMP file. Then I uploaded the file to PS
to adjust contrast, color, tone, brightness, etc. I used this same
resaved BMP file in the second version... I digitally added the geese via PS
paintbrushes of birds downloaded from the internet... I made the PS grid
visible so I could vertically align the geese on the L & R chips
separately. I stamped the geese on the left chip first (I used 3 different
bird paintbrushes). Then using the grid I moved the paintbrush to the right chip
and tweaked it left or right with my eyes crossed to judge the depth I wanted
before clicking to stamp the geese on that chip. I added them on a
separate layer as gray silhouettes, then used the burn tool to add some
shading. I used a light Gaussian blur on the layer and a manual
blur on the wings. Then, I saved the BMP file with a new name and uploaded
into SPM once more to clone some depth separation in the wings. I
downsized the dimensions, and saved a JPG version.
Although I could have saved the image from SPM, I happen to like
opening up IrfanView from SPM (using the preferences defined IrfanView app via
the G key). My personal reasons for this are many. I use IrfanView
as my general purpose viewer anyway but it is also an editor. You may not
know this but it even has a paint pallet with tools (F12). This allows me
to do last minute tweak adjustments just prior to the final save. I
almost always add some brightness, contrast, and sharpness before saving an
image. I also back off the green tint if the Dubois feature has been used
for the anaglyph.
IrfanView also takes Photoshop 8bf filters so I can use them if
desired. IrfanView, unlike SPM, keeps the default "disable color
sub-sampling" option that I set while SPM does NOT keep the check box
option "No compression ghosting" when it's closed and reopened. (I
don’t know why SPM doesn't make this the default option). Both these
options either in IrfanView or SPM are needed if saving for the web. BTW,
IrfanView has a separate "Save for Web...(PlugIn) selection under File" which
I've never used but it's pretty cool and brings up side by side comparison views
of your image with many options such as None, Low, Medium, and High (Chroma
subsampling). Both SPM and IrfanView have an option where you can input a
target size for the file to be saved which is very convenient and of course both
can resize dimensions if desired.
If you like, I can post the first version without the digitally added geese
for comparison. I'm sure it will have a more "natural" view although
lacking the additional depth elements.
Cha cha, Pentax K10D DSLR, SPM, PS CS5, IrfanView.