DINO-FIGUREs PHOTOGRAPHY ( Image Heavy Thread )

[RobinGoodfellow]

Hi guys, I'm back with some new tips for your dino-pictures.. 

Sometime shadows can add an intense look to your pictures.
It's not so difficult to create shadows in post-production with Photoshop or similar software.

Here it is a picture I did to a Studio Oxmox dragon figure inside my light-box.
You can see that I used my usual flat setup directly from my camera.
This flat visual look is very useful to add some "personality" to a picture inside Photoshop.
It's not a raw file (too heavy) but just a flat jpeg look.

That's how it looks like:


Usually first I edit the image with the Photoshop treatment I already talked about in this thread.
This post is about shadows so let's add some shadows to image (without talking again about my flat look treatment).

First I created a layer fading from black to white to full transparency (technically speaking "alpha channel").
Here:


Then I duplicated and rotated the layer into a 4 layers group:
UP / DOWN / LEFT / RIGHT



You can move the group as "one" but also you can modify any single layer of it individually.


You can turn on/off a single layer, resizing it or change the transparency (fading from black to none..).


It's time for adding the "shadows" group to the image:




END OF PART 1

___________________________________________________________________

[RobinGoodfellow]

Shadows: PART 2


The "shadows" group is added to picture with a simple drag&drop (as a new layer):


You can freely resize and/or rotate the full group or a single layer to adapt shadows to picture



It's up to you to re-shape "shadows" based on your image and calibrate shadows' intensity with Photoshop opacity control in the layers panel:


Here it is the final result with calibrated "shadows", a background extension and the color treatment already done.
Layers already flattened; the picture is ready to be exported on Flickr..


The final picture:


The same picture with flat color profile before any Photoshop treatment




Some other example of Photoshop shadows:





A "darker" shadows treatment (with a Photoshop mask over the figure):


..and a "lighter" and gentle treatment:


...with a blue background:



That's ALL.
I hope this thread could help your photography.
For any doubt just ask... 

Enjoy.

[RobinGoodfellow]

@tyrantqueen :
Your original post was:
" I respectfully disagree.

I think modern technology and photography is good enough that looking at a photograph of the Mona Lisa via Google images, you can easily discern that it's a GOOD painting. It's not as good as seeing it in person (and you might miss on on some of the finer details) but I believe you can make a judgement about its quality.

If online photos were so worthless, how would you know which dinosaurs to buy in the first place? "

My reply:

In the case of painting, photography can't show the real deep of colors, the wide nuances of colors, the materiality of oil painting technique.
And the essence of color in a painting is all.
Did you ever try to take a pro picture of a painting ?
I did because it's my job: it's very hard to re-create the fine touch of an artist through pictures, even with modern technology.

An example: the stolen Caravaggio "Nativity" in Sicily.
Recently a team of photographers and art expert tried to re-create the lost masterpiece to show in the church where the painting originally was.
It took several months and extremely high technology equipment to do a picture that could be quite similar to an oil painting:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/12044479/How-a-long-lost-Caravaggio-masterpiece-was-recreated-nearly-50-years-after-it-was-stolen.html

I saw the replica and it's quite good to be a photographic product.
How much technology behind that result ? A lot...

In April there was an expo about Caravaggio in Milano.
The expo was shared between two locations.
In the main location there was a photographic reproduction of the "Martirio di Sant'Orsola". A good photographic replica.
In the second location there was the original.
Even if a good replica, the difference between still image and original was enormous.

I'm an art lover and I have a large number of art books in my library: to see a painting in person is totally different than seeing it in a book (because painting IS color NOT form).
If not so, it would be useless to visit art galleries and internet would be enough.

For a sculpture is much more complex because it has a three-dimensional rendition, a texture, a surface's grain etc etc..

Talking about dinosaur figures is like talking about sculpture in general.
Plus the fact that promotional pictures from major brands are, how can I say, very bad.. 

So if a person need a fast reference to decide buying or not a model, a picture is enough.
If a person has to do a review about a figure, he/she needs to view it with his/her own eyes to judge.

What could you say if I'd post a review on Dinosaur Toy Blog about a figure saying that my review is based on internet pictures and I've never seen it in  person ? 

[RobinGoodfellow]

Sea animals photography


As in the title, I'd like to explain the way I used to take pictures about sea animals figures.
Of course a sea figure is made to be seen in a "swimming" position so a photographer can't simply drop the figure on a flat surface and take a shoot.

The fastest and simply way is using a stand:


If the figure has a base, you can try to use Photoshop to "switch" your background to a new one (I talked before about this technique):


You could try to use diorama's elements (if you have them):


A clear rod as a stand is quite elegant:


There are even more "complex" stands on the market:


The main problem is about finding a right "stand" for long or big figures. 
In the past I used something like that:


It works but (from a visual point of view) it's not so pleasant.. 


So I tried to use a "big stand", a white overexposed background and Photoshop to delete the stand:



The final result is quite good but not too much "marine".. 


Then I tried a different way: a blu background and a Photoshop mask around the figure with a "out-of-focus" filter on the background:




The result is much more cool. 
(..but stand is quite visible..)

For small figures I also used posable clear rods:



But it's quite hard to use a stand if you have a big figure and you need a "dynamic", swimming pose:


That figure stands in a very precarious balance.. 


So I tried with custom-made support:


It takes too much time for me... 


The best way to obtain a dynamic swimming pose with big figures is with a simple Photoshop compositing effect, like that:






In the second part I'll show you how... 

END OF PART 1

[RobinGoodfellow]

PART TWO

It's very important to use a solid tripod for the digital camera (absolutely NO hand-held).

This is the picture I started from:


The visual composition is quite good to my eyes (but stands are terrible looking..).


The first thing to do is to take the same picture without the figures (background only).


In this specific case I also used a "set extension" technique because the background was too short:

(I could explain the "set extension" technique if requested)

Then I created a new Photoshop layer with deleted stands:


Now I imported the "extended" background as a lower layer in Photoshop:


I switched on the upper layer with figures and that's the result:


Background and figures didn't match so perfectly right now so I did a mask to exactly tune the background:


The final picture:


Figures are swimming inside my light-box environment... 

If you need more help, just ask.
Thanks for watching.

[RobinGoodfellow]

Hello, here there are some new tips about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography.
Recently I used HDR technique for an high contrast black/white paint application on a resin diorama: "Microraptor Hunting Eomaia" by Sean Cooper.

The right exposure for a black/white figure could be hard to find.
If you try to right expose for the white areas, the result is like this:



White areas are ok but the black areas are under-exposed:


So you could try to right expose the black areas but the result will be like this:


Blacks are ok but whites are heavily over-exposed:


You can do a good image using the HDR technique.
What's HDR?
Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging

You can do that with Photoshop.
A tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCteSD9oYT0


That's the same image after HDR in Photoshop:


After a tonal mapping, now the picture is perfectly exposed.

Then I used the "magic wand" to select the background only, to fine tune it separately:


Same for the figure:


After my Photoshop "treatment":


The final result:



I hope it could help...

[RobinGoodfellow]

A re-tooled picture of wonderful Carnegie Forest Rogers' Tylosaurus

I used different techniques I talked about before on this thread: Set Extension, Masking, Background Deletion & Replacement, Post-Production Shadows, Tonal Adjust

The original pictures from 2015:


The 2018 re-tooled image:


Thanks for watching

[Halichoeres]

Someday I will be able to afford Photoshop and do magical things like this!

[tanystropheus]

Someday I will be able to afford Photoshop and do magical things like this!

How about PicMonkey? 

[RobinGoodfellow]

GIMP is an excellent software; it's open source and totally free:

https://www.gimp.org/

It's available for Windows, Mac Os and Linux.

If you don't want to buy Photoshop, Gimp is the best alternative piece of software..

[RobinGoodfellow]

It's time to see some useful masking technique with Photoshop.
It's very important to only select the areas you want to specifically change for a solid visual result.

Here it is one of my early picture from 2015: Rebor "Hercules"


I'd like to tone down the background and add some extra-kick to the main figure.
To do that, I need to select the background white area and the figure separately


To do that quickly, the best tool is the Magic Wand :





Usually I use a value of 20% from the menu' (even less for a precise selection..  ).

Click on the background and the Magic Wand will select the white area for you.
Then "right click" for the contextual menu' and select "Create a new add layer"


As you can see, Magic Wand didn't select some areas (the white between Hercules' feet, the white near the neck of the dead dinosaur, some white spots inside the "Hans Schleich" human figure ):


To include these areas, just use the Magic Wand again clicking on those to select.
Then "right click" for the menu' and select "Create a new add layer" again:



You will have some extra layers with selected areas.

In my case, I created 14 different layers with Magic Wand.
(The layers' creation could be very time-consuming and boring but it's extremely important for a good final result  )
Then I used the main menu' to "flatten" all the background levels into one:


To check that the background selection is good, I use the "exposure tool" on the selection to change it temporarily to black.
If an error in selection was done then you see it immediately with a black background.
In my case, no error was done: the selection is ok.


Now I can fine-tune the background only (switch to a cyan color, tone-down the whole white, etc.. ):


The same "fine-tuning" for the main figure:



The result is ok but a little bit "flat":


To add some "depth" to image, I used the Post-Production' Shadows technique (in a gentle way..):


..then a frame and my sign:




Job done:


The picture before Photoshop' treatment:



..different image but same technique:



Thanks for watching

[RobinGoodfellow]

A fast visual gallery about Photoshop' enhancement of an image


Original picture


Main figure tonal treatment


Background tonal treatment


Edge reduction


Post-Production Shadows (very very gentle  )


Final picture:



..the same picture with a different look: overexposed white background:



( High Res Pictures here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/130140542@N03/albums/72157655387495041/page2 )

Thanks for watching

[Halichoeres]

I will try GIMP in the interim, thanks for the tip!

[RobinGoodfellow]

I will try GIMP in the interim, thanks for the tip!

Glad to help 

[acro-man]

Hello RobinGoodFellow,

I have recently started editing pictures and found yur tutorial extreme useful!

My question is:

1. re Shadow technique in reply #60, is it you overlap the Shadow layer above the figure layer? Won't it make the central white area more bright?

2. I use Fireworks. How do you compare it to GIMP?

[RobinGoodfellow]

Hello RobinGoodFellow,

I have recently started editing pictures and found yur tutorial extreme useful!

My question is:

1. re Shadow technique in reply #60, is it you overlap the Shadow layer above the figure layer? Won't it make the central white area more bright?

2. I use Fireworks. How do you compare it to GIMP?

Hello Jerry,

1) The Shadows Layer overlap the image.
In my explanation I didn't want to go too deep with technical discussions.
Mainly because I noticed that just few people on DTF are really interested in discussing Photoshop.
So there was an important fact I didn't say.
The Shadows Layer over the image use a "Blending Mode" to overlap the original picture; the Blending Mode I use is "Multiply".
A complete explanation about "blending modes" available in Photoshop would be too long for the thread.
Here a tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL3bfN-31F9RfIYmd445LK9F8pQ7jbmHPu&v=MsukMXtEYFQ


Using the "Multiply" blending mode in Photoshop, the layer' white doesn't "overexpose" the existing white of the picture.

2) Sorry, I never used Adobe Fireworks (formerly Macromedia Fireworks) in my life.
From what I know, Fireworks (now discontinued) is more oriented to vector graphics editors and web designers than photographers.
It's more like Illustrators than Photoshop or Gimp.
As I said, I don't know Fireworks so I can't compare it to Gimp or Photoshop.
The best free alternative software to Photoshop is still Gimp.

All the Best

[RobinGoodfellow]

A really good and complete tutorial on GIMP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EPIUyFJ4ag

[acro-man]

Thanks!
That would be helpful.

Guess it's time I step out of the "shell" I have been dwelling in.

The shell I meant is Fireworks.
Been using it for years only because it's light, fast, doesn't have to be too complicated to finish some simple editing, which suit perfectly to my laziness in learning.
It takes courage to learn new stuff.

Since you recommended, I will try GIMP - try to be as good as you are 

[RobinGoodfellow]

An easy selection with Photoshop' Magic Wand

A well known pro trick for the (few) people here interested in obtaining the best from their own pictures. 

As I tried to explain before in this thread, a good area "selection" is the base for an effective visual post-production.
But using the Magic Wand properly could be very time-consuming and boring. 
Mainly Magic Wand tries to analyze the borders of a figure to obtain a relative selection.
Helping Magic Wand to do that means saving a lot of time.

An image to start from:


We need to amplify the contrast between figure and background to simplify Magic Wand's work.

First of all, we have to duplicate the image into a new upper layer.
Then turn the new layer totally black and white (turn the color saturation to zero or use a Photoshop effect).
Use the Curves tool and the Contrast slide until you'll have an overexposed white background and a black figure, like this:



As you can see, the contrast between background and figure is very high now, with crisp and clear borders to work with.
Now you can use the Magic Wand (with an high value) very easily; you'll have the right area selected with just few and fast clicks.. 

Magic Wand's selection after just 1 click: Not bad at all 



Now you can switch off the "black" layer using the same selection on the starting image:




With just 2 or 3 fast new selections you'll have what you needed:




Now you can properly operate on figure and background separately.
Fast and easy.

The final result:


(..or with an overexposed background)



I hope it could help improving your pictures.

[RobinGoodfellow]

..my last "tutorial" for 2018.. 

BACKGROUND' REPLACEMENT in PHOTOSHOP (or GIMP  )

I will try to explain how to simply switch from a messy background to a more elegant one in PS.
My DinostoreUs/Favorite 1:1 Scipionyx samniticus model was simply too big to fit into my domestic light-box.
So I planned my picture for a total background' replacement.
I used a plain background that was quickly removable in PS.
My original shot:




First I created a black/white high contrast layer to help the Magic Wand tool to isolate the background:



I told before how to select areas with the Magic Wand tool:



The "reverse" selection with the main figure:



I used the Gradients Tool to create two layers (a cyan one and a brown one):



A tutorial about Gradients Tool in PS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Faf3cUZ7fcw&t=29s


The Scipionyx over the PS' created new background:



The new background was too "artificial" so I tuned it down with Saturation and Brightness slider in PS:



That's the final picture:



..maybe we will see again on 2019..

Thanks for watching


_