# "H. carpintis" & EBJD - Photoshop Class



## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

I recently took a course on Photoshop at a community college; and, here are some of the images from my final project.

"H. carpintis": a 6.75" (measured w/ tail out of water) "Short Bodied" H. carpintis; possibly a hybrid.









EBJD: an 8" (measured w/ tail oow; tail is abnormally long) EBJD. The paired pectoral fins are a bit deformed.









They paired up upon introduction and frequently display spawning activities; I have never seen eggs.









Please feel free to share your comments about the images and/or the fish.

Thanks,
Matt


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## jagz (Nov 1, 2009)

Nice shots!!


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## Fevz (Nov 18, 2009)

Nice shoots. But they are to dark for me


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## ws812 (Apr 17, 2009)

Nice looking fish. Let's see a full veiw of that EBJD. It looks like an amazing speciment.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

Thank you for the compliments; I appreciate it.

*Fevz*, I agree they are a bit dark; I may have gone a little overboard dodging. In addition, I need to get more light in the tank; as noted by the strange shadowing in the EBJD image below. I could also probably learn how to brighten them up with Photoshop.

Here is an image that is out of focus but shows the full EBJD. I thought I would post it because I like the way the "H. carpintis" looks and the colors in his tail; wish it was in focus.









Here is an in focus shot of the EBJD; it is not his full body but it gives you a better idea. You get a good view of his deformed paired pectoral fins.









Please feel free to make any comments or ask any questions regarding the fish or the images. I would also appreciate some tips or critiques regarding the images.

Thanks,
Matt


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

My apologies... above I meant to say "I may have gone a little overboard *burning*"

I also wanted to note of the two images in the previous post the first one is from April 2010 (the second is current).

Thanks,
Matt


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

Man those are some mean looking fish! They look like they want to bite your arm off. But beautiful colors


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

A little off-topic, but is your photoshop class teaching you to burn and dodge for photo editing? That is not the best way, so I hope it's just a springboard for getting to the better methods.

I'm not trying to offend you, or anything like that, but if you're going for dark, but with a better dynamic range of color, burn will kill that.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

Hi *FedEXguy*,

Thank you for pointing this out, I was hoping to get a few Photoshop tips by posting this thread.

Due to my history of developing B&W film photographs, I simply noticed the burn and dodge tools and decided to use them. The class was a basic introduction that primarily focused on removing imperfections, the use of layers (for collages and other effects), filters, and displaying images on the web.

I am a novice to Photoshop and am intrigued to hear some of the better options to modify the contrast/brightness of an image (or portion thereof) while maintaining a dynamic range of colors.

In my past attempts to modify the color/brightness/contrast of my aquarium images the result tends to look extremely unnatural and often "washed out".

Another issue may be the quality of the image. Most of these images I took with a telephoto lens with a Macro option (sometimes used) and one or two external flashes triggered by slaves. Therefore, I shot from approximately 4-6 ft away from the tank and used the flash on top of the camera deflected with cardstock to trigger the slave flash units above the tank. My other lens option is a standard 50mm.

If you (or others) have any advice regarding Photoshop or the way I am taking the images please share, I am excited to learn more.

Thanks,
Matt


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## Fevz (Nov 18, 2009)

You can also use two simple tools in photoshop. They are called *levels* and *curves*.
With levels you can modify lightnes and darknes of a picture. With curves you edit contrast of the image.
You have few videos about these tools:
Curves on youtube
Levels on youtube


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Levels and curves are going to be your workhorse options. There are also a number of other, more situational, tools to use under the image>adjustments tab.

One thing you can do, is duplicate the layer and desaturate the top layer. Then adjust it for a bit more contrast. Then change the layer's blending mode to linear light and drop the opacity until you get some color back. That should give you a background that's starting to drop out to black and keeps you with options to enhance colors elsewhere. That's the smash and grab method I use for speed. But there are literally hundreds of ways to do that same thing 

Basically, just play around, you'll start to "get it" before long.

Good luck, photoshop is fun.


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## NorthShore (Feb 3, 2006)

Maybe you can show us the original and then processed file for comparative purposes.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

NorthShore said:


> Maybe you can show us the original and then processed file for comparative purposes.


I appreciate everyone's help. It looks like I did not change the color/contrast much.

Original:









Processed (same image as seen in previous post above):









Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Matt


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

FedEXguy said:


> One thing you can do, is duplicate the layer and desaturate the top layer. Then adjust it for a bit more contrast. Then change the layer's blending mode to linear light and drop the opacity until you get some color back. That should give you a background that's starting to drop out to black and keeps you with options to enhance colors elsewhere. That's the smash and grab method I use for speed...


This image is out of focus; however, I decided to use it to try FedEXguy's advice above.

Original:









Processed:









I like this pose.

Comments, questions and advice are appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

I guess it is tough processing images to post on the web. When I worked on the image above with my computer that has Photoshop, I liked the results. However, now on a different computer it appears dark; in fact, all the images look darker on this computer. I think I like the original of the one above better; however, I did try FedExguy's advice on a few other images and it is a nice way to add contrast and make colors stand out.

I believe the original images were a bit dark in the first place. Next time I take pictures of my aquariums I will try to make the originals brighter by messing with the flash settings.

Thanks,
Matt


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## NorthShore (Feb 3, 2006)

You may want to make sure the profile setting in your photoshop matches the monitor you are using. I had the very same problem until I corrected the profile setting.


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## nouhfaw (Apr 11, 2011)

How do I make cutouts in photoshop that blends in the background or is hair? I want to make some cutouts in photoshop and save them as PNG files. But here's the thing how do I do this when it's fur of an animal, or hair of a person, or if the subject blends in to the background?


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## alfred123 (Sep 19, 2011)

Was just thinking someone may have an alt they like to fish on that is guildless or something. .5g per fish towards the achievement, 9k left to go so a possible 4.5k to be made if anyone is interested.


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## alfred123 (Sep 19, 2011)

Was just thinking someone may have an alt they like to fish on that is guildless or something. .5g per fish towards the achievement, 9k left to go so a possible 4.5k to be made if anyone is interested.


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