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One photo - three creative edits in Luminar Neo and Photoshop

 Creating Three Moody Images out of One Shot I initially didn't plan to create three or more different images out of this photograph. I wanted to see how I can edit this foggy somehow chaotic forest image in Luminar Neo. I liked the atmosphere and I can still recall the morning I took this photo. I knew I had to make a lot of chnages , because of all the distracting twigs on the left and right hand side as well as at the top of the frame. First Step - Editing in Luminar Neo I usually develop my images in Lightroom Classic  but decided to use Luminar Neo this time because I wanted to see how their various creative in part AI powered tools inspire me. Basic edits were quickly done. I usually start with Luminar's Enhance AI, I found this tool often leads to considerable improvements to build upon. I then moved to the Develop section to make further basic adjustments such as exposure, highlights, shadows, contrast and so on until I am satisfied.  As this image has almost no colour

Updated: Steps to creating textures: Shooting surfaces & Free Texture

Hi,
I have updated this old, but still valid tutorial on shooting surfaces for textures. I also added a new high-res freebie!
Have a nice weekend!

June 23, 2018

Hello,

I'd like to give some hints & tips concerning shooting surfaces that may serve as a basis for the creation of your own texures.


Shooting surfaces & textures
  • Use auto focus, in my experience it is very hard to focus textures manually. Even with auto focus you should take various shots to make sure the focus is right.

  • Distance to surface: Normally you want to have great detail. Depending on the surface you are going to shoot, you will have to get closer (fabrics, paint, clothes) or farther away ( rough stone walls, soil, bricks). However you should fill the full frame with what you are shooting.

  • Angle: The object of desire should be shot in a 90° angle facing the camera directly. If you don't do this, you might have to fix perspective issues, but keep in mind that there are limits to the extend of what you can remedy in software.

  • Light: avoid dark shadows, flare, reflections – shoot on a cloudy day, never in direct sunlight (if possible), don't use a flash!

  • Aperture: avoid shallow dof. In my experience an aperture of 4.5. - 7.1. is best.

  • Exposure: keep your ISO as low as possible (ISO 100/200).

  • Shutter Speed: If you shoot handheld a speed of 1/60 and higher is recommended. Blurred parts of a texture kill detail and might render your shot unfit for use as a texture. If you shoot in darker surroundings use a tripod.

  • Shoot in RAW. I normally do a lot of post processing on my textures and RAW gives you alot more of possibilities.

  • Lenses: I found out that shooting with an angle of 35 mm to 50 mm is best, so better no wide angle lenses, because of the lens distortion.

 This short article comes with another free texture. Just click on the picture to download it from Deviantart!





Next time I will give another example of how I finally create a texture. You can check out my first post on the actual creation of a texture here:

the making of a texture

 Have a great weekend!!



 


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