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Post: Black on Black Post Process

Lesson 19 from: Animal Photography

Rachael Hale McKenna

Post: Black on Black Post Process

Lesson 19 from: Animal Photography

Rachael Hale McKenna

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Lesson Info

19. Post: Black on Black Post Process

Lesson Info

Post: Black on Black Post Process

Let's find a cookie well we've got lots of black black black black black here so what I'm gonna do is I'm going to open all of the cookies actually we've got more than that as well we've got some from cracking we've got a lot we've got all these ones that just shows that we had plenty which I thought was usable with cookie which is good so we're gonna open those pretty quick hopefully yeah everyone had the reaction of the babushka shot in the dumper so what I did before I actually process thes in for that once I shot on the hair cells laid I was working in focus andi the ones on the cannon was in light room but before I actually process them to two files to work and photo shop and she did lighten all of them slightly just give me a little bit more to work with because we were shooting on very very dull lighting on natural light I just needed a little bit more of a kick before I even started really so um so what I'm gonna do view no window there we go there it is there I find it so I'm ...

gonna float all and when in the window and then we're gonna have a little look that cute they're all these that gorgeous profile which you loved tina yep that's curating that one see that was very so much the first film which we had oh that's a different possibility which we can work with that is really cute. Okay, that one to the side we're gonna look att that's cute as well but we're going to put that down the bottom there's another profile there's two profiles they're two trees one but I'll just put that down the bottom of the moment yeah and then we have uh s sir but I think there's a little bit of movement and that one that one's got a cute one but what we might do not put these ones down on the bottom that's wayne that's no cookie that's wayne cute already let's play with this one because this is very cute uh little character cookie and I should really liked the cropping on this as well possibly if I was going to have it as a um as an image for on my wall problem possibly would hmm maybe balance a little bit by adding a bit on side maybe coming down a little bit on the top but I don't I don't mean to crop a lot but it's more this is being this one's shown on the cannon which is a slightly different form it from what I'm used to working with hesselboe red hair so bled is probably more the format of what I've just shown you here with my cropping so I probably would so we'll go image crop notice duplicate my background layer and do a abet grand clone on eh on black is really easy fantastic protect me like two seconds to do this so I'm just gonna extend my background down we have a little bit more like coming and down the bottom here so tensed if you don't work from the bottom and I'll take them coal and that it's pretty good I'm just gonna watch my screen cause I can't tell if I've got stuff on my screen or whether it's on the image yeah see I find that a little bit more balance it is a bit more space between the age of the image now and cookies face so it just it just has a little bit more of a more balanced field which is great is that all right? Just when when you're working on black images everything shows up on here and yours is gonna get like a few fingerprints and stuff on here which I'm not going is it on the image or not? But it's not so this image to may the actual jumpers looking about blue and cookies skin times actually looking a bit green so we definitely need to do some color adjustments on this I'm going to do all of that first before I add my contrast and this regards purely because there's not a lot of contrasts adjustment I'm probably going to do right so we're gonna do we're still with a neutral stole so I'm going to just remove some blow eight. You see the difference in that? Yeah, but even the reed it's a hen tive ridley which but it's not a bad thing in this image because with black images, you do wanna warm too much that's too much read this I'm gonna remove some, but I might not have to take minus four twitch, you make it work like if I take it to what I would normally do, that she has gone back to being a little bit green so we might actually only go minus two to remove just a bit of the green. And I'm just going to see what taking some yellow out does. Yep, that's differently giving me more of a rich black taking the yellow see how that's change that, but it's definitely looks warmer, but we're, um yep cold so I'm happy with that now, she's also in this I'm gonna zoom into it iron, but more because I'm actually thinking I'm going to need to remove some yellow from my eye she's got a butt paige's a notorious for having like very blood blood shot sort of yellowy looking eyes so who's that to bed but we're um I also needed to see how she also got a bit of a weeping here this is quite common in politics as well so what I would do is go back onto the background copy and must going to do a little bit of cloning just to see if we can clean that up a little, but I was gonna do it let's say thirty percent capacity just so that weaken it's a very sentimental pain this over, right? So I'm just gonna go and just use my clone toll and just work over the syria just to get a little bit of that we penis not so obvious I'm not going totally, totally remove it because it'll look to false, but I'm just basically softening it down so it's not so noticeably obvious see how they highlight with the with her way penis is actually just a bit too, but do four on c that makes a you can see there now I've just held it down, robert so it was not as noticeable. Also, every little speak of dust on black shows up to see how she's got little speaks here. I'm just going to put it back to one hundred percent and just go through really quickly and just take out all those little little things which might actually be a bit distracting in a final image and then within that I would then go over the entire image and see if there's any black but the black backgrounds really good a rich black the jumper's got a few little things which I might just reattach out just toe stop any distractions happening clean it up make it doctor list this one it's obviously his favorite jumper it is a great jumper actually good australian designs they're wonderful. So this is just yeah that's not not a major there was actually not that much so very, very clean but it's always good to zoom in to be able to see these sort of things now I'm the sharpness on this it is sharp was a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of movement, so what I possibly would do is get my lesser it all and go around the eye. This is a do this occasionally if I think it just needs a little bit more and then you go into shopping gunshot mask and then we just do it very, very subtly we're on one one pixel radius, which is pretty subtle and then we're just going to take it up. This is something which occasionally would do if I have been working in a broom on a slow shutter speed in natural light. Then we just get a tiny bit of movement taking up like like if you could go all the way up and it looks a bit to hash, it doesn't need too much so probably at one thirty it's very, very subtle but if you I don't know if you possibly can't see it that clearly on there but if you if you do it yourself you can really really must monitor what you're doing but I wouldn't even even do it really intensely because it looks so false so you can't take an image which is deed out of focus in shopping and I that you gotta have a tte least shop to be able to give it a bit more christmas all right look oh it's so cute already so I've done that so now I'm just going to see how much contrast we actually need thio if any too into this they're working with black images is always a little bit more subtle than any others but it depends on the light you've bean on so I'm gonna need to move it down against we could see our input and output so what do you know? You really gotta watch with black eyes that see how you fight the more I go over the darker it gets in the blacks not a good look for black some probably only going ed maybe only phillips thing on its very subtle three and maybe down to like two forty eight or something what he see even maybe it is very very subtle what admitting to this it's either it's just very minimal amount and I also know you don't I wouldn't even bother darkening ages on that one you can't because the one this is really really black anyway, the only thing would happen is that this area here would possibly be more gradual into cookie but which I might do because it is being a little bit more pale there it's possibly better toe draw the iron but who expression is so magical in there they and it shii goes straight to her face anyway so you're not goingto goingto miss gonna zoom in a little bit and just check the coloring in her eye just to see with the way we want actually remove any so if I go back into um actually I need to do a new layer by the way ray chain soap is not wrong cookies mom is watching right now. Oh god, she was taking a mama does she like this image she loves it loves it that is very very cute. Her expression is like it's like the mona lisa this shot it isthe anomalisa face yeah cooking school just that expression is just priceless. Yeah, president's yes, it is. Okay, so we want to go to selective color adjust I keller and I'm just gonna, um just work with that not all tried just removing yellow and the neutrals and to say remember this is going to affect the whole image but what I'm goingto does and go back and just take it back to its original state and then just go back and and subtly bring out a little bit of yellow in the eye she's actually got pretty clean eyes which is good but it's it is going reader though, which is no eh not a good thing it has removed some of the yellow out there though but it's making the blackguard to blow so well we will defeat bring about but I'm just going to have a look at removing a little bit of mint ginger as well it's always really had to tell when it's a justice adjust the whole image so it's often you do what you think then you go it fell bring it backto what it wass and then you khun bring back that area well it's a way to big brush tool get back down to a small and then almost died at fifty percent capacity bring back and what I have done to the eye to see if it and she hissed um very, very, very subtle so I'm just gonna bring up the opacity a little bit more, maybe two seventy five halfway again seventy four close enough. Um yeah, hopefully you can see it is very, very subtle, but that has just cleaned it I up just a little bit um look, uh well, so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna do one. I'm just going to see what it's like, if we do let dark and that age just to see if the eye gets drawn on, but, um, we can always dump the layer if I don't think it's necessary. So it's gonna be a very much a black oh, funny that. And then, um go to that size brush fifty percent capacity and then bring it just down that side, this little book and I'm gonna go multiply trump their capacity enough. They're probably it does help actually see how it just takes you. I even further enter into cookies face. Yeah, so that's pretty good there's. Not a hell of a lot to do to that it's and I might do a little bit more color adjustment when I'm in a bit of light at the moment. It's quite hard sometimes and see the colors when you've got studio lights around. Because it's but that's pretty that's, pretty good. So we're gonna go save s cooking the cookie monster and onto their we're going to do again, eh? Hey esty, save and she is saved.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Keynote
Black on Black
Photographing Kitten and Puppies
Shooting for Licensing and Publishing
Working with Adult Cats
Working with More Challenging Animals
Shooting on Location - The French Cat - The French Dog
Taking an Idea and Working Through the Process
Ways to Get Started in the Animal Photography Industry
Rachael on Location - Kelsey Creek Farm

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This course was definitely worth the investment - both time and money. With about 15 hours worth of video sessions and amazing bonus handouts - Rachael provides some really useful, practical tips that you can apply straight away regardless whether you're just beginning your photography journey or are a seasoned professional. It was great to see Rachael at work in session - especially her techniques used to calm and quieten her models if needed. She had a potpourri of helpful suggestions such as remember to take both landscape and portrait shots (if possible), know your rights to take and use images - don't assume, be extra vigilant with cleanliness especially around kittens and puppies who may not have been fully vaccinated, keep kittens and puppies isolated in pens or cages if not in their own environment as they're escape artists etc. Her extensive experience with licensing agents and publishing houses was insightful ... and not for the faint-hearted, so it seems! Thanks Rachael for taking the time to share your know-how, tips and techniques and giving us a peek into your world and workflow you follow to produce awesome animal shots.

Shawna
 

I loved this class! I don't I tend to be a "pet photographer" but I do want to be a "Pet friendly" photographer! I have gotten lots of tricks and tools to use while photographing occasional clients pets and my own! ( I have a horse, a pony, bunnies, cats, dogs and ducks) I'm super glad I watched the class live and I'm even more glad I bought it so I can re- watch it whenever I want :) (The shoot with the mini horse, dogs, chicken, duck and people was awesome! It loomed like my family picture would look if my husband didn't say "no" on occassion! lol)

Rebecca Potter
 

Love, Love, Love this course... Rachael is so down to earth and inspiring and I enjoyed all the hands-on shooting which shows you how patient you need to be for this type of photography. Truly an amazing course... Thank you.

Student Work

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