Photoshop advice

[LCPete]

Hi Whats the easiest way in photoshop to bring out the blue colour of this Broad Bodied Chaser
I remember it being a really vivid blue but I've not got the exposure right but using digital exp comp in DPP makes the background too dark
thanks
Pete

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/lcpete/_MG_8960malebroadbodiedchaser.jpg

 

[garymercer]

Not sure on the photoshop question, however you will need to resize your image to 800 pixels on the longest edge or the mods may delete it!!

 

[Kerioak]

Hi Pete
I have no idea if this is the right blue, it does not look very natural, but it might give you an idea

I used "selective color" chose blue and slid all the sliders across to the right then repeated this a few times to increase the colour

 

[LCPete]

Thanks Gary I've uploaded it again
Thanks Kerioak will try the "selective colour"
Pete

 

[Werecow]

I had a go based on the Broad Bodied Chasers i've seen before.
I don't think it's all that far off their real colour. Just a bit over-exposed and flat looking.

I duplicated the layer in photoshop, used the eraser tool to make a hole in the top layer over the dragonfly's tail.
Then i boosted the saturation of the layer underneath quite a bit. Then used photoshops exposure tool to pull back some of the over-exposed highlights.
Then i sharpened a little for a bit more impact

Hi Whats the easiest way in photoshop to bring out the blue colour of this Broad Bodied Chaser
I remember it being a really vivid blue but I've not got the exposure right but using digital exp comp in DPP makes the background too dark
thanks
Pete

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/lcpete/_MG_8960malebroadbodiedchaser.jpg

 

[Janice]

In the dodge and burn tools is a saturation tool for wiping on where the want the saturation higher. start at about 3% and work up to how strong you like it. Make sure saturation is selected in the top tool bar though... not destaturate!

 

[moomike]

I'd personally be careful of using anything too close to dodging & burning as they are part of the "destructive" toolset imo.

I'd probably:
1. Duplicate the layer, place it over your image & set it to "multiply"
2. Apply a "hide all" layer mask.
3. Select the abdomen area - as the tone is very similar in this case I would use the magic wand at a low tolerance & then go to the "select" menu & click on "similar" this will also select pixels that share a closeness to your original selection & also the tiny areas of blue reflection in the wings (picky picky )
4. Fill the selection with white (make sure that the mask is selected & not the layer itself) to reveal the multiply layer.
5. Selective colour if this has not boosted the colours enough.

A bit of a long winded way to do it but works wonders for awkward exposures like wedding dresses, etc. as it just uses the image information already present in your photograph & because it's a mask it can be re-edited at any point too

Edit: Here we go - tis quite similar to Werecows version though

 

[LCPete]

Thanks very much Janice Werecow and Moomike for your help.
I,m still learning on the photoshop stuff, what you guys have done to my origanal has made a big improvement I will try out myself now will keep me busy
Pete

 

[LCPete]

Here we are
thanks everyone learnt a lot today