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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> Color, lighting & contrast?
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Showing posts 1 - 14 of 14, (reverse)
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08/29/2005 11:12:00 PM · #1
I know this is probably a pretty "blah" image, but I was wondering if anyone wanted to comment on the color, lighting & contrast of this?

I've been trying to improve on those 3 things...

Thanks...

08/30/2005 12:16:38 AM · #2
Looks great. One thing I think might look good is to convert to lab color and raise the contrast on the luminance channel (or apply a large, heavy USM).
08/30/2005 12:38:57 AM · #3
I think there is overall contrast throughout the image (a little slim on the upper end, though), but the building itself could use a boost. Lighting is ok, but still hitting the front pretty much straight on, the shadow covering part of the left side is pretty strong. Color...depends on what you're going for.

There's a lot more there if you dig. It really depends on what you want the final image to look like.
08/30/2005 11:34:59 AM · #4
Originally posted by Plexxoid:

Looks great. One thing I think might look good is to convert to lab color and raise the contrast on the luminance channel (or apply a large, heavy USM).


I'll have to give that a whirl.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.
08/30/2005 11:37:51 AM · #5
Originally posted by tsheets:

I think there is overall contrast throughout the image (a little slim on the upper end, though), but the building itself could use a boost. Lighting is ok, but still hitting the front pretty much straight on, the shadow covering part of the left side is pretty strong. Color...depends on what you're going for.

There's a lot more there if you dig. It really depends on what you want the final image to look like.


Thanks tsheets, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

I guess WRT color, I was looking for something that seemed "naturally colorful", without looking overprocessed. (If that makes any sense)

I'm going to try to take your suggestions, and see if I can improve on that.

Thanks again!
08/30/2005 11:42:16 AM · #6
I agree with the comments about the lack of contrast. Would like to see a little more color... maybe bumping up the saturation a bit and playing with the channels. I also find the power lines and shadows cast by them VERY distracting. They should be rather easy to clone out. I'm not sure about the street sign either... would like to see the above mentioned suggestions with and without the street sign.

My 2 cents.
08/30/2005 11:52:23 AM · #7
I played with your image a little. All I did was a contrast mask, levels adjustment and slight saturation increase.



I've had some good results with the technique I learned from this contrast masking tutorial.
08/30/2005 12:31:13 PM · #8
Here's a quick shot at it. Shadow and highlight masks on separate layers, blended in screen and multiply, hue/saturation, USM.

Your basic problem with this shot is the VERY flat lighting, coming from over your left shoulder and lighting both sides of the barn equally; not a recipe for strong modelling of shapes.



R.
08/30/2005 08:53:40 PM · #9
Wow! Thanks everyone.

It's funny how you see your photo(s) a certain way. Then, you see someone else's take on it, and you realize how bad your version really was...

I took some of your suggestions, & here is the result... Better?

(Thanks again)

08/30/2005 09:10:18 PM · #10
Actually, I think the street signs add much needed itnerest to the shot.. and the sky looks a bit too cyan to me in your version. The blending that bear is referring to are included in one of the tutorials on the site about recovering detail from shadows and highlights.
08/30/2005 09:52:59 PM · #11
My take... cloned out one street sign and all the power lines, USM... I like bears colors better though.... Quick and dirty, cloning could be better.

08/30/2005 11:24:31 PM · #12
You guys are all doing interesting variations, but what's with the sickly blues, people? Make a selective color layer, adjust saturation/black level/hue on both blue and cyan and you can make it any shade you want from greenish to purplish no problem. The more you pump the saturation, the more you can reduce the black level, making it darker (or vuce versa) and you can use the hue slider to adjust to what seems a neutral blue.

You just need to work cyan and blue channels in tandem, they are interdpendent. Basically you need to increase/decrease saturation and black level in these channels roughly the same amount. This is because they tend to overlap each other in large areas like sky, and if you make one of them darker than the other then when you zoom in you can see a mottled, grainy effect where they overlap.

I'm for leaving the signs in, I like 'em. Ditto the wires; if you're gonna have signs, the wires aren't anachronistic and they add some zip to the composition. I considered selecting out the stop sign (easy to do with the polygonal lasso) and racking down the saturation there, but kind of liked the hyper-red so never did it.

Regarding the shadow and highlight masks, it's true they are usually used to reduce contrast, but in this case I used them to increase it, by screening the highlights and multiplying the shadows.

Incidentally, all the hue/sat/levels work was done without selections. Didn't have to use any, the colors are so distinct int he sky area that I was able to control it with hue/sat and its black level alone.

Robt.

Message edited by author 2005-08-30 23:25:54.
08/31/2005 12:31:16 PM · #13
Ok. I think I found a large part of my problem.

My monitor needs to be calibrated, and/or replaced. It's a 10+ year old 21" Sony monitor.

There goes much more $ towards my "hobby". :(

I thought Golf & Ice Hockey were expensive...

I didn't really notice the cyan problem, until it was pointed out. But now that I'm at work reading this thread(shhhhh), it looks completely different. Also, my original picture looks almost totally desaturated as well on my work monitor.

...any donations would be greately appreciated! :D

Thank you for the help everyone!

08/31/2005 01:06:22 PM · #14
Originally posted by bear_music:

You guys are all doing interesting variations, but what's with the sickly blues, people? Make a selective color layer, adjust saturation/black level/hue on both blue and cyan and you can make it any shade you want from greenish to purplish no problem. The more you pump the saturation, the more you can reduce the black level, making it darker (or vuce versa) and you can use the hue slider to adjust to what seems a neutral blue.

You just need to work cyan and blue channels in tandem, they are interdpendent. Basically you need to increase/decrease saturation and black level in these channels roughly the same amount. This is because they tend to overlap each other in large areas like sky, and if you make one of them darker than the other then when you zoom in you can see a mottled, grainy effect where they overlap.

I'm for leaving the signs in, I like 'em. Ditto the wires; if you're gonna have signs, the wires aren't anachronistic and they add some zip to the composition. I considered selecting out the stop sign (easy to do with the polygonal lasso) and racking down the saturation there, but kind of liked the hyper-red so never did it.

Regarding the shadow and highlight masks, it's true they are usually used to reduce contrast, but in this case I used them to increase it, by screening the highlights and multiplying the shadows.

Incidentally, all the hue/sat/levels work was done without selections. Didn't have to use any, the colors are so distinct int he sky area that I was able to control it with hue/sat and its black level alone.

Robt.


Thanks for the info bear. Actually I didn't know how to do all that (still learning the PS ropes). I was just trying to show a version without all the lines. I knew my colors were pretty bad.
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