where can I get more pins???!?

Curvemeister pins are like a memory bank for colors. Discuss techniques and applications for pins. Find out about new pin files here!
derekfountain
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Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:24 pm

Postby derekfountain » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:38 am


Skin tones are best if you "nail" a picture of a known person (family member for example) and then save that tone for future use.  The problem in using a skintone pin, however, is that you have to keep your subject out of the sun or tanning salons so the color doesn't change.  (Maybe have one for each season of the year?  ;D )  A cheekbone may not have the same tone as an arm or neck or forehead, so be careful.  Skin pins would be most useful for balancing a single shooting session so all images are consistent for that session.


Surely a skin tone from a person changes from one image to another? A skin tone from a photo taken at sunset will surely be different from the tone of the same area of skin taken under different lighting conditions?

ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:00 pm

I think we are assigning more to the pins than we should...they are a great resource to get an image back into an area where things look right.  But they cannot represent the be all and end all of skin colors or any colors for that matter. 

I see them more as guide posts along the way to get me closer to where I want to be faster. An example would be skin tones under florescent lighting. 

Skin tone can change from moment to moment...A runner before a race then after a race will have a vastly different skin tone.

Greg

mdavis
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Postby mdavis » Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:50 pm



I'd like to point out that you are not color correcting with highlight and shadow.  Rather to me they are "special" pins that set the level. Setting a highlight should not shift the color of your image.  It should set the upper limit of the pixel value for that image..same with shadow.


Well, yes and no.  If you pin a highlight, it will force that to neutral 255,255,255 or a shadow to 0,0,0.  If you pick a highlight or shadow that isn't really a true highlight or shadow and has some color information in it, the pin will shift color of that area to a neutral (equal RGB values) which can affect your image.

Curvemeister has a much better way to set highlight and shadow by pulling in the ends of the histogram if you watch all the color channels so you don't clip one before the others.  This is one reason that Dan Margulis argues to use individual channels when setting highlight/shadow points.

ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:15 pm

true enough...forgot about the color shifted highlights...and blue blacks...

mdavis
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Postby mdavis » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:56 am

I guess it really depends on the image.  I shoot a lot of landscape stuff, some old barns, old cars, stuff like that.  Often, there really isn't a "good" highlight to be found unless you compress the histogram down to force one toward the top of the range.  Reflections don't work and can be dangerous since there is usually no information in them, just blown out light.  So for my work (and everyone's mileage may vary), I often find it very tough to find a true highlight, a true neutral.  I like to use shaded white if I can find it (snow fields in the mountains if they don't have that red algae in them), or a shirt collar on the down-lit side, a white painted building on the shady side, etc.  A neutral pin doesn't have to be 126,126,126, rather it can be anything that is neutral, light or dark.  Concrete is usually safe, rocks, especially in the mountains, can be very misleading and colorful, not just reddish.  Tires are good.

There is a very interesting and informative (and eye-opening) lesson in Dan Margulis' book "Professional Photoshop" in an earlier version (not the current 5th edition) of a man in a gray suit.  I haven't had time to work through the 5th Edition yet but I'm sure there is a replacement for that image in the latest edition as well.  The bottom line is that, if you put a marker on various locations where you "should" know what a reasonable color balance is, and you pin something that looks like the right pin but the color balance goes haywire (becomes unreasonable) elsewhere in the image, then you have guessed wrongly.

My experience is that, if you use pins, be very critical afterwards that the pin hasn't thrown the color balance off for the remainder of the image.  And of course, you have to decide if you want accurate colors, or impressive images that exploit saturation moves.

Thanks, Greg, for standing in while Mike is off flying around!

ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:05 pm

Thanks, Greg, for standing in while Mike is off flying around!
Posted on: December 09, 2007, 11:15:21 amPosted by: Greg Groess 


I am trying not to break anything including the time it takes for you all to get response from someone....

Sounds like he might be on his way back from parts east...

Greg


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