Eye Candy

[ggroess]

Make this look Vibrant and colorful.

The flower is very White.....

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

So we just need a colourful yellow - simple, my foot.

Greg has thrown us a real googley - why?  Well when you saturate yellow (in Lab), it quickly gets into impossible colours (those that can not be shown on a monitor).  I devoted an entire page to this problem on my web site.  As you ask for a brighter and more colourful yellow, the rgb values start to remove the blue - thus making the colour darker (and more vibrant?).  This will also upset the neutral colour of the petals!  A real catch 22 problem.

So I cheated and used a mask not to upset the petals too much (in step c).

Greg - the image was quite a bit out of focus, so I initially gave it a burst of FocusMagic (4 pixels).

I then curved 3 times in CM, each on their own layer.
a) rgb for colour, b) rgb for luminosity (and layer blend to Luminosity) and c) Lab for colour (layer blend to Darken)

Then in PS I curved in rgb to lighten the image and masked so it just effected the main area

I've done 2 renditions - the difference in the second one is just a bit of blurring over the main area to give it a glow.

[ggroess]

It is soft due to the fact that my son shot this with his Nikon point and shoot.  Macro setting.  No tripod...


I like both versions  BTW...

I knew some sharpness was needed...
Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

For one version I chose the dark side-HSB.GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

That's great GregM for a single curving - it reminds me that I really must get to practice and know the HSB space (and perhaps CMYK).
I always ignored these two spaces on the course - perhaps I better take the next one!

[mikemeister_admin]

A lighter(frontlit) version.GJM. Chris,I like that inner glow you got in that yellow thing in the middle of the flower,it looks like it's ready to eat a human.

snap 1 original version,I lifted the left side of the lightness curve which gave some front light to the petals,then some saturation.
snap 2 after reading Zog's post I thought I could add a bit of yellow to the image.Snap2 is a recreation of the curves.I moved the a channel line  into negative territory,then pushed the b channel for the yellow.Next a bit of touch up in the upper corner  magenta area for the reds.   

[mikemeister_admin]

I like that - much more natural than mine (but I like going OTT) and I love the shading on the left petals - a believable image - well curved

[mikemeister_admin]

I was surprised how well lifting the left side of the L channel helped model the petals,also I lifted the idea of more yellow from you.GregM

[ggroess]

This is great stuff...

Everyone....If you are having trouble following the conversation...Please ask questions....This image is very typical and as you can see many different approaches can be taken to improve the image.

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

As I love orchids I had to give a try. The only corrections I did were in CM lab mode. NBW. Tried not to overdue it. Some extra red in lab was to my liking. As Greg pointed out this orchid is white but the light mostly gives it som cast or? Nice photo for trying a personal tuch. I think lab mode is very good for this as fast and great fun.