Hi everyone,
One of the benefits that Curvemeister has over Photoshop is the ability to create curves in the HSB color mode (Photoshop only has RGB, CMYK and Lab). Each of these color modes have advantages in particular situations (you'll learn more about this over the next few weeks); in approaching this image, I decided that HSB would be the best way to correct this photograph.
Greg mentioned that the client was unhappy with the background, but that the rest of the image was ok. The principle issue with the background is that it is too vivid; therefore the saturation of the background needs to be reduced.
Selecting the 'HSB' radio button to the bottom-right of the curve window switches us into the HSB color mode. Now we need to find where we need to make our adjustments.
BT_LH_Step-1.jpg (attached) shows my saturation adjustment (before/after). The process was as follows:
- Find the region of the curve that will effect the background - mark this region for later.
- Find the region of the curve that will effect the skintone - prevent it from moving.
- Adjust the region of the curve that will effect the background - reducing the saturation of the background.
To find and mark the region of the curve that will effect the background, right-click the background (over the grass) and select 'Mark' from the context menu.
To find and lock the region of the curve that will effect the skintone (preventing it from being adjusted), right-click on the skin and select 'Contrast Pin'; the contrast pins added (again, you'll learn this during the course) will keep the skintones safe during the saturation adjustment.
To adjust the region of the curve that will effect the background - reducing the saturation of the background - I pulled the top-right end-point of the Saturation curve downwards (again, see
BT_LH_Step-1.jpg - attached).
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Having improved the saturation of the background, I decided that the foliage was too yellow (for my own taste). This correction is a matter of personal taste, and you may decide that you don't want to make this adjustment. My own point-of-view is that yellow is a very aggressive color - a color that subconsciously attracts attention - by reducing the amount of yellow in the foliage, we can make them less dominant visually. Therefore, my process was:
- Again, I needed to find out where on the curve (
the Hue curve this time) the skintones and foliage were. If you look at
BT_LH_Step-2.jpg (attached) you will see (towards the left of the curve window) two large gray spikes. These spikes show us where the skintones and foliage are on the curve. How did I know this? Right-click on (in turn) an area of skintone and an area of foliage. Select 'Quick Pin' from the context menu to add a point to the curve at the appropriate location.
Leave the point corresponding to the skintone color alone.Slightly raise the point corresponding to the foliage, to move that color away from yellow and towards blue. Again, the degree to which you will move this point is governed by personal taste.In addition to the two screenshots that show my curve adjustments, I have also attached my version of the image (after adjustment) and a side-by-side before/after comparison, so that you can see how much I altered the image.
I hope that my explanations made sense! If you have any questions please let me know...