Fun Part 2

[ggroess]

Help this water lily. 

Remember that the shadow level should be the darkest "significant" part of the image. 
I'll leave it pretty open as to what that means for now.

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

1 a touch of noise reduction
2 a highlight threshold on the flower in CM
3 a contrast pin across thickest part of the histogram,for the underwater detail,saturation boost
4 edge sharpening for flower and leaves.
GregM

[leeharper_admin]

Hi Greg,

For the second time in a row, I've been caught off guard with the image you posted  :) I the water lily image absolutely terrified me when I opened it up. Usually when I approach an image I have something in mind; this time I had no idea how to improve the image...

With this photo there were no known colours that I felt sure about; the water looked muddy, but who's to say that it shouldn't be? Therefore I corrected this image by eye, and somewhat artistically. I've made the water slightly greener because I think it accentuates the lily better - and I guess that, had I been there, simultaneous contrast might have pushed the water towards green anyway.

Lab seemed too coarse a colour mode to work with (and my suspicions were correct), and I did not want to use RGB because that is the mode that I am most accustomed to, and I am trying to use this course to help me become more comfortable with other colour models, so I decided to try an WG CMYK, and an HSB correction (curve files attached).

In both cases I couldn't decide where to put the shadow point, so I used the threshold feature to set the shadow points. Doing this created a vignette effect that I liked, and I found that when working in CMYK (with Light Black GCR) I could enhance this (without plugging the darker areas within the water) to a greater degree than I could when working in HSB.

As mentioned, I thought that the water might look better greener, so curves were tweaked to that effect. In comparing the two versions (which were on separate layers in Photoshop), I decided that I preferred the detailing and colour in the CMYK version, but the saturation in the HSB version, so my uploaded file is a blend of both treatments (top - HSB - layer is set to the Saturation blend mode).

When working on the image I really enjoyed working with the saturation curve in HSB. I wanted to desaturate the water without desaturating the flower, but without using a mask I don't feel I was particularly successful in achieving this. I don't really understand how to curve in HSB, so I was rather blindly altering the HSB curves... Having said this, in the HSB version the flower's reflection was less saturated than in my CMYK attempt, and I preferred this. The reflection in my CMYK correction lacked believability - which is why I used the saturation from my other attempt.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how other people correct the file, and seeing how else the image can be interpreted.

Lee.

[mikemeister_admin]

Having seen Greg M's version, my water lily looked a little weak, so I've just been experimenting with CurveMeister's mask feature, and found a good mask for the lily in the form of an inverted, and steepened, B channel (lightly blurred).

I tried boosting saturation in both Lab and HSB, and preferred Lab. In HSB when I rotated the Saturation curve it boosted saturation at the base of the flower, but the bright tips of the petals were becoming desaturated. In Lab the saturation boost was more uniform across the lily.

I began boosting the saturation via the slider (from 1.0 to 1.5), and followed this up by rotating the B curve slightly towards yellow, changing the colour of the lily.

Lee  ;)

[ggroess]

Nice job Lee.  If this what you are doing while confused...I can't wait to see what happens when you get a better handle on the CM work flows...

I like the interpretation you have created.  For me there is no real right or wrong; you stated it quite well that had you been there you might make some different decisions but that is the hard part of the image correction process many are forced to go through.  If you shoot the image you already have a pre-visualization of what you wanted in the image and you can work to that goal. 

I'm glad we are giving you something to sink your teeth into.

Greg

[ggroess]

1 a touch of noise reduction
2 a highlight threshold on the flower in CM
3 a contrast pin across thickest part of the histogram,for the underwater detail,saturation boost
4 edge sharpening for flower and leaves.
GregM

Nicely done Greg...subtle and true to the original image.

Greg

[imported_ganna]

I did noise reduction, pushed the clarity slider to 40 to enhance midtone contrast. In CM a highlight threshold on the top flower petal. Difficult not to burn this part out. I pushed the shadow part, and a futher S-curve to boost contrast and saturated to 130 (All in Lab mode) Lastly I sharpened with unsharp mask. I would have liked a bit more contrast of the underwater leaves alone.

[ggroess]

Great version...

Question...More contrast in the underwater leaves...were you looking for definition?  or just visual impact...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

It's easy to lose the water surface in this image,that's why I went with edge sharpening for the flower and left the stems a bit murky.GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

did a version for under the surface.moved the shadow a nudge to the right,no highlight and a neutral on one of the underwater leaves or rocks.Figured slime is grey and if it isn't  at least it cuts back the yellow.Strong luminosity sharpening.GregM