a study in brown...

[ggroess]

What can I say...he's brown...

Make him look better and see if you can hold onto the details...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

1  noise reduc,then shaping the lightness line to separate the critter from the background,kind of a s plus s curve to get highlights to fur on back
2 s curve across narrow spike of sat histogram in HSB.primary color correction
3 MCP freebie hi-def action
4 slight color boost in Lab to make up for transmission losses.GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

This is my first attempt...

I think that it's a bit heavy handed (on reflection the saturated areas of fur seem a bit too vivid, and the dark area of fur at bottom-right a bit too dark), so I will have another crack at it later on. In any case, here's what I did to this one:

• In Photoshop, I blurred the picture to find an average colour value for the fur (using Lab values I got A: 8, B: 16)


• In CurveMeister, I applied a 'Man from Mars' curve to enhance colour variation (see attached curve file).


• Back in Photoshop I cut back the opacity of this 'Man from Mars' adjustment to 20%.


• Back to CurveMeister to play with the HSB Saturation curve (see attached). I wanted to separate the animal from the background, so I cut back on the background saturation with a 'Low Shoulder' curve.


• Having more-or-less corrected the colour, I applied (in another pass) an S-curve to the L channel - having used the 'Mark' option in the contextual menu.


• I also wanted to multiply the Black channel into the image, and tried to copy the K channel (from the Masks palette) by clicking the clipboard icon in the ribbon bar. However, this didn't work (perhaps I didn't go about it properly), so I had to do this in Photoshop.


• I finished with two applications of Unsharp Mask - 1) USM 30/20/10, 2) 150/0.3/10

As I say, I'm not totally happy with this version, so I'll try it again later...

--

As a newbie I've a request to make of those participating in this week's challenges - would you mind saving and attaching the curves you use to create your versions? I loved Ganna's Water Lily yesterday, but could not get close to emulating it, and I think that being able to apply and tweak other peoples curves is the best way for me to learn how to write my own. I've always found writing curves really difficult so I'd really appreciate looking at the curves written by people who know what they're doing  :)

[ggroess]

nicely done Lee....
Also a great suggestion...

I will try to save and post the ACV files as much as possible.  It is sometimes not remembered but I'll do my best...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Thanks Greg  :D

I'm sure that when you know what you're doing you are probably writing the curves so quickly and intuitively that there is no point saving the curves out. I have been watching the colour correction videos on Kelby Training that Dan Margulis recorded, and it's scary the speed at which he writes his curves!

Lee  ;)

[ggroess]

I think that writing curves fast takes a while but you will get there.  The intuition part of it comes from understanding the basics and being willing to throw out a bad choice. Frequently.

Many times I start on an image and I reach a point and find myself wrestling with the whole darn thing too much...I close and start over.  I have really surprised students in this class when we do the screen share session with that whole process.

It really is much easier to curve in CM than in PS or PSE.  I think that takes some getting used to as well.  The abilities we have to switch color space in the middle of a correction and to place hue clocks directly on the image greatly speed up the process. 

I'm not as fast as Dan and many times his goals are quite different from mine;  I do find myself watching some of his videos and saying...Wow, if you would just use CM you could do that in a few seconds rather than putting all the other steps into the process.

One of the things I "preach" is the visualization part of the process.  It is not really written in the course but throughout the class I will ask "what are the goals for this image?"  This single question really steers your correction.  With a plan and some goals the curves come much faster.

During this week I try hard to stay out on the edge and bring in items that show off some of the abilities of the program..i.e. Masks, Color worm, Contrast Pins, Color Contrast, Hue clocks, Working in multiple color spaces...and the list goes on...

Remember that the class is designed so that you can get the assignments done in 1 - 3 hours.  If you are spending more than that on anything in here you need to ask questions...I'm hopeful that you will...

Greg

[Chris Nicola]

I moved the blue slider to get rid of the excess yelow. Adjusted the green slider to improve the colour. Then fiddled with he RGB slider to improve the contrast. Opened in PSE and increase brightness +20 and sharpened USM radus 1 at 100%.

I have a question please. What curve would I use that is comparible to the brightness slider in PSE?

Kind Regards

Chris Nicola

Guest for the week

[leeharper_admin]

Well, I've had another go, and I'm much happier with this version...

I still began with a 'Man from Mars' move, but I worked this version predominantly in CMYK, and I like the colour a lot more than what I came up with in my first attempt. As I mentioned before, I'm not used to working in CMYK - but I'm starting to like it  :D I found that I could warm up the animal's back (which my 'Man from Mars' curve had made too blue) with far greater precision than in Lab. Also, although I've yet to wrap my head around curving the Black channel, I managed to pull a bit of detail out of it without overly darkening the fur at lower right.

In comparing my second attempt with my first, I decided to blend 20% of my first attempt into my second version (to slightly brighten the highlights on the animal) - but this image is 80% new...

It's really interesting that you (Greg) tend to prefer starting again rather than working the curves too long. I teach Photoshop at an art college and so I'm often in the position of working on an example image that I am familiar with in front of different groups of students. I will usually introduce a technique by showing a preexisting before and after version of a correction, but in the actual demo I prefer to begin from scratch, and I always end up with a slightly different result. My workflow (excepting curve writing) is fairly consistent, but each time I sit down to an image I notice different things.

I'm absolutely loving this course so far - I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying myself! I'm lucky in that my students have finished for the summer, so during the week I've lots of time to devote to these exercises. I'm spending longer on each image than I ordinarily would as I am trying to experiment as much as I can. I love how CurveMeister allows me to switch between colour modes so quickly. I use a Mac, and have set up a Windows partition specifically so that I can access CurveMeister, and though it's irritating having to restart my machine to work on an image CM will definitely become part of my regular workflow.

Thanks everyone for contributing so much to my learning process - it's been a real joy so far  :D

Lee.

[ggroess]

Lee,
I'm glad you like the class so far...For you the first 2-3 weeks some of the course might be a bit simple but there is much to harvested from the materials and background info presented.  So please be a good reader...

As for CMYK; it really is all about ink on paper.  With all the other spaces you have to think about light as an additive process.  R+G+B = white light...In CMYK C+M+Y = Black...K is added to reduce the amount of each separate ink used in the printing process; K adds fullness and tonal range giving the true blacks "snap" otherwise they would be represented by the CMY and be a dark gray. 

For display on the web and printing to your printer at home CMYK is a much more subtle color space and you will find that depending on the GCR used much more variable in it's ability to render color.  Sadly, you will have to convert to RGB for the outputs.

The trouble with all of this is the return to RGB at the end.  Each Color space has it's limits and the conversion between them can sometimes drive people nuts.  For instance LAB is capable of creating color values that cannot be represented in CMYK or RGB; (Out of Gamut) basically you can create a color in LAB that CMYK or RGB cannot print onto the page...This can give you real fits when it comes time for output.

Greg

[leeharper_admin]

It's the presence of the Black channel that I can't come to terms with (yet). Intellectually I'm comfortable with the Red channel being almost the same as the Cyan channel (and G=M, B=Y), it's just the slight differences. Because the Black channel is carrying the shadow detail, the ranges aren't quite the same. I'm finding that CMYK is more precise than I've found RGB to be in the past.

Two things are confusing me at present: the benefits of each GCR setting (I know that we'll get to this in time, and am patient that I'll understand this in the end); and, I know that real Cyan ink does not perfectly absorb Red light, so the neutrality readings are not equal percentages of CMY as they would be in RGB (where equal numbers across the channels create neutrality). Is this also the case with the Wide Gamut CMYK colour space that CurveMeister uses? I've read in the manual somewhere that if you ignore the Black channel WG CMYK and RGB are equivalent.

Anyway, I'm in no hurry to rush through any of this. Spending six weeks slowly and thoroughly learning and digesting curve writing is (for me) about as much fun as I think it's possible to have  ;)

Lee.