Week 2: Exercise 5 - Shop

[leeharper_admin]

I had a thought during this correction that although my initial tendency had been to completely neutralise the metal frame, I shouldn't actually make it neutral. My thought was this - the colour cast in the frame was not consistent all the way around, and I realised that this must be because objects were being reflected by the metal. With this being the case, although there was a cast to be removed, removing the cast would not remove the coloured reflections in the metal. And, had I been standing in the position of the photographer, although the reflected colours in the frame would have been less apparent, I would have noticed them - and therefore I should make them less obvious, but I shouldn't remove them completely.

I didn't come to this decision straight away. My first adjustments (in Lab) completely neutralised the metal frame. The Lab curves that I used to neutralise the frame messed up some of the fruit, so upon applying my initial curves I followed them up by using the Blend If sliders in Lab to rescue the watermelon (I've attached a comparison image).

At this point too much was neutral. There was no colour in the shopkeeper's fleshtone, and there were other areas that seemed too neutral, so I reduced the opacity of my corrections to 60%. When I did this and the coloured reflections returned I had my revelation about keeping them in. I did want to make sure that I had completely removed the colour cast across the image though, so I went back into CM to place a neutral point (and pep up the colours in the fruit and veg).

To pep up the fruit and veg I went into RGB because there was too little distance on the curves between the frame and the fruit/veg in Lab. I have attached the RGB curves so that you can have a look at the shape of them, but applying them will not look right unless the neutral point is in exactly the same place...

I would be very interested to hear whether you agree with my decision to leave some of the colour in the metal frame. I think it was the right thing to do, but I may well be wrong!

Another fun image to work on  :)

Cheers,
Lee.

[ggroess]

Lee,
You are correct in that there are reflections run wild in this image...

To me the problem starts out with "what is this image really about?"  the answer is...the fruits.  While I did not shoot this I can see from the image that the person in the background is not really important to the overall story but they provide a point of reference.  As well; the frame is just a reference point.  As you can see from my neutral choice I expect the white of the neon tube to be correct and the shadow on the white lamp should also be as neutral as possible.  My corrections focus on the color and saturation of the fruit overall. 

I have seen this image masked...pulled, plucked and sliced and diced...overall it is one of the most challenging we work on...making the entire frame neutral takes some of the reality out of the image and gives it a hand colored look you also lose too much blue and green from the image when you go this.  You certainly can break this image down and try to tackle all of the various color shifts but LAB is not the best color space to do that...Next weeks work includes a revisit to this image...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

"what is this image really about?"  the answer is...the fruits.

Another case of my not seeing the wood for the trees...

As well; the frame is just a reference point.  As you can see from my neutral choice I expect the white of the neon tube to be correct and the shadow on the white lamp should also be as neutral as possible.  My corrections focus on the color and saturation of the fruit overall.

I was so convinced that this exercise was about neutralising the metal frame. I've approached this image from completely the wrong direction! Ah well - you've at least turned on another lightbulb with your reply - better luck next time  :)

Thanks again for your sage advice  :)
Lee.