Week 5: Example 5 - Taipei Graffiti

This is the forum for posting to the June 2010 CM 101 Class
leeharper_admin
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Postby leeharper_admin » Fri Jul 16, 2010 8:29 pm

I wanted to try this with a few different masks. Before I got to that I did a quick by-the-numbers correction, so that the saturation boost didn't make the image look odd (just shadow, highlight, and neutral - in RGB; things fell into place when I added these pins, so I didn't do anything more).

The masks I liked the best were the L and K - but I didn't know which would be better. I chose by using them both without curving the mask channel, and then comparing the results. They were very close, but the L held back the saturation in the green leaves (which I thought looked better), so I chose the L channel.

Having picked the L, I re-did the correction - this time curving the mask a bit. I pushed the saturation as far as I could go before the detail in the graffiti fell apart - I'd like to have taken it further...

Cheers,
Lee.
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ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Fri Jul 16, 2010 8:59 pm

You can take this much further; push the saturation just a bit more...everything else looks solid...

Greg

leeharper_admin
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Postby leeharper_admin » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:04 pm

I've used HSB to bump the less saturated areas of the graffiti a bit more (that saturation curve is a great tool for an image like this). It's only a slight difference - I was loosing detail in the surface of the wall when I was pushing the saturation further, but it does look better. I held it back from the dark areas of the image with a K mask; it's great that CurveMeister lets you do that :)

I was also more careful where I applied my sharpening. If you look at the tree trunk in my first attempt, my Hiraloam sharpening step ruined it; I've made sure not to do that this time.

Cheers,
Lee.
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ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:29 pm

Lee,

I'd like your opinion on this not just a "Yes Boss" response....

Look at the wall only in my adjustment...do you find the change to be destructive?  I'm trying to gauge for myself whether the changes you see as destructive are related to JPG or if they are real.  I did not find my bumping the saturation of your posted image to be too much...I took your second image to 1.30 in LAB  no other correction.

If you can screen shot me an example of what you think is destructive it might help me...
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leeharper_admin
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Postby leeharper_admin » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:00 pm

I've knocked up an image that compares the two areas of the wall that bother me. I've converted all other areas to B/W so that it is easier to focus on the areas that I don't like.

The two areas are both from the left of the photograph; I've cropped into these areas to keep the file size down.

In isolation it's apparent that the areas in question are very small - so perhaps the question is whether I'm willing to give up more saturation in the rest of the image for the sake of these small areas. They do bother me. I think that in the version on top with the saturation boost texture is being lost - perhaps not being completely destroyed, but their is more damage than I would accept.

On the ACT list recently Dan spoke about a picture of a cat that he is using to prove that when people think an image is over-saturated they are actually offended by a specific area (that can be suppressed with a mask), rather than the boost as a whole. In Dan's image people object to the pinkness of the cat's nose - perhaps I should look at this image in the same way. Without being too "Yes Boss" ;) maybe my problem with the saturation falls into the same category.

What do you think about these areas when seen in isolation?

Lee.
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ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:40 pm

Interesting...
I would have thought the blues were part of the problem.  I can see your point on the over the top color...
I don't find personally that the detail loss is enough for me to stop the saturation.  I might make a layer mask and paint a 20% gray tone on it to tone down the correction in those areas.  It would come down to the "significant" discussion..i.e. is this small part significant enough to hold back a reasonable correction for the rest of the image? 

Dan's point in the ACT posting is well taken...something like a bright pink nose can certainly hurt. 

I have seen this image blown to bits and i have seen it corrected as you have...I would say that both are acceptable depending on the goals you have for the image.  The trouble with this image for most people is they do not have control over the rest of the image and the greens and yellows really make this look ugly.

Great points all.
Greg


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