Week 1: Example 4

[leeharper_admin]

Greg M's duck correction gave me an idea for this image that I think has turned out quite well. Greg duplicated the original duck photo, and set the duplicate to the Screen blending mode, to brighten the picture. I did a similar thing to this image - setting the duplicate layer to the Multiply blend mode.

From this new starting point I moved into CurveMeister to set Shadow, Highlight, and Neutral points. I used the threshold feature to set my shadow and highlight points, as I needed a bit of help deciding where they should be placed.

I tried setting the neutral point for this image in Lab (using plenty of hue clocks  ;)), but had to switch to correcting in RGB, as the image appeared to have a non-uniform cast. In Lab I could find a neutral point that made almost everything right, but whatever I tried left the sky too red. In RGB I started by setting a neutral point to get most of the image into good shape, and then I curved the red and blue channels to fix the sky (curve file attached).

Having corrected the cast, I returned to CurveMeister to enrich the colour. I began by moving the saturation slider, but decided to steepen the B channel more than the A to make it look as though late afternoon sunlight was hitting the left side of the building (without unrealistically boosting the red brick). This curve is also attached.

I'm not completely happy with the final image, but I'm a bit at a loss as to what else to do with it. It would be interesting to see some other interpretations...

All best,
Lee.

[mikemeister_admin]

Never thought of using blend on this image,always thought it was light enough.GregM
1 set blend to screen,used CM in Lab,highlight onglobe of streetlamp,shadow on window at extreme right,neutral on stonework of arched window.
2 blend set to color,CM to HSB,moved brightness and shadow points closer to body of histogram and top of saturation curve towards center until I liked the colors of the flag.
3sharpen,denoise

[leeharper_admin]

Thanks for posting that Greg  ;)

I think that setting the highlight on the globe of the streetlamp was a really good call. I was using a hue clock on that globe to help me find a good neutral point - but it is probably the lightest area where it would be important to hold texture (it certainly makes your image look punchier than mine).

I just laid your correction above mine, and set your correction to luminosity. The combination of the two looks really good  :)

Thanks again,
Lee.

[ggroess]

Remeber Lee that white and Black can be used as neutral as well as a midtone gray. 

Later when we go to "By The Numbers" you will be creating a Shadow, Mid-tone, and Highlight neutral in RGB.  Because color is linked to brightness in RGB you can have multiple neutrals in the space if they are far enough apart on the brightness side.

Greg