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How to make this photo better?


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I have been shooting with the M8 since mid-Nov. However, this being my first serious digital camera I am still struggling with WB color management, etc. I really like some photos but the color is just not quite right. Attached is the uncropped and cropped version shot 30 min before sunset with Lux 75 at f4.0 (I think). I am impressed with how good the cropped version looks, but the color again does look not quite right to me. I used Jamie's chrome profiles and turned down the saturation. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Youur colour does seem strong to me. It's obviously down to you, but this version seems more natural IMO.

 

Good afternoon sun.

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Alan,

 

I don't know if this helps, but I did a very crude adjustment in Photoshop -- reduce red, increase blue and reduce saturation. This is not a good way to do color management, however it can get you in the ballpark. There are lots of other folks around here who know much more than I do about this topic.

 

Larry

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How about this?

White balanced off the whiteish band on the electric pole. Black point set on the dark spot on the tree.

 

Decreased saturation and exposure. In the "image:adjustments:color balance" I moved it towards cyan.

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Hey there, your picture has a very strong red color cast and it's difficult to guess the mood you were trying to capture. I can only suggest, that if you have Photoshop, then work with the Curve function and select The black point - white point - mid grey point and then slowly adjust the individual RGB curves to reflect the colors you remember when you originally took the picture . I have played around with your image , but of course I could only guess what it might have looked like, and all this only took me 2 min in Photoshop.

 

I think that if the colors would have been right .. this image shows quite a bit of magic .

 

Thanks or sharing

 

Armin

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Depends on your workflow and preferences. There's a lot of good digital information in the photo. Your end result will depend a lot on what you really saw while there. Just as an example, here is a conversion of the horse shot in Photoshop CS2. I used 70% 82 cooling filter, auto levels, and then Fred Miranda Velvia Vision plug in with 70 % intensity and level 1 warming. This is a workflow I often use. I'm not sure it's close to what you saw, but it's an example of what can be done.

 

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Thanks everyone for your suggestions. What I am trying to capture is the warm golden glow of the setting sun. However I either get the warm glow but too saturated, or less saturated and lose the warm glow. I guess I have a lot to learn and a long ways to go.

 

Alan

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What would help you in the future to get the color correction you want, is if you invest in a grayscale card and photograph it at the location with all the surrounding light. This will help you in post-production to find the right WB and 50% grey value to get the colors you want .

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Hopefully we had permission to use your file, here's my example, about 1 minute in PS. Color balance, just as in your old darkroom:)

 

A bit over cooked since it was a jpg.

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Hopefully we had permission to use your file, here's my example, about 1 minute in PS. Color balance, just as in your old darkroom:)

 

A bit over cooked since it was a jpg.

 

Yes, by all means, use my file. This looks pretty good, A little warmer would be closer to what I remember. How did you do the color balance in PS?

 

Thanks,

Alan

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Yes, by all means, use my file. This looks pretty good, A little warmer would be closer to what I remember. How did you do the color balance in PS?

 

Thanks,

Alan

 

Here's another a bit warmer. In PS, meny Image, then Adjustments.

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This one played with the individual color channels only. No exposure or anything else. I did add a little bit of sharpening to bring out the tree.

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Quick question. I am saving the original to my desktop, modifying, then hitting "save". However the file size grows to almost 1mb. I have to really reduce the image size to make it under the posting limits. However I see others posting this adjusted pic in its original size. What am I doing wrong?

 

This one played with the individual color channels only. No exposure or anything else. I did add a little bit of sharpening to bring out the tree.
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This one played with the individual color channels only. No exposure or anything else. I did add a little bit of sharpening to bring out the tree.

 

This is looking closer to what I remember. Perhaps a little warmer and brighter.

 

Strange problem with your file size. 1Mb was about the origianl size of the cropped photo before I resized it for the forum.

 

Alan

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Think I am getting closer. Decided to use Lightroom instead of C1 and adjusted individual colors, darks and shadows.

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Web browsers show images using the sRGB colour space, I believe, and you should convert to this space before posting.

 

Chris

Thanks Chris. Here goes, sRGB

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Guest guy_mancuso

Alan if this is a DNG file , could you send it to yourself using YouSendIt: The Leader in File Delivery. it's free than post the link for us to download it and if you don't mind let us process it and post it back in the thread.

 

Honestly this could be a fun excercise in post processing and maybe we should have fun and start a thread like this 24 hrs. per image and let the forum members take shots at post to see what there vision of a image should be.

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