Mescalamba Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Phillip Reeve wrote:
Thanks for your edits
The image is certainly not one of the finest examples of my craft but a spontaneous image I took during a walk with my grandmother. I saw some potential in it when I took it but really struggled with the colors which is why I uploaded it here.
The image was taken around noon so there shouldn't be any real color cast in the sky and conditions weren't that dark. That's why I ended with this image:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4551/24511486458_2731eaba99_o.jpg
I am not 100% happy with the sky which has some color gradient left to right but would call it good enough
@Mescalamba@, can you share your settings? I like the warmer color but when I try to develop the image a bit warmer I lose color separation in the trees which you didn't.
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I can, but you gonna hate me..
1) ACR - everything as shot, sharpening 25 - 0,5 radius - 100 detail, color profile neutral, two files - exposure as shot and exposure -1,5, ProPhoto RGB
2) PhotoMatix - fusion average from those two files
3) RawTherapee round 1, CIECAM2002 (no changes, Lightness-Saturation model), custom by contrast detail levels, export (ProPhoto working, ProPhoto export)
4) Photoshop - duplicate, RAW filter, graduated filter - dehaze, desaturate, shift colors to warmer a bit, apply, mask so you get effect only where you want it (means that part which is glowing blue, those treelines bit further away)
5) still PS, Color Efex 4 Pro (I think its dead soft now) - ProContrast/tiny bit of Dynamic Contrast, 10 I think, Tonal Contrast 15,15 shadows and highligts, fine mode
6) RawTherapee round 2, CIECAM2002 (Brightness-Colorfulness), HaldCLUT Kodak Ektachrome VS, tweak WB to look good (just changed to 6790), tweak contrast and colors in CIECAM2002, reduce saturation a bit in LAB, fix highlights, shadows in curves Film-like (only upped shadows a bit and toned down highlights a bit), export ProPhoto
7) Photoshop round 3, Color Efex 4, Polarizer effect (its to tone down trees in back line, get a bit of sky, make reds a bit pronounced), toned down saturation a bit (its under Brilliance/Warmth), added some Skylight (those standard 20) that makes reds a bit more pronounced again. I think I used that Sunlight filter too (unsure), it makes nice pics a bit softer, also probably buffed tonal contrast of highlights and shadows by a ton to mitigate that Sunlight softness (order is to buff tonal contrast a lot, then use Sunlight filter, not good idea in reverse).
8) PS, duplicated layer, again a bit of dehaze on graduated filter (RAW filter), desaturate a lot (cause sky is purple at that moment), think I shifted hue to green too. Mask what needed, desaturate by hand some missed bits.
Yea thats probably all, altho Im not entirely sure about order of things or if I didnt miss anything. I maybe added perceptual saturation in Brilliance/Warmth filter from Color Efex 4 at some late point (like 3 points or so). Or before I used HaldCLUT in RT, dont know.
Can it be simplified? Yea a lot, I was just experimenting really. Its imperfect too, bit of magenta left in sky and such.
My regular setup for most images is convert RAW to flat TIFF image with somewhat accurate colors and WB, then run it thru CS and RT till contrast is mild and colors are decent, then use some fancy HaldCLUT, finishing touches of balancing colors and look (in RT). Nothing complicated really.
Reason for PhotoMatix here is that their fusion average is able to bring down highlights much better than any highlight/shadow slider. Im not fan of that "here look PPed sky" where trees are nearly black at tips.
Also Im using it quite a bit due my Fuji S5 Pro, which yes does give a lot of DR, but actually taming that DR is really really hard as it doesnt exactly behave naturally (its effectively 2x stacked 14-bit image, where one is 4eV above other, so you can end with one part histogram in deep shadows and other part in highlights with nothing between, I mean its realistic, but its hard to make some final normal image from that, not like we have HDR JPGs yet).
RAW filter in PS is pretty nifty thing as you can use it on TIFF any time you want, mostly that dehaze on graduated filter is rather nice stuff (paired with a bit of saturation and tint/warmth tweaks). Mostly for landscape purposes ofc. If you have output from Photomatix, then its pretty easy to get contrast of sky and dehaze areas where you want it.
RT is really good for tweaking colors, getting some special contrast and nice looks. Not particularly amazing if you need to move shadows and highlights a bit and also not really great RAW developer (but it allows to test any new camera files right at the moment they released usually, like now I can play with Hasselblad X1D or A7RIII files without problems). Strongest parts are HaldCLUTs, CIECAM2002 and ton of special contrast tweaks.
Yea and Capture One is decent thing when it comes to highlight, shadows and giving image some punchy pop. Also very decent color controls, 3-way WB. Plus really bad sharpening, blunt demosaicing and not so great noise control.
There isnt perfect RAW developing SW, so I just mix it as I need it.
TL : DR most of that color stuff is probably from HaldCLUT, tweaking WB later in TIFF form in RT, CIECAM2002 and Brilliance/Warmth and selective contrasting, desaturating and color shifting via RAW filter in PS CC.
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