I need some opinions on color. Please look at three versions of this photo. The only thing done to the original image was to boost the color in 3 different ways. Which do you like better? I really cant decide. This image is just a practice image so I am not really trying to do much with this photo other than to study color. Please contribute your comments! Thank you.
Either of the first two are OK -- whichever look you're going for.
But I wouldn't make the destructive trip to LAB mode and the destructive trip back to RGB. That's so 90s. You know in recent Photoshops you can add a luminosity layer and work on that?
tomrock wrote:
Either of the first two are OK -- whichever look you're going for.
But I wouldn't make the destructive trip to LAB mode and the destructive trip back to RGB. That's so 90s. You know in recent Photoshops you can add a luminosity layer and work on that?
Thanks for the tip. Lyda.com's lecture on LAB says that making the round trip from RGB to lab is non destructive.
I thought the DOF in #2 went a little crazy. Notice the chair or whatever in the lower left corner. From #1 to #2 I thought it lost that cool deep look. #3 improved the soft deepness (somewhat) again but the skin-tones, tennis ball, and dress went a bit nuts - over saturated, loss of texture detail, etc. Then of course there's the carpet color I mentioned. That color would drive me bonkers. The carpet color in #1 however would be nice and relaxing to live with.
This image doesn't need colorspace shenanigans, it needs ordinary color balance to remove a strong yellow cast, and curves. I also applied curves to the saturation channel to keep the magenta ball under control and to whiten the sweater. In the absence of directional lighting, the image remains flat, so any drama will have to come by boosting the contrast (which I did). Perhaps this result is closer to your intentions:
rico wrote:
This image doesn't need colorspace shenanigans, it needs ordinary color balance to remove a strong yellow cast, and curves. I also applied curves to the saturation channel to keep the magenta ball under control and to whiten the sweater. In the absence of directional lighting, the image remains flat, so any drama will have to come by boosting the contrast (which I did). Perhaps this result is closer to your intentions:
They make me glad I don't live in a house with carpet THAT color. 
