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John Robinson
05-02-2016, 07:32 AM
Had another shot at my Crassula. Tried to blend in the BG a little better. WDYT ?
Techs same as last time
Cheers
JohnR

Diane Miller
05-03-2016, 10:37 PM
Beat of the bunch for me!! Love it!

shane shacaluga
05-06-2016, 08:53 AM
Very nicely done. Sharp with good details

Showing too much green in my opinion

I tried to reduce that a bit

Let me know how this looks

Diane Miller
05-06-2016, 10:22 AM
I like your color correction, Shane. It was a bit toward cyan/green. Fixing a color cast always brings up contrast subtly, without overdoing it.

John Robinson
05-06-2016, 12:47 PM
Hi Diane/Shane. Difficult one this !
I like the repost as it is a more "attractive" picture. I ike them both and I wish I could send the plant to you but it cost too much.:Whoa!:
In fact neither of the pics is right, as the plant has a very gentle blueish sickly green bloom to it which many of my cacti/succs have. I played with it for ages and wasn't happy in the end. Any one who has not seen the plant would think both the posts fine. Where do you draw the line A pleasing picture or a true representation ? I struggle at that with times. # As Diane says about contrast and casts- I did drop the gamma oriiginally- which gave it more "punch" but not realistic.

Whatever- thanks for your input- appreciated.
John

Diane Miller
05-06-2016, 01:08 PM
Colors can be frustrating. Here's an idea -- I used Selective Color with Shane's version, as I thought the sand was a more natural color there. I just adjusted the green channel -- brought Cyan full right, Magenta to -70 and Yellow full left. Changes the plant without messing with the sand. Obviously I don't know what the color should be but just showing it as a possibility to tweak the plant without introducing an overall cast.

Could go further by duplicating the layer.

John Robinson
05-06-2016, 01:34 PM
Thats nearer Diane.( even though I don't understand half of what you have done !) But to get the plant as it should be looks aweful as its a lot paler and the green is hard to desrcibe. As I said its like a pale bluey green.
The sand by the way id not ordinary sand its some special stuff (Just to confuse matters)
Its not going in an ID book so it doesn't matter that much.
Thanks
John

Allen Sparks
05-07-2016, 05:01 AM
Hi John,
Interesting plant here. I like the reposts as they have more pop but as you say it's a personal taste how far you take moving away from the true subject.

Allen

Diane Miller
05-07-2016, 10:17 AM
The best way to get accurate color is to set up the shot and put a neutral (no color cast) gray card in the frame, in the same light as the subject. Take a shot, then remove it and do the real shot. In processing, use the eyedropper to neutralize the gray on the first shot, then copy that same color temp and tint to the real shot.

John Robinson
05-07-2016, 11:32 AM
Hi Diane
Sorry, but how do I neutralise the gray, then copy the temp and tint to the real shot?
John

Diane Miller
05-07-2016, 11:42 AM
In your processing program, there should be sliders for temp (blue to yellow) and tint (green to magenta) -- or some sort of adjustment like that. Or at least there should be something like an eyedropper to let you neutralize the color in a spot you click on. Then you should be able to copy the settings or put the numbers for temp and tint in the next frame, the one without the gray card. Or else put the gray card in the same frame but in a corner you can crop out. I don't know the software so can't say how it works. But it should be there somehow.

If you don't have this level of color correction you'll be stuck with trial and error.

I think even PS Elements has things like this -- for something like $80. (But don't take my word for it -- I haven't used it, and sometimes newer versions of programs don't run on older computers. Don't know what you have...)

Diane Miller
05-07-2016, 06:54 PM
Just a further thought -- since you're shooting JPEG, if you capture inaccurate color it will be harder to fix than with a raw file. I'm not familiar with your cameras but a good strategy would be to shoot a truly neutral gray card in the same light as the subject (filling the frame) with the camera's white balance set to auto, Then there is a way for most cameras to set that as the default white balance for subsequent exposures. (It will be in the manual if you have the capability.) You can go back to auto when you're through with the subject.

John Robinson
05-08-2016, 04:34 AM
Just a further thought -- since you're shooting JPEG, if you capture inaccurate color it will be harder to fix than with a raw file. I'm not familiar with your cameras but a good strategy would be to shoot a truly neutral gray card in the same light as the subject (filling the frame) with the camera's white balance set to auto, Then there is a way for most cameras to set that as the default white balance for subsequent exposures. (It will be in the manual if you have the capability.) You can go back to auto when you're through with the subject.

Thanks Diane.
Thats just the method I am playing with now. I read the instruction book !!
Cheers
John