Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/17

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] IMG: Casual portrait of LUG photographer
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:05:29 -0400

When the picture opened in raw I'd first try shifting the first thing I saw
the tint  slider  a bit  to the left.  Away from the magenta towards the
green. When reds are popping that will often fix them. Its an issue of not
only too much magenta. But also not enough green.
Often one can think a color problem is local (face) but it most often works
if you correct the entire image.
Then I might go in the Raw filter to the HSL/ greyscale tab. Not selecting
grayscale  but setting the top tap to saturation I'd move the red, magenta
slider to the left seeing how that's making the image look.
The hue and luminance tabs in the HSL/ greyscale menu also can work on a
thing like this though I understand and use them less

What I'd normally do though is after tweaking what I normally tweak in the
raw filter which is the cropping, exposure and  now some local controls I'd
hit the open button and open in in Photoshop. Whereupon I can fix a color
problem in about 4 seconds with my left hand holding a cup of coffee. As can
most photographers I know.
However one could have selected a big circle in the raw filter with the
adjustment brush over the face. And just desaturate the color a bit. Though
the color in the entire image is really a bit over saturated. And often
color problems come from that. If you have having some problem with your
color the issue is very often that you probably just have a bit too much of
it. Dial it down, desaturate, and you'll most often see most your color
problems go away when you no longer have too much color.
Walk outside and remind yourself that the color in the world is not all that
jacked up. Its quite muted in most cases. Bring your laptop with you.

Once its opened in Photoshop and  I do what I've done to hundreds of
thousands of images for twenty years. Command B is your COLOR BALANCE
control and you move the top slider to the left away from red towards cyan
to the right till your picture starts looking too cyan.
That's how most color pictures have been easily corrected for the past 20
years.  I'm sure in Lightroom there is a very nice version of this.
You can move the second slider away from magenta towards green to the right
again.

Sometimes  I'll not do the COLOR BALANCE  thing but be more original and hit
command U and open the COLOR SATURATION thing. There instead of just
desaturate everything I can select red and or magenta and just desaturate
those colors a bit. And maybe select the fact but probably the entire image.
That fixes things like this really well.. Its just a very key part of your
workflo. Few shots come up that don't need some kind of color tweak.

I've been face to face with Howard under Portland Oregon Gresham light.
Solms and Wetzlar light. And Photokina in the basking lights of the Cologne
Trade Fair --other places I'm sure from the 14 LHSA meetings I went to from
'97 to '07 all over the US of A.
He's never looked he he's gotten too much sun all day in the poison ivy
patch.
Or washed his face with those green 3M abrasive cloths and Comet.



[Rabs]
Mark William Rabiner





In reply to: Message from jsmith342 at gmail.com (Jeffery Smith) ([Leica] IMG: Casual portrait of LUG photographer)