On 6/26/2014 1:49 PM, Tina Manley wrote:
Yes, I like Moosed best.
Thanks.
You know, I've been wondering about the color on some of your recent images. One will be really warm, then another quite
cool, in ways that don't necessarily make sense to me from subject, lighting, etc. I finally got around to looking at
some EXIF. At least for the Vietnam shots I checked, both M9 and 240 have Auto WB set.
That means the camera has to figure out the nature of the subject color and choose a WB setting. Some of the big makers
have analyzed thousands of images to make their Auto WB more accurate. Even so,a large portion of one color in the frame
can fool them. Most of the trouble with color in Taking a Break may simply be due to the large, bright green fence area.
I'm guessing that shot with Daylight WB would have been good out of the box.
I don't know how Leica does it, but the cameras I've used adjust not only color temp, but green-magenta tint. So if it
gets fooled, it can be really hard to fix it once it's baked into a JPEG. Working with Raw files, ACR can be used to set
daylight WB* for the camera, but by default, it will use the settings the camera put in the file.
It could be interesting to see what the Daylight setting in ACR does with Taking a Break. Do be aware that some green in
the shadows on her side/back are not a camera/processor problem, but reflected light from the fence.
I've found I get more consistent color that makes more sense to my eyes by setting WB on my cameras to Daylight for
virtually everything I shoot outdoors, and even most mixed lighting situations with some daylight in the mix. It's been
a long time since I shot Auto, but I do recall some odd/puzzling results.
I know a lot of other people do this, too, including some/many on this list, based on prior posts. You are not likely to
see much difference with an ordinary, sunlit scene. You may want to test to see how Daylight compares to Auto on some
trickier shots with different light, large patches of artificial color, etc.
How do you move the focal plane?!!
Simple in principle ... I sharpen (well, deconvolute) to get the best result for the focal point I want. For Sidewalk
Cafe, that's pretty easy. For Taking a Break, the forward eye is far enough OOF that, at least on the small JPEG, I
can't get quite the result I want without some artifacts.
I then either select the area I want sharper and make a mask from the selection or make a black mask and paint in the
areas I want sharper, usually some combination.
I make another layer, blur it, and, as for sharpening, make a mask that softens
the areas I want.
It takes practice, and some, like Sidewalk Cafe, require some finesse, as more than just the woman's face needs
adjusting to look natural. In this case, door, her legs and feet, the paving stones, etc. all have to move. There are
flaws in my example. I would put more effort into defining a good focal plane for a display image.
For a complex image, there may be a fair amount of painting sharper and softer layers in and out with a soft, low flow
brush.
If possible, it's way easier to get the focus right in capture. :-)
Eyes Have Moose
* At least Adobe's idea of daylight for it. It's also possible to find out what color temp the maker thinks is right and
set that.
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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