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Re: [OM] IMG: Color Balance Nightmare

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Color Balance Nightmare
From: Tina Manley <tmanley@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 21:54:03 -0400
"Consider Steve McCurry. I was gifted with his book Portraits. There's some
good stuff in there, but not a patch on what you do. His are stiff, cool,
and often staged looking- repetitive, too, after too many of them. Yours
are natural, warm and engaging, human, where his are mostly not."

I'm going to print this really large and hang it over my computer for when
I have the "doubts"

I really, really appreciate your comments, Moose!!

Tina



On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 7/15/2016 10:00 AM, Tina Manley wrote:
>
>> PESO:
>>
>> We were invited to lunch with a Qashqai family in the desert near Shiraz.
>> This is the inside of their tent:
>>
>> http://www.pbase.com/image/163678790
>>
>> I took lots of photos in this terrible, awful light.  The people are
>> beautiful but you'd never know it in this light!  I'll be working on these
>> today and tomorrow.
>>
>
> It's not difficult to correct, but probably requires PS skills you don't
> have and don't particularly want to learn. <
> http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Manley/Marshla_and_Ehsan.htm>
>
> Separate layers for her face and skin, his face, their clothing and the
> rest. All adjusted separately. Background by trying the color sampler on
> various neutralish looking things. Skin tones cribbed from the image of
> Azar, then adjusted differently for each. Clothing using PS Auto Color and
> adjusting Opacity.
>
> Probably not "right"; I wasn't there, but plausible.
>
> Any suggestions would be gratefully attempted!
>>
>
> Or maybe not. I've suggested before the use of a neutral reference in any
> unusual light. You haven't attempted it.
>
> A shot or two of one in this light, perhaps while waiting for the girls to
> get gussied up, and this would all be a doodle, correct the whole series at
> once, with more accurate color than anything done in post without a
> reference.
>
> Consider Steve McCurry. I was gifted with his book Portraits. There's some
> good stuff in there, but not a patch on what you do. His are stiff, cool,
> and often staged looking- repetitive, too, after too many of them. Yours
> are natural, warm and engaging, human, where his are mostly not.
>
> But look at his colors! I don't know what he is using; there are endless
> tools, from simple to complex, but he's making the colors work for him and
> his subjects, not against them. He's probably thinking about light and
> color long before he takes a single shot. I don't know if it's because you
> started out as a B&W photographer, and still sort of think of color as a
> not so nice accessory, but you don't appear to really think about it when
> shooting.
>
> You are happy to spend many thousands of $ on gear, much more on travel to
> find subjects, and schlep around a lot of gear. Then you skip a simple step
> and end up with color problems. You can buy a neutral reference the size of
> a credit card for a couple of $ and carry it with you with no effort at
> all. Is that as fancy, as effective as the more powerful, multicolor
> references? Nah, but it would work miracles for your work. The 90% solution
> is a lot better than 0%.
>
> Not all of us see the same way, both physiologically and mentally. If you
> just don't notice color in the excitement of shooting, you could just force
> yourself to shoot a reference in each different place you go into with
> camera. Soon, it would become a habit, and no effort at all.
>
> I happen to use a WhiBal, which is always in my wallet. If you don't like
> that, there are plenty of other sorts of reference cards, opal glass like
> "filters" that go over a lens for WB reference, light meters that read
> color, and so on.
>
> Where it's allowed, I shoot lots of pics in museums. It is for me a
> wonderful way to supplement my memory. But museum lighting is far from
> neutral, usually quite warm. So I shoot the WhiBal in each area with
> different light, and my pics show the true colors of the art.
>
> Try it!
>
> Colorfully Balanced Moose
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
>
> --
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>
>


-- 
Tina Manley
www.tinamanley.com
tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html
-- 
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