CM Week 1 Example 4

[dkrassen]

Hello.

I corrected this image in both RGB and Lab by moving the threshold on both the left and the right.    I adjusted a middle point in the RGB and in the Lab correction I used the desaturation slider.  What do you think?

Thank you
David

[ggroess]

I like the LAB correction over the RGB but...Both images need a neutral point set. 
See if you can find a neutral in some of the natural stone or some other point that should look gray.

Shot 3 is your RGB without a neutral and Shot 4 is With a neutral.

Remember the drill should be Shadow, Highlight Neutral...Then go after the mid-tones and overall contrast.

Greg

[dkrassen]

Hello.

I tried Example 4 again; this time with a neutral.  What do I do for a neutral point if an image does not have a gray point?

Please give me your opinion on these re-done trials for example 4.

Thank you
David

[ggroess]

David,
The answer to your neutral question is about the choice of neutral.  You need to use "memory colors" to help you find a neutral. In the case of the flower you have no real neutral but you have memory colors to help guide you.  In most cases the neutral color is not going to jump out at you.  On the other hand it should be a color that makes sense. 

Examples would be silver paint on the water tower, some of the blocks in the water front....Use the neutral shopping I showed in the Honest Abe video and watch the hue clock in the upper right.  If you can find a place that is +/- (1) on both channels of LAB that will be close enough.  Check you r sample size settings to make sure that you are sampling 3 pixels and not 5.  Sometimes the 5 pixel sample can fool you...

The RGB correction makes me want a blue sky to go with the bright and happy building...It can be done but not in this exercise.  The Lab correction appears to dark...there must be a happy medium out there for you...

Greg