JoAnn's Temple Figures

[joann]

Here is my final exercise. This has been one of the most challenging weeks I've experienced taking online classes. I've learned a lot...I hope I can retain 1/2 of it. I will repeat this class at a later date.

For this last image. I used the B mask and masked the upper half, and bottom where the lighting is darker. copied it to PS. I tried a number of things there. duplicate layer screen.. not to good. Used levels to even out the lighting. Then I used the B mask inverted to work on the bottom half. Copied to PS and adjusted the lighting. I also used the dodge tool at the very bottom to even out the lighting there.
After I got the lighting pretty even I went back to CM LAB and used the bottom slider to add more color.
Also, used the lightness channel to add contrast.
I tried very hard not to blow out the red band and the features of the figurines.
I considered the sky is cyan and tried to change it to blue but it messed up the rest of my colors.
Should this have been changed?
I can't post the ACV files because I went back and forth between PS & CM at least 5 times.

Greg....I don't want to hear any BUTS....lol Just kidding.

[joann]

This is another version. I like the saturation of colors but I think it goes just a tad too far. What's your opinion. This one you can say BUT...
JoAnn H

[joann]

Here is yet another version. On this one I used the dodge and burn tools to brighten parts and burn in parts. I promise this is the last one.
I actually like this one the best.
JoAnn H

[ggroess]

Mike's hint about the b channel mask from lab might be a red herring so to speak...Look for a mask that protects the gold figures and allows you to balance the light and dark parts so you can adjust the saturation without blowing out the gold.

You might be surprised by the final choice....
Greg