Flower Vendor

[mikemeister_admin]

At long last, my cut at the flower vendor.

[ggroess]

Hey Brian...

Interesting version.  It seems a bit cold though...I see the yellow in the sign but you seem to have killed it off everywhere else.  The grass is the give away...try adding just a touch of yellow back into the image...just enough to to make the grass look better.

The skin tone looks great...good job there...
Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

You are right Greg, of course.  I did kill off some yellows which cropped up in the building siding to see how the image would look and this is the result.  Kind of moody, don't you think?  I'll add back in some yellow as you suggest and reevaluate.   

[ggroess]

it is moody...I agree..

Remember if the result matches your goals you have succeeded in correcting the image.  I'm glad you are playing with mood and color. I think that helps to build your visual library so to speak...

[mikemeister_admin]

Something I read in Dan Margulis' "Professional Photoshop," made me rethink the approach.  The essence of his argument was that you shouldn't use a mask unless it is your purpose is to "move away from the art" (one example being to preserve a bluer sky in an image that a perfectly accurate color correction would render) and that you should be able to recognize that need at the outset rather than in the middle of the correction.  Appreciating that Margulis sets the standard for dogmatism, nevertheless, this made a lot of sense to me so I approached the image a bit differently, doing a BTN correction and then masking the skin (the a channel worked best) so as to add some saturation without oversaturating the skin.  No more fancy than that.

[ggroess]

And a fine correction you have posted.

You do have to be careful how "letter of the law" you want to go with Dan's stuff.  I find that if I take the principles and apply them when I have real trouble he can get me out of a tight spot.  In general I find that his corrections are more geared for print and press sometimes.  The techniques are solid the parameters are up for discussion....

Greg