Kite Flyers

[mikemeister_admin]

This is an awful image to try and get right - show what was seen, or pretend we had fill-in flash?

We have to choose the later to make the story - show the faces and the lines flying the kites.

I had to do this in 3 moves...

1. CM RGB to get the tones and neutral correct-ish - using 3 neutrals on the ali bars.  Just a pity about the 2nd guy in from the left with the red face.

2. CM LAB to get back some colour, not worrying about the blue!

3. PS RGB, Invert the Blue channel in Overlay mode at 33% Opacity to darken the sky, bring out the detail in the lines and lighten the faces - and to hell with the hues in the white jumpers.

This really is an impossible image!

[-default]

This is a tough image.

For this first take on the kite flyers, just concentrate on the faces and bodies, and let the sky go light.  Later we'll use masking on this image to keep the sky dark, and make the strings clearly visible.

[mikemeister_admin]

I've still got a blue cast on tne front of those shirts!GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

Hi GregM,

I dont thiink we can ever get rid of the strange colours on the jumpers - unless Greg has a tick up his sleeve.

Try this curve and see what you think

[ggroess]

From GregM's image....

1) Right click on one of the shirts and select mark.
2) Right click on another shirt and mark that as well.
3) On the B curve Ctrl click on both of you rmarks to set them up as a "contrast pin"  you should have dashed red lines across both points as shown.
4) slightly flatten the curve by putting the mouse in the colored boarder of the B curve so you get the "bent double arrow" cursor and adjust.
5) slightly adjust the A curve to bring the magenta face back into a better skin tone.  Again "mark" the curve and slightly adjust.
6)Adjust the B curve to the right of your "blue" marks to kill off some of the yellow in the bottom of the shirts.

I'd say I have more work to do but I wanted to put you on the trail....
I have to say this is a diminishing returns problem...the more you mess with this image the more you mess it up...for instance the sky now sucks...

Greg

Addendum....
IMPORTANT...You also need to move the linked pins vertically Up or Down on the B curve by using the up/down  arrow key to help kill off the blue cast. There is more to it than flattening the curve.  I'm pretty sure you can get more out of this image but them it's diminshing returns time....

[mikemeister_admin]

Greg,a contrast pin was my first move.I found a long worm at midpoint then I pumped the color.Second pass in Lab again I lifted the L channel,then more color.There are small spots of grey especially crease shadows but still all that blue on the fronts.GregM.

[mikemeister_admin]

Zog,it certainly produces neutral fronts.It also seems to unleash some casts of its own.File works better when applied to RGB image,took me a minute or two to catch that,GregM

[imported_ganna]

Agree that this one is is not easy. I think masking would be the only way to get the sky right.
I first dit shadow/highlight to brighten image up then into Lab mode but ended up with a blue cast on the jumpers. Then I use two neutrals in RGB.then I pinned the sky and the skins. Lets asume the red faces is because of sunburn and concentration. This is the best I can do. (done the image before I read Gregs' recipe)

[mikemeister_admin]

Greg,

Very interesting about the Marked Contrast pins, but I just could not get it to work to remove the blue cast on the jumpers - I would really like to see a video of this.  

It is a feature of CM I havent really used, because I feel it is just as easy to move them one's self - but obviously I'm missing some key feature - what is it?

[mikemeister_admin]

Ganna, did you notice that using the shadow/highlight (new CS feature?) gives you terrible halos around the faces?