Week 1: Example 3

[leeharper_admin]

This was a fun image to work on  :)

I tried this one in Lab, RGB, and CMYK. I won't waste bandwidth posting the CMYK version - it looked awful! My favourite version is the RGB one. It has got the most contrast in the reflections (in the spheres). I don't mind losing a bit of the water in the background - it seems like a good trade...

Lee.

[ggroess]

Lee,
did you find any color in there??  the lab version has hints of color that can be brought forward...the details in the image are well handled good work.

Greg

[leeharper_admin]

Greg,
I wasn't really thinking about the colour in this image. I will take another swing at it  ;)
Lee.

[leeharper_admin]

I've had another try with this one, and the new version is much more convincing.

I think that the real breakthrough this time was using the knowledge picked up from Greg's 'Keeping Abe Honest...subjective neutral choices' video. I set three hue clocks (for shadow, midtone, and highlight), and managed to find a great place to locate a neutral pin. I have uploaded a small comparison image which shows yesterday's Lab correction next to today's, and I think that it clearly shows the benefit of a well chosen neutral.

I used the Lab saturation slider to bring out the colours at Greg's suggestion (moving the slider to 1.90 - I couldn't bear it any higher ;)). Having done this, I put a hue clock on the water at top-right of the picture. The green seemed a bit off, so I adjusted the B curve to put this right (curve file attached).

I'm glad that Greg encouraged me to give this picture another shot  :)

Lee.

[ggroess]

I think overall it looks much better Lee.  I have even seen it brighter..but you have figured this out very well..

Greg