Old edit vs new edit

[smoke665]

Looking at his fur again, I now see that it is grayish. I warmed it up and added more dodge & burn to the fur.

The belief that you can accurately adjust WB by eye on a computer screen is not totally correct. Like all things experience will help you get closer, but you have to remember the eye sees and the camera records reflected light. On a computer screen you are looking at projected light, there's a difference.

"Accurate Color Management" is a moderately laborious process that starts with an understanding of the temperature of light. All light recorded by the camera or the human eye is "reflected light", it will be the color temperature of the light reflecting off the subject or any other object in the scene. Our brain automatically corrects but the camera records only what it sees. I've always found it odd that the temperature slider in LR is opposite the actual temperature scale of light. In the real world what we perceive as warm (red, orange, etc.) is on the left side in the range of 1,000-4000k, while cool, (above around 6,000k) is on the right. Daylight (what's perceived as neutral) is in the middle at the 5,500k range.

Next you have to consider that color is a general term, while Hue refers to the dominant Color Family of the specific color we're looking at. In Digital RGB images Red, Green and Blue are mixed to form the six primary hues. 255,255,255 being white, and 0,0,0 being black. A mixture of a two or more primary hues form secondary colors. Here's where things get a little tricky, a Tint is a primary or secondary hue with White added, a Tone is a primary or secondary hue with only Gray added, and a Shade is primary or secondary hue with only black added. Finally Saturation is the purity of all of the above with luminosity added.

In accurate color management the first step, is WB (the process of converting, unknowns to standardized known settings). I carry a White, Gray, Black target with me, that I shoot every time my light changes. In LR I first adjust the exposure to a full data file based on the histogram so I get an accurate saturation, I know the gray target is an accurate 18% gray so I use it to adjust my WB with the eye dropper tool in Lr. From there I set the White point and Black point (not to be confused with WB). I know have "known" parameters in the file, from which I can sync to all the images in the set. For portrait work, I go a step further using Color Checker to a create a profile that adjusts all the colors to known standards. In addition to the shifts caused by light temperature, all camera manufacturers have slight variances in how they render colors. Pentax for example tends to over saturate red and to a degree, green.

Once I have all my "known standards" in place I can safely continue with the creative edits, knowing what I'm working with from the start. For example, say the skin tone just doesn't quite look right, I know that to correct it I need to go to the HSL panel in Lr and do a targeted adjustment on just the area that needs work. I have a hexadecimal library of known skin tones, by referring to it I can match the skin tone in Ps to a known value, or I can "appropriate" a code from an internet photo, using masking and an HSL adjustment layer.

 

[otherprof]

This photo is from 2020. After watching a bunch of YT videos, I did a re-edit for practice. C&C welcome.

Old Edit
View attachment 264247

New Edit

Quincy back lit by Cheryl, on Flickr

Another vote for the new edit.

 

[CherylL]

It is sometimes quite interesting to look at old images, to see how skill levels have changed and what you are photographing.
the was a interesting chat at my local club about this subject

I cringe looking at my older stuff. But then I remember it was a journey and still is a work in progress. I started out 20 years ago scanning old family slides and retouching. My skill level on retouching back then was terrible. Now if I want one of the scanned images I rescan at a higher dimension and retouch.

 

[CherylL]

The belief that you can accurately adjust WB by eye on a computer screen is not totally correct. Like all things experience will help you get closer, but you have to remember the eye sees and the camera records reflected light. On a computer screen you are looking at projected light, there's a difference.

"Accurate Color Management" is a moderately laborious process that starts with an understanding of the temperature of light. All light recorded by the camera or the human eye is "reflected light", it will be the color temperature of the light reflecting off the subject or any other object in the scene. Our brain automatically corrects but the camera records only what it sees. I've always found it odd that the temperature slider in LR is opposite the actual temperature scale of light. In the real world what we perceive as warm (red, orange, etc.) is on the left side in the range of 1,000-4000k, while cool, (above around 6,000k) is on the right. Daylight (what's perceived as neutral) is in the middle at the 5,500k range.

Next you have to consider that color is a general term, while Hue refers to the dominant Color Family of the specific color we're looking at. In Digital RGB images Red, Green and Blue are mixed to form the six primary hues. 255,255,255 being white, and 0,0,0 being black. A mixture of a two or more primary hues form secondary colors. Here's where things get a little tricky, a Tint is a primary or secondary hue with White added, a Tone is a primary or secondary hue with only Gray added, and a Shade is primary or secondary hue with only black added. Finally Saturation is the purity of all of the above with luminosity added.

In accurate color management the first step, is WB (the process of converting, unknowns to standardized known settings). I carry a White, Gray, Black target with me, that I shoot every time my light changes. In LR I first adjust the exposure to a full data file based on the histogram so I get an accurate saturation, I know the gray target is an accurate 18% gray so I use it to adjust my WB with the eye dropper tool in Lr. From there I set the White point and Black point (not to be confused with WB). I know have "known" parameters in the file, from which I can sync to all the images in the set. For portrait work, I go a step further using Color Checker to a create a profile that adjusts all the colors to known standards. In addition to the shifts caused by light temperature, all camera manufacturers have slight variances in how they render colors. Pentax for example tends to over saturate red and to a degree, green.

Once I have all my "known standards" in place I can safely continue with the creative edits, knowing what I'm working with from the start. For example, say the skin tone just doesn't quite look right, I know that to correct it I need to go to the HSL panel in Lr and do a targeted adjustment on just the area that needs work. I have a hexadecimal library of known skin tones, by referring to it I can match the skin tone in Ps to a known value, or I can "appropriate" a code from an internet photo, using masking and an HSL adjustment layer.

Thanks for the explanation. Skin tones can be tricky. Do you use the Pantone skin chart?

 

[smoke665]

Skin tones can be tricky. Do you use the Pantone skin chart?

I use a lot of sources, over the years I've accumulated swatches in a file of not only skin tones, but tone mapping files that let me duplicate specific toning in the highlights, shadows, and midtones. I've also made several skin texture swatches that come in handy when you when have to actually replace texture from correcting to many blemishes.

 

[Chase McCloud]

The belief that you can accurately adjust WB by eye on a computer screen is not totally correct. Like all things experience will help you get closer, but you have to remember the eye sees and the camera records reflected light. On a computer screen you are looking at projected light, there's a difference.

"Accurate Color Management" is a moderately laborious process that starts with an understanding of the temperature of light. All light recorded by the camera or the human eye is "reflected light", it will be the color temperature of the light reflecting off the subject or any other object in the scene. Our brain automatically corrects but the camera records only what it sees. I've always found it odd that the temperature slider in LR is opposite the actual temperature scale of light. In the real world what we perceive as warm (red, orange, etc.) is on the left side in the range of 1,000-4000k, while cool, (above around 6,000k) is on the right. Daylight (what's perceived as neutral) is in the middle at the 5,500k range.

Next you have to consider that color is a general term, while Hue refers to the dominant Color Family of the specific color we're looking at. In Digital RGB images Red, Green and Blue are mixed to form the six primary hues. 255,255,255 being white, and 0,0,0 being black. A mixture of a two or more primary hues form secondary colors. Here's where things get a little tricky, a Tint is a primary or secondary hue with White added, a Tone is a primary or secondary hue with only Gray added, and a Shade is primary or secondary hue with only black added. Finally Saturation is the purity of all of the above with luminosity added.

In accurate color management the first step, is WB (the process of converting, unknowns to standardized known settings). I carry a White, Gray, Black target with me, that I shoot every time my light changes. In LR I first adjust the exposure to a full data file based on the histogram so I get an accurate saturation, I know the gray target is an accurate 18% gray so I use it to adjust my WB with the eye dropper tool in Lr. From there I set the White point and Black point (not to be confused with WB). I know have "known" parameters in the file, from which I can sync to all the images in the set. For portrait work, I go a step further using Color Checker to a create a profile that adjusts all the colors to known standards. In addition to the shifts caused by light temperature, all camera manufacturers have slight variances in how they render colors. Pentax for example tends to over saturate red and to a degree, green.

Once I have all my "known standards" in place I can safely continue with the creative edits, knowing what I'm working with from the start. For example, say the skin tone just doesn't quite look right, I know that to correct it I need to go to the HSL panel in Lr and do a targeted adjustment on just the area that needs work. I have a hexadecimal library of known skin tones, by referring to it I can match the skin tone in Ps to a known value, or I can "appropriate" a code from an internet photo, using masking and an HSL adjustment layer.

Roy g biv. This is the Way.