photoshop mama's youtube tuts and my 'attempt' :p

[XysteR]

I fail to see how?

Go back to the original image, they all have a deadly orange cast. I suspect that the image was shot in the house on an evening with the light on. The camera would have been set on auto for white ballance and in all honesty a camera doesn't have a clue. The colour temp on that original image is sky high, and so are the rest of the images. This is how it should look naturally, 5 mins of mild editing and its a million miles in the correct direction. I could go on with this and make it a star image but i'm too busy with my images. Here ya go, natural:

 

[ChroniC]

Ok! you have completely got it wrong. What u have mistaken is a slight byproduct of the lack of colour rendition in browsers.
The orange hair, gnger effect with slight saturation is going to look orange to an eye. If you look closely at all of the white areas they're white, and all of the colours are correct.
If you look at yours, she is cold, the whites have a shade of cyan, the cyan colour cast you have created with the auto colours and auto levels hasnt worked, and even her hair has gone a funny green colour.

I admit mine is slightly warm but it works a lot better.

 

[XysteR]

Ok! you have completely got it wrong. What u have mistaken is a slight byproduct of the lack of colour rendition in browsers.
The orange hair, gnger effect with slight saturation is going to look orange to an eye. If you look closely at all of the white areas they're white, and all of the colours are correct.
If you look at hers, she is cold, the whites have a shade of cyan, the cyan colour cast you have created with the auto colours and auto levels hasnt worked, and even her hair has gone a funny green colour.

I admit mine is slightly warm but it works a lot better.

Bum biscuits! your monitor needs calibrating correctly. I didn't need to move away from my 24" dell, but i did look on my 22" CRT and these images are warm as toast! Whites of eyes often have a very mild hint of blue in them. In all honesty though and i don't mean to be offensive, only constructive - Your edit looks pretty poor on both my monitors. It looks like you lot force fed her sunny delight for a year ffs lol

A good thing to do with a portrait of someone with ginger hair/freckles etc is move away from colour and bring out some contrasty properties with b&w. Another 5 min image:

 

[ChroniC]

Bum biscuits! your monitor needs calibrating correctly. I didn't need to move away from my 24" dell, but i did look on my 22" CRT and these images are warm as toast! Whites of eyes often have a very mild hint of blue in them. In all honesty though and i don't mean to be offensive, only constructive - Your edit looks pretty poor on both my monitors. It looks like you lot force fed her sunny delight for a year ffs lol

A good thing to do with a portrait of someone with ginger hair/freckles etc is move away from colour and bring out some contrasty properties with b&w. Another 5 min image:

If you say so!!
Please find me an example of eyes having a hint of blue, and its cyan, thats why your hair has gone green. Your honesty isnt constructive in anyway since both of your attempts fail to actually achieve anything, and my monitor is fully calibrated as the images i work on for a studio on a imac always look the same on my home computer.
I know the skin tone on my edit is correct as i have used the channel mix to adjust the colours and any slight adjustment away from red makes her go a funny green colour, much like your use of auto tools.

Spend 2 years working in a darkroom having to adjust colour casts precisely for work adorning walls and i will think about considering your comments constructive.

 

[XysteR]

If you say so!!
Please find me an example of eyes having a hint of blue, and its cyan, thats why your hair has gone green. Your honesty isnt constructive in anyway since both of your attempts fail to actually achieve anything, and my monitor is fully calibrated as the images i work on for a studio on a imac always look the same on my home computer.
I know the skin tone on my edit is correct as i have used the channel mix to adjust the colours and any slight adjustment away from red makes her go a funny green colour, much like your use of auto tools.

Spend 2 years working in a darkroom having to adjust colour casts precisely for work adjorning walls and i will think about considering your comments constructive.

My ex had a slight hint of blue in the whites of her eyes, and i have a few friends who have the same, you need to observe these things and your telling me you work with imaging?. Dude you really aint got a clue. Skin is not pinky orange for starters, its naturally got tones of greens blues and all kinds of colours in it that are absorbed from our surroundings.

lol man look back up at my image. I've placed the original in the top and my quick edit in the bottom. I've placed in examples of true black and true white. Look closely at the whites and the blacks. You'll see how washed out the black is in the original with a red/orange cast even in the black, same goes for the white its got a nasty red/orange cast. If this had the correct white ballance it would have been true black in the shadows with no red or orange.

Now tell me whos is the closest to natural white and black?


Oh, auto tools my ....

 

[ChroniC]

My ex had a slight hint of blue in the whites of her eyes, and i have a few friends who have the same, you need to observe these things and your telling me you work with imaging?. Dude you really aint got a clue. Skin is not pinky orange for starters, its naturally got tones of greens blues and all kinds of colours in it that are absorbed from our surroundings.

lol man look back up at my image. I've placed the original in the top and my quick edit in the bottom. I've placed in examples of true black and true white. Look closely at the whites and the blacks. You'll see how washed out the black is in the original with a red/orange cast even in the black, same goes for the white its got a nasty red/orange cast. If this had the correct white ballance it would have been true black in the shadows with no red or orange.

Now tell me whos is the closest to natural white and black?

Yes i wasnt argueing the original was bad, i was argueing that you said no one had sorted it. Im argueing my edit is fine, and yours how ever much you want to think is right has a cyan cast.
You've used the original as a comparison ffs, and even badly proved it as the whites are more vibrant on the original, and it makes your version eyes look even further towards cyan in comparison. Id love to see vogues art directors face when you told him what you just told me
Go see an optometrist if your seeing green in peoples skin, if people look like that you know your either going blind or there very ill.
The even funnier thing is everytime i look at ** edit you've removed some of the things ive mentioned. lol.
Im going to bed.

 

[fini]

I have to say, as you might have worked out by my dale winton pics, they were looking mighty warm. At the same time xysters is quite harsh - not so much blue-shifted, but certainly an unflattering light.

What I have far more problems with is your b&w conversion, where you've made it look horribly over-exposed. Something like this, imho looks much better.

EDIT: I would add that I'm pretty sure that this monitor's not calibrated well at all given that I've not bothered to even try to calibrate it for years.

 

[XysteR]

Yes i wasnt argueing the original was bad, i was argueing that you said no one had sorted it. Im argueing my edit is fine, and yours how ever much you want to think is right has a cyan cast. You've used the original as a comparison ffs.
Go see an optometrist if your seeing green in peoples skin, if people look like that you know your either going blind or there very ill.
Im going to bed.

lol you really aint got a clue, and you need to get educated before trying to explain anything to me about light, colour and the way they interact. Why does a realism portrait artist use tones/hues of greens, blues etc in a painting of a human head? look at the vains under your skin if they are orange then theres something wrong with 'your' eyesight. This may come as a shock to you in particular, but your skin is actually partly transparent. Its takes on the colours you see from your innards, vains, blood and its outside surroundings. Your way of seeing skin colour is from a primary school painting or fresh out of a makeup tube! lol

Go, get educated on this then come back and appologise

Big sorry to the thread creator for taking this off in another direction.

 

[XysteR]

I have to say, as you might have worked out by my dale winton pics, they were looking mighty warm. At the same time xysters is quite harsh - not so much blue-shifted, but certainly an unflattering light.

What I have far more problems with is your b&w conversion, where you've made it look horribly over-exposed. Something like this, imho looks much better.

Your right fini but that overexposed look is what i was trying to create, its deliberate. Overexposed looks pretty damn funky in B&W and IR shots. I thought 'Kill Bill'

And indoor lighting will always be unflattering when you correct it to near true colour.

 

[fini]

I disagree, but that, I feel, is a matter of taste, (thus an ultimately cyclical argument) so I'll leave it at that.

 

[XysteR]

I disagree, but that, I feel, is a matter of taste, (thus an ultimately cyclical argument) so I'll leave it at that.

But fini.... you banged the nail right on the head when you put them celeb shots up!


The words ORANGE and TANGOED spring to mind!

Even some chavs don't look this orange! lol

 

[ChroniC]

lol you really aint got a clue, and you need to get educated before trying to explain anything to me about light, colour and the way they interact. Why does a realism portrait artist use tones/hues of greens, blues etc in a painting of a human head?

Because paint and light are different. I learnt that at my little school education you speak of.

Go, get educated on this then come back and apologise

I dont have to prove anything to you. Im fully versed, and soon to be well educated as such in this subject.

 

[XysteR]

Because paint and light are different. I learnt that at my little school education you speak of.


ok when i finished my ba next year in photography with credits in photoshop and fine print i might, but i doubt it.

Because paint and light are different? WTF kind of valid, explanitory answer is that?

.....Let me try telling ya again: lol He uses these colours to make the skin in his paintings appear more realistic to the human eye! Realistic because skin takes on these colours from its surrounding and internal influences because of its transparent properties.

BA? Bull Artist?

Bed for me i simply give up!

 

[ChroniC]

Because paint and light are different? WTF kind of valid, explanitory answer is that?

.....Let me try telling ya again: lol He uses these colours to make the skin in his paintings appear more realistic to the human eye! Realistic because skin takes on these colours from its surrounding and internal influences because of its transparent properties.

BA? Bull Artist?

Bed for me i simply give up!

yes, you told me Thanks

 

[vincent1989]

blimey guys

 

[Messiah Khan]

As fun as im finding this debate, please don't venture into the land of personal insults guys. I agree that the origional has a orange colour cast, and in teaboy5's example, this cast has been pushed way too far. But I still don't see this cast as being a problem or anything that needs correcting in any great amount. The colour corrected on in your example XysteR looks way to Cyan on this screen (admitadly a rubbish work one). The ginger of the hair has ended up with a grey/green tinge to it. Ive never been a fan of 'colour correcting' images to the 'correct' colour temperature, as I donb't see colour casts as a bad thing as long as they are deliberate and flattering to the image. Also if you watch photoshop mama's tutorials (well worth a watch if you haven't) she admits that she prefers a warmer skintone and as such deliberatly increases the colour temperature.

On a slightly different note, the image in the OP shows way to much softening. Even the hair has been softened which there is no need for. The trick is to soften the skin subtly, yet retain detail and sharpness in the eyes, nose, lips and hair.

 

[eyetrip]

Sorry, but you are all wrong. Whats needed (I personally think, for such a close-up shot) is better application of makeup.

More foundation! Less lip gloss!

Maybe a little more distance between subject and camera. Have been following this thread all of yesterday, and I always have to skip past the photo. not sure if it is the size of the originals in the browser, or what, but just can't look at it for long.

PS - Am by no means saying it is a bad photo, but think everyone trying to correct something that should have been done pre-photographing. And it does disturb me for some reason (the photo in general).

 

[Messiah Khan]

I agree with what your saying ffallic, but sometimes this is not possible. As far as I know, 'Photoshop mama' works as a professional retoucher who often gets images from customers/clients who want a certain favourite photo of them made 'better'. In this situation its obviously not possible to turn round and say "sorry, I can't do anything to help you as the photograph is rubbish".

If you look at her videos;
http://uk.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=photoshopmama&page=4

specifically the ones with the picture in question in, im sure you agree the final result is very effective.

Part1A

 

[eyetrip]

I agree with what your saying ffallic, but sometimes this is not possible. As far as I know, 'Photoshop mama' works as a professional retoucher who often gets images from customers/clients who want a certain favourite photo of them made 'better'. In this situation its obviously not possible to turn round and say "sorry, I can't do anything to help you as the photograph is rubbish".

If you look at her videos;
http://uk.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=photoshopmama&page=4

specifically the ones with the picture in question in, im sure you agree the final result is very effective.

Part1A

Agreed, her final result is impressive. Perhaps should have watched the video to see what everyone trying to achieve... my bad. Bit silly following the thread when not knowing what everyone using as a goal post.

The image did not bother me in those videos either... must be the size of them in this thread.

 

[divine`]

Go back to the original image, they all have a deadly orange cast. I suspect that the image was shot in the house on an evening with the light on. The camera would have been set on auto for white ballance and in all honesty a camera doesn't have a clue. The colour temp on that original image is sky high, and so are the rest of the images. This is how it should look naturally, 5 mins of mild editing and its a million miles in the correct direction. I could go on with this and make it a star image but i'm too busy with my images. Here ya go, natural:

:/

I get that result when I use Auto Levels and Auto Color in CS2.

You haven't gone natural, or 'corrected' the white balance at all, you've just buggered it in the opposite direction. She's almost gone green!