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02/07/2004 04:09:50 AM · #1 |
hello
I took a photo (see below). It is of a tub in my garden, which has been left outside for years and has gone rusty and manky. It has a spade in it, and water (from rain).
As you will see, when the picture loads, the colours are a bit rubbish. I have made them look a bit better (this is the original unedited version) but even then i cant get it quite right. Towards the bottom it gets less 'colourful' if that makes sense. I have photoshop elements, ulead photoimpact 3.02 and some other edited programs, but they are as cr@p as ms paint!
please give me some adivce! thanks
heres the photo: > 
(btw this has been reduced in size so its not too large. It was taken in 2048 i think) |
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02/07/2004 04:49:40 AM · #2 |
You will probably get the best results by reshooting, making sure your camera's white balance setting matches the light source.
Color correction in an editor is more difficult and sometimes impossible. My favorite method in Elements is to use Levels. Select the Red channel in the pull-down at the top, then hold the Alt key while you slide the dark input level to the right. The photo will appear solid red, and as you slide you'll eventually see some dark spots; that's when to stop. Then hold the Alt key while you slide the light input level to the left. The photo will appear solid black; stop when red spots start appearing. Change to Green and repeat, then do Blue. |
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02/07/2004 05:10:08 AM · #3 |
I agree, it is probably a white-balance problem. Remember that the camera is trying to turn whatever you focus on into a roughly neutral gray/white. If the only thing the camera sees is pretty consistently some other color, it will shift the colors to try and get it more neutral.
Try putting a piece of white paper near your subject, pre-focus on that, and then remove it before taking the photo.
Gordon wrote a good note about this in an old forum, including how to use colored cards and the WB setting to simulate various color filters ... you might try searching in there for more info. |
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02/07/2004 05:27:29 AM · #4 |
was this shot through water ? The colours look like there is alot of reflection or even flare.
If there was water in the bottom, you might find a polarising filter some use, but that depends on the angle.
Edit: Okay I actually read what you said. The whiteish gradient on the shot is from reflections on the water. A polarising filter can be used to cut most of that out, when you take the shot.
Message edited by author 2004-02-07 10:29:10.
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02/07/2004 05:41:32 AM · #5 |
This is about as good as I could get it within 3 minutes of my time.
Basically: very large input value clipping on the white end and then a very small gamma adjustement. I don't quite know what this is and what the colours are supposed to look like though, so I just focused on exposure and not white balance.
To get a more uniform correction, you would have to select regions using transparency gradient masks like on the bottom left where the saturation is exaggerated.
Message edited by author 2004-02-07 10:48:53. |
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02/07/2004 08:51:29 AM · #6 |
thanks labuda/ It looks alot better than when i took it. I might take the photo again, but im not too bothered, as the photo is actually of a really rubbish view, and i only attached it here, as im rubbish at editing pictures.
Labuda, what program did you use for it?
thanks
-ash
btw, you said "i dont quite know...what the colours are supposed to look like though", but you got it almost right :) |
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02/07/2004 11:38:55 AM · #7 |
I hope that you don't mind that I have edited your picture, but you did not seem to mind that somebody else did. If you do mind, then let me know and I shall remove it.
This is the best that I could do about 15 seconds, I did actually use Photoshop and elements does not really compare. However all that I did was to use levels to select a white and black level to use, then I increased the contrast a little bit -- trying about 10. I then uped the saturation by 15.
The easiest way to guarantee that you get a good black and white point in your picture however is to do something as simple as the following: --
print on a piece of paper one third as 18% grey, one third as black, and leave one third as white. Photograph this piece of paper in front of your subject, and then photograph the subject without the paper. In the editor of your choice open up the photo with the card in it, and use it to select the white, black and mid-tone levels for your main photo. In Photoshop do this last procedure in an adjustment layer, and then drag this adjustment layer onto the photo without the card in it. The adjustment layer will then be applied and you will have a properly set white, black and mid-tone. The result -- hey presto one perfect image.
This is a very simple technique that I often use in my own studio shots, and I have yet to find an easier technique. I hope that this helps, but I really would suggest that you move to any of the latest copies of photo impact, paint shop pro or best of all Photoshop.
I hope my picture looks roughly like what the original did. |
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02/07/2004 11:39:53 AM · #8 |
Oh yeah, I forgot.
If you want less cloudiness in your picture, just up the contrast and saturation little bit more. |
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02/07/2004 11:51:39 AM · #9 |
I used CorelPhoto-Paint. I thinks it's the most advanced program in certain respects. I find it more technical than PS, but PS is more userfriendly. I've been using Corel since I was 8 years old though (12 years ago),so I get around pretty well. It would cost you a few hundred dollars so I suggest PS for you. I'm sure you could to this in PS, but I wouldn't know how to explain it to you. Maybe an experienced PS user can translate this window into PS language.
Basically, you have the initial grey curve, which as you can see is very narrow making the contraast very low, in order to spread that curve, I adjusted clipping values and gamma accordingly. There are many combination that will yield a nice result, however slightly different. It's basically trial error until it looks right for you.
Note... the gamma value should be 0.38. I don't know what happened to this window?!
Message edited by author 2004-02-07 16:53:45. |
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