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Re: [OM] IMG: What is reality, man?

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: What is reality, man?
From: Peter Klein <pklein@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 14:42:34 -0800
Thanks for the comments, Joel and Chuck. The one Chuck prefers is the 
closest to having a "correct" white balance of both the video actress 
and the live cellist. It also took the most effort to make. I thought 
this was what I was going for. But when I got it "right," I found that 
the two women looked too much the same. My eyes did not see the drastic 
color difference between the screen and the live performer, but they saw 
some difference, which this rendering eliminates. That's when I decided 
to get interpretive about things.

On another forum, Nathan prefers the original settings, with the live 
performer "correct" and the screen very blue. I suspect I could find 
someone who would like each rendering.

--Peter

 > I find the most pleasing image to be this one
 >
 > But that may have nothing to do with reality or the work required to 
product it.
 >
 > Chuck Norcutt
 >
 >
 > On 2/22/2014 1:01 AM, DZDub wrote:
 > It's an interesting series. Because the live person looks fine in the
 > first one, I don't care so much how the video looks. Of course, I wasn't
 > there. I thought the BW version was quite nice. What PWP does well, it
 > does quite well.
 >
 > Joel W.
 >
 >
 >
 >
 > On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 12:53 AM, Peter Klein wrote:
 >
 > This is long, but you may find it interesting. I just spent several
 > hours over a couple of days trying to get a picture "right." There were
 > several different degrees of "right" and "not right," with no clear-cut
....

 > One shot posed a particular challenge. In the piece "Up Close" by
 > Michael van der Aa, a cello soloist doesn't just play with a string
 > chamber orchestra and electronic sound. She also interacts with a
 > projected video that runs during the piece. This created a perfect
 > storm of mixed color temperatures. Here's the first white balance, done
 > for the tungsten stage lights. The live woman is fine, the video is
 > blue, blue blue.
 >
 > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/P2170091+_2_.jpg.html>
 >
 > Balance it for the video, and the live performer becomes the Lady in
 > Excess Red.
 > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/P2170091+_1_+.jpg.html>
 >
 > So what to  do?  I tried black and white. Which was OK, but not quite
 > what I wanted. Not enough difference between live and Memorex.
 > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/P2170091bw+.jpg.html>
 >
 > I spent a couple of hours making masks (not my best skill, and I use
 > Picture Window Pro, not Photoshop, so I don't have a magic lasso).
 > Eventually I did a combination of a polygon for the screen, merged with
 > a mask keyed to most shades of blue, plus another to reddish hues,
 > cloned one into the other, blended the two white balances through this
 > mask, then and manually adjusted the final result with the clone tool.
 > It ended up mostly, reasonably technically correct, but the blue spill
 > in the foreground is impossible, and it's not what I perceived when I
 > saw it.  During the performance, I didn't see the drastic color
 > difference that the camera "saw." But there was a difference, and this
 > rendering almost eliminates it.
 > <
 > 
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/P2170091-composite2ClonShpFinalCrop.jpg.html
 >
 >
 > At which point I decided that realism was futile.  OK, let's get
 > interpretive.  I tried a partially desaturated version of the original
 > tungsten balance.
 > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/P2170091Desat.jpg.html>
 >
 > But the picture I eventually chose to post was the one below. I used the
 > tungsten white balance, so the live performer appeared normal, and a bit
 > of selective color correction towards grey to reduce but not eliminate
 > the blueness in the video performer only. This added some mixed-toned
 > B&W surrealness to the video image.  It was not exactly what I saw, but
 > it evoked the same sensation as what I saw. Besides, my wife preferred
 > this one.  :-)
 > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563 [at] N04/12664153803/>
 >
 > Again, see the following four pics for the conclusion of the series.
 > Thanks for bearing with me.
 >
 > --Peter


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