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Re: [OM] IMG: Color Balance Nightmare

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Color Balance Nightmare
From: Tina Manley <tmanley@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 19:45:31 -0400
Thanks, Moose.  I get what you are saying.  Color does not move me the way
B&W does and I'm sure that's obvious in my photos.  I started out with B&W
film and Kodachrome.  I actually have a WhiBal which I use when I remember
it.  Otherwise, I try to find something in the frame that is supposed to be
black or grey.  That works a lot of the time.  Circumstances like the red
tent which casts a red light onto the black that I'm trying to use to
balance are not always an easy fix.  I don't want to neutralize the light
that is influencing their lives.  Sometimes I think I should just leave it
as is.  I usually like your corrections much better than anything I can do,
but this time I don't.  The faces are too orange - almost neon-like.
Thanks for trying, though.

Tina

On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 7/15/2016 10:00 AM, Tina Manley wrote:
>
>> PESO:
>>
>> We were invited to lunch with a Qashqai family in the desert near Shiraz.
>> This is the inside of their tent:
>>
>> http://www.pbase.com/image/163678790
>>
>> I took lots of photos in this terrible, awful light.  The people are
>> beautiful but you'd never know it in this light!  I'll be working on these
>> today and tomorrow.
>>
>
> It's not difficult to correct, but probably requires PS skills you don't
> have and don't particularly want to learn. <
> http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Manley/Marshla_and_Ehsan.htm>
>
> Separate layers for her face and skin, his face, their clothing and the
> rest. All adjusted separately. Background by trying the color sampler on
> various neutralish looking things. Skin tones cribbed from the image of
> Azar, then adjusted differently for each. Clothing using PS Auto Color and
> adjusting Opacity.
>
> Probably not "right"; I wasn't there, but plausible.
>
> Any suggestions would be gratefully attempted!
>>
>
> Or maybe not. I've suggested before the use of a neutral reference in any
> unusual light. You haven't attempted it.
>
> A shot or two of one in this light, perhaps while waiting for the girls to
> get gussied up, and this would all be a doodle, correct the whole series at
> once, with more accurate color than anything done in post without a
> reference.
>
> Consider Steve McCurry. I was gifted with his book Portraits. There's some
> good stuff in there, but not a patch on what you do. His are stiff, cool,
> and often staged looking- repetitive, too, after too many of them. Yours
> are natural, warm and engaging, human, where his are mostly not.
>
> But look at his colors! I don't know what he is using; there are endless
> tools, from simple to complex, but he's making the colors work for him and
> his subjects, not against them. He's probably thinking about light and
> color long before he takes a single shot. I don't know if it's because you
> started out as a B&W photographer, and still sort of think of color as a
> not so nice accessory, but you don't appear to really think about it when
> shooting.
>
> You are happy to spend many thousands of $ on gear, much more on travel to
> find subjects, and schlep around a lot of gear. Then you skip a simple step
> and end up with color problems. You can buy a neutral reference the size of
> a credit card for a couple of $ and carry it with you with no effort at
> all. Is that as fancy, as effective as the more powerful, multicolor
> references? Nah, but it would work miracles for your work. The 90% solution
> is a lot better than 0%.
>
> Not all of us see the same way, both physiologically and mentally. If you
> just don't notice color in the excitement of shooting, you could just force
> yourself to shoot a reference in each different place you go into with
> camera. Soon, it would become a habit, and no effort at all.
>
> I happen to use a WhiBal, which is always in my wallet. If you don't like
> that, there are plenty of other sorts of reference cards, opal glass like
> "filters" that go over a lens for WB reference, light meters that read
> color, and so on.
>
> Where it's allowed, I shoot lots of pics in museums. It is for me a
> wonderful way to supplement my memory. But museum lighting is far from
> neutral, usually quite warm. So I shoot the WhiBal in each area with
> different light, and my pics show the true colors of the art.
>
> Try it!
>
> Colorfully Balanced Moose
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
>
> --
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>


-- 
Tina Manley
www.tinamanley.com
tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html
-- 
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