Simply pretty

[JBW]

[Dave A]

That is pretty Brian. Nice detail in the white which I find hard to get right.

Dave

[JBW]

That is pretty Brian. Nice detail in the white which I find hard to get right.

Dave

I admit to allowing the camera to start the process by using auto white balance.

[Ziggy]

Nice looking bloom.

[JBW]

Nice looking bloom.

we have the same flower but in purple that is giving me a lot of trouble.

[Manfred M]

It looks to me that you are missing on your exposures again. The overall image is nice, but the tones are muted and muddy.

When I look at the histogram, I see loss of shadow detail and the whites are coming out as grays.

[xpatUSA]

we have the same flower but in purple that is giving me a lot of trouble.

Purple ain't easy, Brian, as you say. There is a great tendency for greens to get forced to zero during conversion to sRGB especially if the saturation control is cranked up a bit. Oddly enough, the lower the exposure or image brightness, the worse that effect gets. So, any subtle hue differences in "purple" due to the green content become just combinations of blue and red which is not so good to purists such as you and I.

Since you seem to be favoring muted images lately, I would suggest to keep your eye on the color picker and not let any channel color in the petal area go below, say 1 or 2.

[edit] I suppose it does depend on the intent of the final output. I myself can't abide to lose detail of any kind and that includes channel detail. Although losing a few levels of green in a image may not be much, have a look at this comparison of the green channel in a purple flower shot - one slightly de-saturated:




As we can see, the green detail in the circled area at right is all gone. Tsk.

[JBW]

It looks to me that you are missing on your exposures again. The overall image is nice, but the tones are muted and muddy.

When I look at the histogram, I see loss of shadow detail and the whites are coming out as grays.

Before I worked on this one i reset my monitors. Then shot was in the shade where white does look grey. if you look at the top left of the bloom you will see where the white is white because of the sunlight.

I did try to keep it muted but I don't see the muddy look?

[jcuknz]

I found white and black points almost at each's end and only by clipping both I noticed an 'improvement' and darkening of the leaves.
I have an un-calibrated screen and work from what the programme shows me. I suspect my monitor is getting hot with use and often find whites too strong as I did here.

[jcuknz]

Now I see your comments about the sunlight I think I see the difference from the warm sunlight as opposed to the cool skylight on the face of the flower ... mixed lighting in nature!

edit
Brian #8 I only saw the muddiness after adjustments and comparing, flicking between layers, and the original from you is definitely muddy but then I questioned the darkening of the foliage in the adjustment .... another example where you disagree with the technical approach and prefer what you see on your monitor

[Manfred M]

Brian - when I brought this image into Photoshop; the blacks were clipped and there was lots of headroom on the whites. This creates the "muddy". If this were my image I would set theblack point and while point and then work the centre point (gamma) so that the colours are muted, but the end points are set appropriately.

[JBW]

Purple ain't easy, Brian, as you say. There is a great tendency for greens to get forced to zero during conversion to sRGB especially if the saturation control is cranked up a bit. Oddly enough, the lower the exposure or image brightness, the worse that effect gets. So, any subtle hue differences in "purple" due to the green content become just combinations of blue and red which is not so good to purists such as you and I.

Since you seem to be favoring muted images lately, I would suggest to keep your eye on the color picker and not let any channel color in the petal area go below, say 1 or 2.

[edit] I suppose it does depend on the intent of the final output. I myself can't abide to lose detail of any kind and that includes channel detail. Although losing a few levels of green in a image may not be much, have a look at this comparison of the green channel in a purple flower shot - one slightly de-saturated:




As we can see, the green detail in the circled area at right is all gone. Tsk.

So if I understand this a little less saturation and a little more lightness would go a long way to improve things?

[JBW]

Brian - when I brought this image into Photoshop; the blacks were clipped and there was lots of headroom on the whites. This creates the "muddy". If this were my image I would set theblack point and while point and then work the centre point (gamma) so that the colours are muted, but the end points are set appropriately.

If we were in he same room I can imagine you saying to me... show me how you set your points Brian maybe your techniques is not so good.

Can you describe how to set the white and black points? I only ask because what I am doing is not working so well.

[Manfred M]

Brian - if I knew either of the two programs you use for editing, I would certainly give you some specifics, but unfortunately, I don't use either tool so can't really help. Hopefully some Gimp and / or Sony Express user will step forward.

[Stagecoach]

Brian,

I found this tutorial for setting B & W points in Gimp with a quick google search.

http://www.lpgallery.mb.ca/gimp/g4.htm

[xpatUSA]

So if I understand this a little less saturation and a little more lightness would go a long way to improve things?

Well yes, from a pixel-peeper's pedantic point of view. In the Real World, you would find the improvement to be apparently slight because color contrast is not so obvious to the eye as is luminosity contrast. Some folks even prefer over-saturated images to properly-saturated ones.

So, quite a bit of pedantry is needed to even think about striving for that perfectly saturated flower petal, like the purple one in your other post.

[JBW]

Well yes, from a pixel-peeper's pedantic point of view. In the Real World, you would find the improvement to be apparently slight because color contrast is not so obvious to the eye as is luminosity contrast. Some folks even prefer over-saturated images to properly-saturated ones.

So, quite a bit of pedantry is needed to even think about striving for that perfectly saturated flower petal, like the purple one in your other post.

did you know alliteration is terribly difficult in Visayan?

[xpatUSA]

did you know alliteration is terribly difficult in Visayan?

Ummm, had to look that up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visayans

Quite a country . . .

I used to speak a few words of Gujerati but never rose to an alliterative level