Gitte in the sunset

[djg05478]

The sun was setting last night and there were narrow bands of really golden light streaming through the trees.

As luck would have it, I managed to get one of my dogs to set still, long enough to get a photo and this VERY narrow portion of space and time.

I love the photo.....except that this really golden light source was hitting her from the breast up....which left the lower part of her body blue...especially her white feet.

Did you notice before I pointed it out?

I tried and tried in LR4 to get her feet unblue.

Gradient pulled up from the bottom of the photo adjusting the white balance and I used the selection tool to up the exposure, added a slight vignette to try and darken and pull the eyes toward the upper part of the photo and I got some of it, but to the discerning eye...blue feet.

So I'm taking this situation as an opportunity to advance my Lightroom skills....how would you all approach it? I'm asking specifically how to use tools in LR4, I know I didn't try everything and I just need a nudge in the right direction, I don't want to crop and right now my only other tool is PS Elements.

Thanks

[terrib]

Debbie, sorry I can't help with the PP but I really like the photo!

[Manfred M]

Debbie; unfortunately your shot is a mixed light situation where you have direct light from the setting sun hitting part of the image (the warm, orange light) and more diffuse light from the rest of the sky illuminating the bottom part (hence the blue cast). Also some fairly strong shadows in there.

P.I.T.A. to fix in post. Personally, I think a reshoot will be necessary, or of course, it is a perfectly lovely sunset shot.

[TonyW]

To my mind, the variation in light and colour is nice feature, not a fault.

[kdoc856]

very nice shot. Had you not told on yourself I doubt anyone would have noticed. The golden light pulls our eyes upward so naturally that we have to be prompted to look down, and even then the color seems totally consistent with shade and the reflected luminance from the grass.

If I were to have a play at "correcting" this (and can't because I'm at work), I would try a localized adjustment brush and nudge the hue toward yellow/red and just "paint" it in.

[NorthernFocus]

Now THAT is one good looking animal. Beautiful shot. Looking at the position of those back legs it looks as if you model was poised to take off as soon as released.

Personally I think the shaded areas are fine. As mentioned in a previous post the golden light draws the eye. And if indeed they are bluish, not so much so that it's even noticeable to my eye.

[djg05478]

Oops....I meant to say "Thank you" to Terrib

[djg05478]

Debbie; unfortunately your shot is a mixed light situation where you have direct light from the setting sun hitting part of the image (the warm, orange light) and more diffuse light from the rest of the sky illuminating the bottom part (hence the blue cast). Also some fairly strong shadows in there.

P.I.T.A. to fix in post. Personally, I think a reshoot will be necessary, or of course, it is a perfectly lovely sunset shot.

Thank you....Its good to know that I created a complex situation that is difficult to fix. Luckily the dog is mine and the sun sets everyday so I may very well have another opportunity at this shot in the future.

[djg05478]

Now THAT is one good looking animal. Beautiful shot. Looking at the position of those back legs it looks as if you model was poised to take off as soon as released.

Personally I think the shaded areas are fine. As mentioned in a previous post the golden light draws the eye. And if indeed they are bluish, not so much so that it's even noticeable to my eye.

Thanks. My model was waiting for her treat, so yes, ready to 'take off' is correct. And its good to know the blue feet are not as noticable to others.

[djg05478]

very nice shot. Had you not told on yourself I doubt anyone would have noticed. The golden light pulls our eyes upward so naturally that we have to be prompted to look down, and even then the color seems totally consistent with shade and the reflected luminance from the grass.

If I were to have a play at "correcting" this (and can't because I'm at work), I would try a localized adjustment brush and nudge the hue toward yellow/red and just "paint" it in.

Thank you. I'm glad the blueish feet aren't as noticable to others as they are to me. It appears the adjustments that I made were somewhat effective.

Now I'm wondering the photo would be stronger if it were cropped......but the 1/2 dog thing just doesn't look right to me. .

[djg05478]

To my mind, the variation in light and colour is nice feature, not a fault.

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it

[Jos G]

Hi Debbie,
I have no LR nor PS Elements, but edited your photo using Photoshop.
I made a new layer "hue and saturation", set it to maximum saturation and layed it over the photo.
Thus I could easily see the colours.
Then I took a brush and dipped it for the right colour on one of the legs of Gitte (using the droplet).
The next step was to paint - using colour - over every part of Gitte's body that looked oddily coloured.
Finally I removed the extra saturation layer and saved the photo.

Again, I have no idea if one of your programs have the possibility to colour-change specific parts of the photo like PS does, but it really comes to change the color (or hue) with a brush...

[Manfred M]

Hi Debbie,
I have no LR nor PS Elements, but edited your photo using Photoshop.
I made a new layer "hue and saturation", set it to maximum saturation and layed it over the photo.
Thus I could easily see the colours.
Then I took a brush and dipped it for the right colour on one of the legs of Gitte (using the droplet).
The next step was to paint - using colour - over every part of Gitte's body that looked oddily coloured.
Finally I removed the extra saturation layer and saved the photo.

Again, I have no idea if one of your programs have the possibility to colour-change specific parts of the photo like PS does, but it really comes to change the color (or hue) with a brush...

I think you might have missed my point; it is simple to correct a single colour cast, but trying to correct all of the combinations of mixed light is very difficult. I see about 5 different areas of differing lighting that all have to come together to make the image look right.



There are still a number of areas that really need more work but...

[Jos G]

Hi again, Debbie,
I think I have actually understood the problem: the 'white' spotted dog is now orange and blue and even a little green...
Perhaps the fact that we both use different editing tools might be the problem. However, I have tried another method of adjusting all these different colours on one surface:

1) make a new layer
2) fill the dog with a colour you like the most (choose one from it's picture with the droplet)
3) change the layer mode to 'color'
4) adjust the opacity to a value you like the most

I hope you have a program that can work with layers, because it really makes things a lot easier!

Kind regards,
Jos

[djg05478]

Hi again, Debbie,
I think I have actually understood the problem: the 'white' spotted dog is now orange and blue and even a little green...
Perhaps the fact that we both use different editing tools might be the problem. However, I have tried another method of adjusting all these different colours on one surface:

1) make a new layer
2) fill the dog with a colour you like the most (choose one from it's picture with the droplet)
3) change the layer mode to 'color'
4) adjust the opacity to a value you like the most

I hope you have a program that can work with layers, because it really makes things a lot easier!

Kind regards,
Jos

Hi Jos -Thank you for your efforts and suggestions.
I have worked in Photoshop, I used to have access to it at work, but I don't anymore and I haven't ponied up the money to get a copy, but I am aware of the power of the program and the power of layers. Maybe someday I will get it again or subscribe to the 'cloud' which I believe is the big change thats coming very soon.

Cheers Debbie

[djg05478]

Its kinda boring and I didn't want to start a new thread, but kinda nice when you get a good basic shot. Playing with the setting sun again.

[Manfred M]

You might want to try this type of shot on a nice cloudy day with diffuse lighting. I find animal shots look much better in that type of lighting. The eyes are more visible, the fur does not look strange and you are not fighting with strange looking colour casts.