Isla de los sueños - Critique Please

[Brownbear]

Thank you.

He explained that he achieves a high-key look (or a low-key look) more by adjusting the curve during post-processing than by exposing differently than he would for a shot that he intends to be neither high-key nor low-key. He has written about that many times.

[ajohnw]

He explained that he achieves a high-key look (or a low-key look) more by adjusting the curve during post-processing than by exposing differently than he would for a shot that he intends to be neither high-key nor low-key. He has written about that many times.

The last curve I posted is a very strong tonal curve Christina. Some cameras have one built in that pushes the exposure up significantly and applies a steep s curve at that point. Other apply the same style of tone curve but leave the exposure - mid gray where it is. Like most things there are no hard answers. There are degrees of both high and low key. When ever you are playing with a curve to some extent the key is being adjusted - it really relates to slope of the curve high for high and low for low and can also relate to exposure shifts.

This thread shows 2 extremes of high and low by Colin. As you can see neither of these could be done with some shots. It also shows an exposure shift type curve as used by a camera. There is lot of variety in that area.

High Key / Low Key

I'm not sure I would call Colin's flower shot high key. Not sure he would either. Just cause it has a white background doesn't make it high key. It;s a very tastefully adjusted flower with a white background. My ambition is too match Colin's PP. I've learned a lot from him but also like to go my own way. Everybody should. it's a tough task but remember he has done an awful lot of it.

The link I posted also shows 2 degrees of high key via curves.

John
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[Brownbear]

Thank you.

Yes, I have a better understanding of high-key from reading Colin's posts but I missed the one you included the link to, so I will review.

I downloaded your edit of my picture and I can see that although most of the histogram is at the right you kept a true black point... That is helpful to know and see.

The last curve I posted is a very strong tonal curve Christina. Some cameras have one built in that pushes the exposure up significantly and applies a steep s curve at that point. Other apply the same style of tone curve but leave the exposure - mid gray where it is. Like most things there are no hard answers. There are degrees of both high and low key. When ever you are playing with a curve to some extent the key is being adjusted - it really relates to slope of the curve high for high and low for low and can also relate to exposure shifts.

This thread shows 2 extremes of high and low by Colin. As you can see neither of these could be done with some shots. It also shows an exposure shift type curve as used by a camera. There is lot of variety in that area.

High Key / Low Key

I'm not sure I would call Colin's flower shot high key. Not sure he would either. Just cause it has a white background doesn't make it high key. It;s a very tastefully adjusted flower with a white background. My ambition is too match Colin's PP. I've learned a lot from him but also like to go my own way. Everybody should. it's a tough task but remember he has done an awful lot of it.

The link I posted also shows 2 degrees of high key via curves.

John
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[ajohnw]

The true black point can't be a rule really. The shot might benefit form lifting the black end up to brighten the dark end but that in turn may mean fiddling about with the others. I suspect people often expect a set of rules to follow and all will be ok. Really with curves it's a case of appreciating what an adjustment will do to a shot and going for what you want. Some use levels instead. That maps the input to some place in the output via numbers. Often this means moving the input black and white markers so that they just span the histogram then positioning this in the output with it's markers. The grey central input marker is then moved to taste. Not as flexible as curves but not so easy to get into a mess. Often with normal adjustments curves need very small changes. You will probably find that the curves panel in PS can be detached from the main window to allow it to be enlarged to hep with that.

You might also find that there are PS curve presets about on the web. Flicking through those on a shot will probably show you that rather small adjustments can make a surprising amount of difference.

John
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[Brownbear]

Thank you John. Very helpful.