More practising with flowers

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Originally Posted by Kaye Leggett

Don't apologise.....I am really interested in what you're saying and also demonstrating. But am also at a loss of how to find this myself - what PP software are you using ? I have lightroom and photoshop elements. I thought I was getting the hang of using the histogram but I can't find the 'screen' you are using to then experiment for using it in future - help ??

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It's the editing screen from PhotoShop Elements version 6:

http://kronometric.org/phot/temp/pse-info.jpg

The screen is customizable - little windows can be shown or hidden and can be moved around. The one I use a lot is the "Info" window and it, too, can be customized as to what info it shows. To bring it up, see above: in the menu bar select 'Windows', scroll down to and click on 'Info'. The small window (which I have at bottom right) appears somewhere; you can move it but not resize it. It has a link at it's top right 'More>' click on it to set the info it shows - I use RGB at left and HSB at right.

Now, in RGB, if any value is 255 or 0 there is a possible problem. In HSB, if S (saturation) is 100% or 0% there is a possible problem. I say "possible" because at, say, 255 a color might just be at it's maximum brightness value but, more likely, it's clipped. The sure way is to allow flower petal RGB values of no greater than 254 and no less than 1; for saturation, no greater than 99% and no less than 1%.

In any image on-screen, the difference between 255 and 254, or 0 and 1, or 100% and 99% can not be seen, so you are losing nothing with that restriction. On the other hand, both over-saturation and brightness clipping cause color changes. Some people can accept that for a "prettier" flower rendition; I can not.

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Originally Posted by xpatUSA

It's the editing screen from PhotoShop Elements version 6:

http://kronometric.org/phot/temp/pse-info.jpg

The screen is customizable - little windows can be shown or hidden and can be moved around. The one I use a lot is the "Info" window and it, too, can be customized as to what info it shows. To bring it up, see above: in the menu bar select 'Windows', scroll down to and click on 'Info'. The small window (which I have at bottom right) appears somewhere; you can move it but not resize it. It has a link at it's top right 'More>' click on it to set the info it shows - I use RGB at left and HSB at right.

Now, in RGB, if any value is 255 or 0 there is a possible problem. In HSB, if S (saturation) is 100% or 0% there is a possible problem. I say "possible" because at, say, 255 a color might just be at it's maximum brightness value but, more likely, it's clipped. The sure way is to allow flower petal RGB values of no greater than 254 and no less than 1; for saturation, no greater than 99% and no less than 1%.

In any image on-screen, the difference between 255 and 254, or 0 and 1, or 100% and 99% can not be seen, so you are losing nothing with that restriction. On the other hand, both over-saturation and brightness clipping cause color changes. Some people can accept that for a "prettier" flower rendition; I can not.

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Now you made me curious...in the case of Kaye's image, how can you change the over-saturation and brightness collectively if this is not global within the image?

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Originally Posted by IzzieK

Now you made me curious...in the case of Kaye's image, how can you change the over-saturation and brightness collectively if this is not global within the image?

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Brightness is easier because most editors have a means to adjust it in a non-linear fashion, often called 'curves' or 'tone'. So those bright petals will the blown reds could be fixed by developing with a curve or tone that does highlight recovery. Won't work if the reds were blown in the raw data, although there are some fancy editors that can give it a try.

Saturation is less easy unless you have an editor like RawTherapee that can apply a curve to saturation in a similar way to brightness. So, saturation would only be reduced in the highly saturated areas of an image like the one in question.

I imagine that masking or layering could do something similar but my software has neither ability.

One other thing to mention about editing with Curves, etc, when using layers. Experiment with different Blend Modes for changing brightness and/or saturation.

For example, using Luminence Blend applies changes only to brightness values while saturation is unaffected. Colour and Saturation Blend Modes don't alter brightness. Other useful options are Soft Light or Overlay for adding a bit of extra zip to colours (similar effects to LCE) and Multiply exaggerates the contrast.

Also, you can vary the opacity of these layers so there is a lot of fine control available.

Thank you, Ted and Geoff...those are both helpful comments. I will surely take note of those...

Geoff, did you see what I did with my daffies and tulips post? I followed your advice there mostly for brushing textures on my petals, especially the tulips one came out pretty good...I will not forget that advice and know that I need not have to have stacking on such a small flower...thank you again for that advice...and now this one...

Thanks Ted and Geoff - will check this out today..

I think I'm there....

http://i60.tinypic.com/95sf9s.jpg

I have reduced both the brightness and saturation and think that I no longer have any of those 255 or 100% values. For comparison, I found the original RAW file

http://i57.tinypic.com/2jadsuo.jpg

Geoff and Ted, thank you hugely for your patience and input. Tomorrow I have promised myself another day in a garden.....so hopefully will be putting some of these lessons into practice so as not to forget them. The daffodils are out in profusion, so plenty of yellow around !!