Young Lady Calligrapher

[Jim A]

This young lady was seated at a stall at an outdoor event that I went to. The background was messy so I replaced it with one colour.

[Wavelength]

a cool portrait; love it

[Manfred M]

The background replacement has been well done with just a few artifacts here and there if I pixel peep.

That being said, the background looks just a touch "artificial" and not what I would expect to see. I would have thought something with just a touch more texture would be more realistic.

[Jim A]

Many thanks, Manfred. Yes, now that you mention it the background is not the best. Here is the image with a fresh background. What do you think please? I am aware of the artefacts and gradually getting rid of them, which is a longish painful process. I have cut a little from the bottom so that there is less of the white criss-crossed paper.

Do you think that it would be worthwhile changing the newspaper she is resting on, into just white paper, the same white as the edges of the newspaper?

[Manfred M]

Jim I like the second version better for a couple of reasons. The overall tone of the image is cool; the table m the clothing (although there are a few warm tones in the clothing and the paper / accessories, the cooler tones of the wall match that.

With respect to the newspaper versus white baking, I feel that with the messier background, the newspaper fits in well rather than spotless white paper.

[mugge]

Second version far superior in my view.
Cheers Ole

[Wavelength]

Colourwise definitely like the new version; it adds an element of pleasing; yet i have a feeling the background looks more like dirt than like art and destracts much.....

[xpatUSA]

Colourwise definitely like the new version; it adds an element of pleasure; yet I have a feeling the background looks more like dirt than like art and detracts much.....

I find that the new background is tending to equal or even overwhelm the subject and I would be inclined to both darken it and reduce the saturation.

[Jim A]

Thanks all!
Manfred - your explanation of the background is very helpful. Yes, I agree with you that best to stick with the newspapers.

Ole - Thanks for your kind words.

Nandakumar - whilst you may be right, it is in the eye of the viewer. At this stage, I have nothing else amongst my "stuff" that I could substitute.

Ted - here it is along the lines you have suggested. Think I still prefer the second version, but will ponder.

[Manfred M]

Jim - the last thing you might want to look at is to add some catch-lights to the calligrapher's eyes just to give them a bit more life. I tend to use a somewhat soft, round brush with a low opacity and will build that up until I get the look I want. It is almost always better to be a touch understated when you do that.

[xpatUSA]

Thanks all!

Ted - here it is along the lines you have suggested. Think I still prefer the second version, but will ponder.

There may be a misunderstanding Jim?

My suggestion was to darken the background and lower the saturation but with the above I can't see much difference between it and the second version:



Pardon the stretching at left not sure how that happened. Doesn't affect the comment though ...

[edit]something like this:



Pardon the hand-drawn quick selection ...

[Jim A]

Oops, sorry Ted, I uploaded the wrong version - have now corrected above!

[xpatUSA]

Oops, sorry Ted, I uploaded the wrong version - have now corrected above!

Great minds think alike ... see my edit!

With the duller background she fair jumps out at us!!

[Wavelength]

I am not at all good at edits; if i were, i would have shown a pale plane blue background for this

[Manfred M]

I personally prefer something between the two versions. I can see the version in #4 might be too blue for some, but the background colour complements the blues in the ink pots and brush holders and the blues on the newspaper. The background in #9 is too gray to complement those tones.

[xpatUSA]

I personally prefer something between the two versions. I can see the version in #4 might be too blue for some, but the background colour complements the blues in the ink pots and brush holders and the blues on the newspaper. The background in #9 is too gray to complement those tones.

As to color terminology, 'complementary' is normally used to describe opposite colors in the hue circle -for example the well-known Teal and Orange used to excess in movies. A more correct term in this case is 'analogous'.

However, the color in the first post was analogous to the lady's skin and deemed less effective.

An alternative is to make the background analogous to -or about halfway between- both the skin and the blues on the counter, for example HSV 69-40-48 cyanish-green.

[Manfred M]

As to color terminology, 'complementary' is normally used to describe opposite colors in the hue circle -for example the well-known Teal and Orange used to excess in movies. A more correct term in this case is 'analogous'.

However, the color in the first post was analogous to the lady's skin and deemed less effective.

An alternative is to make the background analogous to both the skin and the blues on the counter, for example HSV 69-40-48 cyanish-green.

Thank you Ted.

I am quite familiar with the colour models and the "theory" behind them. I use the Analogous, Monochromatic, Complementary and Split Complementary in a lot of my studio work where the colours are controllable. I find that these simple models have far more impact than some of the more complex ones.

Adobe has an interesting online tool that lets one play with these models and some of their software (Photoshop and Illustrator) interfaces quite nicely with it. I can upload an image make some measurements and then download those results when I colour grade.

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

[xpatUSA]

Thank you Ted.

I am quite familiar with the colour models and the "theory" behind them.

I use the Analogous, Monochromatic, Complementary and Split Complementary in a lot of my studio work where the colours are controllable. I find that these simple models have far more impact than some of the more complex ones.

Sorry, Manfred, I was misled by the use of 'complementary' in connection with similar hues.

Adobe has an interesting online tool that lets one play with these models and some of their software (Photoshop and Illustrator) interfaces quite nicely with it. I can upload an image make some measurements and then download those results when I colour grade.

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

Thanks for the link - a pretty good applet.