NON Square Cropped Portraits - (nSCP's) - Archive

[Antonio Correia]

... Someone like Antonio might be able to do better...

Colin, please don't consider me better than I am. Thank you anyway.
In my monitor your image looks too green. Maybe just my monitor again.
I tried and here it is.
What do you think ?

[KentDub]

Antonio I think you just one-upped Colin! A little cool for my taste, I think this image would work well with a little warmer feeling to it

[Antonio Correia]

Antonio I think you just one-upped Colin! A little cool for my taste, I think this image would work well with a little warmer feeling to it

It happens to me sometimes that when I see the image again - some hours later for example - I see details I was not seeing before.

I have to agree with you.
My version is a bit blueish/cold.
I must be careful and not to post at once, but wait at least one hour and see before showing, doing the treatment again if necessary.

I think Colin can do better than me. I think and I am sure that he can.

And if he didn't it is because he has to work in the mean time and I don't.

[peterb533]

Antonio I think you just one-upped Colin! A little cool for my taste, I think this image would work well with a little warmer feeling to it

I think this is where we came in as my original looks a little too warm. Just goes to show that every one has there own opinion on the ideal portrait.

Peter

[KentDub]

I think this is where we came in as my original looks a little too warm. Just goes to show that every one has there own opinion on the ideal portrait.
Peter

Indeed. It also shows the importance of using a calibrated monitor and (ideally) a color managed workflow.

It's interesting to see the image go from Hot, to green, to cool.

[Colin Southern]

.
Colin, please don't consider me better than I am.

I didn't. You're you're very good at candid portraiture! You'll just have to learn to live with the fact

I tried and here it is.
What do you think ?

On my calibrated/profiled home screen it's showing noticeably too much magenta - not a lot, but noticeable.

I think that there's an important lesson here - even when people like Antonio & I (with experienced eyes for colour and tone) attempt to adjust something like this without a neutral reference we still can't get it right. I think Antonio's has too much magenta, some think mine has too much green, I think my background looks a bit green but the actual skintones look better, but still not right.

It's not the first time I've come across this (and I'm sure it won't be the last). I've also done the same test with an assiciate who shoots weddings (very important to get skin tones right in wedding portraiture) - and he couldn't get a shot particularly close by eye either. Bottom line is - even with correctly setup hardware - it's "darn" difficult. On the other hand - if one had a neutral reference shot (eg same young lady holding a coffee filter - white sheet of paper - WhiBal card etc) then I could LITERALLY, ACCURATELY, white-balance that shot in around about 1 second.

[KentDub]

I went though a tutorial a while back that was "Color correction by the numbers" which aimed to teach people how to color-correct things (multi-point white balance, skin tones, and more) using the numbers (as shown when you move the cursor around the image in the info pallet), where it removed the blulk of subjective qualitative perception of colors and turned it more into a quantative exercise. I'll see if I can dig it up.. It's very interesting.

[KentDub]

Alright since everyone is getting so much fun out of this I think I'm going to give it a shot (from the origional post) when I get home. We need a thread so we can all compare the variations side-by-side, lol.

[Colin Southern]

I went though a tutorial a while back that was "Color correction by the numbers" which aimed to teach people how to color-correct things (multi-point white balance, skin tones, and more) using the numbers (as shown when you move the cursor around the image in the info pallet), where it removed the blulk of subjective qualitative perception of colors and turned it more into a quantative exercise. I'll see if I can dig it up.. It's very interesting.

That reminds me of a couple of things ...

1. Lee Varis has an excellent book called "skin" - good value for anyone wanting to get them right

2. ACR and Photoshop/LAB colour are great for fixing casts as it gives you control over colour opponent pairs, not just hue (as in HSB layer)

[KentDub]

There goes another charge to the credit card...

[Antonio Correia]

There goes another charge to the credit card...

That's a good one !

[KentDub]

That's a good one !

wasn't joking either

had 4 books in my queue... I just finished up Understanding Exposure this week. I neeed more to keep me occupied

[Colin Southern]

wasn't joking either

had 4 books in my queue... I just finished up Understanding Exposure this week. I neeed more to keep me occupied

Don't forget to actually TAKE some shots occasionally though!

[KentDub]

That's what I got all weekend for
I'd like to find a few decent subjects that I can try out some HDR on

[Antonio Correia]

Don't forget to actually TAKE some shots occasionally though!

and post them here if they are SCP or here in nSCP if suitable

[KentDub]

Here is my take on it:


Edit: Looks like dog #$%^ in IE.... not reading the ICC profile.

[Alis]

This is the only "thing" I can find not interesting, apart from beeing an excellent image, which you are certainly proud of.

Thanks, Antonio! I agree, too much playing with that picture. Not sure why I did it but it is fun...

[Alis]

Here is my take on it:


Edit: Looks like dog crap in IE.... not reading the ICC profile.

Kent, actually your version looks the best of all the versions to my eye. Just a bit dark may be but the skin tone is very nice...

[Colin Southern]

Edit: Looks like dog #$%^ in IE.... not reading the ICC profile.

If it's converted to sRGB profile and looks good in a colour-managed program (like Photoshop), but looks bad in a non-colour managed environment (ie Internet Explorer) then the difference between the two presentations is pretty much proportional to how far the CALIBRATION (not profiling) is out on your monitor.

Case-in-point - I always calibrate my monitors carefully before profiling them (it gives programs more levels to play with), and your white-balancing of the photo looks pretty good (tad dark, but skin tones are the best I've seen) (in IE 8).

[Colin Southern]

OK - my final attempt at processing the young lady's - based on Kent's interpretation (for it's excellent white balancing), but with careful adjustments to exposure - fill light - brightness - contrast - and black clipping point - with a touch of highlight recovery thrown in for good measure!).