Colour processing

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Peter Higdon

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Edit My Images
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Lets be clear, I am not talking about white balance or colour management here, about which there are oceans and oceans written. Nor for that matter about HDR. I am talking about local controls and altering colours in an image to change the image eg add emotion, emphasise a particular aspect of the image, or make some part less important. In short to use colour like black and white photographers use tone. I am really struggling to try to get to grips with this, doing it all on trial and error and going through iteration after iteration to get even close to the result. I was wondering if anyone has any pointers here. Does one start with getting the image globally correct and then hone in on the particular? Or is it better to get the detail right and worry about the background later? Reading John Blakemore on B&W processing, I am impressed by the way he uses test strips in the darkroom. Is anyone doing anything similar with colour? Where do you start?

We do colour photography, but above and beyond the areas I mentioned at the start of this, there seems to be very little written about post processing colour.

Any advice, suggestions, or comments would be very welcome.

Thanks
 
Here's my collection of links of colour-related stuff, of varying utility:

http://phlearn.com/create-mood-atmosphere-and-drama-in-photoshop
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?u...00096&qt=colour.1.coloured.1.colours.1&cvid=9
http://phlearn.com/how-to-apply-cinematic-color-grading-to-your-photos
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzchCaOJ67g


I'm still wading my way through this stuff myself; it's a massive subject. Here are a few of rules of thumb I've come across. I'd be very interested to hear of others.
  • Crudely, colours opposite each other on the colour wheel or a few steps apart go together better than adjacent colours. Art books will do a better job of explaining what complementary colours are than I can. Here's an intro: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm. The Adobe color CC panel is useful for seeing which tones go together: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-creative-cloud/get-started-with-adobe-color-cc/
  • Warmer colours appear to be nearer the camera. I think this is one reason - in addition to the faux-film look - that teal-toned shadows and orange toned-highlights are popular - the shadow areas tend to recede, thus increasing depth.
  • In the same way that the eye is drawn to areas of high contrast, it's drawn to regions containing jarring colours, i.e. colours from different palettes. Complementary colours draw the eye too but are more satisfying.
  • Painters tend not to use colours in equal proportions - in the same way that they tend not to use shadows, highlights or midtones in equal proportions. A common trick was to include a single tiny splash of red to draw the eye.
Kevin McCloud's book on palettes is interesting: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choosing-Colours-Kevin-McCloud/dp/1844004406/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

People seem to fall back on VSCO-type stuff for toning. It's easier to get acceptable results than fine tuning an image yourself.
If you like actions then Florabella's are reliable and seem kinder to skin tones than most.
I sometimes use 3d lookup table adjustment layers; I've built up a collection of LUTs but I can't remember where I got them from.
I also like picking a colour in the image and using that or it's opposite to tone the shadows, highlights or whole image. I'll usually do that with curves or a gradient map. I do try - not always successfully - to keep it understated, though. I'd prefer to enhance what's there already rather than totally modify the image.
 
Basically you're stepping out of the technical realm (Abundantly covered in YT tutorials etc) and into the aesthetic/psychological. Because these matters are more cerebral and harder to espouse in a 5 minute "Follow the steps" tutorial, there's far less written about them.

Generally I'd correct the image to a neutral position to ensure subsequent adjustments don't exaggerate any errors, then make a decision on where I want the image to go and get to work. The technical changes are simple enough (Curves, Hue/Sat etc) but it's knowing *what* to change that is the tricky part, and the bit I assume you're butting up against (Rather than any specific technical issue).

Art study, Colour Theory and a sprinkling of Psychology required!

(Josef Albers - Interaction of Colour is a good short book to get you started)
 
Thanks for your replies.

Juggler, I was particularly impressed by the two PHLearn tutorials you pointed out to me. Not necessarily from the technical point of view, but from the point of view of wholesale change of colours which I had not really considered in the past. That is certainly something I will be looking at using. Your point about unequal proportions is also something else I need to think carefully about.

Looking at photographs for direction in this area poses an interesting conundrum: if the colours have been changed well enough, you cannot tell what has been done by just looking at the result. This is certainly true of two landscape photographers I admire: Alain Briot and Guy Tal. Both openly state that they change images to get the message they want, but you cannot tell the changes have been made from the final picture. I guess the reply to that, is to study their images, decide what I like, and then look how colour helps achieve it.

I guess in a way your both saying what I already suspected, that this isn't technical. Which is right really, because I am trying to do something very personal to me; but one always hopes for a magic bullet.

So art, colour theory and a whole lot experimation here I come.
 
juggler said:
Here's my collection of links of colour-related stuff, of varying utility:

http://phlearn.com/create-mood-atmosphere-and-drama-in-photoshop
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&view=btop&ver=dqujp3h61mgd&q=label:photography colour&qs=true&search=query&th=1464d7c641a00096&qt=colour.1.coloured.1.colours.1&cvid=9
http://phlearn.com/how-to-apply-cinematic-color-grading-to-your-photos
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzchCaOJ67g


I'm still wading my way through this stuff myself; it's a massive subject. Here are a few of rules of thumb I've come across. I'd be very interested to hear of others.
  • Crudely, colours opposite each other on the colour wheel or a few steps apart go together better than adjacent colours. Art books will do a better job of explaining what complementary colours are than I can. Here's an intro: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm. The Adobe color CC panel is useful for seeing which tones go together: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-creative-cloud/get-started-with-adobe-color-cc/
  • Warmer colours appear to be nearer the camera. I think this is one reason - in addition to the faux-film look - that teal-toned shadows and orange toned-highlights are popular - the shadow areas tend to recede, thus increasing depth.
  • In the same way that the eye is drawn to areas of high contrast, it's drawn to regions containing jarring colours, i.e. colours from different palettes. Complementary colours draw the eye too but are more satisfying.
  • Painters tend not to use colours in equal proportions - in the same way that they tend not to use shadows, highlights or midtones in equal proportions. A common trick was to include a single tiny splash of red to draw the eye.
Kevin McCloud's book on palettes is interesting: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choosing-Colours-Kevin-McCloud/dp/1844004406/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

People seem to fall back on VSCO-type stuff for toning. It's easier to get acceptable results than fine tuning an image yourself.
If you like actions then Florabella's are reliable and seem kinder to skin tones than most.
I sometimes use 3d lookup table adjustment layers; I've built up a collection of LUTs but I can't remember where I got them from.
I also like picking a colour in the image and using that or it's opposite to tone the shadows, highlights or whole image. I'll usually do that with curves or a gradient map. I do try - not always successfully - to keep it understated, though. I'd prefer to enhance what's there already rather than totally modify the image.
Click to expand...

Some really good links there Simon, thanks. Every year I try to improve my overall processing know-how, and every year I don't practice enough! Have been doing a bit more of late, and my overall workflow is improved.
 
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