Posted by Adrian North on April 17, 2007 at 2:59 PM
OK I'm going to put my animal identification reputation (which, I will be the first to admit is nothing special ) on the line here and say that this is an image of a common rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) that I managed to get this weekend whilst out roaming around a field near me. Comments (and a correct ID if I'm wrong) are, as always, welcome. The technical details are:
Your original seems to have a blue cast, which is odd, my Canon Raw files tend to err towards a slight red cast...... - here is a repost after some minor mods, I think there will be a lot more to come out of your original file
Mike
Posted by Adrian North on April 18, 2007 at 1:57 AM
Thanks everyone for the comments. Mike - yep that definitely takes the image to another level - can I ask what you were the adjustments you made to it please?
There is a good tutorial in the NPN techniques directory dealing with colour casts/optomising black and white points here - usually it is not a simple matter of clipping back to values 0 and 255, you need to get near black and near white RGB values optomised first then clip back (if appropriate) otherwise you still end up with the colour cast.
So here is my usual processing methodology;
My first port of call is to get near black, near black - using colour checker tool on 3 or 5 point average and picking a dark point in the eye the RGB values were something like 9,9,22 - Using levels function I pulled down the blue channel black end to get the value 9 (you increase the slider value to decrease the black point number - ie clip the blue channel value back further)..... for this step I find it quicker to use the levels function, but for all other colour manipulation I use the curves function....... I work on the basis no matter what the light conditions and time of day, black should always be black - I find this one single step cures most colour imbalance issues, from here on in it is a matter of taste.
From the shadow angle this was taken at dusk/dawn, so there seemed no point in trying to get the the near white point optomised to an even RGB value 24x,24x,24x (ie pure whiteish), there should be a gentle red hue in the lighting conditions....
Next step I thought there was still a slight blue cast for the time of day, so using the curves function I again worked on the blue channel and pulled the mid point towards bottom right to give a gentle curve - this slightly desaturates the entire blue channel without affecting the black/white points. - alternatively there is quite a good mid grey tone in the bank rear left and you could use the levels function grey point dropper tool, but I prefer to work in curves - it's whatever you find easiest for you.
Finally I thought you had optomised the white point a touch high (both black and white points were clipped) - the foreground dirt looked slightly too bright so I used shadow highlight tool to cool down the whites slightly - alternatively you could use the levels tool and in the bottom of the two slider boxes pull the white point down slightly from 255 to something like 245 -250.
and that was it
Going off topic slightly - Hosehill early morning jaunt is a must this year after failing miserably last year - the first Nightingales have arrived now........ the next 2 or 3 weekends are likely to be best
Mike
Posted by John Chapman on April 18, 2007 at 9:47 AM
Hi Adrian
nice shot and as you agree Mike has made it better.
John
Aberdeen
Posted by Adrian North on April 18, 2007 at 1:39 PM
Mike,
Thanks - I'll look at the tutorial and step through your method. And thanks for the heads up about Hosehill - looks like I know where I'll be going this weekend then. Are you likely to be there?
Discussion
8 replies- Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk IIN
- Lens: Canon 500mm f4 IS + 1.4x
- Aperture: f7.1
- Shutter Speed: 1/160s
- ISO: 400
- Metering: Evaluative
- Exposure Control: Aperture Priority
- Camera Support: Gitzo 1325 + Wimberley Gimbal
- RAW Conversion: RawShooter Premium
- Post Processing: Levels, Curves, Contrast, USM
Many thanks for looking.
Adrian
Mark
I like the pose but am not sure about the look of the image. Seems a bit contrasty. Were you after this look?
Regards
What a little cuttie!
Your original seems to have a blue cast, which is odd, my Canon Raw files tend to err towards a slight red cast...... - here is a repost after some minor mods, I think there will be a lot more to come out of your original file
Mike
Thanks
Adrian
So here is my usual processing methodology;
My first port of call is to get near black, near black - using colour checker tool on 3 or 5 point average and picking a dark point in the eye the RGB values were something like 9,9,22 - Using levels function I pulled down the blue channel black end to get the value 9 (you increase the slider value to decrease the black point number - ie clip the blue channel value back further)..... for this step I find it quicker to use the levels function, but for all other colour manipulation I use the curves function....... I work on the basis no matter what the light conditions and time of day, black should always be black
From the shadow angle this was taken at dusk/dawn, so there seemed no point in trying to get the the near white point optomised to an even RGB value 24x,24x,24x (ie pure whiteish), there should be a gentle red hue in the lighting conditions....
Next step I thought there was still a slight blue cast for the time of day, so using the curves function I again worked on the blue channel and pulled the mid point towards bottom right to give a gentle curve - this slightly desaturates the entire blue channel without affecting the black/white points. - alternatively there is quite a good mid grey tone in the bank rear left and you could use the levels function grey point dropper tool, but I prefer to work in curves - it's whatever you find easiest for you.
Finally I thought you had optomised the white point a touch high (both black and white points were clipped) - the foreground dirt looked slightly too bright so I used shadow highlight tool to cool down the whites slightly - alternatively you could use the levels tool and in the bottom of the two slider boxes pull the white point down slightly from 255 to something like 245 -250.
and that was it
Going off topic slightly - Hosehill early morning jaunt is a must this year after failing miserably last year - the first Nightingales have arrived now........ the next 2 or 3 weekends are likely to be best
Mike
nice shot and as you agree Mike has made it better.
John
Aberdeen
Thanks - I'll look at the tutorial and step through your method. And thanks for the heads up about Hosehill - looks like I know where I'll be going this weekend then.
Adrian