18 August 2014

Digital doings - getting the colour right

Getting the photos to look like the original painting isn't easy, and green seems to give the camera a lot of problems.
As it came out of the camera - cropped
After cropping, it needs adjusting it to fit into the rectangle (the keystrokes - on a PC, using Photoshop - are Ctl+A to Select All, then Ctl+T to transform, and holding down the Control key while dragging out the corners). Then the colour adjustment can start. Some people use Curves but I'm sticking with what I know, which is Levels (Ctl+L).

First, "tightening" by moving the little triangles to the point where the histogram starts -
Without "empty pixels"
To adjust for lighting conditions, hold down the Control and Alt keys and hit the B key -
Adjusted for lighting
Then I go back to Levels (Ctl+L) and choose individual colours, in this case Green, and move the sliders till the colours look like the painting, which is propped beside the computer.
Individual colours adjusted in Levels
On my screen at least ("your milage may vary") it pretty much matches the original ... and is certainly a far cry from what came out of the camera.

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