Color in photography

[Mr. Me]

I have found that I can get some very interesting results by decomposing an image into YCrCb, Lab, or HSV color modes. See this article for more details. How do you guys like to edit the color in your photography? I'm interested in hearing the different techniques people use to manipulate color.

[theguywitha645d]

In scientific imaging, I will sometimes work in Lab to separate the luminance information from the color.

[spotmeter]

I have found that I can get some very interesting results by decomposing an image into YCrCb, Lab, or HSV color modes. See this article for more details. How do you guys like to edit the color in your photography? I'm interested in hearing the different techniques people use to manipulate color.

Did you intend to post a link?

[Mr. Me]

Sorry, I added the link.
@theguywitha645d What is scientific imaging?

[theguywitha645d]

Sorry, I added the link.
@theguywitha645d What is scientific imaging?

In my case, imaging biological samples under a microscope. Mostly to do with fluorescence imaging with false color. Or to be exact, to help researchers with this--I ain't no biologist.

[Mr. Me]

Sounds fun.

[Ellis Vener]

See Lee Varis' four tutorials on a "10 channel  workflow" @ http://varis.com/video-tutorials/

In reality it is only seven channels: RGB + LAB + K (K =black in CMYK channels )

It is a lot of work but with some photos  the approach he outlines does to improve the impact of color. I think Lee's examples are little too exaggerated for my taste (and visual taste varies from one set of eyes to the next)  but his principles and general technique are sound.

[deejjjaaaa]

I have found that I can get some very interesting results by decomposing an image into YCrCb, Lab, or HSV color modes. See this article for more details. How do you guys like to edit the color in your photography? I'm interested in hearing the different techniques people use to manipulate color.

does it sound like Dan Margulis stuff ?

[stamper]

The last time I mentioned these two guys the flame throwers came out. I hope you have your flame retardant suits on? They seem to be out of fashion along with their theories . For somebody who wants to go beyond the now fashionable Lightroom and ACR why not?

[Mr. Me]

Thanks Ellis Vener and deejjjaaaa for mentioning those guys. I was looking for theories like the ones these guys have about color, but I wasn't able to find much in my Google searches. Will definitely look into what these guys have to say about color.

[Ellis Vener]

I haven't read Margulis' "Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace" book  but Lee Varis  credits him for pointing out  what can be done in LAB. I am pretty sure that working in YCrCb or HSV will really give you any advantages.

Varis' "10 channel workflow" is essentially an RGB workflow with localized color editing. Varis' (maybe Margulis' too) big idea is that it is contrast that creates a feeling of depth in a two dimensional image.

Varis' process involves first  doing the heavy color correction lifting with  either R,G, or B channels as layers utilizing some very finely tuned (to the image) clipping masks,  duplicating a flattened version of the RGB master and converting it to LAB, using the A and/or B channels (once again depending on image content) to once again create adjustment layers, copying all of your work in LAB to a new top layer and adding that layer to the original RGB version ( adding it to the RGB image layer stack converts it from LAB to RGB,) and then to correct for the  over saturated result, making a second flattened duplicate of the RGB document, converting it to CMYK and then just using the K (black) channel to add black back to colors that are now overly bright and over saturated.

it is a lot of work and requires a lot of practice and trial and error to determine what really looks right make it work well. It is very easy to go way over the top with it.

Much of this can now be handled in ACR 5 and Lightroom 3 and 4, so I use it only as a last resort and  my experience with it over the past year tells me only about 2% of photos truly benefit significantly from it. Start with the idea that just because you have all of these tools available doesn't mean you always need to use most of them. As the carpentry based saying goes: "To a hammer the entire world looks like a nail.

It also does not take the place of good raw processing discipline, a multi step sharpening (capture or input + creative sharpening based on image content + output size, method and media characteristics) and if needed noise reduction workflow, and what Mac Holbert calls Mid-tone contrast enhancement ( a very simplified version of Holbert's Mid-Tone Contrast Enhancement  is the basis of the Clarity control in ACR and Lightroom.

You will also learn a lot  from  the John Paul Caponigro and Mac Holbert Fine Art Digital Workflow DVD tutorial: http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/store/dvd-fine-art-workflow.php  -  It is well worth the money.

[BobDavid]

I am using LAB more and more. It is a non-destructive color space. I make curve adjustments in the "A" and "B" channels. This technique offers an enormous amount of control once you become accustomed to using it. Even though my monitor is sRGB and it doesn't show some of the corrections that are made in LAB, I am familiar with reading the numbers and predicting how output will look through experience. Once the corrections are made in LAB, I usually convert the profile back to RGB.

[Ellis Vener]

It is the movement from RGB > LAB > RGB that is destructive, not LAB per se. the changing is what creates the rounding errors. How much damage / how many errors you can tolerate is the real question.

[stamper]

Dan Margulis certainly didn't agree with that statement.

[Ellis Vener]

Dan Margulis certainly didn't agree with that statement.

Ask me if I care.
Given the incredible set of tools available in the Photoshop CS program It makes sense to experiment and not lock ourselves into only one way of working - but only once you feel you have enough mastery at one approach and you think there is a possibly of getting a better end result by trying a different path. That path may be essentially a dead end or yield an insignificantly changed result at the price of much time and effort on your part - ask someone who can be objective and is comfortable enough with you to be honest to look at the results- but even if it is a dead end you'll have learned something that could prove useful later or will simply increase your knowledge.

[stamper]

I'm on your side here. However the latest advancements in Raw means that these methods have been shunned by most photographers who only want to use ACR & Lightroom for their processing.

[Ellis Vener]

Adobe Camera Raw ( which is also the processing engine in Lightroom)  has come very far and many of the old tricks just are not as necessary as they once were. As a photogrpaher I primarily use Photoshop these days for work that involves compositing/montaging and layers.