2E Polychrome Cliffs

but the question of contrast allocation is more a mat- ter of raw technical skill. The professional retouchers 2E Polychrome did significantly better in this exercise than those from other backgrounds. Also, the first class had more dif- Cliffs ficulty than did the second. Photographer: Valery Pogorely On the other hand, this picture would be too hard for One original • 14 entrants a non-advanced group. Before discussing the winning A to D: the original, and versions and losing techniques, let’s have a look at what might be considered our baseline treatment. Version E offers by Alessandro, me, and Dan McBride little to criticize. The upper central clouds, the obvious This moonscape from Capitol Reef National Park offers ambiguous, yet definite, color, plus emphatic detailing in the cloudy sky. The original lacks a white point but otherwise is in good shape. This was introduced as a tourism-oriented shot, featuring an area known for unusual color. We expect that the client would prefer somewhat more intensity in these colors than found in real life. Also, the Man from Mars move is likely to be featured, given how similar these colors are together. But trying to set some kind of pivot point is difficult, because of our uncertainty as to what any of these colors are supposed to be. A The color here calls for artistic interpretation, B C D E Above, a “default version” that represents a typical result for the class: no obvious mistake, a bluish sky, and an assumption that the lightest parts of the cliff are somewhat warm. Opposite top, a similar color evaluation, but a failure to set an adequate highlight in the sky. Opposite bottom, an overly contrasty version plugs detail in the trees at lower left. highlight, are too dark and too blue in the original. This desire and expect in a superadvanced course. has been corrected. The top center of the cliffs has been Nevertheless, version F is a useful example of why we lightened and neutralized to create more contrast. The do things that way. It is also a sobering reminder, since rock colors have been driven apart somewhat. The sky the person who did this obviously knows better, of how is a subdued blue. What’s not to like? easy it is to lose sight of the basics when confronted by Unsurprisingly, three other entrants resembled E something complicated. closely—first-rate work, not quite good enough to win, Version G does not feature such an elementary error, but good enough not to lose. but it misses out on a good technique that all the win- The next four variants weren’t so fortunate. Two ners used. Of the three top versions, I have the darkest fouled up the luminosity, and two the color. cliffs, or at least I do in their lightest portions, so that mine gives the impression of more depth in the rocks, Mishandling contrast… for better or worse. Version G basically agrees with my On the first day of basic ACT, and on the first day of assessment. Unfortunately, it’s too contrasty. There is work at any serious retouching establishment, one some loss of detail in the clouds, but a bigger objection learns the importance of setting a highlight in virtually is that the foreground trees have plugged. every image. The typical problems that beginners en- Many of us avoided this defect by lightening the counter occur when the lightest significant part of the image, then multiplying through a layer mask. Compare image is not white. the darkness of the trees in G to B, C, or D. The trees in Here, however, the highlight (the lightest clouds) is the successful versions are closer to the darkness of the supposed to be white. Consequently, of the 14 of us cou- background cliffs. rageous enough to participate, 13 set it to be some very light neutral. This is one shy of the number one would …and color F G The basic color concept here was not lost on me dur- bottom dark areas are so intensely colored that it’s im- ing the class, but it slipped my mind with unpleasant possible to make them anything but the purple that all results during October’s Photoshop World. of us got. Purple has a blue component. Where you find You could process ten thousand more landscape im- purple dirt it can’t be unreasonable to find blue dirt as ages and never run across one with blue or green soil. well. It’s natural for an experienced retoucher to check out Six of us, therefore, took the plunge and went for the light areas at the cliff top and conclude that any some kind of AB-negative soil. Certain efforts were negative AB value is wrong. (That they’re blue in the more successful than others. K has excellent color original doesn’t tell us much; there’s an overall blue cast, variation, but an overall cyan cast. It should have been easily measurable in the clouds.) found by measuring the sky, which comes in at around That’s how I got into trouble at Photoshop World. (10)a(15)b. Remembering that my recommendations I demonstrated a correction of this image live in my for sky values are B unknown, but A between (5)a and PPW seminar. Instead of getting B, as I did in the class, 2a, this sky measures too green, hence, too cyan. I embarrassed myself by coming up with something The sky is properly blue in L and the result is pleas- halfway between E and H. This is what happens if you ing. The weight is similar to mine in C, but this one woodenly assume that these colors are the yellow- doesn’t have the color variation mine does. Thanks to ish-warm kind to be found in the other ten thousand the Man from Mars method, some of my horizontal pictures. If the gods are well and truly aroused, they striping is yellowish, setting off the colder colors nicely. punish you with an abomination like H, or what I did at Photoshop World in front of a live audience. Don’t Forget the Sky The name of the site—Polychrome Cliffs—ought to There was more variation in the images with colder clue us in that the hues might not be usual ones. The cliffs than in the warmer versions, most of which re- The temptation is to believe that because bluish soil is virtually unheard of, it can be ruled out. Below, the assumption that the cliffs are a yellowish-brown destroys the image. The two opposite versions are cooler, but the top one has a cyan cast that is measurable in the sky. The bottom one is bluer, but it lacks the color variation found in version C. H K L sembled E. The best representative of this category was the second class, and I expect that the first class would Alessandro’s B, even though I think he went way too far agree. That makes it one of four images that we worked in his treatment of the sky. on where one image apparently beats out all others. Then again, our exercises repeatedly demonstrated The detail in the cliffs is impressive, but the intensity that heavy skies are important. Version M is one of doesn’t weaken in the lighter areas, the way it usually the most attractive of the colder versions—but the sky would. The only shortcoming, it seems to me, is the gray is missing in action, for which reason it can’t be ac- sky. If the scene is lit as brightly as the cliffs suggest, the cepted. sky has to be bluer. Several different solutions exist. Dan McBride (D) If you prefer a less psychedelic version than Dan’s or and Alessandro (B) used selections for the sky. Others mine, version M is a good start provided that a sky can multiplied through a mask. One way or another, we be acquired. I offer two alternatives: N is a 50–50 blend can’t stick with a sky as bad as M. of M and Alessandro’s B; O uses the color of M but the Dan’s picture was selected unanimously as the best of luminosity of my version C. Below, a conservatively colored version that nevertheless gets attractive blueness into the cliffs. The sky, however, is washed out. Opposite, two blends to make it more acceptable. Top, a 50-50 blend of versions B and M. Bottom, blending the luminosity of C with the color of M. M N O.

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