Thanks for all, Godfrey. I did some additional tweaking after I wrote my
question, and I came up with something very similar to your version.
It puzzled me that in both our corrected versions, the young woman
appears paler than she actually is. She's of Asian ancestry, and her
face coloration actually looks the most correct in the overall too-warm
original version. One issue may be mixed light--the chandelier out of
view to the right of the picture puts out cooler light than the
halogens, and that may be skewing the color temperature of the face
higher. Also, most non-incandescent lights output discrete frequency
bands rather than a broad spectrum. The dyes in our retina are not the
same as the dyes in camera sensor filters, and they may respond a bit
differently.
--Peter
--------
Godfrey wrote:
> The one on Flickr.com is a bit too warm, and the one on the gallery
a bit too
> cool. I don't know Picture Window Pro at all, so I nipped a copy of
the flickr
> image and brought it into Lightroom.
>
> I set white balance to -15 on the temperature scale, and further
reduced Reds,
> Yellows, and Oranges in the HSL slider array to -28, -46, -46
respectively. I
> then added +38 to vibrance and +18 to saturation. The result, to my
eye, is a
> good middle ground: still a touch warm but clean irises and clear light.
> There's more that could be done, this is a 20 second edit… :-)
>
> A detail in the lighting is that your impromptu setup ended up with
the light
> pointing slightly up at the model (look at the shadows). This casts a
strange
> look for a portrait, it's best to have the light slightly angled down.
>
> If you plan on doing this sort of thing again, yes: an LED light box,
a light
> stand, and perhaps a reflector, gobo, etc or two would do you well. I
really
> shy away from flash for this stuff nowadays … Much better to work with
> relatively low power, continuous light where you can see what the
light is
> modeling.
>
> Example tweak here:
> https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4605/39610578532_66ae598776_b.jpg
>
> enjoy!
> G
> —
> If you're afraid to fall down, you'll never stand up.
>
> On Jan 11, 2018, at 4:13 PM, Peter Klein
<boulanger.croissant@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/38929746094/in/dateposted-public/>
> >
> > The back story: Tuesday night I got a phone call from a
friend. Kina, her
> > daughter, will play a cello solo with a local musical
organization at the end
> > of the month. They just told her that they need a picture of
her for their
> > online newsletter. Could I do it? When's it due? Umm, tomorrow.
> >
> > I arranged to come to the friend's house when Kina got home
from school. I
> > had about 90 minutes to do everything. It was gray and rainy,
so outside
> > light wouldn't work. I don't own any lights, but Kina's Dad
had some. They
> > turned out to be halogen. Oh, well. I found the most blank
wall in the
> > house, bounced the lights off the ceiling, set the camera's
white balance
> > with a sheet of white paper held in front of Kina's face. I
set the output
> > files to full-size JPG plus RAW, and did the shoot.
> >
> > Rapport was good. Things went well. I brought along my
now-freeware image
> > editor, Picture Window Pro on a flash drive, put it on the
family computer,
> > made a few adjustments to the best out-of-camera JPG. They send
it off to
> > the musical organization. I rushed home, wolfed down dinner,
went to my own
> > orchestra rehearsal, got home, looked at the photo. Their
family computer
> > was brighter than my calibrated monitor, so the photo is too
dark. I
> > readjusted it, did a couple of little dodges and burns, and
sent it off as a
> > "correction if there's time."
> >
> > Then I fooled with the RAW file to see if I could make it any
better. The
> > Olympus out-of-camera JPG is quite warm. Kina and her Mom liked
it. Capture
> > One, using a photo of the white paper as the white-balance
standard, gave me
> > a muted, almost pastel rendering of the RAW file. The wall
color is
> > accurate, but Kina looks a bit paler than she actually is.
> >
> >
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/music/portraits/P1100521+2.jpg.html>
> >
> > Often, I find that if I take the average of the too-warm
initial white
> > balance and a "correct" one derived from something white in the
picture (or
> > shot under the same conditions), that average is close to what
I like. Not
> > this time--whatever tweaks I tried made it worse.
> >
> > The out-of-camera version is usable as-is. But I have a few
other shots from
> > the session that I'd like to work up. Of course they could be
converted to
> > B&W. But I'm wondering what I can do to make the white/color
balance better.
> > And I'm wondering if I should invest in a couple of
reasonably-priced lights
> > or flashes (Is that an oxymoron?) if more people ask me to do
this sort of
> > thing. Re-arranging the living room lights works fine for B&W,
but not always
> > for color.
> >
> > --Peter
> > ------
------
Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at:
http://lrflex.furnfeather.ca/
Archives are at:
//www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/
