SaintRigger Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Below is a picture I took some time ago and wasn't really happy with. The model looks nice to the eye (although I should have highlighted the gold a bit more) - the photo really made it look dingy and dirty. Today, while I was slacking at work I decided to run it through photoshop and adjust some levels and color balances to try to make it look a little better, and wow! What a difference a few settings make. The first picture was snapped, auto-leveled and uploaded. The second one I spent about 10 minutes tweaking the curves on. Watcha think? (and do you consider this as cheating?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demon Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 It isn't cheating. And if someone considers it cheating........hit em in the head then make them learn the chemistry process behing processing standard 35mm C-41 film. It would only be cheating if you paid someone to do it (and they did one amazing job) and then claimed you did it. All you did was put a little more determination into your art. And that's what matters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePolo Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Cheating? Heck no! You're simply adjusting the picture to more accurately portray what you see with your eyes. Granted, I am a big advocate of the P-shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airhead Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 SR, no. Cheating is painting a primed mini in photoshop. Or cleaning a mold line up with the blur function. Playing with the light & levels is just trying to make it look more like it does on your table/studio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital M@ Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 CHEATER! Well ok, you are no cheater. I just say that cause I don't have p-shop or anything else that does this. Nope, this is just adjusting contrasts and light to get a crisper pic. Like others siad if you used features to specifically effect blends, darkening certain areas, highlighting your individual highlights, then it gets into manipulation/cheating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintRigger Posted February 17, 2005 Author Share Posted February 17, 2005 Cheating? Heck no! You're simply adjusting the picture to more accurately portray what you see with your eyes. Granted, I am a big advocate of the P-shop. Hows it look to you.. I've looked at it on 4 monitors (one color adjusted for 5000k) and on each one it looked different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintRigger Posted February 17, 2005 Author Share Posted February 17, 2005 CHEATER! Well ok, you are no cheater. I just say that cause I don't have p-shop or anything else that does this. Nope, this is just adjusting contrasts and light to get a crisper pic. Like others siad if you used features to specifically effect blends, darkening certain areas, highlighting your individual highlights, then it gets into manipulation/cheating. Bu even those, all most of those tools do is adjust levels in certain specific areas. Blending would be a bit different, however... but in the past I've blended and patched up - like if the gradient I'm using doesn't cover the whole picture - I'll sometimes copy it so it does.. or remove debris sitting on the ground for a cleaner image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartan6 Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Naa.. It's not cheating. You're just making it into the picture you would have taken if you'd had the perfect light set-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheprera Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Looks a TAD bit on the blue/magenta side of color on my monitor, but then after 24 years in the photo industry I tend to overanalyze. This would be why I don't like just using AutoLevels. Yeah, it's quick and dirty and that's exactly what you end up getting. One of the old jokes we used to play with customers was when they dropped their film on the floor when bringing it in to be developed. "Oops, well, they'll all be blurry now!" One customer actually freaked when we said that (some special occasion). She asked if we had some sort of special focusing fluid that would correct the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintRigger Posted February 17, 2005 Author Share Posted February 17, 2005 Aryanun - that is exactly the problem I have. I have 3 monitors on my one machine at work - only one of them is color balanced and even then it runs a bit cool (and probably needs to be recalibrated, but I only did it because I was learning how the equipment works so I can deploy it in a lab). So the picture looks different on each display on the same computer. At home Jenna has a machine and I have one, and what we do with pictures look different - so it's really frustrating to get a decent balance. :( I wish there was an easy way - because what looks good on one display looks horrid on another. Do you have any suggestions for a poor man's color balancing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital M@ Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Bu even those, all most of those tools do is adjust levels in certain specific areas. Blending would be a bit different, however... but in the past I've blended and patched up - like if the gradient I'm using doesn't cover the whole picture - I'll sometimes copy it so it does.. or remove debris sitting on the ground for a cleaner image. I was refering to taking particular areas, say under an arm and shade the area a bit more cause it would look better, or notice a highlight on particular fold on a cloak could be highlighted a bit or the gadient of the color changed. IMO, when you dice apart small details to create a "perfect" presentation, you start to cross into grey areas of what some people would call cheating. Me, I don't care, but I have met those who do. Let everyone said, if you are just using it to get the best representation of your miniature because lets be hones, most of our lighting setups and cameras and photography skills are sub par for professional level photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airhead Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 ...cause I don't have p-shop or anything else that does this... Matt, do a Google search for GIMP. free download - very powerful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital M@ Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheprera Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Aryanun - that is exactly the problem I have. I have 3 monitors on my one machine at work - only one of them is color balanced and even then it runs a bit cool (and probably needs to be recalibrated, but I only did it because I was learning how the equipment works so I can deploy it in a lab). So the picture looks different on each display on the same computer. At home Jenna has a machine and I have one, and what we do with pictures look different - so it's really frustrating to get a decent balance. :( I wish there was an easy way - because what looks good on one display looks horrid on another. Do you have any suggestions for a poor man's color balancing? Use one monitor as your base computer to do photo manipulation on and use that one for color balancing. Really it's a matter of finding the monitor with the best overall color balance. Another method to try is to use a photographers gray card. Shoot a picture of it with a subject. Since you know it's a completely neutral gray color, you can use the choose-color tool to find out exactly how "gray" it's really showing. Is it too red? Add cyan. Too blue? Add yellow. Too green? Add magenta. All photo-manipulation softwares use the "red" spectrum for absolute gray, so as long as you're in the RED spectrum on an absolute gray, then the gray is the proper shading. Hope that made some sort of sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claymoore Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 For those without Color management programs it may help to adjust the Gamma using a program like Guick Gamma. Quick Gamma There are also some good resources on this site: CalibrationInfo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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