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Does it not give you a luminance histogram as well?
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 05:06:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Is the white area the bit I need to work with?

Photobucket

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by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 05:16:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Not sure: I think so, but the yellow and cyan ones are confusing me.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 05:19:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well if you're confused....

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by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 05:48:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The white line at the extreme right indicates that your highlights are going to pure white. If this is not a specular reflection, this might not be what you wish.

The white area under the other colors is just an indication of the proportion of black in the image.

Personally I dislike this tool since one can't tell what is really being changed. I would suggest you try to get the same corrections with the curves tool in the main area of photoshop.

There are way to achieve white balance as well as fixing the overall brightness and contrast. Unlike this tool the curve shapes give you a visual indication of what is being modified.

It takes a bit of time to master, but it is worth it, for images you want to look their best.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 09:54:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Using Curves you can get this:

Clicking with the middle (50% grey) eyedropper on the blue-ish hills in the distance tells Photoshop to white-balance to the opposite of blue-ish, which is this sepia, and then clicking with the white eyedropper in the brightest area, which is the cloud centre-left top. It's not quite the same as using a sepia filter or colorize.

If you try to find a more usual mid-grey you'll get a more accurate colour balance. There are auto-mask methods for finding the 50% level in a shot, but it's usually more fun to click around with the eye droppers at random to see what happens.

This is almost a photo magazine shot. You'd need an even longer exposure on the waves to make them even wispier, an even wider lens, and ideally you'd also need to take it at sunrise or sunset to make everything look dramatically pink or orange. This should be followed by even more dramatic Photoshop colour enhancement, until you get something that looks like a rather poetic episode of Star Trek, where the sky is bright pink and misty and the clouds are made of hydrogen.

I'm not suggesting any of these are a good thing, but it's the kind of style the mags seem happy to print rather a lot of.

I'd rather:

which is a slightly less familiar crop, but I think it still captures some of the essence of the scene.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 03:11:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks for that. I'll have a go and see if I can reproduce something similar.  It is amazing what you can do with photoshop when you know how.  I like the alternative crop a lot too.

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by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 03:21:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That's what happens when the real experts come out of the woodwork.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 03:38:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Lack of time has been the main reasons for not getting to grips with photoshop a bit better.  There are probably digital photography classes somewhere. I'll have to see if I can get onto one that looks at using photoshop.

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by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 03:32:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I've got lots of tips on my web site and you don't have to pay a dime.

http://robertdfeinman.com/tips

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 04:41:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Oooh!  Consider yourself paid back with happy vibes.

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by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 04:52:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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