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Author Topic: Copy photography: local adjustment, techno shortcut?  (Read 1354 times)

RobinFaichney

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Copy photography: local adjustment, techno shortcut?
« on: February 24, 2013, 10:20:58 am »

I'm new to this particular forum, sorry if this has already been discussed to death but I had trouble coming up with good search keywords. I'll be grateful for pointers to any relevant threads.

For colour matching in copy photography, and assuming even illumination and so forth, do people use local adjustment much in their processing? Working from first principles, or trying to, it seems to me that it should be possible to sort out the colour using overall adjustments, but I might well be wrong, or just not making enough allowance for the inherent complexities. I hear that at least some experienced copy photographers do use local adjustment a lot but I thought I'd solicit opinions here.

On a related note, what are people's thoughts about the use of a gadget to read colours on targets and prints (spectroscope?)?

BTW, I'm newish to all of this, but I've profiled camera, monitor and printer/paper combo and I'm confident WB is sorted.
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Ken Bennett

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Re: Copy photography: local adjustment, techno shortcut?
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2013, 11:41:54 am »

Are you having issues with the reproduction of a particular color, relative to the others? That is, most colors are fine, but the blue isn't quite right? (Or whatever color...) If so, the HSL tab in Lightroom allows some specific control over how color is interpreted. It's a global control, so it affects all the blue, for example. I use it fairly often, for subtle adjustments to, say, the color of the sky, or a skin tone that is too ruddy.

If you're really having a very local problem, isolated to one particular part of the image, then making local adjustments is perfectly fine, in my opinion anyway. The whole idea is that you need to match the original artwork, so have at it.
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RobinFaichney

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Re: Copy photography: local adjustment, techno shortcut?
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2013, 12:07:00 pm »

As it happens I am having trouble with blue skies in two different originals, one oils and the other pastels, but I'm also interested in what people might consider "good practice". I've been using the HSL panel but I need to get a lot more experience with it. I've not yet tried local adjustments but an artist tells me that both printers she's used previously used it extensively. I was wondering whether they're typical or not.
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Stephen G

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Re: Copy photography: local adjustment, techno shortcut?
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2013, 08:29:16 am »

Good practice is what gets you a good match with minimal effort and does not compromise quality. If this means local adjustments then go for it!

Sometimes the HSL panel does not 'see' colour the way we do and won't play ball when you want to adjust, for example, a shadow colour that's close to neutral but clearly purple. Then the only way to get the colour where it needs to be is local adjustment.

Sometimes your eyes will distinguish two shades, but the camera/lights/target combo you have will not. Then the only option is to add colour locally.
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Peterretep

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Re: Copy photography: local adjustment, techno shortcut?
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2013, 09:35:27 am »

Robin, I have much experience with copying artwork and making prints. I've found most images require local adjustment, some a lot more than others. The process for me is time consuming to achieve reasonably good color and contrast throughout. Some prints look near perfect with little local adjustment, however those are in the minority. Most reproductions require hours of repeated testing and tweaking. I never tell an artist that I'll be able to arrive at a perfect print because I rarely do but I do make an effort to do so. I find this kind of work does not pay well but does fill in during slow times of other photography projects.

Peter
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