Hello all, I currently shoot with a canon 20d and 350d (xt) canon 50mm f1.8, canon 85mm f1.8, sigma 18-50 f2.8. I shoot in raw, and am finding it hard to get my colours to look punchy (pop) and i see lots of images on this site and others and wonder how to acheive this ?
I use canon dpp and adobe lightroom to process my raw files and use cs2 for further adjustments.
Any ideas or actions that may be of use.
thanks
scott.

Want to post some examples of what your color looks like right now? Then maybe we can help.

I hope this shows up, This was backlit on a very bright sunny day. Im just finding it hard to make the colours really come out without the skin tones going mad !
Thanks for taking a look !
scott.

Under these circumstances its hard to get a SOOC pic which can be boosted in post. On a bright sunny day usually between 12pm and 4pm there is hard light coming down from above. In this case you went for a proper exposure on the couple which blew out your sky into a white sky. Its essential to get the image right in camera to be able to tweak it further in post. Your chip cant cover a high dynamic range with just a single shot without any additional aid.

In this case I would have exposed for the sky and would have added a fill with a reflector or a off camera flash. If both werent applicable I would have chosen a place with open shade.

Otherwise you are coping to fix a shot before you can go on enhancing it further.

See my 20min PS treatment. This just a very rough treatment to show you what you can still rescue in there

I do color enhancement and proofing if you are looking into having someone do the work.
www.passionateproofs.blogspot.com

Hi and thankyou very much for the reply, As you say i did expose for the subject and i love you ps work, it didnt look that blue on the day !
Maybe in the future i should shoot some like this and then some others where i expose for the sky and fill flash.
Any chance of some idea as to what you did in photoshop ?
cheers scott.

that was an awesome edit.

My basic in photoshop is creating two new layers, screening one and soft lighting the other, the adjusting the opacity (and sometimes erasing part of one picture) to get a basic punch of colour.

I used to take the time to do a bunch of stuff in photoshop to punch the colors...but now I'm lazy/too busy...Anyway, I shoot in raw and run fuji snapit (kevin kubota action I believe). That typically helps to punch the color just enough for me

I mainly use actions for my post editing.

Simply put :
-Defoged it
-Ying/Yang from TRA on the couple to lighten them up and dodged around them
-Color Balanced their skin tones a bit on a mask
-Warmed up their surrounding
-Put a curve on the sky to bring it down to a value where I could enhance it to a blue tone (putting it on a layer with a very rough mask ,see blue head and hair) Looks very fake but it was just for a demo purpose
-Resized it, sharpened with Dustin Francis´s Blog sharpen action.

here's my go.
Added new sky: Select > Colour range> Clicked on Sky, low fuzzyness> Added Gradient> Painted on mask to refine.
Added Sky texture> New Layer> Marquee (small square)> Filter> Render> Clouds> Deselect> Transform to fit sky> Copy gradient layer mask> Set to Colour Burn
Dodge and Burn Layer: New Layer> set to Overlay> Paint with light yellow to bring up skintones> Paint with black to increase jacket contrast and background (not the sky)
Separate Dodge and Burn for eyes.
Lasso tool the teeth> Selective Colour>Yellow> -Yellow 100%
CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E (new merged layer)>Soft Light> 50%Fill> CTRL+U> 50%Saturation
Vignette Blur: Flatten layers> CTRL+J> Gaussian Blur> Add layer mask> Paint with black to revive sharpness. Curves layer> lower midtones> copy previous layer mask
Flatten.
Sharpen to taste (250% @ 0.1radius)

Hope that helps

Hey thank you very much indeed, Both those pp's are really good and a vast improvement on mine. Thankyou for your time and explaining what you did !
I shall go give it a try !
scott.

Honestly.... why are you guys so concerned with a blue sky? I think the previous tries don't look great because the sky looks fake. If an image is ruled by it's post processing, then it's not successful. if when i see a shot and the first thing i notice is the post... bad bad bad.

Just my 2¢

Good luck to you friend

~BObbi

I am not concerned about that much to have it deep blue but in this case the pure white may lead the eye to look always on the brightest part which is the sky. Of course my go does look like a big fake but I mentioned that it is only for a demonstration to show off the rest of the "data" (245/245/245) in there which is not the way to go of course ;)

As I said already, an image has to work SOOC before it will go through post to take it on the next level.

I think I would try this pic in black and white to see if it can work, and if it can't, scrap it.

I think the shot looks great for what it is. A high noon sun overhead will never render the sky blue. And the attempts to fix a problem that doesn't really exist, do not help the image much at all.

There is one trick that you can try, but it only works in ACR. Open your raw file, then try to turn down the luminosity of your blue channel, and sometimes the aqua channel. Be careful doing this and keep a close watch on any "fringing" of the edges between a blue area and a different color area.

I would show you what I mean by this but would require working on the RAW file.

Click to view attachment


EDIT: Of course this will not work at all if there is no blue information in the file.

255,255,255=Pure Digital WHITE

Hi all and thanks for the replys, This was just one of many shots taken in this lighting some close up and some full length. This isnt a good example as the bride has a strange look on her face but i was looking to boost the colours in the flowers and greenery behind them, i never thought a blue sky could be put back in. Nice to know it could be done if really needed though.
thanks again.

I never even seen an image to play with... was I missing something?

Post #3

I think that before you can master post processing... maybe you should really focus on your lighting techniques. Take someone outside at high noon... and walk around with them... what works, what doesn't. Because as wedding photographers we're all going to be in lighting conditions that aren't great and we have to work with what we're dealt. I know I sure have made mistakes... and still do I practice ALL OF THE TIME!

MJ that is really nice.. even I dont know how to do that stuff...
I try not to change the images so much..more push them

If you were to send me this image.. here is a few I would do with the images...
If you did'nt want to go that drastic with sky.. maybe the sky was'nt even blue that day then just pop the color and contrast..

Thanks Bobbi, I really thankyou for your input as i stalk your blog alot and think your style and quality of images is awesome ! I know i have alot to learn hence the posting on this website and others. This day we had big problems with the light as the happy couple wanted all there photos taken outside the front of the hotel, i had to explained that they would all be squinting as the sun was shining directly at them but took some shots for them anyway, then way turned them around so the light was from behind, (see previous posts) and then took them into the only shade i could find. ( see attached image).Thanks once again and i intend to practice as often as possible.scott.Thankyou very much for spending your time doing these examples, i love the conversion in the middle.scott.

That second image is MUCHO better GOOD JOB!

2nd image looks great! I second exposing for the sky and using fill flash to get you blue skies. Look into purchasing some photoshop actions to give your photos some pop.

Here's something in the spirit of KISS.

Add a Curves adjustment layer.

Click the eyedropper that says "Set Black Point", then click his tux.

Click the eyedropper that says "Set White Point" and click the brightest part of the sky.

Click OK.

Done

Get Scott Kelby's 7-point system for Photoshop.

Click to view attachment

Thats all for all you input, I am learning so much from you all i love this forum. I have been looking into some Scott Kelby books, Can anyone recommend a good tutorial DVD ? Or anyone know of any workshops in the UK ?
cheers again.

I'm looking into hosting workshops here (uk) but with everything else I haven't got around to it although a lot of people have asked me to do one, so in the future, who knows!

If you want something to tide you over, take a look here: http://digitaltouchup.blogspot.com

You can download the podcasts in iTunes which saves you going through all of the posts

agreed. the first attempt left white halos around the couple and looks fake - you guys have to understand - rarely is there a day in england where we do have a blue sky!

Thanks MJ i will check out that site and dont forget to let me know where and when !scott.Yes very true, Not very many blue sky's at all.Lots and lots of rain though ! ha ha !

i'm wearing a jacket today, you?

Not raining here yet but its jacket weather for sure. Why do we stay here ?

because after living for 20+ years in 100+ weather, i kinda like it!

Scott I share your pain, I am based not too far from you and can't remember the last time I saw a blue sky! It sucks!