DSLR Shots and Discussions

redstarcg · 10-12-2015, 02:38 PM

Beautiful shots HKYStormFront!
Did you strobe the interior?

HKYStormFront · 10-12-2015, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pintsize725

That is one clean 350Z! Great shots!

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by redstarcg

Beautiful shots HKYStormFront!
Did you strobe the interior?

Yeah man, I have two AB800's with softboxes

Leingod · 10-12-2015, 07:28 PM

2 of my best and favorite car shots I've taken to date

Leingod · 10-12-2015, 07:29 PM

And two of my favorite random shots

redstarcg · 10-12-2015, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

Thanks!

Yeah man, I have two AB800's with softboxes

Nice dude! Looked like a 2light setup. Man I am jelly of that extra power you have haha.

HKYStormFront · 10-12-2015, 09:24 PM

Happiness would be adding a 1600 as a key light. I could do anything with a three light setup. I get by with two but three would be perfect. Unfortunately, the GXP has soaked up all available funds for that kind of thing and I haven't bought any new camera gear in literally years at this point... Speaking of which, I did snap off a shot of my car while we were there as well:

HKYStormFront · 10-12-2015, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leingod

This is a nice shot but her eyes look sooooo incredibly fake, it looks like the Fremen in Dune. Also, the whole picture has a blue tint on the WB scale, to my eyes, it could go more to the yellow side of the balance... That's just me tho, and that "cool blue" look may have been what you were after

Z&I · 10-12-2015, 11:57 PM

Blu Tint.jpg
aaahhh --- That's more like it !!!

Leingod · 10-13-2015, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

This is a nice shot but her eyes look sooooo incredibly fake, it looks like the Fremen in Dune. Also, the whole picture has a blue tint on the WB scale, to my eyes, it could go more to the yellow side of the balance... That's just me tho, and that "cool blue" look may have been what you were after

I wish I could say I was going for a blue tint. I was working with a broken monitor at the time without realizing it hahahahahaha.

redstarcg · 10-13-2015, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

Happiness would be adding a 1600 as a key light. I could do anything with a three light setup. I get by with two but three would be perfect. Unfortunately, the GXP has soaked up all available funds for that kind of thing and I haven't bought any new camera gear in literally years at this point... Speaking of which, I did snap off a shot of my car while we were there as well:

Nice shot man! Yeah a super powerful key light would be amazing!!! As of right now I have been using two little speedlights I have laying around to add another light to my lighting, but no speedlight will beat a strobe

Z&I · 10-13-2015, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leingod

I wish I could say I was going for a blue tint. I was working with a broken monitor at the time without realizing it hahahahahaha.

It's a great shot - very nice subject matter to say the least :-) and nicely composed !
That blue 'tint' is actually a color cast, which dilutes the color accuracy of the entire image.
Color Casts are Killers ... they will pervade your image and reduce color accuracy.

Eyeballin' the color correction doesn't give consistant results.
But 'going by the numbers' does
Each of the 16 million or so colors in an RGB image has it's own unique numerical identity depending on the value/amount of each of the Red, Blue, and Green primary colors.

Casts can be corrected or removed in photoshop, but it is better to first calibrate you camera's sensor [if your camera has that option] to record a more nuetral capture = less post processing time and better images overall.

A quick check to see if your sensor is producing color casts:
side note - even expensive cameras aren't individually calibrated to nuetral at the factory.

Photograph a gray card in bright open shade in a nuetral setting [no major dominant color such as a green grassy field that will produce it's own reflected color contamination]

Set the camera to AWB , manual focus and exposure , fill the frame with the gray card and make a capture.

Since you are shooting this test in nuetral light [which doesn't have its own color cast], and you are in AWB [which wants to make every thing equally gray] you should theoretically produce an image that has equal values of Red, Green, and Blue.

Open the image in photoshop and run the mouse over the image - observe the INFO palette as you go...

If the camera sensor is spot on The R , G , B numbers should all be of equal value.

ex: R=60, G=60, B=60. Equal values of Red Green and Blue equal Gray.

The acutal number itself isn't that important - it's the equality of the numbers.

Bur for example R=60 and G=60 but B=85 then you have a Blue cast to the image.

If R=60 and G=70 and B=75 then you have a slightly Bluish Green Cast to the image produced by the sensor.

Incidentally, each image that the camera captures will introduce this cast to the resulting image.

Some cameras allow you to adjust the way it records color values.
Check your instruction manual.

The object here would be to get all of the numbers equal when doing the gray calibration...thereby producing a nuetral and color accurate capture in the camera.
Trial and error but it is worth it ... your initial in camera captures will be much cleaner, color accurate and vibrant - and easier to work with.

In photoshop you can also remove or nuetralize color casts in 2 ways:

#1 Open an image and add 2 curves layers.
With one Curves layer pick up the black sampler and mouse over a very dark shadow area.
Perfect black will read R=0, G=0, B=0.
If you are reading anything other than that you have a color cast in the shadow area.
Click on the shadow area with the color sampler and it will change that to perfect black and remove the color cast in the shadows.
You can do the same with the highlights - just dont read a perfect white.

Now go to the second Curves layer pick up the white sampler and mouse over a highlight but not an area that is totally blown out to perfect white.
Perfect white will read R=255, G=255, B=255.
Click on the area and it will remove the highlight cast.

Using this method will produce much more color contrast and saturation.
The only downside to this is that sometimes it will make too much of a change.
But you can fade the curves layers to bring it back some, or add another Curves layer [do an S curve adustment]and introduce gray in to the highligts and shadows to reduce the color contrast

#2 The other method is to open the image and add a duplicate layer ...
On the duplicate layer find the shadow area with the color sampler in the tools menu [we aren't using a Curves layer this time] ...click on it and observe the color window...the sampled color will appear in the top swatch.
This is the color cast which will be nuetralized in the next step.

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Replace Color>adust fuzziness to include only the areas you wish to correct>move the Saturation Slider to desaturate.
This will nuetralize the color cast in the shadows.

Now make another duplicate layer from this layer [not the background layer]
This time sample the highlight area and repeat the process but find an area that isn't completely blown out.

This technique will remove the color casts as well, but can produce a flatter image that needs to be upped in contrast.

Hope this helps ... in photography as in all other things ... an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.

Sorry for the long post

rooftop · 10-13-2015, 01:47 PM

Pretty pictures

Leingod · 10-14-2015, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z&I;3327315[S

]It's a great shot - very nice subject matter to say the least :-) and nicely composed !
That blue 'tint' is actually a color cast, which dilutes the color accuracy of the entire image.
Color Casts are Killers ... they will pervade your image and reduce color accuracy.

Eyeballin' the color correction doesn't give consistant results.
But 'going by the numbers' does
Each of the 16 million or so colors in an RGB image has it's own unique numerical identity depending on the value/amount of each of the Red, Blue, and Green primary colors.

Casts can be corrected or removed in photoshop, but it is better to first calibrate you camera's sensor [if your camera has that option] to record a more nuetral capture = less post processing time and better images overall.

A quick check to see if your sensor is producing color casts:
side note - even expensive cameras aren't individually calibrated to nuetral at the factory.

Photograph a gray card in bright open shade in a nuetral setting [no major dominant color such as a green grassy field that will produce it's own reflected color contamination]

Set the camera to AWB , manual focus and exposure , fill the frame with the gray card and make a capture.

Since you are shooting this test in nuetral light [which doesn't have its own color cast], and you are in AWB [which wants to make every thing equally gray] you should theoretically produce an image that has equal values of Red, Green, and Blue.

Open the image in photoshop and run the mouse over the image - observe the INFO palette as you go...

If the camera sensor is spot on The R , G , B numbers should all be of equal value.

ex: R=60, G=60, B=60. Equal values of Red Green and Blue equal Gray.

The acutal number itself isn't that important - it's the equality of the numbers.

Bur for example R=60 and G=60 but B=85 then you have a Blue cast to the image.

If R=60 and G=70 and B=75 then you have a slightly Bluish Green Cast to the image produced by the sensor.

Incidentally, each image that the camera captures will introduce this cast to the resulting image.

Some cameras allow you to adjust the way it records color values.
Check your instruction manual.

The object here would be to get all of the numbers equal when doing the gray calibration...thereby producing a nuetral and color accurate capture in the camera.
Trial and error but it is worth it ... your initial in camera captures will be much cleaner, color accurate and vibrant - and easier to work with.

In photoshop you can also remove or nuetralize color casts in 2 ways:

#1 Open an image and add 2 curves layers.
With one Curves layer pick up the black sampler and mouse over a very dark shadow area.
Perfect black will read R=0, G=0, B=0.
If you are reading anything other than that you have a color cast in the shadow area.
Click on the shadow area with the color sampler and it will change that to perfect black and remove the color cast in the shadows.
You can do the same with the highlights - just dont read a perfect white.

Now go to the second Curves layer pick up the white sampler and mouse over a highlight but not an area that is totally blown out to perfect white.
Perfect white will read R=255, G=255, B=255.
Click on the area and it will remove the highlight cast.

Using this method will produce much more color contrast and saturation.
The only downside to this is that sometimes it will make too much of a change.
But you can fade the curves layers to bring it back some, or add another Curves layer [do an S curve adustment]and introduce gray in to the highligts and shadows to reduce the color contrast

#2 The other method is to open the image and add a duplicate layer ...
On the duplicate layer find the shadow area with the color sampler in the tools menu [we aren't using a Curves layer this time] ...click on it and observe the color window...the sampled color will appear in the top swatch.
This is the color cast which will be nuetralized in the next step.

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Replace Color>adust fuzziness to include only the areas you wish to correct>move the Saturation Slider to desaturate.
This will nuetralize the color cast in the shadows.

Now make another duplicate layer from this layer [not the background layer]
This time sample the highlight area and repeat the process but find an area that isn't completely blown out.

This technique will remove the color casts as well, but can produce a flatter image that needs to be upped in contrast.

Hope this helps ... in photography as in all other things ... an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.

Sorry for the long post

[/S]

I had to re-read that a few times. So much info!!! Thanks so much! I'm not even sure what some of it even means, but i've started googling like crazy. Maybe one day i'll have the knowledge and insight you do when looking at pictures.

Cmike2780 · 10-14-2015, 12:03 PM

Color correction never turns out the way you want it and a critique on color correction from different perspectives is a bit silly to be honest. It could be numerically perfect, but different monitors will always project images differently. That's not to say you shouldn't take Z&I's advice. Just don't lose sleep if it's not 100%. I like to shoot with a custom WB & a gray card. I shoot jpeg+RAW and use the jpeg file as a reference to start off from. As much as I love Photoshop, sometimes, it's just overkill and you end up with an image that looks.....well...photoshoped.

If you plan to print your pictures, I'd calibrate it to the way your printer is set up.

6spd · 10-14-2015, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cmike2780

Color correction never turns out the way you want it and a critique on color correction from different perspectives is a bit silly to be honest. It could be numerically perfect, but different monitors will always project images differently. That's not to say you shouldn't take Z&I's advice. Just don't lose sleep if it's not 100%. I like to shoot with a custom WB & a gray card. I shoot jpeg+RAW and use the jpeg file as a reference to start off from. As much as I love Photoshop, sometimes, it's just overkill and you end up with an image that looks.....well...photoshoped.

If you plan to print your pictures, I'd calibrate it to the way your printer is set up.

Truth

10-12-2015, 07:28 PM	#3153 (permalink)
Leingod A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Some Place Cold Posts: 16,060 Drives: In Circles Rep Power: 2684397	2 of my best and favorite car shots I've taken to date Pintsize725, Masterbeatty, Hotrodz and 1 others like this. __________________ I AM FLOOF! SOMEBODY FLOOF MY HORN!! ALL HAIL THE FLOOF!!I JUST FLOOFED ON THE FLOOR

10-12-2015, 07:29 PM	#3154 (permalink)
Leingod A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Some Place Cold Posts: 16,060 Drives: In Circles Rep Power: 2684397	And two of my favorite random shots carlitos_370z likes this. __________________ I AM FLOOF! SOMEBODY FLOOF MY HORN!! ALL HAIL THE FLOOF!!I JUST FLOOFED ON THE FLOOR

10-12-2015, 09:24 PM	#3156 (permalink)
HKYStormFront A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Greer, SC Posts: 14,954 Drives: 06 Frontier SE 6spd Rep Power: 53	Happiness would be adding a 1600 as a key light. I could do anything with a three light setup. I get by with two but three would be perfect. Unfortunately, the GXP has soaked up all available funds for that kind of thing and I haven't bought any new camera gear in literally years at this point... Speaking of which, I did snap off a shot of my car while we were there as well: 6spd, Hotrodz and carlitos_370z like this. __________________ Patrick // 06 Frontier 6spd Nismosis // Mods: Uprev Tuned @ Z1 Motorsports: 257whp & 292 ft lbs 09 Pontiac G8 GXP // M6 // Sunroof // Tint... For now

10-12-2015, 11:57 PM	#3158 (permalink)
Z&I Enthusiast Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: New Jersey Posts: 410 Drives: '09 370z 6MT FI Rep Power: 13	Warmer ... Blu Tint.jpg aaahhh --- That's more like it !!! __________________ . BB

10-13-2015, 01:47 PM	#3162 (permalink)
rooftop A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: roof Age: 14 Posts: 5,704 Drives: 🔰 Rep Power: 129043	Pretty pictures __________________

10-12-2015, 02:38 PM	#3151 (permalink)
redstarcg Base Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Marietta GA Posts: 171 Drives: 14 Nismo 370z Rep Power: 11	Beautiful shots HKYStormFront! Did you strobe the interior?

10-14-2015, 12:03 PM	#3164 (permalink)
Cmike2780 A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Long Island Posts: 5,059 Drives: slowwww Rep Power: 29	Color correction never turns out the way you want it and a critique on color correction from different perspectives is a bit silly to be honest. It could be numerically perfect, but different monitors will always project images differently. That's not to say you shouldn't take Z&I's advice. Just don't lose sleep if it's not 100%. I like to shoot with a custom WB & a gray card. I shoot jpeg+RAW and use the jpeg file as a reference to start off from. As much as I love Photoshop, sometimes, it's just overkill and you end up with an image that looks.....well...photoshoped. If you plan to print your pictures, I'd calibrate it to the way your printer is set up. 6spd and jpkirk like this. __________________ [09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R] [ArchitTEK Photography]

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