hello everyone
my name is joanna kustra and today i'm
hosting a webinar about the colors
and more specifically on how to use
color harmonies in your photos
and how to develop a unique color style
in your photography
first of all many thanks to the BenQ
company for organizing it
originally i did this webinar in polish
which is my mother tongue
and since i had a great feedback so we
thought to run it for a bit bigger
audience
you've probably seen this picture of
beautiful series advertising this
webinar
and it was there for a reason not too
long ago
i won a competition organized by BenQ
called true colors right before you
and this is how my journey with BenQ
started and thanks to that
i can be with you today another company
i want to mention today is park cameras
it's the uk's largest independent
photographic retailer
they will have some nice discounts for
you if you stay with me until the end of
this seminar
let me tell you a bit about myself this
will reveal some background to the whole
story
as i mentioned previously my name is
Joanna and i'm polish
i'm both a photographer and a retoucher
i specialize mainly in fashion
beauty commercial photography and in
general i do love to take photos of
people
about 15 years ago while studying german
philology in krakow
i developed a passion for photography
which very quickly
became my way of living and what i
really wanted to do
i worked as a photographer and
retouching krakow for a few years then i
moved to london
where i was building my portfolio also
working as an assistant to many big
photo productions
and in the meantime i had my own
commercial clients
at the moment i live in southern spain
where i mainly shoot fashion in sunny
locations
if you're familiar with my works you
must know that i love experimenting with
colors
which has always been so important to me
to tell the truth not too many of my
photos are actually in black and white
since the very beginning of my adventure
with photography i felt
that color had an immense meaning in
photography
then i often chose the colors
intuitively sometimes it worked out
better
or worse for a long time i didn't
understand
why some color combinations work great
while the others are
far less impressive i always liked
experimenting with colors in
post-production
adding in its shadows or lights playing
a lot
with color grading when i moved to
london
i became interested in arts especially
paintings from the 17th
and 18th century i jumped at the great
opportunity to go to the national
portrait gallery and see paintings live
i was absolutely fascinated by colors
light and textures
inspired by this discoveries i simply
decided to copy it
and make a project in a painterly style
that was more than 10 years ago my
technique was
leaving a lot of room for improvement
but
i managed to get the atmosphere and
color of the paintings
of course i did not copy anything
specific but i was loosely inspired by
the colors and light
this painterly project turned out to be
very well received
it won a lot of awards and it was
published in all sorts of magazines
covers interviews
and so on and so forth all around the
world
why was it liked so much in my opinion
although it will be a subjective one the
colors played
a crucial role there and because i
copied them from the classics
nothing could have gone wrong today i
would like to tell you
what i've learned about the color
throughout all these years
i will tell you about color harmonies
and psychology behind it
i will show you some of my works before
adding color grading
and explain why the preparation before
the photo shoot is so
vital what to look for when choosing
clothes
location background and above all how to
use color theories
at the end i will also show you my
step-by-step color workflow
in photoshop before i get
to the main topic i'd like to tell you a
few things about my equipment
as i know it also might be a point of
interest for some of you i need to
emphasize that i'm not a technical
person
i approach these topics quite
intuitively
for retouching i use wacom intuos i
can't imagine working with a computer
mouse
for me it's like editing with a brick if
you still don't use tablets
i promise that after two weeks of
retouching there is no way you'd like to
come back to
a computer mouse in terms of monitors
i use benq sw270c
which i won in a photographic
competition organized by benq
this is a very reliable screen dedicated
for photographers
and compared to the competition in the
market it's a very affordable monitor
when it comes to the size and
specifications
winning the benq competition drew my
attention to their latest monitor
sw 321c which i've been testing recently
and it's obviously my main screen for
retouching as i mentioned i'm not a very
technical person and i won't get into
details
but i previously worked on a monitor of
a high class competitive brand
and i have a pretty good comparison the
latest 32-inch banking monitor
is absolutely what i was looking for
great color reproduction
size resolution easy and intuitive
interface
it has also a print preview function
which i use pretty often
so why it's so important to have a
reliable monitor
if you invested time and money in
quality equipment to capture your photos
then you also need a high quality and
high performing monitor
to use when you post process your images
because without that
you won't be able to see these colors
and
that's like almost closing your eyes and
guessing what's in front of you
calibration is just as important no
matter what monitor you have
calibration is an absolute must i use
i1 display pro from x-rite
so that's all about equipment let's talk
about
color psychology
more than 200 years ago johan wolfgang
von goete wrote a book about color
theory
as the first to state that colors affect
people
they can evoke emotions and are rooted
in our cultural and personal experiences
color psychology is now a basic and
indispensable tool
in neuromarketing color is more than an
optical
phenomenon it has a special effect on
our brain
as photographers and retouchers we ought
to know the meaning of colors
red is associated with love and passion
but it also can mean danger
blood and aggression
blue suggests the sense of confidence
and trust
this is the color of harmony loyalty and
compassion
studies show this is the most popular
color
yellow represents both good and evil
optimism and jealousy
understanding and betrayal
these three colors are so called primary
colors
green is associated with health nature
freshness and peace
but also it conveys feelings of jealousy
and envy
orange reflects emotions and warmth it
is connotated with fun
and youth
purple has a calming effect but it also
means fantasy science fiction mystery
and things unattainable
these are called secondary colors
black is a strong color durable elegant
in some cultures
black is the color of regret despair and
it's overwhelming
white is the color of innocence the
legacy purity or virginity
it is also an elegant color which
however in some cultures has the role of
black
in ours along with the intensity of
colors
we can distinguish moods pastels bring
calmness
while a saturated palette usually
indicates dynamics
and passion colors can be also divided
for a warm palette
and a cold palette
everything i just told you about the
colors based on my photos is not just a
theory
it's a scientific fact hues and
saturation greatly affect the emotional
perception of the picture
so next time you're going to decide
about your color palette keep this in
mind
think about what sort of emotional
impact you want your images to have
and how choosing a main color can help
you achieve that aesthetic
now i'm going to tell you a bit about
color harmonies what are they
they're simply color combinations
they're easy to pick up
nice to look at and they work together
very well you can tell
it's a cheat sheet for artists how to
choose color sets to affect
emotions catch viewers eye and drag it
to a specific thing
every day we browse hundreds of photos
but only few attract our attention
most often it's thanks to its impeccably
selected colors
the good news is that it's not only
possible but also necessary to learn
these combinations
let's break down the different ways
these sets can be selected i'm going to
show you
these based on my photos monochromatic
harmony
this color scheme contains of different
tones shades and tints of the same hue
this method is very pleasing to eye
because of the cohesive look
it's very often used in cinematography
so all the black and white photos with a
certain visible hue will be
monochromatic
here's another example of composing a
picture all with the orange hue with
different shades
and this picture which i've taken quite
a long time ago
is also an example of a monochromatic
harmony
the next harmony is called analogous
colors sit next to each other
on the color wheel they are related a
kind of family of colors that creates
pleasing and relaxed visuals the green
picture is very close to the
monochromatic harmony
but because the skin tones are more
towards the yellowish
that's why it's analogous scheme but all
with very limited amount of use
the next example of two beautiful
sisters has a bit wider spectrum of
colors but still
they are all close to each other and
because of the closeness
they are enjoying opposite or clashing
they also don't stand out from one
another
and that's why the analogous harmony is
so good for any family pictures where
you want to focus on emotions rather
than on some distracting colors
i think they can create subtle and
beautiful content
and the last example which is even wider
in terms of the huge
i decided to change my model's skin a
bit cooler in order to fit the harmony
and also i emphasize and overlook by
adding
purples to my blacks
our next harmony has a tiny twist to the
previous one you have all these
realities huge
lying adjacent to the color wheel adding
a hue
directly opposite to this it's called
analogous complementary
or accented analogous scheme because
you're adding a tiny accent
this scheme is frequently used to put a
warm accent color with a cool
color palette or the other around let me
show an example
majority of the colors are purples reds
and perhaps a bit of oranges
they're complemented by a tiny accent a
green ring and earrings
exactly on the other side of the color
wheel here's another example generally
one picture
is accented by a blue color in the
windows
and the next one the colors are exactly
the same as
on the previous one but darker and
deeper shades complemented by the blue
window
the next harmony complementary has two
colors that are opposite each other on
the color wheel
and considered to be complementary
colors the high contrast of the pear
creates a
vibrant look especially when used at
full saturation
here's my photograph with a
complementary scheme
this particular color combination is one
of the most popular in the
cinematography so called teal
and orange here you've got a pink color
paired with the yellowish green
and deep red complemented by the cool
greens
this color harmony seems to be quite
simple and very effective
you will learn later on that's very
commonly used
but you need to keep in mind that it
must be managed well
so it's not too jarring
the split complementary color scheme is
a variation of the complementary one
in addition to the base color it uses
the two colors
adjacent to its complement
this color scheme has the same strong
visual contrast as the complementary one
but has less tension this picture of
stunning hana at first sight seems like
a complementary harmony but there is no
hue which is exactly opposite to the
fiery red
hair only adjacent blue and greenish on
her shoulders and eyes
again we've got red color in the skin
flowers and fields in the background and
two adjacent colors to the complementary
one
very warm yellow and blue
and the last picture is another example
of this harmony when i saw the model
with these colors
pink feathers and brownish outfit i
instantly knew
that i need to add a color gel to my
background in order to create some
harmony
i tweaked the blue in the camera raw in
order to get this particular scheme
the split complementary color scheme is
often a good choice for beginners
because it's difficult to mess up
triad or triadic it uses three colors
that are evenly spaced around the color
wheel
this harmony tends to be quite vibrant
even if you use pale or unsaturated
versions of hues and here's an example
you've got blue everywhere which is
accented by two colors evenly space on
the wheel
yellow eyeshadow and deep pink lips
next one there's also three colors
evenly spaced red
very warm green and blue i'd say it's a
vibrant mixture
and the last one and everyday makeup
again you can see three colors evenly
spaced on the wheel
double split complementary scheme
consists of two pairs of complementary
colors
forming an x on the color wheel here you
can see blue with its complementing per
orange and yellowish green with a purple
hue this complex color scheme provides a
lot of contrast in color
while still blending harmoniously i will
show you three examples from the same
shoot
here is a picture where you've got all
these four color presents
i enhance a bit purple hue in the
shadows and it's nicely complemented by
all the greens and another pair is
orange skin
with the blue hues on the picture
double split complementary color scheme
is very commonly used in the fashion
industry
here is another example from the same
shoot again orange with blue
and purple with green if you don't have
specific hue in the picture and you need
it for your harmony
then you can just add it and create it
for yourself i will show you later on
and the last one again four same colors
but with different proportions
in comparison to the two previous shots
i didn't have any purple hue present on
the scene
so i added it in my shadows that's why
all the pictures even if i took them in
different locations
they've got a very similar feel also
keep in mind
that these colored couples can be moved
up and down the wheel
as long as they keep its complementary
companion and also you will find
some other names for it like quadratic
tetrad harmony
because they will create some shapes on
the wheel out of
these four hues but the idea is always
the same
i prepared also one more harmony to show
you which is not that popular
and you'd usually see it in the nature
rather than portrait
it's called diet color harmony or dyadic
it consists of
two colors which are quite close to each
other but separated by one
or two hues here's an example of greens
paired with the oranges so there is no
yellow hue in between
orange hues paired with an accent of
very warm green
and here you can see pink and blue
these are basic color harmonies keep in
mind that there are no good and bad ones
however if you're beginning with the
color theory the rule of thumb is
the less is better so perhaps start with
the ones
consisting of fewer sets of colors
combinations and
build it up while you're more confident
so we've got these ready-made solutions
for a new composition sounds easy right
so let me complicate it a bit there are
two more things to remember while using
color harmonies
the concept is that our eyes can
recognize the relationships between the
colors
and if the relationships are organized
the scheme looks consistent to us
the problem is that this method only
speaks about hues and color is so much
more than a hue
for example these three rectangles are
exactly the same hue
but your eye recognizes it as a
different color
and here is another example of the same
hue but again it seems like three
distinct colors
now take a look at all these photos they
all consist of two colors blue and
orange
or so called teal and orange the thing
what differentiate them
is saturation and brightness of these
two hues
so sometimes when we see let's say a
brown color
it's not necessarily obvious for our
eyes that you're actually dealing with
an orange hue
what i want to say is that in order to
have a certain harmony you don't need to
have
very saturated and bright colors
sometimes only a small tint in black or
white
of a certain hue will make a harmony
there are ways to check the exact colors
what you're dealing with and i'm going
to show it later on
in photoshop but here's a preview of our
colors here
there's also another thing to remember
while using color harmonies
optical weight of the colors let me
visualize that
during my previous webinar with benq i
color graded this photograph which i
took during my workshops in spain
there are four main colors and they
create a double complementary harmony or
so called
quadratic color scheme because their
colors are evenly spread
on the wheel we've got the pink dress
it's more saturated blue sofa and walls
brown orange doors and a bit of green
behind the door
let me show you what would happen if i
decided to saturate
other colors besides the pink dress
colors are clashing with each other
so it's almost painful to look at the
picture why is that
because in every harmony there should be
a dominant color
in this case the pink dress it's a very
common mistake among beginners that
everything in a photograph is very
saturated let's say you've got a blue
sky and green grass and a model
even you have the right harmony the
clash of colors will be too much to bear
for everywhere
and the eye will be wandering around the
picture instead of focusing on the model
what determines the weight of each color
there are three factors
the size of the area of the color the
saturation of it
and the brightness there are some
examples to show you
how weights can be determined based on
two colors
so 50 50 percent both colors are equally
bright and saturated
the blue area is bigger so we tone it
down to keep both colors the same weight
if the blue area gets even bigger so
either brightness should be increased
or saturation decreased further to
maintain the balance
so let's have a look at our harmonies
again and let's give them some
proportion and weight
diet and complementary will have 70
percent of the main color
and 25 of the other one complementing
one
analogous split complementary and
triadic will split
into 50 25 25
and analogous complementary and double
complementary will have 30 percent of
main color and 20 of the rest of the
hues
so this is a recipe for a perfect color
in a photograph
but art is not a science and i believe
that these guides were made to help us
but not restrict us
i totally broke this rule here by
saturating both saiyan and orange
equally
and they roughly are the same size i did
because i wanted the viewer to have
a bit uncomfortable feeling of closeness
and unreality of the macro eye
surrounded by the saturated
and unrealistic for the skin colors
if you'd analyze some famous work which
we'll do later on
you will see they will follow all the
harmonies in proportions rules
and i guess that's why they're so famous
and that they appeal to the majority
therefore the important principle is
that this harmony with other colors
causes an undesirable effect while
harmony
causes a desired effect this is due to
the one of the most important
psychological needs
which is the need to maintain the
balance
where to find a color wheel there are
three places which i can recommend
one is from adobe you can just google
adobe color the best feature is
that you can upload your picture or any
art
and easily analyze it in terms of color
schemes and palettes
my favorite one which i use is paletton
comm because for me
is the most intuitive and finally there
is also
pop-up window in photoshop you go to
windows extensions
adobe color themes and you can actively
work on the color schemes while
retouching
let me talk a little bit more about
theory i promise i'll be quick
all color systems are based on three
parameters perceived by humans as
distinct qualities
and if you use photoshop or lightroom
you will be familiar with them
here the term is used for the pure
colors saturation the richness of colors
and luminosity brightness or lightness
adding create your basic cue will create
tones adding white
will create a tint adding black will
create a shade
these values make up so-called hsl color
model
this color model is very intuitive you
can say it was created for the needs of
artists because it's often more natural
to think about the color in terms of the
hue
and saturation than in terms of additive
or subtractive color components
another color model is rgb used largely
in a display technologies that use light
modern video display screens the colors
red
green and blue are added together at
different intensities to produce
millions of different colors
there are three distinct spaces which
will be interesting for us
as rgb adobe rgb and profoto
an alternative model to the rgb model is
the cmyk model
which is used for color printing it uses
the color cyan magenta yellow and black
whereas rgb is additive cmyk is
subtractive
and there is one more which i wanted to
show you lab
this color model has a range of what
human eyes
you can see so it's scope so called
gamut it's larger than either
rgb or cmyk experts estimate that we can
distinguish perhaps as many
as 10 million colors these millions are
part of so-called
gamut which represents the complete
range or scope available in a certain
color space
each color model will have its own gamut
and its limitations
obviously there are more models than
these i showed you and if you want to
explore this topic deeper you're going
to find quite a lot of information about
it
which i'd say it's closer to physics
into art
and why do we need to understand the
concept of color models
as photographers or retouchers let me
explain it this way have you ever worked
on some photograph for a long time
you perfected your colors just to
realize that
while you posted it on social media the
colors look washed out and desaturated
in comparison to your original photo
or perhaps your client asked you to
print out a photograph
and on your screen it looked perfect and
vibrant and while printed
the colors were kind of different and
they disappeared
that's exactly what color management is
all about it's essentially the process
of controlling the way
colors are represented across various
devices such as
cameras computer monitors and printers
we don't necessarily need to understand
everything but some of it
is a must there are a few stages where
you need to choose your color space
first of all there is your camera i
shoot both on jpegs and raw files at the
same time
that's why my color space in the camera
is srgb
this chosen color space applies only to
jpegs which i'm using as my previous for
my clients
basically only for the selection and in
that case it's better to keep the color
space smaller and dedicated to the web
browsers
as hues will be more vibrant the raw
file
is not yet color specified i will choose
it later when editing
there is also a profile in your camera
and most of the people will work
in adobe standard and it's absolutely
fine just keep in mind
then if you do any type of product
photography and when you use
more than one camera you will want your
colors to be consistent
and then you need to assign your own
profile and that's
what x-ray color checker is all about
color checker helps you to bring the
colors from each camera to the same
basic output
and starting point another stage is your
monitor
if you are serious about photography you
need to have your monitor calibrated
ideally you work on a screen which is
dedicated for photographers
and its working space is adobe rgb
which allows for stronger saturation in
particular of green
and red the whole series of sw benq
monitors
will work in this color space so you can
see
all these details next stage is your
working space in adobe photoshop
if you go to color setting you will have
this panel i'm using srgb color space
but to tell the truth it doesn't really
matter this is the most commonly
misunderstood aspect because it's
not what you choose here will be your
default color space for your files
this information will only tell adobe to
assign srgb color profile to files
which don't have any profile embedded
and it's usually matters for files
downloaded from the internet
your pictures properly saved will have
embedded profile
the only important thing is to keep the
default preserve
embedded profiles at the beginning i had
all three
boxes ticked so the ps would tell me
while opening a new file in which color
space my photo is
but after some time when i felt
comfortable with recognizing these
spaces
i decided to switch majority off just to
speed up my workflow
then you are opening your raw file for
an edit
it applies to camera raw lightroom or
capture one
i select bigger color space adobe rgb
because it's better to work with more
colors and also i do print my photos in
magazines so i'm not limiting myself
with smaller color space i usually keep
my edited files
in adobe rgb space either in psd or
tiff file just in case i will have a
need to print it later
there's also another color space which
is even bigger profoto rgb
but since most of the devices are not
supporting this amount of colors
and it's not easy to convert it later
for the web i stick for the moment to
adobe rgb
but you can explore this topic
next stage would be saving for internet
but unfortunately web browsers
don't read and support adobe rgb nor
profoto rgb spaces
because we've chosen to work on a bigger
color space in photoshop
we need to convert it to a supported
color space
as rdb to make your colors display well
across any devices
there are three options how to approach
this the first is to
export s you have to tick both of these
boxes
convert to other gp and embed color
profile why do you need to do that
some of the browsers won't know what
color profile to assign to your photo
when one is missing and this will
produce a photo washed out of the colors
if you embed the profile every device
will know how to read it
second option is to use convert to
profile and basically you need to change
destination space to
srgb but when you're saving file with
the command
save as do remember to tick the option
embed color profile
and third option would be to save for
web and also these two squares should be
ticked
this is exactly how i do it and it works
perfectly
but as i said there are other options to
do that for example if you
never print you can easily work with
only
srgb color space to avoid all these
mismatches and
conversions obviously it's a tip of an
iceberg in terms of the color management
this topic could be easily a whole
session for a webinar are you still with
me
okay so now let's talk about the
different thing color relativity
one of the hardest properties to
understand about color
is that it changes depending on what
it's next to
our perception of color is relative
without a reference
you can see the same orange square it
looks different depending on
what colors it's surrounded by the
orange on the left looks darker and less
saturated
while on the right it's lighter and
warmer next example is even more
prominent
both squares are obviously the same hue
here you can see a face
close up on the left hand side
saturation seems to be fine
while on the right side surrounded by
cold colors
skin appears oversaturated
and talking about the skin i need to
clear something out
as during my workshops i'm being asked
this questions
quite a lot of times what is the right
hue of the skin
so there is not such a thing like the
right color of the skin
both in real life and color grading and
unfortunately there is no recipe for
that
it will depend on the surrounding
neighboring colors whether we decide in
the photo to have cold tones or warm
tones
skin color also plays a role in the
color harmonies
you can add a blue tint or even a green
one if it only fits the overall image
and its chosen harmony and it will be
received well
if you compare colors of the cropped
faces they will look all right
but if you see the whole image with the
context
it doesn't bother you anymore so don't
be fixated on the right color skin
especially with strong color grading if
you want your picture depict the
reality then a good method would be to
place your hand in front of the screen
monitor needs to be calibrated and
compare the tones to your own
obviously skin tones differ but in the
most cases this will be a good start
so here's another interesting aspect of
the color relativity
take a look at these pictures what's the
color of her shirt and trousers
it's white right how about now well it's
also white
your brain interprets the scene as a
whole it doesn't recognizes the color
as photoshop's color picker would you
see all these objects as white
even though they aren't let's take a
closer look at these colors
we see the world in various light
conditions during the day and night and
it doesn't change that much to us
that's because our brain makes sure to
cancel out
the effects of the changes making us see
something constant
as long as the whole environment is
affected by the same
light our brain knows how to subtract
this effect
you see her outfit white even if there
is no real white there
this feature of our brain makes working
with color a bit
tricky a color picked directly from the
color wheel may magically seem to
change when placed in the scene
let me give you another example the
purple here on the right hand side
must be darker shade than this on the
right
well actually it's not it's the same
brightness
for me this brain phenomenon is super
important because i mainly photograph
product campaigns on locations
different lighting scenarios i've got
color cast from the sky
grass buildings and if the client asks
me
to color correct the dress accordingly
to the studio shot
i know that i can't simply take the
color picker
and sample the hue from the studio dress
because it won't work
i need to use my eyes to get the right
colors
so that's why it's so crucial to have a
good monitor
let me tell you about another
interesting feature of colors
and this picture is a great example
dominant and receding colors
some colors simply demand more visual
attention than others
red reaches our eyes before the greens
like here on this picture
warm color advance and cool colors
recede affecting the perception of depth
so take a look at this example you would
be more likely to perceive this orange
circle
as an orange ball in front of the blue
wall
while here blue on worm can appear as
if it is receding in the background it
appears more like a blue hole
in an orange wall right so these warmer
colors not only dominate our visual
attention
but also appear to be closer knowing
this feature you can use it in your
composition to your advantage
positioning a warm colored subject at
the foreground
against a cool color background can
emphasize
a shallow depth of field or make it pop
out more
this technique can really make your warm
saturated subject stand out
like this case the first you can notice
would be her dress
or like in this case the first thing
you'd notice would be her
red hair and lips let me give you a tip
based on these two cool features of the
color
i often use this trick to add a cold hue
behind a person or at least a colder
than her skin
in order to bring and enhance warm skin
colors
this is a dramatic example but it works
great
i want to quickly touch onto another
interesting feature of color which is
equal luminance color
those who studied art will be familiar
with the concept color can be measured
not only by the hue but also the
luminance
equilaminant colors differ in hue but
not in brightness
remember these two squares i showed you
before these colors are quite distinct
blue and orange now if the hues are
discarded the foreground and the
background colors are
indistinguishable these colors are
so-called equilominant
because their luminosity is exactly the
same
let me give you another example this
time from art
claude monet and poppy field just fix
your eyes on the poppies
and take a look at the same painting
strip out of the hue
if you look closer the poppies
disappeared in the grass and they are
almost
exactly the same luminosity as the green
grass
another example by the same painter now
fix your eyes on the orange sun which is
strangely dark and bright at the same
time
and without the hue it totally
disappears as the brightness both the
sky and the sun
are exactly the same and here side by
side
why is this important for us there is a
long evolutional story behind it but
just to keep it short
apparently our brain processes
luminosity first
the color gets to our brain later there
is this theory
that human brain has two separate
pathways in the visual system
one is and processes just the luminance
information
and it's quicker and the other one can
process hue
information but it's slower if we see
monet's painting
it takes us longer and requires more
effort to process visual information
because it's only encoded using hue but
not the luminance
is it good or bad to use equilamine
colors
well neither you just need to be aware
that both will have different effect on
the viewer
if you use equilominant colors like most
of the skin here
it's a trick in a sense that it gets
people to exert
more effort interacting with an image
that they might have wanted to
it may also help to get some extra
attention from the reluctant viewer
but at the same time the visual has this
very
jumpy jittery quality because part of
our brain
can't see the difference in luminosity
while when the luminosity varies on your
picture like here
it's much easier to process the whole
image quickly your
eyes don't wander around it surprisingly
this knowledge also helps you when you
want to shoot in black and white
as apparently viewing the scene in color
only distracts your eye you need to view
the world in black and white in order to
truly see
all the shades of the luminosity
let's talk about color inspirations
regardless of the type of photography
you do
i encourage you to study paintings both
those made by
classical masters and modern painters
what does a painting have to do with
photography and what can we learn
first of all artists spend years and
years studying theories of colors
composition and all sorts of theories in
order to achieve
beautiful harmonies and evoke emotions
painters need to choose their colors
from scratch
which means that the creation process
must be
thoroughly studied there is no random
color selection
back then they didn't have the concept
of shallow depth of field
in order to separate the model from the
background they needed to do it with the
color
and composition there's also another
reason why
it's good to look for inspiration in
arts something that has proven to work
out
people love it it evokes desired emotion
and it's epic it seems to me like a
ready recipe for your success
communing with art and browsing loads of
valuable things
train and educate your eyes to see the
correct harmonies
i encourage you to visit an art gallery
museum because
there you will be able to truly
appreciate remarkable use of color
the works of old masters are in the
galleries today and some of those
paintings were painted hundreds of years
ago
yet we still enjoy and contemplate them
today
in the world where some images last mere
seconds at most it really is worth
visiting what makes those art pieces so
important to our visual culture today
another place where i would look for
color inspirations would be the cinema
obviously lots of people are working on
the set on the movie locations light
colors close camera angles and all these
elements are
thoroughly considered so the final image
is consistent and evokes
specific emotions my favorite place
where i reach for inspiration is cinema
palettes
which contains screenshots from movies
freeze frame
and below them you can find a color
palette in of a specific scene
thanks to ready-made patterns you can
easily copy the colors
so that they reflect the atmosphere of
the specific film
cinematography apart from advertising is
an absolute master
of color harmonies keep in mind that if
you make
a conscious effort to understand and
repeat
cinematic techniques you can truly
achieve amazing effects
another source of color inspirations
would be advertising
the usage of color in advertising is
often a
very important choice since color can
have a tremendous psychological impact
on people
today's brands and marketeers understand
that when it comes to images
the right hue often makes all the
difference in the eyes of the consumers
one study suggests
that color in ad images would even
encourage us to pay more for products
with extra features
when compared with black and white
colors
speak a language words just can't
replicate
there is even such a thing like color of
the year released by companies like
pantone bear
sherwin williams and benjamin moore and
this thing
influences product development and
purchasing decisions
in multiple industries including fashion
industrial design as well as product
packaging and graphic design
it's huge by the way in 2020
color of the year are verdant greens
deep blues
and soft pink i think for us
photographers regardless whether
we are into commercial photography or
not it's beneficial to track the trends
keep our eyes open for the changes
obviously there are many more sources of
inspirations for us
i didn't even mention other
photographers which is kind of obvious
right
but i'm also going to tell you one thing
which might be not so popular
don't spend your time browsing mediocre
photographs on some social media or
photography groups
i know it's very tempting to guide
beginners with your hints and feedback
on photography i've been there
and it's absolutely fine to help others
just keep in mind
that if you're surrounding yourself by
mediocre and bad photography
you won't progress in other words
constantly
exposing your eyes to the valuable great
art and photography
will help you to improve
before i tell you what can be done with
the color in post-production
i must mention all the things that
should be kept in mind before the photo
shoot
and during the photo shoot why because
if our photo straight from the camera is
not good enough
certain things can't be done in
post-production i personally
like to spend as little time involved
production as possible
so let me give you 10 tips on how to
achieve a harmony
first of all you have to make a plan if
your eye is
untrained it is not enough to take the
model outdoors
and hope for the best and here you can
see some examples of my photos
where before the session i scouted
places knowing exactly
what clothes i will have prepare
yourself in terms of color harmonies
you'd like to achieve
if you know what clothes and props you
will work with
you can search for locations in advance
that will match
with the model's outfit a good practice
to prepare a so-called mood board with
photographs from internet
as inspirations and as a visual guide
not only for you
but also for your team
another thing if you improvise do it
wisely
if we do not have opportunity to see the
clothes or the location beforehand
i encourage you to always have a color
wheel with you
and to keep an eye on possible harmonies
around you
i usually look at the clothes before the
photo shoot starts
i analyze their colors and while the
model is being prepared
i try to find the best possible
locations in terms of color
the color wheel can and has to be
learned and having it with you on the
shoot
will teach you to see the color
combinations and harmonies around you
i know that most of you do it
intuitively
not even knowing why you're choosing
specific sets of colors
but knowing the rules you can do it even
better
what else i encourage you to experiment
with mixing different light temperatures
the photos you see right now we're
taking with constant light
the so-called modeling light with a
strong
yellowish orange temperature all the
blue light that appears in the
background
model's eyes is a natural light coming
from the window
if you set the white balance well
without the additional
color filters you can get a very
interesting and surprisingly pleasing
effects
basically with only one continuous lamp
remember the mixing orange light with
blue one
is on the color wheel on the opposite
sides so it's always going to work
perfect together
the so-called teal and orange
color gels is another great opportunity
to add
some color to your photograph and some
drama
you can either do it in a strong way as
a main light
or just add a bit of color as additional
light
sometimes i'm coloring my gray
background with the gels
or bounce it from the ceiling to fill
out the shadows with some interesting
color
keep in mind that color jars are very
powerful thing
and if you mix the hues which are not
harmonized you can easily destroy your
photo
here's an easy trick to enhance your
model's eyes color
especially when you do close-ups by
choosing the right color of your
background you can create a nice harmony
so the eyes look more prominent so
either select the same hue
or go totally opposite on the color
wheel which will nicely complement the
hue of your
model's eyes this works the best with
the brighter eyes
if you plan to do a photoshoot outdoors
make sure you choose the right time of
the day
depending on what you want to achieve in
the direct sunlight you will have strong
and saturated colors and obviously
very high contrast on the other hand
sunrise and sunset colors
will be more pastel and softer but with
an
orange yellowish tint towards the end of
the day if you don't want very saturated
colors during the day
a good compromise is finding some shade
if you're shooting indoors and you've
got only neutral color backdrops
you can easily change its hue while
developing from raw file
all these pictures were taken without
any color gels on gray
white and black backdrops people are
often asking me where do i get
these color backdrops from the truth is
these were photographed on neutral
colors or even on plain white wall
there is one thing which i need to add
here remember
that there is never pure gray or pure
white or pure black on the photo
it will always have some coloring and do
use it to your advantage while choosing
harmony
why not give a slight tin of sand to
your background if you've got a redhead
background is such a picaria and it's
often forgotten by photographers
if you've got a plain photo with not
much color add textures
my favorite type is poker and all sorts
of
lights and glares you can do it either
on the shoot
holding some crystals pieces of glass or
prism
in front of your camera or you can buy
great set of special crystals from
lensbabies
or added in post-production take your
camera during the night to the city
snap some blurred pictures of
interesting bokeh
and add it as a layer to photo with the
blending mode
overlay screen on others it's good to
have your own
texture library team up with makeup
artists and try shooting some bold and
unusual makeups
make sure you work with someone who
knows how to pair the color though
makeup artists are usually trained on
the color theories
find some makeup school in area and look
for creatives
eager to build their portfolios and
cooperate for free
but consider that paying for a
professional makeup
even when we do testing it's an
investment in quality of your portfolio
and the last thing in most of the cases
the simpler the better
especially when you're a beginner
because unskillfully mixed colors
will simply break your picture if you
have an influence over the choice of
colors of clothes
the safest ones will be beige white
general neutral colors because any color
on the photo set will suit them
patterned and colorful clothes will work
best on solid color background shooting
outdoors
i often look for a background color that
also appears in the model's outfit
or as a complementary color so exactly
on the opposite side on the color wheel
and even if you shoot with their very
shallow depth of field
separating model from the background do
keep an eye
on any distracting colors in the back
they might take away the viewer's eye
from what
is important just to sum things up
i gave you 10 tips on how to be better
with managing colors
before entering a photoshoot it might be
a bit overwhelming for some of you
and at the moment it seems complicated
thinking about
all these color harmonies and elements
but i promise
that if you take a color wheel study it
and plan
a small photoshoot based on each of the
harmonies you will soon discover that
everything goes into the place practice
practice and once again practice
guys how are you so far are you still
with me i hope you are
because there is still more to come do
ask your questions in the meantime
i know i am speaking quite quickly as i
want to squeeze as much as possible
in this one hour seminar if you missed
something
do not worry there will be recording of
this webinar sent to your email
so let's move to the topic that's
probably interests you the most
color correction and color grading are
an integral
part of post-production color correction
refers to adjusting
white and black levels exposure contrast
and white balance
to give you an image with accurate
unprocessed seeming colors
and to create visual consistency for a
series of photographs
color grading on the other hand is a
creative process
it allows you to add a mood atmosphere
and above all emotions to your photos
this effect can be super extreme or very
subtle
i will show you now some of my
photographs before and after color
grading
and i will try to explain as good as
possible
why i went for this specific color mode
because keep in mind that this can be a
very personal thing
and what is attractive to me might not
be your choice and the other way around
so here's a picture which i've taken
during my workshops in spain
and on the right before any color
grading or actually
before any retouch why did i decide to
make the photograph warmer
you can say that it was my personal
choice so-called style
and sense of aesthetics but it is very
possible that if i was color grading on
another day
i would have gone completely different
way but i will try to describe my way of
thinking
as precisely as possible based on the
color wheel
you can see here on the original photo
and the color wheel
is showing you all the present colors at
the moment
we mainly have cold and warm greens in
the dress in the background
a pink shade of skin and yellow elements
of this gold leaf
looking like an oatmeal makeup and when
we analyze the color wheel we have
actually a
quite nice harmony a triad you could
change slightly the hue of yellow and
enhance
the pink shade of her skin and this
photo would be
correct in terms of the harmony but i
decided that the skin tone is too cold
for me
and looking at the pose an intense look
from the model it felt to me that i need
to warm up the colors
so the overall image will be more
friendly remember about their theory of
colors right
so let's see what i've changed on the
color wheel
you can see that i complemented all the
greens in the dress
with much warmer red hue on the skin so
we don't have a cold pink anymore
i added green in the background so it's
definitely a dominant color
i enhanced golden leaves akka oatmeal
and added a purple color to
directly complement the yellow so i've
created two complementary pairs
and this scheme is so called double
complementary or quadratic harmony
so where is this purple you might ask
here's a preview
of separated hues on my picture and you
can clearly see
that in the shadows in the hair and
overall
i added purple shade only to my blacks
and that's exactly how color harmonies
work you don't necessarily need to have
on the picture a very visible object
with that color
in order to trick your eye into a nice
harmony and all the whites and blacks
are the perfect place to add any hue
possible in order to have your harmony
working
okay so let me show you another example
so here is after color grading
and here is before and again let me
break down existing colors you can see
red orange hue
very dark blue green behind the windows
and a bit of yellow in the model's top
if you look at the position of the hues
on the wheel you just need to
push them this way or the other to get a
nice harmony can you see that
so what i did i added a complementary
color to the greens
my favorite purple in shadows and you
will see it a lot on my pictures you
could say it's a part of my style
what else i generally lowered the
contrast to get a more
dreamy look added a purple gradient in
the shadows on the left hand side
and tweaked each color slightly so they
roughly
fit to the double complementary scheme
but since i
added so much of purple this became my
dominant color
so here's a third example the photograph
i've taken during my workshops the
backdrop was actually a gray roll paper
and here you can see how it looked
before the edit
okay so let me break down these colors
again for you
on the original photo you've got four
colors red face
orange hair yellow backdrop and blue
sleeves and color
there is no green perhaps it look
greenish to you but it's an optical
illusion
now take a look at the wheel we've got
three colors on one side
and then on the opposite there is this
blue hue
i think if you'd only tweak this color
slightly
the oranges i mean i could have a nice
analogous complementary skin
so three hues on the one side close
together accented
or complemented by a blue dress but i
felt that i
leave this gorgeous red hair on the
yellowish background
it won't have too much contrast people
are asking me
why some of my photos seem to have this
huge sharpness
it's basically a color contrast which
creates illusion
that the picture is sharper so what i
did i
kept a blue dress perhaps slightly
adding a green tint to it
it was the only color i really couldn't
change too much
then i almost totally got rid of yellows
and these remaining i tweaked towards
the orange
and obviously i added green background
to get a nice color contrast for
the red hair this way it just stands out
much much better
i added a lot of contrast and i darkened
all the hues
so i ended up with the double split
complementary scheme
two pairs of colors which are
complementing each other
with this particular picture i didn't
work with the color wheel
at some point you do these color changes
and it seems right for your eye
i choose a color scheme and color
intuitively
because it's part of my style my own
aesthetics
what i feel is right and beautiful so
what is your own style and how to
achieve it
first of all you have to answer the
question what color schemes and what
colors do you like
do you prefer muted soft combinations or
strong and contrasting ones
remember that there are no good and bad
harmonies the fact that we pick specific
colors over the others
is because of our intuition aesthetics
experience
but what if you don't know what colors
to choose and where to start
well i encourage you to study photos of
other photographers in terms of the
color palette saturation and harmonies
and decide what you like and what you
don't
and just try to emulate that you have to
take their photos under the magnifying
glass
study how they choose colors and just
consciously practice it one of my
favorite photographers is annie
leibovitz
notice that she mainly uses green gold
oranges
and this green tint to her photos is
reoccurring theme
whoever does her retouching is not
afraid of the greenish skin and shadows
remember when i told you that the skin
can be and should be actually part of
the whole harmony
she obviously uses also different colors
and schemes but again
it's usually very monochromatic like
blue one with penelope cruz and woody
allen
i absolutely adore her works
the fashion photographer stephen klein
has a completely different style
he chooses very saturated and bold
colors usually those that are on the
opposite side of the color wheel
strongly contrasting with each other but
even if he mixes a lot of hues at the
same picture
they create beautiful harmonies with
each other do notice all his shadows
blacks and whites
have always some tinge they are never
pure black
and never pure white this is a perfect
example of color grading
and here's another photo ever whom i
admire ying na zhang
is a photographer who is not afraid to
use a very saturated palette
but in combination with softer light
she's somewhere between
annie and steven in terms of her style
the best way to learn
is to emulate and copy a bit this is how
you find your style
obviously by saying copy i don't mean
exactly recreating someone else's work
but here is a trap that many beginners
fall into
they try to emulate the colors
forgetting about the light
the quality of the light has a
tremendous meaning on how your colors
will behave
whether the light is soft like any lip
of its pictures
more defined but still soft lagging
nazang
or very harsh in steven klein's work you
cannot separate only the color you need
to look at the bigger picture
in order to emulate it well at the end
of my theoretical part i'd love to show
you something what should prove my
theory
that the colors actually play a huge
role
since i'm very passionate about this
whole color topic you can clearly see
that
i took some of the most iconic portraits
from few artistic fields
in order to convince you that this whole
thing about harmonies
is actually a thing i don't have any
degree in arts and unfortunately i won't
be able to tell you why or how
but i will show you what i discovered
and let you decide for yourselves
i don't even need to introduce you to
this lovely lady and her painter as i
know as a fact
this is the most well-known portrait
ever taken well painted to be exact
leonardo da vinci painted this portrait
of mona lisa a half century ago
and it's still absolutely epic
unfortunately we can't exactly be sure
how the colors looked 500 years ago and
they obviously faded
since it's such a precious painting no
one ever took risk to restore it
but they did a digital restoration
taking into account many factors
and they think this is the closest to
the original version as i said i'm not
an expert
i'm going to show you only this colors
can you see it it's a classical
complementary scheme
neat isn't it then here is this
photograph done for national geographic
by steve mccurry
and it's another example of an epic
portrait in terms of the colors it's a
masterpiece
it's so simple but so effective you can
find a lot of analysis why this picture
became iconic
and i don't have time to go deeper into
this but only look at the colors
bum another beautiful executed
complementary harmony
now i will show you something iconic
from the fashion genre
and if you're into fashion you will
definitely know a cover of vogue
photographed by erwin blumenfeld
since color photography it's quite a new
thing in the 50s they were still using
black and white films
so this is the original picture of john
pachette
and they simply well retouched it and
colored it
to get this effect i have no idea
whether she had green eyes or green
makeup
but the choice of colors is definitely
not random
here we go another complementary harmony
can you start to see a pattern
but just to prove that the best
portraits don't come only in the
complementary scheme
i dissected for you few more annie
leibovitz
a warm and intimate portrait of mother
and daughter analogous scheme
very typical fanny here is a beautiful
shot of kate moss
and it's remarkably executed by both
makeup artists and the photographer
mario testino
a double complementary harmony
girl with the pearl earring by vermeer
you can see analogous complementary or
so-called
accented analogous scheme
here's another amazing photographer for
following team walker
and a complementary harmony but this
time very soft and subtle
again any liberates with stronger colors
and
absolutely spectacular palette obviously
a complementary scheme
i hope this gives you a proof that color
has an immense meaning in visual art
and in front of us there is a ready
recipe and if we
only follow it train our eye to see
these harmonies
learn to apply them we will succeed i
think it's
absolutely phenomenal and this is all
what i wanted to show you in my
theoretical part
or shall i say this is all what i've got
time for as i could talk about this
topic
hours and hours i hope you enjoyed this
part as much as i did preparing it for
you
do not worry if you didn't catch or saw
everything this webinar is recorded so
you will be able to re-watch it later
and analyze everything i have shown you
you can clearly see
that i am very passionate about this
topic you've seen around 300 slides that
i prepared for you
if you liked it and you want to support
me please follow me on social media
share your feedback attend my workshops
or
book one-to-one virtual session if you
want to work on something specific
in the meantime i'm waiting guys for
your questions if you stay with me until
the end our partners
thank you and park cameras will have
something special for you
so now let's move to the second part
that will focus on
applying the theory in practice while
working in photoshop
are you excited great
right
the short video you've just seen i
showed you for a reason because
the photograph we're going to color
grade today comes from these workshops
so you had a glimpse behind the scenes
first of all let me show you how to
extract these colors so we know
what hues we are working with you need
to create a 50 gray layer the same one
as if you were going to do the dodging
burn so 50
i'm changing my mode to luminosity and
i can see all the colors on my picture
so basically what i do now is i sample
them
copy them copy the exact number what's
on the picture
put them into color wheel and see what
kind of harmony can i
make out of them so i've just checked
that i've got three main hues
oranges pinks and blue hue
and i've got few possibilities i can
either go
for complementary or analogous accented
depending which way i tweak these hues i
can achieve different harmonies
so i'm looking at the color wheel and
analyzing which way shall i push
the colors in order to get some nice
harmony for sure i know
that they want a nice complementary
color for the oranges so i need to tweak
a blue background a little bit towards
sean
to have it on the opposite side however
if you look at the pink feather
it just doesn't fit any harmony i could
either add
some greenish yellowish tint to let's
say
the headpiece to create complementary
for the pink one
or what i'm probably going to do i'm
just going to
push this hue towards the red to create
on one side
analogous scheme so all the warm colors
close to each other
complemented by the cn background
now let's open the picture in camera rom
i'm usually editing pictures one by one
however the same rule will apply
in adobe lightroom and capture one so
what am i doing here
since this picture doesn't need to have
the right color balance
i'm tweaking all the bars accordingly to
my taste
and i'm doing it visually whatever looks
right to me
i'm making sure i'll recover all the
information in the highlights
i will go through all the visible colors
and tweaking them this way
and that way in order to fit them into
the harmony
if you want to do some big color changes
so some dramatic hue changes let's say
from the blue background to the green
one
this is the best stage to do this as
your raw file has a
lot of information and you shouldn't
have any problems with so called color
bending
on any big surfaces so as you can see i
will try to tweak roughly all these
colors
into the analogous complementary scheme
warm tones close to each other
and cm background exactly on the
opposite side
i often also do split toning it's a nice
tool to separately add the color to your
highlights and to your shadows by
holding a shift key you will have a
preview
of where is it going to go with the
color i may perhaps add some warm tone
to my highlights
however i feel that whatever i add here
to my shadows will also affect the
backdrop because it's quite dark
there is also this calibration panel
where sometimes i'm tweaking these bars
this way or the other one of my cameras
tends to have green cast so this is the
place to correct it
as you can see you need to tweak all
these colors accordingly to your chosen
harmony
and in most of the cases i'm relying on
my eyes
and monitor so you will definitely
benefit from
benky's range of color accurate screens
because you will see all these nuances
and color details because we've got only
time today for color grading so i
slightly retouched this picture
beforehand
what i retouched here is i added some
more background on the right hand side
and straightened the garment also
dodging burned and slightly retouched
the skin
and here you can see all the changes we
did until now
so all the colors we tweaked in camera
raw
and this is our picture straight from
the camera before and after
so now let me show you again on the
color wheel
what color scheme we want to achieve i
want
all the colors of the skin feather and
clothes
to create an analogous scheme so close
to each other
and then complement it by the cn
background
since i'm not planning on any major
changes i'm not going to do any channel
masking
i will just use adjustments layers to
tweak these colors
my favorite one is selective color and i
am going through
all existing colors i will try to push
these colors visually
to get my skin working
so i'm tweaking my blues and sians in
order to
get them as close as possible to the and
the scheme
and then i'm also slightly changing a
hue of my magenta i want to make it
warmer
as you can see i'm going through all
these slides and i'm just you know
visually checking and tweaking and
seeing what works what doesn't
usually in the skin there are three
present colors yellows reds and whites
the great thing about adjustment layers
is that i can always
come back to them and tweak them again
the most powerful adjustments you will
do with the black ones and white ones
because they will add a character to
your photo
i'm usually adding a magenta tint to my
photos
however here i'm not sure it will
work out the best for this picture both
blacks
and whites you can basically treat them
as a potential place to add a harmony
so if i add any color to my blacks
it will basically appear on the color
wheel
the next step will be curves i'm going
to add some contrast
and i will do it separately for the
highlights and separately for the
shadows
so i'm just going to apply
image and then it's going to affect only
my highlights and then i copy this layer
command i i will invert the mask so it
always applies to the shadows
be careful with with applying curves so
any
contrast changes because it will also
affect your colors
if you don't want to affect the colors
then then
change the color mode to luminosity
i will go through selective color again
because by changing the contrast
i added some more whites and blacks to
the picture i would sometimes go with
selective color a few times over the
course of color grading
tweaking and adjusting these colors
i'm not sure how good you see these tiny
color changes they do
and they're not too dramatic but they
obviously add up
to the final effect
and now i'm just going to brighten
slightly up the right side of the face
with curves with soft brush i will paint
on my mask
revealing the effects
again i want to see my magentas reds
and perhaps yellows and see what else i
can do there
the difference between working on one
adjustment layer
and building up these layers like i do
it's huge because
three colors only on one there is a
certain limit what you can do to them
because they affect everything what's
below basically i'm
adding up the color and every time i'm
working with more color
i'm doing everything very quickly as i
know our time is limited and i want to
show you
the whole process and in the meantime i
can see that my adjustment layers are
piling up so i will create a group for
them
just to keep things tidy keep in mind
that eyes are adjusting very quickly to
changes so it's good to see before and
after from time to time
now i want to remove contrast from the
edges of the picture so so the main
focus is on the model
i created brightness contrast adjustment
layer and with the gradient
i'm going to reveal original photo a
good practices
during retouching to take a lot of
tiny breaks from the screen
i added another adjustment layer this
time it's color balance
and um i will see what i can do with
with that tweaking both highlights and
shadows
not too much just slightly
i will add some more contrast to
brighten up the right side of her face
this time i'll do it with levels again i
will do image apply image
by adding all the contrast to my picture
locally
my picture will look a bit sharper
as you can see i'm relying on my eyes
and my screen
good quality monitors can make a world
of difference for retouching
so if you're able to i'd highly
recommend
you invest in a monitor and a device for
calibrating it regularly
and surprise surprise i'm again with the
selective color
this time removing a bit of blacks from
the hairline
and so i'm just pushing it towards the
left of this soft brush and low opacity
so let's see before and after all the
changes
there's a couple of things i still want
to do mainly dark and
adjust the color of the yellowish
hairpiece and
adjust the garment also locally
and i will do it again with a selective
color
so i'm tweaking reds and yellows
ctrl i or command i to hide the
effect under the mask
and then with the soft brush i'm
painting
the areas where i want to have the
changes applied
and obviously the good thing is that
working with adjustment layers
i can always come back and just tweak
them again
now i'm going to de-saturate slightly
the hairpiece
i'm creating a hue saturation adjustment
layer
and clipping it to the layer below by
holding an alt key so i just created
another layer and
this time i will just apply to the hair
my changes may be
i will add some more oranges to them
and then i will do exactly the same with
the clothes
i am pretty sure that i have
over-attached this picture
normally i would leave it for the next
day and see it with the fresh eyes
as i mentioned before the great thing
about adjustment layers is that i can
always come back and
tweak them the next day or well anytime
and sadly that would be it what we've
got time today for
so let me just compare our final picture
with the one straight from the camera
and again full screen with the final
picture
as i said i would probably need to do a
few more changes but we don't have time
for that
probably i de-saturate everything
because all the adjustment layers are
usually
saturating the colors a lot to have a
fresh look at your photo you can flip
your picture horizontally
so for a split second you will see it is
a new picture
and that's it thank you for staying with
me until the end of my seminar
i wanted to pack as much as possible so
perhaps i rushed here and there
especially with the second part but i
think you've got a general look at my
color grading process
obviously there are other ways to work
with color which i didn't show you here
some more precise masking and curves
remember
if you want to explore any of these
topics
or you've got any questions on
retouching or photography
i'm doing one-to-one online sessions i
can also show you how to create your own
presets
and how to speed up that color grading
process
because there are some ways to use the
same adjustment layers
on your other pictures and create your
own library and the most important thing
is
i hope that i revolutionized a bit your
way of thinking about the colors
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and thank you for watching until the end
