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  • Correcting Colour

    Hi All,
    Yesterday I finally came face to face with the Ryanair dreamliner, but had to shoot through airport glass so I've ended up with photos bearing a very strong blue cast.
    Could any suggest how to remove it on this photo please.
    Thanks
    RT

  • #2
    I doubt that can be saved. It has a colour and contrast problem. In general you could use an adjustment layer of levels in PS. Use the grey point tool on the engine grey parts of the plane. Try different spots until you get a reasonable accurate version. Then do the fine adjustment with color balance and saturation.

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    • #3
      Hiya Stefan, I think your right with that one a basket case.
      How about this image?
      Thanks RT

      Comment


      • #4
        Ryan, the colour is perfectly correctable, although it involves throwing those poor little compressed JPEG numbers around massively more than you should ever do. This was done using the Colour Balance tool and shifting Cyan/Red to +10, Magenta/Green to -10 and Yellow/Blue to -10 on all three tonal ranges (Shadows, Midtones and Highlights). This was a very quick go so it could still be better; there's still s slight bit of greeny blue in front of the engine. A little Levels correction kind of pulls the darks back in.



        Now for the brutal honesty part (it had to come!) While corrected and a little better than it was, unfortunately it completely lacks any kind of really quality. It's very noisy, the crop is very unbalanced and the aircraft being unlevel would probably be enough to induce sea sickness in those who suffer from it! What was the original image like? Is this cropped in a long way?
        Seeing the world with a 3:2 aspect ratio...

        My images on Flickr

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        • #5
          Paul,
          I always value your honesty, and sort and knew It might be a lost cause with that photograph.
          However I am going to try a different one withe same sort of colour balance methods you note above.
          Thanks
          RT

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Rtyrpics View Post
            How about this image?
            It's very soft unfortunately, and looks quite awkward being so far off to one side. The trick to improving in some ways I think is training your eye to look for faults. As a screener I look for reasons to accept, but as a photographer I actually look for reasons to think my images are crap (I know my shots are crap anyway but for the sake of the discussion just go with it!). That sounds odd, but as a concept it works very, very well because finding problems and being able to spot them drives you to not get them in the first place. You just have to be careful to not spend all your time looking at the negatives and look at the positives as well. In your case the images you've uploaded recently have all been very good in terms of sharpness and contrast (apart from occasional very slight oversharpening). You now know images need to have that level of quality because they were accepted while previous ones were rejected, so let's use this one as an example:

            [photoid=6774152]

            The quality here really is superb. It's perfectly sharp, the exposure is excellent, the colours are bright and bold and there are no noise problems whatsoever. It's a very, very nice image and this is what you need to aim for with every shot. So, compare it to your two shots of EI-DCL. What similarities in quality are there? Are the Dreamliner shots as sharp? As clear? Is the exposure as balanced? Colours good? I know many people will read this and say the EI was perfect weather so it's bound to be better, but that really doesn't make a difference to how technically good or bad your image is and it shouldn't be how you think; there are many thousands of images on this site taken in far less than ideal conditions that are technically excellent and it's simply how you deal with the conditions (although some extreme conditions certainly make getting quality simply impossible - that indicates pub time). Being able to recognise faults in your own shots means you can filter out the dodgy ones, so try using your newer accepted shots as a reference for the quality you need to aim for. Doing that should allow you to start knowing a little better what is and isn't good enough.
            Seeing the world with a 3:2 aspect ratio...

            My images on Flickr

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            • #7
              Paul,
              Quality similarities a high power microscope may be needed, given I'm yet to find anything that's remotely good about DCL, accept the colour scheme.

              Looking at DCL I think anything JP quality is probably not going to happen.

              One thing I have learn t with night photography is the camera can produce the same dynamic range and quality in pure darkness, so it should be possible to produce that quality through cloud and airport glass, correct me If I'm wrong?

              RT

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Rtyrpics View Post
                One thing I have learn t with night photography is the camera can produce the same dynamic range and quality in pure darkness, so it should be possible to produce that quality through cloud and airport glass, correct me If I'm wrong?
                in "pure" darkness you could have a 6 hour exposure and you'd still see a pure black frame because the camera can't record anything if there's simply no light to actually record, but essentially yep, you're right. The conditions you shoot in don't change the technical capability of your camera in any way, shape or form (which is why I have such a big problem when night shots are clearly underexposed but the photographer insists they're fine because it was taken at night - completely 100% wrong!) While such conditions don't change the ability of your camera, they do affect how it responds which is where you as the photographer step in to tell it what to do (as explained when I posted that table with the different exposure values and talked about shifting settings according to the conditions.)

                If all the images of DCL are like the ones posted here then none will be acceptable unfortunately. Just have to wait until you catch the striped little beast again!
                Seeing the world with a 3:2 aspect ratio...

                My images on Flickr

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                • #9
                  In theory you could shoot in RAW and adjust the WB so that it negates the effect of the tinted glass. In reality however the glass will always be a problem. Apart from the typical problems like dirt and glare, think about how thick such a windows is. It is likle holding an additional piece of glass in front of your lens. We all know the situation. there you are sitting in the departure area, maybe on the way to a spotting trip, just as the Iberia retro jet (my current object of love and hate) taxies towards the terminal. It is close to touch and you want it for ages, but in the end the chances that you will get an acceptable shot through the glass are slim.

                  Add mediocre to bad weather to it and the frustration will only mount. As I learned over the years. The wise spotters knows when to stay at home.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by PMN View Post
                    in "pure" darkness you could have a 6 hour exposure and you'd still see a pure black frame because the camera can't record anything if there's simply no light to actually record, but essentially yep, you're right. The conditions you shoot in don't change the technical capability of your camera in any way, shape or form (which is why I have such a big problem when night shots are clearly underexposed but the photographer insists they're fine because it was taken at night - completely 100% wrong!) While such conditions don't change the ability of your camera, they do affect how it responds which is where you as the photographer step in to tell it what to do (as explained when I posted that table with the different exposure values and talked about shifting settings according to the conditions.)

                    If all the images of DCL are like the ones posted here then none will be acceptable unfortunately. Just have to wait until you catch the striped little beast again!
                    LOl, the striped beast has come my way all of three times in it's striped little life lol.

                    Being honest, I find night shots easier than poor weather shots, I've managed some cracking shots at night yet cloudy weather still makes me look like noddy in the third dimension.

                    Thanks again for you intuitive guidance Mr Nicholls. (this is likek school our assistant head is called Mr. Nicholls.)

                    Add mediocre to bad weather to it and the frustration will only mount. As I learned over the years. The wise spotters knows when to stay at home.
                    DO we have a wise spotter who can predict the weather 2 months ahead, I'd love to meet him that way ALL my shoot would be a roaring success.

                    RT

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                    • #11
                      A wise spotter only does spotting trps to cities with alternative options. (and be it a huge shopping mall for the wife)

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by seahawk View Post
                        A wise spotter only does spotting trps to cities with alternative options. (and be it a huge shopping mall for the wife)
                        Of possibly the Guinness factory for my old granddad lol.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by seahawk View Post
                          A wise spotter only does spotting trps to cities with alternative options. (and be it a huge shopping mall for the wife)

                          try KMIA lol, the Dolphin mall is right down the road excellent way to get rid of a wife/girlfriend for 5-7 hours

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Rtyrpics View Post
                            (this is likek school our assistant head is called Mr. Nicholls.)
                            Does that mean I get to hand out proper big bollockings as well?

                            As Stefan says, you could shoot RAW which makes adjusting white balance very, very easy (and it won't affect quality like it does on JPEG because in RAW you're shifting the data around in the same way the camera would originally anyway). You can also custom white balance which should largely get rid of the problem.

                            As an example of the difference custom WB makes, here is the original of a shot I took in Madeira in 2007. The lights on the ramp have caused a tremendous and frankly awful looking colour cast on the white fuselage. To be honest this is one of my absolute pet hates with night shots because it looks terrible and it's so easy to avoid.



                            On film such colour casts are removed or lessened by using filters, but on digital it's very easy. The previous frame to this was used as the reference for custom WB and this was the result.



                            Much, much more accurate and balanced. I think there's a tendency to underestimate the importance of accurate white balance (by photographers generally, not by you specifically). WB tends to be something people don't really mention and yet the entire rendition of colour in your photo relies on it being accurate, so spending a bit of time learning more about it is quite important. Check your manual for instructions on how to set Custom WB (it usually involves taking a photo of the scene you want to shoot and telling the camera to use that frame as a reference). If you're not having much luck with it then give me the model of your camera and I'll do a bit of research and see if I can guide you through it.
                            Seeing the world with a 3:2 aspect ratio...

                            My images on Flickr

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                            • #15
                              Paul,
                              I must admit orange night photos look absolutely horrible no ifs and buts.

                              What confuses me with white balance is the huge number of options and settings. To name a few Daylight, Shade, Cloud, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Custom these run from -3 to +3. On my Sony A350, and I have no Idea with them. I have learn t AWB doesn't do a very good job in inclement weather.

                              Does custom adapt the white balance to just about all lighting occurrences or is some manual control needed?

                              RT

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