Adobe Photoshop Training with Dan Margulis

I shoot primarily lifestyle images, so color correction isn't critical to me, but I've been asked to photograph a painting for a friend and I want to get the color as close as possible for him.

I am thinking about shooting in RAW on my Fuji S2 and placing a white card in the frame while I shoot the painting. Later, in Photoshop, I am planning on adjusting levels by placing the highlight eyedropper on the white card in the photograph. Would that help me get accurate color in the painting?

Is there anything else I should be doing?

Thanks!

mark maziarz

Park City Utah

www.maziarzphoto.com

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Shooting RAW is great, although I'm not sure just how much the white card is going to help you. Having the actual artwork and a calibrated monitor will let you adjust to the artwork itself. You'll probably find that the dyes in the painting don't respond to the camera chip quite the way your eyes see them, and a certain amount of selective correction is going to be required. Some colors are going to look great but others are going to need some help. You will also want a calibrated light to view the painting with while doing the corrections. I like Solux (http://www.solux.net).

Peter Figen

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I've shot artwork in the past and always include a Kodak color/greyscale bar in the shot for calibrating color. This will give you your neutral grey/black as well as CM&Y.

Stuart

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The white, or gray card is a great way to establish a baseline for color consistency. I usually suggest using the click balance in whatever your RAW file converter is. By the way, it's worth trying both a white and a gray click click balance. Some converters prefer one or the other.

Some good gray targets are Macbeth, QP cards & a bigger gray card from RM Imaging.

-Ed Meyers-

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Rendering accurate color in the painting rendering will depend on the colors in the painting and the colors the rendering target is capable of rendering. The painting's color gamut must match or be smaller than the gamut of the rendering device you're planning to use, if you're to be successful in your quest for accuracy.

Placing a known neutral reference in your scene is a good idea; a graduated step wedge is better because it allow eval of neutral from highlight to shadow. Make sure the capture passes the test for neutrality at each step of the neutral wedge; 2% or less deviation when reading Photoshop's grayscale Info for Red, Green and Blue channels. A color temp meter should be used to verify that the lights used for illumination are identical; filter as necessary.

Placing highlight on the white reference will not necessarily help set highlight on the painting, it will place highlight on the white reference and it will maintain the relationship of the painting's highlight to the white reference. If the painting's highlight is a neutral white, you may want to set the painting's highlight, instead of the white reference's highlight. If the painting's white is darker than the reference white, you might render the painting's white darker than you like; perhaps accurate in relation to the white reference but perhaps darker than you like. You're not shooting a white reference, you're shooting a painting. If the white reference helps, use it. If it hinders, don't use it.

Levels may not be the best way to set endpoints for a digital capture. Levels works in a linear fashion for both highlight and shadow, and therefore doesn't allow choosing transition to the endpoint in any fashion other than linear. You may want to strengthen or soften the transition to/from the endpoint; curves is a much more appropriate tool for doing this. Levels may be acceptable for adjusting scans where the contrast of the subject is locked in the film. With digital capture you have control of the light, in concert with the control of the curve; you contol the density as well as adjacent contrast.

After your capture has the appropriate tonality and endpoints, adjust the file's color so that the printed rendering matches the reflected color of the painting. A non-metameric viewing condition should be used for this eval.

Richard Chang

TransitionOfTone.com

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This is a well-researched subject, and a web search will probably get you considerable information. There are several commercial products ... such as the Kodak Q13 or Q14 Color Separation Guide and Gray Scale; Kodak Q60 Color Input Target, IT8.7 Color Target, Macbeth Color Checker and so forth that can be included in the scene in order to "calibrate" the image.

FWIW: The KODAK Q13 Target Set is their catalog number 152 7654. I think it's the least expensive of the above, and it's one of their "Graphic Arts" products and should be available (with a little digging) from your local *professional* camera store, or several places over the web.

For additional information, see sites such as

http://www.rlg.org/preserv/presmeta.html

15. COLOR BAR/ GRAY SCALE BAR

DEFINITION: Indicate presence or absence of either and, if present, identify the type.

EXAMPLES: Kodak Q13 or Q14 Color Separation Guide and Gray Scale; Kodak Q60 Color Input Target

http://www.gretagmacbeth.com/Source/Gm.asp?part= Products&page=ProductsDisplay&id=6984&code=d&typ=product

http: //shop.store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/kodcolsepgui.html

http://ffscat.lcs.mit.edu/ffshtml/texts/FFSttarg.htm

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You should use a standard white and black as a reference. I personally use Levels starting with the white, and then the black. It seems to work good for me and my customers.

Greg Lockrey

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Mark,

First thing I'd pay attention to is getting uniform lighting across the surface of the art. Also, depending on the media you can find highly reflective surface textures. Adding a color/grayscale target can help.

Lee

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Mark,

Place the print on black velvet. Expose to get the lightest strip on the kodak scale to about 240.

Dont be tempted to go lighter even if your shadows look a little muddy, you can always open them up later.

Lowering the contrast of your lighting may help, conversley, if you want to bring out any surface texture, use a tungsten spot across the artwork, balanced to your flash.

Tip. Put a white/grey strip at the four ends of the print to check how colour and output balanced your light sources are.......light meters aren't as accurate as a dropper!.

Mask out any other light areas around the print to minimise flare

HTH

p

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Mark,

Delivering the best color you can of your friends painting is a multi dimensional endeavor.

The initial color captured will be based on how true your camera captures color. Same as what brand of film used and who processed it on what day. Getting an exact color match from an initial capture via film or digital is tough if not impossible. A profiled camera may get you closer but I don't believe it would match all artwork all the time.

I would include a multiple step gray scale and some sort of color reference. I also would not squeeze it in on the edge but rather take a separate shot where it is centered and prominent. Be sure color bouncing off the painting is not influencing the scale if you are using any fill cards. If your light is even and each light is the same color the capture now will depend on your cameras chip and filters, etc. I suppose Raw capture is not a bad way to go, but you may also wish to shoot with your regular settings as a comparison.

I would keep a copy of all original painting and gray scale captures. Next make a curve to neutralize the grayscale and save it. In theory, neutralizing the gray scale should neutralize your lighting and chip capture. Grays and whites in the painting may not be neutral, same as with product packaging or clothing and white and gray seamless. Applying the neutral curve to your image should in theory make it neutral. The exact range of the painting holding subtle detail, etc., can be different from the grayscale depending on the work itself.

At this stage you have captured the best data you are capable of with your setup and equipment. If your friend now needs the highest quality reproduction possible, he can take the file to the people who will do his output along with his painting to match.

Everyone has given a lot of good tips so get the capture first then move on to phase two. This being, reading the RGB numbers in your file, perhaps reading the CMYK equivalents and jotting down the numbers. Next you need a color resource which shows you a sample color of what those numbers should look like. Compare that swatch to the painting under the same lightsource, ideally, a color calibrated source. Are they in the ballpark? What color does match the painting? What is the difference between what you have (photoshop numbers) and what you want?

Good luck Mark! Feel free to e-mail me off line or call with any further

questions at any time. Still waiting for some snow!

Clay Tomas

901-761-4983

Graphics Technician

Western Producer Publications

www.producer.com

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