Class 3, Sept. 9: Color Calibration and Masking (con'td)

Part One: Calibration

Color calibration is an important factor in the digital workflow and essential to getting good prints.

For your home computer, it's a good idea to invest in a calibrator for your monitor. Here is one recommendation: The Spyder3Pro Display Calibration, available at B&H for $149.


On your mac at home, you can go into system preferences and do a calibration of your monitor, which is the next best thing if you don't have a spyder.

Go into System Preferences > Displays > Color > Calibrate, and follow the steps. If your monitor is really off, this should help quite a bit.


To make sure your color is right, however, you must also pay attention to white balance settings both in your camera and in camera raw.

While shooting, you can use a macbeth color checker card.


A white balance gray card can also be placed in your shot to assure correct white balance and color.


Here are some options at B&H:
Lastolite EZYBalance Grey/White Card - 20"
WhiBal G6 Reference White Balance Gray Card

Simply put the card in your shot, and then using your eyedropper tool in ACR (or using the downloadable Macbeth calibrator profile) you can assure that all your images from a single shoot will have the same result and matching color. This is especially important when shooting a catalogue!

Click here for an article with additional info.



Part 2: Compositing Using Channels
click here for step by step directions:


Assignment Due Sept 16, 2008:

Composite using a mask made with channels

The object will be to take 2 separate images and merge them into a composition that creates a completely new context to the subject matter. The object is to create a new and believable reality using Photoshop. The 1st image should be of a person who has been photographed BY YOU on a white background. The 2nd image is an environment of your choice, also taken by you.

The final image must be turned in during class next week. DO NOT FLATTEN your image! I want to see all the layers. Save as a TIFF or PSD.

The source images used for this assignment need to be original (preferably RAW) images made by you. No images from TV, web, books, friends etc should be used.

Please give careful attention to making good selections and make sure the images are properly exposed. Go back and make a new channel mask if necessary, or re-do the “refine edge” if it doesn’t come out quite right. Lots of thought needs to go into the details that make an image seem believable. Consider placement of shadows and scale of objects carefully as they will make or break an image. Try to pick 2 images which have similar lighting conditions.