What Color is Water? Color correction fun

[Swampy]

Here's a project for the fun of it.

Do you think the water in this photo is drab and not very exciting for such an action shot? Should it be more green? More Blue? See if you can make this photo "pop"

[Marthig]

Good subject Swampy (not the skier, though he is "cute")

Actually I think the water is colourless and only reflects the atmosphere colours, sky, clouds etc.

I think this photo was taken on a cloudy or stormy day, I downloaded it to see what I can come up with to make it "pop" as you suggest

Thanks for giving me something to puzzle about -

[Swampy]

Marthig...

Yeah, he is kinda hunky. Something for the ladies perhaps? :-) I was kinda tired of kids, kitties and glamor shots anyway. LOL

But, you are right, the water's color reflects the ambient lighting. Feel free to change that too.

[raniday]

Swampy, for me, it would depend on whether I wanted photo realistic or painterly. If I were making it look like a painting, I would crank up the colors, probably towards cyan. Neat image. I'll play with it a little later.

[Swampy]

Rainday...

I am using this photo in a magazine so photo image is how I did it, but if you want to paint it, go for it.

[philbach]

Well I put some blue and green in the water. Its different, but I don't think its better.

[NancyJ]

Technically, pure water is blue. Very very very very slightly blue, not colourless as you're taught at school. One of the many lies they tell you In terms of naturally occuring bodies of water the colour can tell you about the organisms living in the water. Chlorophyl from phytoplankton absorbs blue and red light causing the water to look more green than blue.
But thats beside the point

I thought I'd go for a 'mediteranian water sports holiday brochure' look.

[mistermonday]

I used a technique to bring out the trace colors yhat are already in the water. In doing so it also boosted slightly the saturation of the klife jacket and ski. I think this adds natural colors. I had to compress down to level 3 to get the image to fit into 100KB so the effect may not look as good in this thumbnail. However I can email the larger size to you if you like.
Best Rgds, MM

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

I used a technique to bring out the trace colors yhat are already in the water. In doing so it also boosted slightly the saturation of the klife jacket and ski. I think this adds natural colors. I had to compress down to level 3 to get the image to fit into 100KB so the effect may not look as good in this thumbnail. However I can email the larger size to you if you like.
Best Rgds, MM

ew.... I would not want to go swimming in that I think I'd take my fantasy of clear blue skies and deep blue water over the reality any day

[mistermonday]

Nancy, yes, on second thought my reality is probably not what we want to see here. I like your shade of blue. Best Rgds, Murray

[chrishoggy]

Went for a bit of a brighter blue

[Duv]

Here's what I came up with.

Cheers

Dave

[CJ Swartz]

I saturated the luminosity to see what colors were there. Lightened, brightened with luminosity layers set to screen, reduced the magenta.

I love the pure blue waters in travel posters, and I'm sure that blue is what sells. The waters in the artificial lakes in my area are often brownish green, or worse when they get a "red tide" algae bloom. Our real lakes are hopefully bluer, but I haven't visited any in years.

[Swampy]

MisterMonday.. LOL... I'm with Nancy, I don't think I'd wanna swim there. Dp you think there would be that much color showing in the rooster tail?

Nancy, if we assume that water is, for the most part, colorless, I would think that adjustments should probably be made in the blacks. Your version is very close to the one I'm currently "sitting" on for my print job.

C.J. Interesing effects considering you aproached it from a "by the numbers" angle.

Here's what I've done so far.

[Marthig]

Hi Swampy !

Could not get to play with that pic yet but in view of the marvelous results posted I will just settle to watching the thread develop.

I love your last image, IMO it is truly in agreement with the type of day it was taken. Had it been a clear sky day it would probably have had that beautiful paradisiac blue we see in tourist packages.

Also there are other details that indicate the type of lighting; there are no marked light contrasts in the guy's face or the other elements. OK *puts the magnifying glass away*

Hope to see more results

Regards - Martha

[Swampy]

Marthig,

Water is such an "ethereal" thing. I've heard that animators find it one of the most difficult things to render and the techniques are getting better with high powered computer animation. I once had an artist say, "Water is always in a fluid state."

I'm not trying to draw it or animate it, but just colorize it in the two deminsional world and it's fun to see different takes on the same subject.

It would be interesting to see how one of the "painterly pros" might render this in a water color or chalk and attempt to keep the feeling of power and force displayed in that big rooster tail spray. LeRoy Neiman de javu? :-O

[Cassidy]

Colorized based on my eye pref and then levels adjustment

[Photo678]

ehhhhhhhhh

[creeduk]

Tricky to get realism but then a desireable look did a few and this was the one that just felt right.

[Panpan]

The answer is in three parts.

First, water has an intrinsic pale blue color. The color is weak so there needs to be a lot of water. Lakes and deep holes in snow and glaciers are examples. Water is sometimes other colors because of suspensions in it; algae for example can make it greenish.

Second, areas of water seen at shallow angles tend to be the color of the sky because of reflections.

Third, turbulence from mixing air looks white, for example waves or rapids.

Pierre

[Gary Richardson]

Don't know what colour water is, as it is so often a reflection of its surroundings.

But liked the pic, so had a play with it.

Extracted skier from BG.
Inserted colour blend layer with radial gradient blue-green/blue. Blurred further using Gauss Blur, set opacity to about 25%.

Applied levels to BG to spark it up a touch.

[Swampy]

Very nice, Gary. The opacity setting and radial gradient really helps keep the photo from looking like it has a color cast.

[philbach]

In the picture I posted, I used a gradient map adjustment layer after selecting and moving the skier to a higher layer. I used about four colors with white for the brightest, green for the mid tones and blue for the darker colors. The result was so so but I feel the technique is ideal for this sort of a situation.

[Swampy]

Phil, I find your water color in the top of the rooster tail distracting to my eye. Since the water is less dense as it sprays out from the base of the wave, there should be less color at the top. Just my opinion.

[creeduk]

with mine I tweaked and tweaked the color then I duplcated the image and changed mode to screen to highlight the water plume, used a gradient and some hand masking to remove any color from the that area as well.

[philbach]

Swampy your right. I din't spend much time worrying about the end result in this doodle section. The background around the plume was dark so the gradient mask tended to add more color to it and the result was not natural.

I just used the photo to run a gradient mask since I don't use it often. Edgework uses them to colorize skin and I thought I would give it a shot in this photo.

[Gary Richardson]

Thanks Swampy, glad you liked it.

Didn't have too much time, so kept it simple, but I was quite pleased with the effect. The added Gaussian Blur on the gradient layer softened things a little as well as the reduced opacity, it's a trick I often use when colouring things. Doesn't always work, but looks reasonably natural when it does.

[Kraellin]

nancyj,

never heard that before, that water is actually a tiny bit blue.

thought i'd give this one a shot also.

Craig

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

...thought i'd give this one a shot also.

Craig

I can see now why he's making that sharp turn!

[Swampy]

LOL Craig!!

Love it. A Gator would be appropriate around here, but I don't think my customer , the Chamber of Commerce, would appreciate it.

Still laughing...