Help with light on hair!!!

[Mike Kalcevic]

I was hired to do business portraits for a local company's website. The finals that will be displayed will only be about wallet size. The others that I did went perfectly, until this one. for the bluish background, I had a light on a boom up close to their ceiling (which was many 7.5 feet high). In hindsight, I should have set the BG light up on a short stand behind the subjects, but when I did this shoot, for whatever reason, I didn't... Anyhow, as I said, everyone else turned out great, but this one gentleman was a lot taller than the rest, and some of the light from the BG light spilled onto his hair, making it glow blue. Is there an easy way to get rid of the blue around his hair, aside from masking each individual strand?? I need the BG to remain, or be able to easily get back to blue...

http://mekphotography.smugmug.com/ph...38_grM89-L.jpg

[Sweetlight]

Mike,
The blue can be fixed with some time and patience but if I could offer up some lessons learned over time for you. As usual I say I don't mean to talk down to you and don't know your skill level so I just lay the info out there plain and simple for everyone.

I don't know the relationship that you and this client maintain, how long you have worked for them or if it was the first shoot. I also do not know the demeanor of the creative director you had to work with so let me put a big yield sign here for you. They are a rare and unusual breed (a lot of them) some of them are great. If it is one of the yield sign ones they are moody, think they know all about all and are in a position that is so let's say easy to eliminate that one could be known to throw a guy under the bus to save himself. That being said I know Photoshop is wonderful but some of my best clients became even better clients with little mistakes like that. By admitting you made a mistake to who need be told it could go a great distance in impressing them that you would reshoot it so everything was just right. If you are gonna play that hand you have to do it just so. "Mam, the shots look great of everyone and I think our teamwork really paid off in creating some impressive images. I must show you though that this one shot is a bit off compared to the others because frankly I failed to compensate for his height. Would it be possible to have a half hour of this gentlemans time in the next day or two so I can reshoot this and make sure this project is perfect down to the letter?
I hate to give you that and then you lose an account but I swear, sometimes making a mistake on purpose and fixing it on your own no cost will move you deeper into their prized pool of artists.
You have to know people though, that's all. I am sure it was a very quick set up and cost wise would pay off in the end. Remember our economy with war, impending stock market losses and crazy climate is rough on photographers. Advertising is always the first thing to be cut and going a little further than the next gut may pay off big in the end.
Or you could just photoshop it
Hope this helps.
Chris

[Flora]

Hi Mike!

Can't help you with what should or shouldn't have been done for the photo session since I'm no photographer.. but as Chris said:

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

......Or you could just photoshop it
Chris

... and that's what I did ....It was a very short and 'painless' procedure ...

[Mike Kalcevic]

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

Mike,
The blue can be fixed with some time and patience but if I could offer up some lessons learned over time for you. As usual I say I don't mean to talk down to you and don't know your skill level so I just lay the info out there plain and simple for everyone.

I don't know the relationship that you and this client maintain, how long you have worked for them or if it was the first shoot. I also do not know the demeanor of the creative director you had to work with so let me put a big yield sign here for you. They are a rare and unusual breed (a lot of them) some of them are great. If it is one of the yield sign ones they are moody, think they know all about all and are in a position that is so let's say easy to eliminate that one could be known to throw a guy under the bus to save himself. That being said I know Photoshop is wonderful but some of my best clients became even better clients with little mistakes like that. By admitting you made a mistake to who need be told it could go a great distance in impressing them that you would reshoot it so everything was just right. If you are gonna play that hand you have to do it just so. "Mam, the shots look great of everyone and I think our teamwork really paid off in creating some impressive images. I must show you though that this one shot is a bit off compared to the others because frankly I failed to compensate for his height. Would it be possible to have a half hour of this gentlemans time in the next day or two so I can reshoot this and make sure this project is perfect down to the letter?
I hate to give you that and then you lose an account but I swear, sometimes making a mistake on purpose and fixing it on your own no cost will move you deeper into their prized pool of artists.
You have to know people though, that's all. I am sure it was a very quick set up and cost wise would pay off in the end. Remember our economy with war, impending stock market losses and crazy climate is rough on photographers. Advertising is always the first thing to be cut and going a little further than the next gut may pay off big in the end.
Or you could just photoshop it
Hope this helps.
Chris

ok...

Instead of the unnecessary fatherly advice, you could have just said I have to mask it.

I wasn't asking for advice on business practices, I was asking for advice on this image.

Obviously I made a mistake while I was there, as I indicated in the original post, and instead of looking like I'm technically incompetent, and having to pack up all of my gear, drag it back over to the company, set it all up again, retake the shot, pack up all of my gear again and, drag it back home, if there's a fix in photoshop that will help this otherwise perfectly fine image, that would save me a little while for masking off the hairs, I would like to know. Now, what's going to take less time??

[Mike Kalcevic]

Originally Posted by Flora

Hi Mike!

Can't help you with what should or shouldn't have been done for the photo session since I'm no photographer.. but as Chris said:

... and that's what I did ....It was a very short and 'painless' procedure ...

Thanks Flora! Now, if you don't mind me asking.... How'd ya do it??

[Flora]

Hi again...

What I did is the following:

1) duplicated the Red Channel and used Levels on the duplicate to increase the contrast

2) Inverted the duplicate and painted black nearly everything ...just leave the 'hair' white attachment 1

3) Ctrl+Click on the inverted duplicate to select the hair

4) Created a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and desaturated the 'blues' only...

That's all!!

[Mike Kalcevic]

Thanks Flora! I'll give that a shot.

[crazyfly1]

Mike, I read Sweetlights post and I can't see why you would attack him for what seems to me to be very good AND on point advice.

I'm attaching my photoshop solution for your specific problem.

[Sweetlight]

Mike,
Sorry if I offended you.
Sometimes I forget how little time I have been in this business and try to speak when not spoken to. Sometimes I forget that I am just learning this light striking a senor or silver thing. So my apologies.
Next time I will try to put a paragraph at the beginning explaining that I have no knowledge of the question askers experience and may say something like, I don't mean to talk down to you. That's what I should have done. It's all I can do to wind the film in the right direction in my Brownie and figure out the light meter with this little needle. I should learn to spectate and learn from the more experienced people. Sorry.
Flora, excellent job on removing the blue hue.
I'll be here in the shadows learning from the more experienced folks if anyone needs me

c

[Flora]

You are very welcome Mike!!!

...Just yell if you need more help!!

[smak]

I made a mask using a copy of the red channel to isolate hair from background.

[Flora]

Hi Chris!

Thanks for your kind comment! ...
Please, don't stay 'in the shadow' .... Yours is a very good advice .... for how much I love working with Photoshop ... I have to admit that it keeps from closer personal contacts ...

[Daviskw]

If you don't want to mess with a mask...and the background color is not critical... then just remove the blue with the adjustment layer by painting on the mask.

No complicated red channel needed.

Butch

[swarbees]

That's what I did too, Butch--I'm usually on my own page entirely ---wouldn't work with a purple background though ;+} they're all different aren't they.

[Sweetlight]

Thanks Flora,
Don't worry, I am not going anywhere. I was never good at standing in corners even when the teachers made me. I've come to far through silver gelatin to instructor of la photoshop to leave but you know me. I can't pass a chance at a good dose of my rapier wit. It will be lost to most but I alread know a few get it. AND I AM FUNNY DAMIT.
c

[madclark]

Besides all the business advice drama...

Mike, I think what you're seeing in the original is actually the phenomenon of purple fringe, a particular type of chromatic aberration with digital cameras that happens with very contrasted details. Do you mind sharing your camera setup?

This tutorial suggests a saturation/hue adjustment to the magentas.

And this tutorial gives a few different techniques to correct as well as to avoid in the first place.

Don't beat yourself up (or let others beat you) when it might simply have been your camera. Not you.

[Verywierd]

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

Mike,
Sorry if I offended you.
Sometimes I forget how little time I have been in this business and try to speak when not spoken to. Sometimes I forget that I am just learning this light striking a senor or silver thing. So my apologies.
Next time I will try to put a paragraph at the beginning explaining that I have no knowledge of the question askers experience and may say something like, I don't mean to talk down to you. That's what I should have done. It's all I can do to wind the film in the right direction in my Brownie and figure out the light meter with this little needle. I should learn to spectate and learn from the more experienced people. Sorry.
Flora, excellent job on removing the blue hue.
I'll be here in the shadows learning from the more experienced folks if anyone needs me

c

I am not in the media/photography industry, but I have dealt with corporate clients of all types and sizes for many years. I have met reasonable people who understand that mistakes happen, but more often than not, you are dealing with an IT manager, VP, or just some unlucky guy picked by the boss to head up the project. In these cases, an admission of a mistake usually does not go down well. More often than not it just gets you a black mark or struck off the approved vendor list because the procurement officer does not want the hassle of dealing with a screwup. Either that, or they use your mistake as a bargaining point in the next negotiation, hitting you over the head with your "proven" incompetence. As you say, the business world is getting increasingly competitive and a mea culpa usually gets you a demand for some free services to make up for your mistake and not an understanding pat on the head, so this kind of thing can be a touchy subject.

[madclark]

Just for shits and giggles, I decided to try a hue saturation adjustment. I didn't even mask, just selecting the magentas, and just notched down saturation and upped lightness. Easy peasy.

[Daviskw]

Originally Posted by madclark

Just for shits and giggles, I decided to try a hue saturation adjustment. I didn't even mask, just selecting the magentas, and just notched down saturation and upped lightness. Easy peasy.

Hi Madclark...I did the same as you at first but lost some blue in the suite.

Butch

[cricket1961]

Here is one with no masks. There are as always more ways than one. AN dI am sure that someone will come up with another way to do no masks.

The Green color I used is a sample of the Blue in the hair and inverted. It reads R134 G144 B29 set to Hue. Make sure you take a good look at the screenshots I supplied for the setting on everything.

Chris

[swarbees]

Chris,
How do you know how much percentage on each selective color---just playing around with color to get the tones back where they were? Or were you corrected back to acceptable skin tone or something??
Sandi

[Markzebra]

Thats all about Chris knowing his CMYK Swarbees

Chris has improved the image beyond what was in the brief! If the challenge is to do it without masking - You can do this with just two adjustments, a single Hue/sat layer choosing blues as the target - use the plus minus to try and isolate the bad blue/magenta edge on the hair ONLY. This will desaturate the background slightly, but it will have less effect on the other colors in the image - if you want you could bring the original background color back in a variety of ways, the best probably putting a little C and M into Selective color whites- cheating a little bit you will need to dab out the shirt and teeth on this one. Must be bored today!

[cricket1961]

Sandi

I actually don't recall exactly. It was 1:30 in the morning and I was taking a break from retouching and waiting for the sleeping pill to kick in in time to get up at 4:00 am to go to work.

I believe that you hit it on the head with getting back to correct skin tone. I didn't mind that the green layer changed the figure as I knew it would also kill any casting going on and make it easier to get a better balanced image, as noted in the blue background going grey. The correction would need to have the same correction as the figure and to me, at that time, selective was the way to go without unwanted contrast or plugging up/blowing out happening.

If you have a handle on HSB, Markzebras method would be the way to with manipulating the gradient at the bottom of the HSB palette. Dividing/sliding and moving the gradient around will often get you great results.

I used the green because it was late, I wanted quick without thinking, knew that it would balance out the color and would be no problem finishing off.

Then again....

Chris