Re: Photoshop's 50% gray

D'oh! I feel stupid now.

I've got a few questions about Photoshop's 50% gray (128, 128, 128).

255 / 2 = 127.5. Why does Photoshop use 128 and not 127? It does not matter all that much to me but I would be interested in the reason behind this decision nonetheless.

Is 50% gray really 50% gray? It...

Re: Resource on color in the digital world



Thanks, looks excellent! More suggestions are welcome....

What's a good resource (book, website) on color in the digital world?

I'm trying to gain technical knowledge on the retouching side of things. One area I'm struggling with is digital color. For example:

1. How does a pixel get its color?
2. How do color models and color profiles work?
3. What

...

Re: How do I get my flames right?



You're right, I should have been more clear. In the original shot, the mountains in the background were a bit too dark for my taste. I wanted to add a little bit more depth in the image, so I lightened the mountains, to simulate a more...

Re: How do I get my flames right?



Thanks for your answer! It does look pretty close! However, it's not quite as good as the version with the darker mountains. If you or someone else knows how to achieve that look, I'd be more than happy to hear about it! ...

Working on a composite right now where I have a car driving through a landscape with mountains on the background.

I added some backfire to the car, which are essentially flames on a perfectly black background. I applied the layer using screen blending mode and everything worked perfectly,...

Re: Compositing: RAW or processed?

Thanks a bunch, fellow Dutchman! Makes a lot of sense.

Do you load the RAW file as a Smart Object so you can adjust it later, or do you just load the pixel data (the conversion) into Photoshop?

Re: Let's analyze/compare Vogue level fashion ed's



Right on! Was starting to think I was the only one who thinks about it this way....

I know that RAW files, essentially digital negatives, provide far greater flexibility in terms of editing than already processed files. It is widely recommended to do as much as possible in the RAW converter before starting with pixel editing.

While doing compositing, I sometimes struggle...

Re: Wacom Intuos5 Professional Pen Tablet



You can actually change that setting.



I bought an Intuos4 L and one of the first things I did was to shrink the active area. Much quicker to navigate now. If I ever get into digital painting the...

Working on this composite right now:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5493141/walter/51.jpg

There is definitely a long way to go in terms of realism, but I will take care of that. The image is in B&W now so that I won't be bothered by the current mismatch of colors.

...

Re: 1960 VW Beetle composite



Thank you!

Sorry for the delayed reply. Creating the reflection was a lot easier than I thought. Just copied a piece of the ground, placed it over the car, squashed it a bit, lowered the opacity to 20% and put the blending mode...

Re: 1960 VW Beetle composite



Thanks! Will investigate it.



Yeah, was thinking along the same lines, but I don't have a clue on what to actually dodge or burn. The body lines look well defined, I don't see how the car could benefit from it at...

Re: 1960 VW Beetle composite



Thanks for your reply, really appreciate it!

You are right about the shadow I guess. It doesn't look correct because of the sky, right? Just traced it over from the original image and the highlights were already there. Tried...