A Practical Guide to Color

[Clayton J. Beck III]

Hi Natalie,
Beautiful shots but how could you go wrong with such a beautiful subject.

I notice a lot of noise in your shadows. Are you using a hi ISO or under exposing a great deal and pushing? You are right, This might not belong here but it does raise a point about color and working from photography. Your shadows are going to be noisy and how is one supposed to figure out one color when you see so many small spots of color? This is where a good understanding of what 'should' or 'could' be there is helpful. A better camera will only help so much. A better understanding of lighting for digital reference would help and a thorough study of the capabilities of Photoshop and it's noise reduction capacity. There are 3rd party noise reduction products which are better than Photoshop native ones but they are on the expensive side. Good luck, Clayton

[Natalie Hunsaker]

Clayton,

I think she's beautiful, too, but I'm totally biased!

Once again I'm amazed you can tell exactly what I did with my camera. Yes, I underexposed because it was too dark for any kind of clear shot if I left the shudder open long enough to fully expose. My daughter wiggles way too much and all my shots were blurry at full exposure.

My point-and-shoot doesn't exactly have a large aperture for low light situations--which is why I think a nicer camera and a good f/1.4 lens would help. Although you make a good point that a nicer camera won't fix operators' error even if it does have a decent aperture!

I may use these for some paintings, anyway, because right now it's all I've got. I think I'm going to do a series, all in different brush styles, because I'm still figuring out what my style is. I'm super excited because this is the first set of paintings I will be able to do for myself in a LONG time. It's so nice not have a client to please. The flexibility is such a relief--even if the color is less than stellar. After all, I can always match color from life since my subject is always around, right?

Whatever I decide to do, I will certainly play around with Photoshop's noise reduction capabilities. Thanks for the tip.

[Natalie Hunsaker]

Oh this looks SO MUCH better without the noise (and some more color adjustments)!