colour change

[nunubaby]

My client wants these flowers to be pink. She tells me this AFTER I finish the setup - "oh you can just change the colour on your computer, right?"

Do-able?

 

[Damien Symonds]

Gee, it might be tricky.  First, can you see if you can process the raw file with NO clipping at the shadow end of the histogram?  Presently the blue channel is badly clipped in the flowers.

[nunubaby]

Thanks Damien, can you point me in the right direction for fixing this in RAW?
 

[Damien Symonds]

I don't understand the question.

I just told you, it needs no clipping at the shadow end of the histogram.

[nunubaby]

I'm not sure how to get rid of the blue channel clipping. I've followed your raw workflow through and the blue channel is still badly clipped at the shadows. 

[Damien Symonds]

Whoa!!!!  Crap!!!  I just noticed that your file is Adobe RGB!!!!!!!!!!

[nunubaby]

You're absolutely right. Thank you. I've generally processed RAWs in Lightroom. Just switched to Camera Raw at your suggestion. Fixing this now.

[nunubaby]

[Damien Symonds]

Ok, the clipping is still there - bummer.  Never mind, it just means we have to take the harder route.  It's still feasible.

I need you to guide me on what colour pink you'd like - pale, medium, or really rich.  Maybe if you could google "pink flowers" or something, and link me to a shade of pink you'd like?

[nunubaby]

Pale pink please Damien. I know my client doesn't like bolder colours.

When googling 'pale pink flowers' I'm certain she'd be thrilled with anything like that.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pale+pink+flowers&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEhee80InPAhXBXBQKHVKjAzoQ_AUICCgB&biw=1920&bih=979

[Damien Symonds]

Something like this colour?

Be as critical as you like.  If you want it a different shade, please don't hesitate to ask.

[nunubaby]

Yes, great. She'll love that!

[Damien Symonds]

Yay!

Ok, here's what the layers panel looks like:

The setup is easy, but the masking is as tedious as hell.  (That's why I didn't do much of it!)

Let me take you through the steps:

1. Add a Channel Mixer layer, check the "Monochrome" checkbox, and enter 0% for the Red and Blue values, and +100% for the green value.  This will turn the photo black-and-white.

2. Then add a Levels layer, and immediately clip it to the Channel Mixer layer.  On the Red channel of the Levels layer, move the middle slider to 2.00.  Then on the Green channel, move the middle slider to 0.85.  (You can tweak these values to your taste, if you prefer a different shade of pink).  At this point, the whole photo will be pale pink.

3. Click on the mask of the Channel Mixer layer and invert it to black.

4. Zoom way in, and choose a small 100% opacity white brush, and start the very tedious process of masking onto the flowers.  This will take ages.  Pour a drink to help you through.

5. Once you've finally finished masking, all the flowers will be pink.  However, you'll see that the rug and baby will still have yellow cast on them from the original flower colour.  So, drop the brush opacity to 10%, and enlarge the brush a bit, and start gently painting on those yellow casty areas to turn them into pink casty areas.  This will also take a while.

Here's why my mask looks like:

See how there's the solid white area of the flowers, then the gentle painting for the casty areas around?

6. Finally, return to 100% opacity with the brush, and switch to black, then zoom in and check all the little green leaves.  Your 10% painting might have started to turn the green leaves pink, or at least greyish.  So you have to restore them to their proper green.

Good luck!

[nunubaby]

Thank you so much for your time, will give it a go today and report back!

[nunubaby]

Just started the masking. It's acceptable to pour myself a gin at 10.44am right?

 

[Damien Symonds]

I'd love to see how this turned out!