Creative applications of color theory in landscape photography

June 16, 2018 6:40 PM

Photorapher Erin Babnick gives anyone interested in colour and photography a different perspective. Illustrated with some gorgeous examples, this isn't a photoshop tutorial, but rather a way to think about colour.
posted by smoke (13 comments total)

Pretty interesting, I'm looking forward to digging into the details of these techniques, thanks!
posted by jeremias at 7:10 PM on June 16, 2018

In my own street photography, I've been doing something similar for a while. For me it involves dropping the saturation on primary colors (red, yellow, green) maybe 20% and overall saturation at 10%. It helps avoid a lot of mixed lighting skin-tone problems and distractions in the image.

Part of me feels like she shouldn't have given the secret away...
posted by tedious at 7:13 PM on June 16, 2018

This is very relevant to my interests, thank you. I stay almost entirely in Lightroom (mainly because I just don't have time for doing Photoshop-level editing, although if I had time I'd do more of it) and am still trying to decide where I draw the line as far as beautiful images vs. depicting reality as I remember it, but it's nice to know the thought processes and editing techniques that go into the types of photos that Babnick and lots of other contemporary landscape photographers like to produce. This is a good lesson.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:15 PM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Lightroom itself could stand to have better color control though. I'd like to have HSL sliders on the local adjustment tools, and I'd like to have HSL curves instead of just sliders. If I could adjust, say, just the dark blues but not the light blues in just a
specific part of the image, it would be super powerful.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:20 PM on June 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Lightroom itself could stand to have better color control though. I'd like to have HSL sliders on the local adjustment tools, and I'd like to have HSL curves instead of just sliders. If I could adjust, say, just the dark blues but not the light blues in just a specific part of the image, it would be super powerful.

What you're looking for is Capture One.
posted by nevercalm at 7:57 PM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Great timing, I've been working on improving my colourisation
posted by KateViolet at 11:50 PM on June 16, 2018

In case anyone else wanted another really obvious example of this, here's one i just made in LR.
posted by tedious at 4:25 AM on June 17, 2018

What you're looking for is Capture One.

I've been starting to think that, yeah. What's holding me back is two things. One, I'm not going to be able to give up Photoshop so I'd have to buy Capture One and keep paying for Lightroom and Photoshop (since the cheapest way to have them is as a bundle) and I'm not sure that's really justifiable for me. Two, Lightroom has a mobile app that is nearly as capable as and syncs almost seamlessly with proper Desktop Lightroom, and that's where I actually do the majority of my editing since I don't have a lot of hours to spend sitting in front of my laptop but I do have a lot of five-and-ten-minute interstitial moments when I can pull out my phone and fiddle with a photo in Lightroom Mobile. Capture One's app is nothing like that, the most it can edit is EXIF data.

In terms of raw performance and editing capability Capture One is very attractive, but as an overall editing solution there are serious drawbacks.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:17 AM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

This was awesome, thank you for posting! I really wish I could have seen the unedited versions for a better illustration of the difference these techniques make — I’m viewing on mobile, did I miss that she did post the original, unedited photos for comparison?

Even without that, I really appreciated the detail that went into this guide. Landscape photograph rarely comes up in my work as a print-focused graphic designer but I’m already excited about future opportunities to try some of these techniques out.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:30 AM on June 17, 2018

I don't work for Phase One at all, I'm just happy to be mostly off the Adobe wagon.

I hear you about the extra purchase...I actually bought the last version of Photoshop you could own to stay off the subscription model. I'm going to use that as long as humanly possible. I don't have massive needs from PS, so what's available to me now is sufficient.

That being said, if you shoot with Sony, you have a much cheaper option to buy the program. Just a thought. It definitely doesn't solve the rest of your problems tho.
posted by nevercalm at 6:41 AM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

I am not a photographer but I mess around in photoshop a lot, so I found this very interesting. I do think it would have been far more useful with a clear before and after of the images so I could see the effect they were talking about.

Also I'm still using CS6 and will be as long as possible.
posted by stillnocturnal at 7:11 AM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

Some of the tools I use the most in Photoshop are actually some of the newest additions, so I definitely need to keep paying for CC if I want to have them. I'll look into the Capture One Sony thing at some point but their mobile site is useless trash so they'll be lucky if I can remember to check it out next time I'm on my laptop.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:52 AM on June 17, 2018

I honestly love the subscription model. The latest features in Photoshop are mind-boggling and save me a ton of time. I mostly use InDesign and I’m really thrilled with the regular useful updates there too. I could never afford the latest software until this monthly model came up and while I grumble about it to colleagues I honestly think it’s a wonderful thing. And I say that as someone with fond memories of Quark Xpress, who doesn’t need the latest and greatest computer — I think it’s unfairly demonized.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 5:00 PM on June 17, 2018