[S4Sb]

I drew this picture here and coloured it. I was very proud of it, because I had no reference at all and picked all the colours myself



But then I adjusted colour/brightness/contrast etc. and came up with this.



In my humble opinion the latter looks better. But this brings up some questions that I hope anybody out there can answer.

1. Which one looks "right"/more real? Why?
2. Do you use those adjustment options often?
Is this cheating?

[edit] I might be in the wrong forum, suma. Feel free to move me to the right place. Thanks for the effort[/edit]

[ November 17, 2001: Message edited by: S4Sb ]

[suny]

of course, it's not cheating...
it's a tool, and every tools are okay!
the thing is to learn how to use them.

but prefer the curves dialog boxe, it's better than brightness/contrast.
brightness/contrast can modify akwardly the tonal range of your painting, work in a linear fashion, and you have not a lot of controls.
curves lets you adjust specific tonal ranges, so you could for example modify the dark values only, in order to have darker shadows, but without modify the rest of the image.

S.

[Nathan Marciniak]

Cheating? Give me a break. Many people are so hung up on technique and being as "purist" as possible instead of focusing on creating good-looking artwork. 'Oh my gawd, he used a FILTER! Send him to the gallows!' 'Thou Shalt Not Use The Dodge\Burn Tool! I have spoken!' Who gives a damn? It's the end result that matters, and nothing more. If you like what you have made and other people do too, why fret over the background information which nobody besides fellow artists give a damn about?

Photoshop is a powerful program that allows you to adjust things like Hue, Saturation, Contrast, Sharpness, tonal range etc. This is the beauty of the software. True, those tools cannot correct a bad drawing, but they have their place. If you are working in oils you simply cannot 'make a selection' and increase the saturation or change a purplish blue sky to a greenish blue one. The power to do what is impossible in physical media is one strength of using computers.

It seems that when you draw something by hand it often comes out flat, yet with a broad tonal range. When you're all done you can tweak it so it looks nice and punchy, as you have done. There's nothing to feel guilty about. In a way, the drawing is like the film and Photoshop is like the print. You make a latent image and can turn it into something different if you so desire.

[S4Sb]

haha

Thank you both for your advise and your opinion.

And no need to turn this into a thread with a zillion posts about cheating. Maybe I formulated my question wrong. I was never talking about the viewer who might say: "He used a filter. That's no art" or something. I was talking about ME I was wondering if I trick myself if I use such things. My current aim isn't to create a masterpiece. My aim is to learn. And I had the feeling that I somehow took the wrong way.

My whole question comes down to: How do I take the right way? What is the wrong way? You know, I thought that my colours looked good at first.

Thank you for your time

[Kari Christensen]

Suny is right about curves. But often when I finish a painting I'll give the values a little punch with the contrast dialogue box- especially if I am presenting a .jpg from my painting.

Nice head painting-

I prefer the back ground green color of your original. The only problem is that the contrast in the face is a little dim. There is no set rule for how much contrast you need- just remember the eye is drawn to the areas of highest contrast. That's probablly why you are attracted to the new high contrast version even though the colors are different. Just adjust the contrast so it stays true to the original colors.

[Duracel]

The mood in the original one is better i think, the optimized one is too clean, to "perfect".

I claim the original comes along with a special feeling you had when you was drawing it. And i miss this expression in the optimized one.

[S4Sb]

Kari Christensen: Wow, thanks a LOT. That is exactly the info I was looking for.

Duracel: Thanks! I think I understand. And it seems like my colours were ok.