Water color

[Ben Egbert]

This is intended to help determine what color to choose for white water images, specifically rapids and waterfalls and not surf.

The natural color of water in rapids or falls can depend on a few factors, for example rapid flow increase can scour mud and other stuff out of reservoirs etc. This will usually add a brown or red color. Glacier milt can turn water turquoise. The rivers in the Colorado plateau tend to be reddish. I have not seen peat color rivers but have heard of them.

Water that is fast moving over rocks tend to be pure white because the natural oxygenation and filtering of the water removes most impurities.

So I guess we ought to render our whitewater images as we see them.

However, I find most of my white water images end up blue (in the white parts) and need a lot of correction. I suspect much of this is from the shade effect, but in person they do not appear blue.

What is your take on this and how do you correct them, or do you not correct?

 

[AlanLichty]

I use the luminance and saturation sliders in LR/ACR to remove some of the blue cast. I typically grab the targeted adjustment tool for luminance first and bring the whites in the waterfalls down to the brightness I want and then drop the saturation to remove the bluish cast. Dropping the luminance value for any given color increases the observed saturation levels so I almost always use those targeted adjustments in tandem.

Most of my moving water images are in the PNW so muddy water is not a common edit for me.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I have several methods I use. One is to use the WB eye dropper to set WBA’s, but I often don’t like the WB that producess

I also have a desat blue action that is about 10% and can adjust from there. I sometimes get green water and do the same with green. Topaz often makes colors more prominent so I do corrections at the end.

but unless I hav a natural color in the water, I always shot for white

 

[Jameel Hyder]

I think this is pretty much a personal preference. I often leave the colors in if they enhance the image. However one way to remove them is to use "Selective color" adjustment layer and tone them down - mask the areas where you want to make localized adjustments.

 

[Ken Rennie]

A good subject for a chat Ben. White water color may be dependent upon the nature of the water but, in my experience, it is far more dependent upon the color of the sky and the amount of sky that is open to the water. I am about to produce a short ( I hope) series of slides showing how I alter white water color. If water is inside a canyon with blue sky overhead then any foam will be very blue, try taking a desaturation brush to it and notice how yellow it looks. What our eyes see and what our cameras capture is totally different. Our eye/ brain automatically compensates for color casts but it does not do it for images on a screen unless you stare only at it for a long time so we look on our screens at blue rapids that we never noticed because our brain automatically changed our color perception and can do so very quickly. More later as I am about to watch football, not the American misnomer where you have a ball but only use your foot on a few prescribed occasions. Ken

 

[Ben Egbert]

I agree it’s a personal choice I was curious about what individual members choose. I note various approaches and thought it would be a good subject.

I don’t like masked adjustments as they tend to be abrupt in my hands and don’t jibe with the overall balance so I am more of a global adjustment guy

 

[Ben Egbert]

A good subject for a chat Ben. White water color may be dependent upon the nature of the water but, in my experience, it is far more dependent upon the color of the sky and the amount of sky that is open to the water. I am about to produce a short ( I hope) series of slides showing how I alter white water color. If water is inside a canyon with blue sky overhead then any foam will be very blue, try taking a desaturation brush to it and notice how yellow it looks. What our eyes see and what our cameras capture is totally different. Our eye/ brain automatically compensates for color casts but it does not do it for images on a screen unless you stare only at it for a long time so we look on our screens at blue rapids that we never noticed because our brain automatically changed our color perception and can do so very quickly. More later as I am about to watch football, not the American misnomer where you have a ball but only use your foot on a few prescribed occasions. Ken

Good points Ken and I knew you would chime in I am looking forward to you presentation. You can’t get my goat on team sports as I don’t follow any of them

 

[Ken Rennie]

I have just posted a simple intro to this in the post processing area. This can be used in ACR or lightroom and requires little or no skill just your eyes ( the best tool to use). Ken

 

[Ben Egbert]

Hey Ken thanks for doing this. I tried to read it on my tablet but the screen shots are too small. I will get on my regular computer later and check it out, but I do have a question. You said elsewhere that the water is really blue if it has direct sky light and that our eyes auto correct it. So how can I trust my eyes which do not see the blue in person? How would I know how much blue was real?

 

[JimFox]

I agree it’s a personal choice I was curious about what individual members choose. I note various approaches and thought it would be a good subject.

I don’t like masked adjustments as they tend to be abrupt in my hands and don’t jibe with the overall balance so I am more of a global adjustment guy

Ben, you need to learn how to mask differently then. Global adjustments are really limiting, especially in terms of working with water. Maybe practice some more? For me it depends on the image, some I will use an abrupt edge, like with a sky against the ground. Others like with water that is already part of a ground layer I will draw along natural edges with the lasso tool with some light feathering so that there are no tell tale signs.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Jim. my problem is that color adjustments might need to overlap these natural edges. I also need to add which I will do in CAPS to correct poor writing.

WHEN I SAY WATER COLOR, I REFER TO THE FOAM PART

I agree the still water will reflect the sky, but foam is a poor reflector.