How to adjust the high-grade gray in photos

Color matching has always been a topic of great concern to everyone, and everyone has their own unique color matching methods and habits. The following is a small tutorial I summarized, which is my experience of color. For this reason, I have troubled many people to ask for their "secret weapons" and then summarize them here. This tutorial will discuss ideas more than specific methods. Everyone's perspective is different, and there may be something wrong. I hope everyone can understand "seeking common ground while reserving differences".

First, about "high-grade ash"

Everyone who paints knows this sentence: When you master gray, you master the essence of color.

I think photography and painting are very similar things, so by the same token, when you master gray, you master the essence of color. Judging from the photos, a similar word is "gray scale"-perhaps everyone is familiar with it; In terms of color, gray is shown in the following figure:

The color is gray.

Besides hue, color has two properties: brightness and purity. Purity is what I call gray. As shown by the arrow, after the purity decreases, the color saturation decreases and the whole tends to be soft.

For photography, there is a similar word called "gray scale". What is gray scale? Generally speaking, a point that people can see with naked eyes on the LCD screen, that is, a pixel, is composed of three sub-pixels: red, green and blue (RGB). The light source behind each sub-pixel can display different brightness levels. Gray scale represents the level of different brightness from the darkest to the brightest. The more intermediate levels, the more delicate the picture effect can be presented.

Generally speaking, the better the gray level in a photo is preserved, the better the texture of the photo will be, and the color of the photo will be closer to full precipitation. At this point, there is a very high realm in painting called "high-grade gray"-a seemingly simple group of colors, but it contains a lot of colors, and these colors have achieved a harmonious and unified effect through coordination.

Second, apply "advanced gray" to the color of the photo.

Because high-grade ash is composed of many colors, and no color exists independently, the details of each color in the photo will remain intact. Therefore, a very effective method is to look at the histogram. A photo with complete colors should have relatively complete histogram details in each color gamut.

High grade ash is made up of many colors.

Generally speaking, the color of RGB format has four components: a few percent of red, a few percent of green, a few percent of blue and a few percent of brightness. The gray I want to express is a mixture of red, green and blue in different proportions.

It is also worth saying that such a gray tone will produce ever-changing visual effects through the change of the ratio of red, green and blue lightness. This gray color makes each color not exist independently, no color stands out from the crowd, and no color falls behind.

Then in the histogram, the red, green and blue histograms are full in the bright, medium and dark parts. Because only in this way can we reflect the harmony of colors. On the histogram, red, green and blue are basically full, but they are changing, so the changing proportion also causes the visual change of colors. Therefore, although the whole photo looks low in saturation, the color is still full.

As shown above, the color of the whole picture is basically the same, but there are warm and cold, bright and dark in the picture. Drag the picture into ps and look at the histogram, and it will come out in one go. Almost every color gamut, the details remain the same. Because the gray in the picture is in harmony with red, green and blue, even the gray looks rich in color.

Third, how to adjust the gray level of photos

In fact, there is no fixed method, but the central idea is: use more curves, check the histogram back and forth, and superimpose solid colors or gradient colors at the right time. Now that we have all written here, let's provide a train of thought. Again, no matter how you retouch the picture, the test is actually your understanding of color and your control of the relationship between cold and warm, virtual and real, and light and shade.