323 - Living In The Past

Goodness, this image was hard to process! I’ve tried it in Capture NX, and when I had accumulated much too many color control points, I gave up and switched to Photoshop. Normally, when I find that I need ten or more color control points, this is a sign that I’m using the wrong tool. Consequently I tried my luck in Lab color mode, but quickly found out that this was not the image for global changes, but really needed lots of small local adjustments. I gave up again, returned to Capture NX, and this time I accepted to have to use those many points and then some more.

Why all the hassle? Could I really not have used Photoshop? Well, I wanted a certain color balance and a glow, that both together were not to be had with white balance and global adjustments. Lab is normally good for driving colors apart, and driving colors apart, that’s exactly what I did here, but the balance in this image is so subtle, that the very incremental process in Capture NX was much easier to control. Of course there is always more than one way to do it, and of course it would have been possible in Photoshop, it only would have been harder.

I shot this image in the early afternoon, using my Nikon 50/1.8 at f1.8. A phenomenal lens that is, sharp even wide open.

"Living In The Past" from Jethro Tull’s 1972 album of the same name is the Song of the Day.