Color correction is a technical process that adjusts the colors in a photo or video image to make them more accurate and appealing. The goal is to ensure that the colors accurately represent the real-world scene. Color correction is a great way to enhance the overall harmony and mood of the image.
Post-production is where Photoshop Lightroom, or similar, is an art unto itself. Where I originally learned color correcting happened in a graphic arts dark room and working with Graphic Designers and Advertising Art Directors. Today’s solutions using Photoshop can be controlled by the creatives and are similar using a mix overall color shifts and masks for selective areas. In either case you are pushing light, shadows, tones and colors to re-create the image and add that “pop” to create dimension.
The examples above are shots from Pompeii Italy in 2023 June of a small Amphitheatre and at Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland in 2024 June. I like a warm rather than cool feel but detail and depth add dimension. As a technical note dimension can be added using masks, contrast, sharpness and textures. Pompeii was taken on an iPhone and Giants Causeway on a Canon R8. A point of interest I learned in my research – the Giants Causeway is the location used for the cover art on Led Zeppelin’s House of the Holy.
But like good Black and White Photography, the Post-Production starts in the field when taking the shot. Pompeii was bright and sunny, so the detail needed some help. On the other hand, the Giants Causeway shot the sky was great for lighting but the gray and cloudy, typical for Northern Ireland, was terrible for a sky shot, By taking a few shots at different settings (bracketing) and anticipating some re-working with a Color Correcting program, you can produce what you see rather than what the camera saw.
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