Photoshop Lab Color- P1: LAB has a reputation for enormous power, yet virtually all reference materials that advocate its use illustrate its capabilities with a single class of image. This chapter introduces the basic LAB correction method and explains why it is so extraordinarily effective. if you happen to have a picture of a canyon. | LAB Color DAN MARGULIS Photoshop Efi The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the 1 Most Powerful Colorspace w 1 The Canyon Conundrum LAB has a reputation for enormous power yet virtually all reference materials that advocate its use illustrate its capabilities with a single class of image. This chapter introduces the basic LAB correction method and explains why it is so extraordinarily effective if you happen to have a picture of a canyon. eep in Death Valley land of desolation and summertime heat in the high 120s a narrow canyon holds several lessons - about color photography human perception and a powerfl------W - ful digital imaging tool. -3rj- Parts of the clayish soil contain mineral deposits that I I-LI create striking color variations especially when the light hits just right in the late afternoon. The effect allegedly reminds some people of a painter mixing up the tools of his trade. So it s called Artist s Palette a considerable stretch. These dull tints have about as much to do with those found on the palettes of Renoir or Rembrandt as this book does with animal husbandry. But nothing seems great or small except by comparison. It s such a shock to encounter green or magenta dirt that it seems absolutely blazing next to the monotony of the surroundings. People stand and stare at Artist s Palette for hours seeing subtleties that cameras can t record and imagining brilliant colors that cameras don t think are there. We can leave aside the philosophical question of whether the reality is these dull colors that the camera saw in Figure or the comparatively bright ones conjured up by the infinitely creative human visual system. The fact is if this picture is a promotional shot or even something for a nature publication the original isn t going to fly. Anybody would prefer Figure which was created in approximately 30 seconds in LAB. When I first wrote about LAB in a 1996 column I used a canyon shot Figure This Death Valley canyon is noted for
