Attached Link: Heart of Red Diamond Studios

    I'm looking to do some work and offer some service to any community members wanting it.  :_)  I love you all and think I could use some more samples for my portfolio.  I'm an art theorist by schooling with specialized training in light, color grading, and more.  I also do my work on a double-calibrated monitor.  I supposedly do such things so well I'm on the Diamond Council of America (*don't laugh, I know).   So, if you have an image that's entirely finished and you'd like the color mastered (adjusted to professional standards to bring out color detail, decrease washout, simulate or bind HDR, etc.), let me know.  It can make a world of a difference.  It takes a minimum of 3 days to do each image, so if there are a handful of replies, turn-around time could end up being in the week-month timeframe.  Send me a message on Site Mail or this thread and I'll have you send your full size image to koov78 which is a hotmail address. 

    Some guidelines:

-One image per person please.

-Preferably something colorful (beautiful bird photgraphy, a poser image in a stained glass chapel, you get the idea...).  but anything beautiful is welcome.

-I ask that you at least credit me somewhere in the small print of any postings.  You retain all rights to your image and its royalties, etc.  I just ask to be able to show it to others as a sample of solely my color adjustment work.

-Please use a high-resolution version that is totally finished artistically.

This idea was birthed in the Art Theory Forum here on Renderosity and if you want to see a sample of recent work, the thread HERE has links to dreampaint's (French photographer Laurent here on this site) recent piece I remastered.  There is even one version newer she'll be posting soon that was critiqued by Tavia3D.

People normally pay $50 or more, each image, for such services, and get only half the expertise.  One note though: I cannot make a mediocre image look amazing.  I can make an amazing piece of art shine, but the underlying properties and quality of your work will always be there, so pull out some of the best pieces you've got!

All helpful critiques and advice on the finished images will be welcomed and taken into consideration!  Let's go to Color-Landia, Charilie, Color-Landia, yeah! <<

How high resolution are you wanting?

I'd be interested to see what this process could do to a 3D CGI picture. If you think there's anything in my gallery that would prove instructive and interesting to others, then let's try it! I can always re-render to provide a larger image in a lossless format, which I imagine would be an advantage. I normally render at a size suitable for web posting, or a bit larger if I plan to do fine postwork.

Considering that the Blender Foundation has two upcoming projects and color grading on this last open movie was a holdup in the pipeline you might want to mull over getting in contact with Ton. I can think of worse ways to get more notice.

Quote - Considering that the Blender Foundation has two upcoming projects and color grading on this last open movie was a holdup in the pipeline you might want to mull over getting in contact with Ton. I can think of worse ways to get more notice.

In riddles you speak… or I am dense.

Quote - How high resolution are you wanting?

It's going to be your image, so something big enough that you'd be able to use it for a variety of applications, or possibly print it in the future.  I just mainly prefer not to do anyone's low kb, low mp images they just use for 600x800 postings.  It is a lot of work for an image that could not be posted on any hi-res sites or ever even made into a 4x6 walgreens print.

:-)

Quote - I'd be interested to see what this process could do to a 3D CGI picture. If you think there's anything in my gallery that would prove instructive and interesting to others, then let's try it! I can always re-render to provide a larger image in a lossless format, which I imagine would be an advantage. I normally render at a size suitable for web posting, or a bit larger if I plan to do fine postwork.

'Leather and Chromium' would be the best bet.  "In The Park (part 2)" could be an alternative option. 

A bit of confusion... I'm not looking for practice so much as to help with any 100% finished images that you're proud of and want brought through one final stage.  So, then you'd also want to make any real calls...

Quote - A bit of confusion... I'm not looking for practice so much as to help with any 100% finished images that you're proud of and want brought through one final stage.  So, then you'd also want to make any real calls...

Sure, I appreciate that. I was thinking that some images would take to colour mastering better than others, which was implied by your post - and in that case, allowing you to pick the source image would give the most instructive result. I was hoping for an interesting contrast between "before" and "after" images, as much as anything.

My own favourites are "Missing" and "Radioactive Cats" which are both based on other artist's work; and "Sea Chase" which is largely monochromatic. All the images mentioned so far by both of us are also quite old, so I dunno now. :) Let me think about it some more... You never know, my next render might be my best one ever. :D

Quote - > Quote - How high resolution are you wanting?

It's going to be your image, so something big enough that you'd be able to use it for a variety of applications, or possibly print it in the future.  I just mainly prefer not to do anyone's low kb, low mp images they just use for 600x800 postings.  It is a lot of work for an image that could not be posted on any hi-res sites or ever even made into a 4x6 walgreens print.

:-)

For forum posts, I generally resize a version to 1024x. My question is more how big do you want them, I guess. I have one I think would go well that'd could easily be 4000+ pixels.

English and Yokasobi... we're both talking by site mail now... let's see... if anyone else is interested let me know!  I also post links to your finished images *(and before images), so as an extra carrot, it could mean some increased views for some people.

:-)  I FROOKIN LOVE COLORING!!!!

I'm in the final stages with all three images from Bob, Yoka, and Nancy.  They all have their own challenges and all are taking multiple layers of work... I've never had to dig deeply into histogram charts before!  They're fun-awful!

:-)

Heha! Nice to know that we're definitely getting our money's worth on this one. :biggrin:

Shhh... Since we're paying nothing, I'm hoping to get infinitely more than my money's worth!

:lol:

Looking forward to seeing the result.

o.k., had a look at prelim results - not bad!  (large img size ~8-9 MB)

Alright, check your emails everyone!  Any feedback is welcome, and tweaks can be made if necessary, but as for now it's the best I think I can do...

o.k., I checked it out - looks alot better now!

Thanks very much for all your hard work. I'm still studying mine, flicking back and forth between "before" and "after". :D

Can you folks show some before/after samples?  I'm not super interested in getting any images of mine manipulated this way but I'm curious to see what the process actually did.

in my case: "before" img approx. 8.6 MB; "after" img approx. 15.7 MB (2200X2400), hence I'm hoping one of the others will post theirs.  IIRC OP was doing these for printing purposes - that may mean the big diff is in the way they print.

pjz, click my HERE link here or in original post for the thread that has a Before/After.

Bob, ha ha, I know the feeling.  Give it a day or two then, and feel free to be honest.  If you know which is more important to you, their skin tones or the background, that could provide some wiggle room to change it up.  I won't lie, it forced me to make my own biased judgment calls (I picked mostly skin tones).

When you post em, if you can, drop a link here for all to see.  And link to the Before image to if you have a moment.

My original is here.

MidnightPlatinum's remastered version, reduced in resolution to the same as the original is posted in the gallery, is here. The originals are 4000 x 3000, and there seems little point in posting those unless someone here has a monitor of that resolution.

(Both links should open in new tabs, or maybe new windows depending on your browser.)

The truth? I prefer the original. I think it's fair to say that, since this is a not-entirely-realistic image, personal taste comes into play a lot more than it might on a photograph. It's supposed to be a simulation of another artist's oil painting of a quasi-realistic scene which probably never existed;  I doubt that Jack Vettriano painted his models on the beach. I shouldn't rule out the possibility that my colour perception is carp, and this whole exercise has gone entirely over my head, in which case I apologise for wasting your time. :')

But seriously, this would have been educational whether I liked the result or not, and that was my reason for volunteering. I've probably learned more from this outcome than if my image had been magically transformed into some glowing artifact which made my heart skip a beat - and I wasn't expecting that.

So, thanks again for your hard work. It really is appreciated, my comments notwithstanding. I hope you really did want honesty. If anyone else in this thread wants to chip in with their views, I'd like to hear them.