Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Checking Values with a digital camera

Cool Rouge- 6x6 oil on c.b.
SOLD


In this mini-lesson i want to discuss value and show how you can check your values using a digital camera and/or photo editing software on your computer.







i painted this piece over the holidays plein air and wasnt happy at all with it while i was working on it and even when i got home. the old saying that you cant see the forest for the trees is true. you can work on something so hard and stare at it so long that it goes haywire on you and you dont even notice until its too late.

this is a photo (with terrible color balance but you get the idea) of what i got home with.























so i took a digital photo of it and edited it in Window Photo Editor taking all the color out so all i had was black and white values. BOOM it jumped out at me that the red part of the building was supposed to be the second darkest value and it wasnt (as shown in the black and white)

















so i went back changed the value of the wall and roof and shot it again. see how the black and white of the corrected painting "reads" right and the painting looks right now.


so whenever you have one thats not doing it for you take a digital and photo edit the color out on the computer or on the digital camera. its like having a set of fresh eyes on the painting

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