By Vicki White

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Tony Hallas was the guest speaker for our August 13th General Meeting.

 

His topic was titled “Color - Using and Changing Color”. Hallas showed about 20 of his pictures.  He has a wide range of photo interests and his shots included, among other things: a baby wasp being born, rusting bolts, a composite of the Andromeda Galaxy through an arch, macros of spiders, a jack rabbit, an abstract featuring Death Valley, a beautiful rainbow against storm clouds, and Morrow Bay at Night.

 

“Color is a weird thing," said Toney.  "In reality, colors are specific. You have to be aware of this."  He added, "If you want to change the color your must first determine what the color is that need to be adjusted." Tony suggested using a color wheel to help you determine which color needs to be adjusted.

 

Tony said "the key to color manipulation is to learn how the color wheel works. Once you identify the color that needs adjustment find it's neighbor on the color wheel and use that color to make the adjustment."

 

Tony uses Photoshop to process his photos and suggest using the Selective Color tool.  It can be found under the IMAGE Main Menu tab and the ADJUSTMENTS option. 

 

The Selective Color tool enables you to add individual colors in incremental amounts to improve or change the color you want.  For example, a sky that comes out too cyan - you can make it blue by adding magenta.  For a sunset that is too yellow, add red.

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According to Tony, "this approach can be thought of as a 'push/pull' solution. If you have a color that is wrong, adjust it to make it correct... that is a good push/pull."  He urged us to "experiment to identify the best push/pull you can achieve in your images - that is what makes them dynamic."  

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He cautioned everyone to make sure you have about 20 layers of history in your Photoshop preferences so you can backtrack if you want.

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This was a very instructive presentation and Hallas said he would be glad to answer questions if members wanted to email him. 

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Tony's email is: 

tonyhallas@sebastiancorp.net