Beautiful capture! I love it.

Does this new LAB method produce different results than your normal colour processing, or is it simply a new method of processing an image ? I'm not too experienced with the specific technical side of post-processing!

Ash: in some cases I suspect that LAB color offers possibilities that would be very difficult if not impossible to achieve in RGB or CMYB. The examples that Dan Margulis focuses on are ones where there's a very limited colour palette (canyons, for example) but I suspect that the possibilities extend way beyond that narrow range of images. I'll keep you all posted.

The difference between the two types of PP is startling. My initial opinion is that this is much more pleasing although I suspect longtime admirers of chromasia would prefer the earlier versions.

I think this is a very well presented image and feels very fresh. In addition it has a commercial feel to it.

Good work

This shot has a lot of fun. Like the angle you choose. The girl is well composed with nice blue tones behind.

Although it will mean more work for David I'm sure that comparisons between the 2 PP techniques will illustrate the benefits of a particular method best

I have just started using LAB processing for some of my images after a couple of recent podcast tutorials from Justin Seeley's Photoshop Quick Tips (specifically espisodes 13 and 14). Even the most basic of applications using this method returns great results. Good luck with your experimentation in LAB.

great colors.

fantastic action shot and a great angle. like she's leaping quite high.

Um, right well. Could you elaborate. What are the advantages of using curves in LAB than any other? I have always been curious. They must be considerable or at least worthy of exploration, I mean, a whole book, just on that aspect.

Also, I like the image and all of it is perfectly exposed, which, I presume I'm right in saying, it shouldn't be because the front of her clothing could well have been in shadow. Is this due to your processing skills, the use of LAB or just the fact that, well, her front was not in shadow to begin with and my assumptions are all over the shop.

You and beaches. I managed to get only a few grains of sand in my camera bag a few years back and a couple got under one of lenses, the terror!

Have you played around with LAB when making black'n'white photos? Decompose into alpha, beta and luminance. Use the luminance layer as your base, and then do various operations (add, subtract, overlay etc) with your alpha and/or beta layers.

Have fun!

The new process is much more natural than the old but also much less vibrant. You could have just reduced the hue and saturation after the curves adjustment rather than reading 360 pages ;-)
Nice leap Milly :-)

Who cares how you got here, its the end result that matters. Great, very natural image.

Now I have just written that, and am thinking I am a journey not a destination person...

Lovely image, the colours are fresh! Good luck with the new colour management

I would like to see this shot processed using the other method. I like the flat tone and contrast in this shot.

mooch - you can see where the main light source is by the shadow on the leg.
Besides, if you read the exposure details you'll see fil in flash was used to balance subjet and background.
I prefer the punchier lookmyself, but my preference has always been towards high contrast and rich colours. Velvia/Provira are lovely for that.

I picked up that book a while back. It's certainly a dense read and I still wouldn't claim to fully understand it. I've found you can do some amazing things in LAB, especially with making the contrast between colors really pop, often too much so. I have a couple actions in Photoshop to automatically convert an image to LAB and do the 10 and 20 color bumps he talks about in the first couple chapters. Often I find one of those will do good things to an image without much additional tweaking.

It's a great technique, but I think it's really really easy to take too far. I haven't messed with the really neat color correction capabilities yet.. I don't really have the need yet... :)

Nice one jez, I failed to look at that. I am not quite sure about the merits of LAB then.

Haven't seen your response yet... Was the lighting identical in these two shots? Did you use fill flash in this and not the first? If the two are bathed in similar lighting, then this technicque has extended the range of the capture spectacularly... no highlights are burned away here, vis-a-vis the earlier image. But at the expense of levering the top off of the color intensities. Can this technique provide the "popability" of processing in an RGB color space? And what's it do to the print space?

Ted: both were lit by flash, but the ambient lighting was quite different so it's not really possible to compare the two. Also, I think I was probably a little heavy handed with the processing of the first one, so again, comparisons are difficult. I'll keep you all posted as to how I get on.