Hello all,
I'm about to start a painting of a friend's pet but the source photo is not the best. Taken on a phone in artificial light (generic indoor lightbulb). Would it be best to white balance the image which may throw off some tones and values or just paint 'what I see'?
Thanks.
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If the friend’s pet is still available take a decent photo. Nothing worse than a great painting of a bad photo.
Denis
I am planning on altering the background to a darker more 'spotlighted' ambiance.
This is the best I can do. It might be a bit over processed, but it might help you:
Hey thanks for the effort! It is a pretty horrific image to work from but you improved it better than my attempts.
I think white balancing generally is a good way to extract the true color of objects without extracting the lighting… that’s the point. If your subject is in warm sunset sunlight and cool shade I’d avoid white balancing or at least be very careful with it. Here you have a simple subject which you are trying to capture true to life, whereas the particular tone of the lighting of the shot (here) is completely immaterial.
So I suggest you try to white balance a true grey thing in the image to grey. Keep in mind that whites of eyes, dogs teeth (none here), and even a dogs “white” or “grey” hairs are not actually neutral greyscale but in reality usually have some yellow beige components.
Painting the colors of the dog as they actually are (using a properly white balanced photo) means the painting will look like the dog in whatever lighting the painting eventually finds itself in. and IMHO you can’t do any better than that!
Looks like that white baseboard might be true grey and a great place to start!
Yes the baseboard is a good pick, my attempt I went for the shadow of the white in the coat at the front though it probably wasn't the best choice.