Examples of Chroma Variant Effects

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August 19, 2006 (Revised March 7, 2017)

To help you understand what my chroma variant profile sets can do for images that have been converted into the master profile for any given set, I have put together a pair of examples. The range of effects is so broad that it's impossible to use a single image as a useful example for showing the entire range of adjustments.

In this first example (737KB "AutLvsChromaSeq.zip") I present a range of outcomes from minus 99% chroma (essentially B&W) to plus 52% chroma, using my photograph "Autumn leaves, Acadia National Park, Maine 1985". This is from a 4x5 Ektachrome original and the image is also otherwise fully edited. Please open the image in Photoshop and zoom to 100% or more. The image was adjusted initially to look the way it does in the Master Profile example, then the various chroma variants were assigned. Then each result was converted back into the master profile for compositing, and finally the entire document was converted into a generic display profile.

In this second example, (410 KB "SierraChromaSeq.zip") I start with a completely unedited image from a Canon 5D which is one frame from a panoramic series, converted into DCam 2. A sampling of positive value results is shown, up to plus 90%. A great many ways to use this capability are possible, including going far beyond 100% by converting back to the master profile from a variant, and then reassigning another variant. Color control can be independent of tone control in a meaningful way. Open shadows and flatter middletones can be combined with strong color for more fulfilling and lifelike results, or as desired.

You can see from the second example, with steps averaging just under 12% chroma increase, that the steps of 4%, near zero, which are provided with every set, offer extremely fine control, especially for images that are close to looking right before use of the variants.

My complete sets with 29 chroma variants provide unprecedented opportunity for flexible, nearly harmless, and desirable control over colorfulness in an RGB workflow, and make larger adjustments possible without the common ruinous effects on tonality of other tools.