Look at Don's waterfall
here. I made an optimized BYW and then blended that back in RGB, I must admit, but it is analogous to some of Margulis' workflow.Asher
Asher, as a gentle reminder, my steps are not important. Instead, focus on what can be achieved. Do you like the additional color boost? I wouldn't use my steps for a real task, either. They were just my shorthand for quickly explaining how to get additional color. For example, do you like her dress with more punch added to it?
Also, working on these small images is a fool's task. You really need something where you can sink your teeth into the image.
With respect to Don's photo, I see what you were trying to achieve. By creating your optimized version of a b&w, you wanted to get better contrast by blending your b&w into the original image using a luminosity blend mode. I think that's what you might have done.
Margulis's process is really a three (major) step process:
1. Color
2. Contrast
3. Color
Within each of these major steps, you can do additional things. And, it isn't necessarily a linear process either.
Generally speaking, Margulis encourages his students to have bright, happy images. Of course, if it is a heavy overcast rainy day, one should not make the photo look like it was shot a high noon on a bright sunny day.
So, going back to Don's photo, you gained some additional detail in the waterfall. But everything else is dull and dreary.
Let's look at the three steps again.
1) Colors. They look okay to me. Nothing seems that is obviously wrong.
2) Contrast. Yes, you might have blended a b&w into the image using a luminosity blend mode. But what about your white point? That is, your most significant white point should have a L value in LAB close to 100. You've actually reduced the white point from the initial image. Because your white point is not properly set, the picture looks dark.
3) Color again. Here, we tease the colors apart. That wasn't done.
If I were to work on the image, I would go ahead and do my thing. The colors would be probably be eye-poppingly obscene. Then, I would blend Don's original image into the modified version until I was happy.
One of the challenges of making everything so colorful is that you become immune to the color after a while. Everyone else looking at the image thinks it is radioactive, while you believe just the right amount of color has been added. You need to step away for a while and then come back to reassess.
In Margulis's classes, he has his students submit their work. Then, everyone critiques all the images. After working on an image for over an hour, you become impressed with and attached to your own work. Then, you see someone else's work that just blows your efforts out of the water. It's humbling. But you learn, even if painfully.
In the advanced class, we had to make color corrections to one image with our monitors set to monochrome. I enjoyed that exercise actually. It makes you think.
