Snapshot 69: Tutorial Teal +amp; Orange

From the new snapshot: "Orange"

The teal +amp; orange look has been a popular style for many years, characterized by the contrast between the complementary warm and blue-green tones. In this article, we would like to show you how this look can be created in image processing using an example.

Why is the teal +amp; orange look so popular?

• Complementary colors: Teal means something like blue-green and goes in the direction of turquoise or cyan. Orange is almost opposite it in the color wheel, so that these color ranges reinforce each other and create a strong visual contrast.
• Skin tones: Most skin tones are in the range of orange and red. By using teal as a contrasting color, the skin tones are emphasized without appearing unnatural. This makes the protagonists in the picture clearer and more striking.
• Night photography: The teal +amp; orange look is particularly well known for images of night shots in illuminated cities. Here, the various light sources (neon advertising, street lighting, moonlight, etc.) can easily be pulled into the desired color ranges in post-processing.
• Cinematographic look: The Teal +amp; Orange look gives photos and films a cinematic style that is often used in action films, dramas and adventure films to intensify emotions.

Tutorial 1

Implementation in image processing

In post-processing, this look is often achieved through color correction and color grading:

• Highlights and midtones are shifted towards orange.

• [Shadows and dark areas are shifted towards turquoise or cyan.

A teal +amp; orange image works very well if you have a lot of shadow areas in which the color can be shifted more towards turquoise/cyan. It is helpful to make sure that there is a real orange in the motif so that the colors are not pushed too far into this area.

Teal and orange differ greatly in their look and effect. Depending on whether it is used in dark or light images. In bright shots, it goes in the direction of Wes Anderson's famous style, e.g. in the movie Asteroid City.

Tutorial 2

What options are there for influencing colors?

There are many ways to influence the colors in an image in Adobe Lightroom, but as is so often the case, many roads can lead to Rome. Many tools offer the perfect solution in different situations and may simply not work at all in others. It is therefore important to understand how the various tools work and how the slider affects your image.

Camera settings

The color can be influenced by the following 2 factors:

• White balance - cold and warm
• Hue - green and purple

Gradation curve

The gradation curve can influence the whole thing on a very large scale. The colors are controlled here via the brightness range and for each color channel, you always control the color of the channel and which one is opposite. If you now set points on the line that goes from the shadows (left) to the highlights on the right, you can shift the colors within their tonal values:

• Red channel: Red and turquoise
• Green channel: Green and magenta
• Blue channel: Blue and yellow

Color mixer

The color mixer offers maximum variety, as it allows you to selectively control the colors in the image and shift them accordingly, or in other words, correct them. The whole thing happens in the color space: HSL, which stands for Hue / Saturation / Luminance, which offers many options; such as shifting the colors within a certain spectrum, which can then be shifted even further via the saturation and luminance.

Color grading

Adobe Lightroom offers the option of mixing color into the areas within a defined luminance range. Even small / subtle shifts on the wheel away from the center have an effect on the colors in the image, which is why you should work very carefully and precisely here. This is because you determine the transition between the luminances with the Fade slider.

Calibration

This is the coarse version of the color mixer and goes to the 3 pixel colors, the sensor level. This allows the colors to be corrected or shifted very extensively. This tool in particular is often used by beginners or resellers of presets who sell certain Instagram looks. It is a very powerful tool which, together with the color mixer, offers a good opportunity to establish a color look in your pictures.

Masks

Meanwhile, it is simply a very powerful tool with which it can be specifically adapted. Particularly exciting here are: Luminance masks, which, for example, if you select the highlights, also allow you to shift them a little more into yellow by adjusting the white balance within the mask. The color range can also be selected with the pipette and then the hue can be shifted.

more info and more works by the artist:

Markus Igel
Instagram: @terobesarts
Website: www.terobesarts.de

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