Peter Wheat -- color adjusted

[Amberjack]

A little while ago, I mentioned I was going to try to color adjust and slightly recolor Peter Wheat.
I've worked on it a few minutes at a time and here's Issue One, Page One ...
BEFORE

http://ydtalk.com/jdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Peter_Wheat_001.jpg

AFTER

http://ydtalk.com/jdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Peter_Wheat_001.png

Any thoughts about my effort? Does it look better? Like hell? Or somewhere in-between?

My main goal was to correct the off-register colors, but I also tried to make them a little more lush, correct any mis-colored portions and make the blacks more prominent.

[JVJ (RIP)]

Are you working in jpeg or tiff format, AmberJack?
I ask because the "after" version, while displaying nicer color seems to be muddied, with darker lines and letters. This can happen if you keep saving as .jpg, even if you set the level to 100%.

Also, and this is personal preference, I don't care much for the "shadows" that were added. I happen to one of those people who LIKES flat color.

What program are you using? With Photoshop, you could fairly easily eliminate that annoying dark tan/orange along the upper edge with a gradient overlay.

FWIW.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[watson387]

I agree about the "flat color". I like it also. The second picture has brighter colors, but it looks messy. To be honest, I don't think there's anything wrong with the original. It looks great to me. That's just my opinion though.

[JVJ (RIP)]

I looked at this again, Amberjack,
and I think I see two things that I would consider "mistakes".
1. you made your Blacks pure black. In doing so, you made the lines fatter and added darkness to the purples and browns. You can intensify the Black without getting all that overkill.
2. you blurred the colors. Totally unnecessary, I think.

Good luck with Take Two. I can't tell you how many times I tried to deal with this problem...

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[JVJ (RIP)]

A little while ago, I mentioned I was going to try to color adjust and slightly recolor Peter Wheat.
I've worked on it a few minutes at a time and here's Issue One, Page One ...
BEFORE

http://ydtalk.com/jdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Peter_Wheat_001.jpg

AFTER

http://ydtalk.com/jdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Peter_Wheat_001.png

Any thoughts about my effort? Does it look better? Like hell? Or somewhere in-between?

My main goal was to correct the off-register colors, but I also tried to make them a little more lush, correct any mis-colored portions and make the blacks more prominent.

Here's a quick edit incorporating SOME examples of how I'd handle your same goals.

http://www.bpib.com/peterwheat-color-1.jpg

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[larrytalbot]

Amberjack,

I like your color adjusted page very much! It's brighter & sharper than the original.

[OtherEric]

If anybody is interested I still have my raw scans of the issue and can get them to people; just let me know.  For better or worse, at this point you're working off what I already edited and need to work around my choices.  And while I don't think I did that bad a job I can see problems with my version- my efforts to repair damage to the upper left corner stand out like a sore thumb to me every time I see this one, for example!

For another take on the pages, Thom took the scans of the first issue and edited them for his blog, as well:

http://whirledofkelly.blogspot.com/2010/05/walt-kellys-adventures-of-peter-wheat.html

[Amberjack]

Thank you all for your comments. I don't mind any criticism you have to give me, so keep it coming.
I used PhotoShop to edit the JPGs available from the DCM.

I did the shadowing in layers, so I can strip that out with no problem.

And flat colors aren't a bad idea at all. I can tell the original colorist tried to apply some tones here and there though.

I will try again from scratch since I'm not committed to my updated version. It may have taken me two hours in total to do what you see above.

I wonder if there's a way I can completely wipe out the color. Any suggestions? A black and white line version would be super easy to color!

And where can I get the TIFF?

[Yoc]

You can remove colour in PhotoShop.
You want to contact OTHERERIC for the raw TIFF files.  And they will be massive!

[JVJ (RIP)]

Amberjack,
try shifting the Mode to CMYK and then take a look at the Black Channel. It's a good place to start. If you are looking to go to pure black and white (a bitmap file), you will probably need to take Eric's raw .tiff file and UP-sample it to 1200 ppi. Initially this will be a larger file, but when you finally convert it to true Bitmap, it will be quite small.

Another interesting way to remove color is with a Black & White Adjustment Layer. Great thing is that it is non-destructive and reversible. If you have not used Adjustment Layers, they are accessed through the half-black/half-white circle icon at the bottom of your Channels panel.

Good luck.

(|:{>

[Geo (RIP)]

Keep it going gentlemen, it's some great food for thought on color correction which helps us all out there that edit scans.
Thanks again for this thread.

Geo

[jonmathias]

I tried to find this in the dcm archive, but didn't have any luck.

Anyone willing to point me in the right direction?

thanks!

[watson387]

I tried to find this in the dcm archive, but didn't have any luck.

Anyone willing to point me in the right direction?

thanks!

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=683