What is Creative Color in Iris Arts?

Sometimes, at the request of our artists or clients, we alter the original color of a photograph. When we do, we put the image in the Creative Color section of our website.

Vine maples in front of two cedar trees. Natural color. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes

The vine maples in this scene were found in a local state park last summer. The two large cedar trees anchored the composition, featuring delicate, leaf-filled branches of vine maples. The color of the leaves ranged from yellow-green to blue-green — typical of late summer. It was lovely, but I couldn't help wondering what the scene would look like with fall color.

I returned to this spot several times over the next two months but was disappointed with this year's fall color. Many of the leaves dropped early,t and in later fall, only a few pale yellow specimens remained. There was none of the red color as in years past.

Back in the studio, I returned to the original photo and tried modifying the leaf color on the computer using Lightroom. It is a simple matter of selecting a color range mask, using the color picker to select the leaves, and then altering the color with color or hue sliders.

Here is what the transition resembled.

One image morphs into another to show the transition to the desired color.

At Iris Arts, when our artists modify image color for an artistic purpose, we place those images in the Creative Color section of the Iris Arts website. If requested, we can also modify the image color of photos in the other website sections.

Need to make a red barn blue to match the decor? Does your client require a particular color for a project? Please let us know. We will try to meet your request.