Background color for incense smoke images

Am using incense smoke images to create different formed images, via PS, and am in a quandary as to appealing background colors.
Should I be using complementary, opposite, colors from the subject or more of a analogous, similar, color scheme?
The 2nd example below is merely an inverted color scheme. Selecting a color seems to be easier than is selecting the proper color.

IMAGE LINK: http://s329.photobucke​t.com …-negative-copy-2.jpg.html

IMAGE LINK: http://s329.photobucke​t.com …-negative-copy11.jpg.html

I am impressed...isn't often that nobody has an opinion concerning any question proffered.

chauncey wrote in post #17845368
I am impressed...isn't often that nobody has an opinion concerning any question proffered.

Well I remember that you posted an almost identical thread about this when you first started doing it, maybe a year or so ago? I recall that it wasn't very long then either.

Personally I prefer the blue on black for this particular pair of images. The white background would IMO be better with a different colour for the smoke. In PS I would probably add an HSL adjustment layer and play with the global hue slider. One other trick I use with HSL in PS is to use the individual hue channels to convert to a single colour. I often use some processing where I use the Find Edges filter. The only problem is that you can end up with the lines being complementary colours from the original, it sometimes also seems to throw in some odd colours too. I often want to make them into a (close to) single primary colour. So I use each channel in the HSL tool to shift the hue to the required colour. Once I have all of the channels shifted I save it as a preset. Since you can shift some colours in opposite directions to get to the same final result, where the shift is close to 180 degrees, I actually save both options. Sometimes to get a full colour conversion it is necessary to run both options, and sometimes multiple times too. In these situations I am running the HSL as a filter directly on a single layer, not as an Adjustment Layer. I also usually just select specific small parts of the image where the colour adjustments need to be applied.

Alan

You be right Alan...the question hasn't garnered must attention on other sites either.
I've become adept at using various selection tools in PS to isolate and then mold the smoke,
but it's the color selections that are confounding me.

Well unfortunately my degree is in Electronic Engineering, not fine art, so I'm not really sure that I can help you much. I know it is blase to say that I know what I like, but it is true. I like photography because it is something I can do, I have never had the dexterity to draw and paint the way I would like to, although I have no formal training for that either, but simple straight lines and curves should not be that difficult should they? So I picked up photography, but again I only know what I like to see,and am reasonably capable of producing work that I like.

Sometimes I think I should try to learn more about "art" but I could really do with knowing of a good teacher to show me the way. Self directed study is often not useful IMO.

Alan

Experiment. I'd go with the complementaries for better harmony.

I adjust the colours by changing the WB values in the RAW processor, but then again, I'm not doing composites. Adjusting the white balance, however, might give you an idea of a starting point.

Been there, done that Alveric, as well as watching tons of youtube videos on the subject to no avail.
Just don't have the artistic eye.

http://colorwheelco.co​m/

Bet they're available at your local arts and crafts stores. I got a couple of these. I keep one on my desk and one's meant to go in the photo pack when I'm out on assignments for quick reference.