Q re. shadow & highlight points

[mikemeister_admin]

Assuming careful initial adjustments, I see that target as being pretty fluid, until I am ready to print. I find it easier to proceed through my adjustments while keeping an eye on s/h's, but not nailing them down. I'm not sure if this same workflow will apply to using Curvemeister, but I imagine it will.

even still I'm finding that I don't always make my mark of 15 and 245. Often my shadows are too dark.

Me, too. If my target is to print a black hat with detail, (on a raw image) I prefer to make all global adjustments before I do my last check on that hat. But I keep an eye on it.
This may just be a workflow that developed from laziness. I'm not sure.

[-default]

It is a bug, one going back to CM2, and Ive fixed it for the next release.  The shadow value was always RGB(0,0,0).  Highlights work as they should.  Another change: I think the shadow values used for the threshold display image should always reflect the last S/H  pins that were used, defaulting to the target shadow/highlight values in the config dialog.  This is the behavior from CM2

As a workaround I'd recommend using a manually created pin, which does work.  I created a shadow pin with RGB(10.0,10.0,10.0).  The attached image shows how the curves should look when shadow and highlight are working correctly, with the endpoints set to the target shadow and highlight value, and the "corners" filled with a straight line to the corresponding corner of the curve.

Thanks for delving into this and coming up with a reproducible problem.

[mikemeister_admin]

Thanks, Mike.This has been interesting to think about--I have come to realize that I really only use these eyedroppers to correct a color cast and monitor values, not to set a tonal range. Now I'm wondering if this way of working is going to make it any harder to make other adjustments in CM as I really explore its possibilities. I guess we'll see.

[-default]

I don't see any problem with your workflow, frankly.  If the tonal ranges are about right when you start, then I think there's no need to really deal with it.

[mikemeister_admin]

It is a bug, one going back to CM2, and Ive fixed it for the next release.  The shadow value was always RGB(0,0,0).  Highlights work as they should. 

IIUC, the shadow target values were not being read; rather, RGB (0,0,0) was always being used regardless of what the user inputed for the shadow target values. Correct?

Another change: I think the shadow values used for the threshold display image should always reflect the last S/H  pins that were used, defaulting to the target shadow/highlight values in the config dialog.  This is the behavior from CM2

IIUC, you are saying that the last used values for the s/h pins will be used for every image regardless of the user inputed values. If this is so, why have user inputed default values? I would expect an application to always use my defaults, save for those images where I want to make an exception. It would drive me batty to have worked on one high/low key image, have modified the s/h pin values, and then start to work on other images and have to reset the s/h pin values again.

[-default]

...
IIUC, the shadow target values were not being read; rather, RGB (0,0,0) was always being used regardless of what the user inputed for the shadow target values. Correct?

Yes.  A shadow from the pin palette works correctly, but the shadow value set in the options dialog is ignored.

[re changing the highlight/shadow values that are in effect]
IIUC, you are saying that the last used values for the s/h pins will be used for every image regardless of the user inputed values. If this is so, why have user inputed default values? I would expect an application to always use my defaults, save for those images where I want to make an exception. It would drive me batty to have worked on one high/low key image, have modified the s/h pin values, and then start to work on other images and have to reset the s/h pin values again.

I agree that would be confusing.  The default values will kick in again at the start of every image.  If a different shadow or highlight pin is dragged onto the image from the pin palette, that will change the pin values for the rest of that Curvemeister session only.  The right click menus change to show the name of the shadow or highlight pin that is in effect.  In effect, using the pin means that you prefer, for the time being for this image, to use that highlight or shadow.