Curvemeister Forum

Sorry if you get this twice...We added some members to the Beta Group and they needed to be notified:

Please download and install the stable Beta 3.6.0 build of Curvemeister and test the program for us.  Both 32 and 64 bit versions should be available for you in the downloads section.  Please contact us if you cannot see the files after 6PM Pacific Time USA on August 31st.

Items we are interested in having user testing and comments on are:

GCR Slider functionality:
Allows the user to change the GCR settings interactively for CMYK and K channel masking functions.  For instance if you use the GCR setting to help you define the mask in the past you only had light , medium, heavy and working as optional settings. Now you can use the slider to adjust the effect of the K channel on your images. 

Fade Slider:
This slider fades the effect of the curves on the image.  It is similar to the Opacity slider in Photoshop.  One of the best uses identified so far is using the the slider along with the over and under exposure curves from the curves library to recover highlights and shadows. 

Thanks Greg, Mike and Lee.  Do I post comments here? 

I tried briefly, and will give an analysis later.  I run CS 6 in 32 and 64 bit.  I installed the beta in 64 bit only so I can compare.  I have a laptop that is 32 bit that I installed the beta.

All machines are windows 7 and CS6. 

Here is a link to the video I promised in the original post.

http://www.curvemeister.com/video/greg/Fade_and_Blur/Fade_and_Blur.html

Please kick this around and give us any feedback you might have.
Greg

Some good news., the install worked fine.  I also get good cmyk values on the hue clock.

1.  The gcr slider would work until the first curve of the black then it was fixed. 

2.  When I start CM the view is full screen and covers more screen than CS6.  It covers the task bar. 

3.  In LAB, dragging the slider to steepen the a and b curves works.  Clicking on the arrows jumps the a and b values by .50  I liked 0.10 better.

4.  I have 54 skin tones.

---more later ---

On a side note.  Many times I have corrected and "finished" only to find one bad spot.  That could be a part of the sky that went over or grass "too green"  I would use lightroom's HSL.  Use the TAT tool and mess with HSL of the particular spot.  I know there are other ways- mask then CM, etc. 

The advantage of LR over CS6 is that often the photo is not critical nor deserves a "fine art" touch.  I just want the nose not so red or the grass more natural.  Going to CS and back sometimes LR loses its way.  The corrected copy is in the file, but the file does not show up in the catalog.

I could go on, but why bring this up.  Could CM be used in a HSL mode?  Is that too difficult?  No need for anyone else?  In CM, you can mark the offending grass, see where it is on the right curve, but that is not the same.  LR seems crude, but it gets the job done.

Some good news., the install worked fine.  I also get good cmyk values on the hue clock.

1.  The gcr slider would work until the first curve of the black then it was fixed. 

There is a bug in the GCR slider where the thumbnail for the mask is not updated until you highlight the K channel in the mask ?Carte.  This might be related to it.

2.  When I start CM the view is full screen and covers more screen than CS6.  It covers the task bar. 

It should remember your last settings once you use it and apply a curve.  Make sure the window fits your screen the way you want it to before applying and exiting.

3.  In LAB, dragging the slider to steepen the a and b curves works.  Clicking on the arrows jumps the a and b values by .50  I liked 0.10 better.

Already bugged for fix...Thanks Steve.

4.  I have 54 skin tones.

Could you explain this one a bit more??

---more later ---

On a side note.  Many times I have corrected and "finished" only to find one bad spot.  That could be a part of the sky that went over or grass "too green"  I would use lightroom's HSL.  Use the TAT tool and mess with HSL of the particular spot.  I know there are other ways- mask then CM, etc. 

The advantage of LR over CS6 is that often the photo is not critical nor deserves a "fine art" touch.  I just want the nose not so red or the grass more natural.  Going to CS and back sometimes LR loses its way.  The corrected copy is in the file, but the file does not show up in the catalog.

I could go on, but why bring this up.  Could CM be used in a HSL mode?  Is that too difficult?  No need for anyone else?  In CM, you can mark the offending grass, see where it is on the right curve, but that is not the same.  LR seems crude, but it gets the job done.

Steve, HSB = HSL  in Photoshop you can make a selection, invert the selection and then use CM to adjust.  Think of it this way...If it was a red nose you select the nose, Invert the selection so that everything but the nose is selected and then open CM.  you  should see a mask over the image except for the area you want to fix...Remember the assignment form CM101 with the image that had like 20 different faces??
Same concept.

Greg

"Could CM be used in a HSL mode?  Is that too difficult?"

Steve, I think that you're right in asking for this, and no - it's not difficult; all that is required is for Curvemeister's HSB curves to be horizontally rather than diagonally oriented. It's a tool that photographic tools lack, but that all video-based color correction software offer.

So for example, CM's HSB curves could look more like:



If you look at the names of the tabs in the image you'll see:

'Hue vs. Hue' - this corresponds to CM's Hue Curve, except that the curve is horizontal, and the UI makes it easier to work with.
'Hue vs. Sat' - this corresponds with Photoshop's 'Hue/Saturation' adjustment
'Hue vs. Lum' - as above...

Curvemeister's Saturation Curve would be 'Sat vs. Sat' - which CM ought to still keep, for it's use with the Saturation thresholding feature, which is great!

CM's HSB 'Brightness' Curve would be the equivalent of 'Lum vs. Lum'; I really want 'Saturation vs. Luminance/Brightness'! Imagine being able to desaturate shadows/extreme highlights without having to create complicated masks - it would be wonderful...

Greg and I have both spoken with Mike about extending CM's HSB curve toolset along these lines, and whilst nothing has been promised, Mike does seem keen on the idea - and as you say, from a programming point-of-view it doesn't seem horrendously complicated (but what do I know  ;))

All I can suggest is that you remain vocal about this, and hopefully something will come along that we'll really like - and then, yes - we won't need to mess about in Lightroom, etc...

All the best,
Lee.

Those curves look great.  Just what I want.  (It would be nice if the endpoints were linked.)

I find the HSL of photoshop to be a tool to change a color of a car or dog or fire engine and not a fine adjustment tool.  The HSL of light room is a nice change a spot of color.  I use lightroom to catalog images and quick correct to see if there is anything there.  Also for volume corrections of snapshots.

Back to HSL of LR, it works but there is no precision.  You cannot broaden and sharpen the selection.  It is a slider, a nice slider, but a slider.  Those curves you show would allow broader or narrower changes.

More later.  Back to my day job.