Curvemeister Forum

http://www.ledet.com/margulis/ppw

Dan Margulis has posted a free download that adds a panel to CS 5 (Mac or PC) only.  Pre CS5 users can download actions.  If you use an option is is quicker and easier to undo than the actions.

His PPW (perfect postcard workflow) is a system to correct (over correct) photos.  He suggests:  fix color, enhance contrast and then boost color.  there are actions for sky darkening, shadow highlight, false profiles, and sharpening.  Some of the items are beyond me.  It is fun to try and later figure it out.  There is a help file in a pdf (actually buried in the download). 

My recent action and inaction is not helped that much by the panel.  I do not understand his dual layer  of luminosity blends to enhance contrast.  H-K? 

As far as Curvemeister and PPW....  CM is an essential tool in the color correction step.  It is useful in the other steps.  (since I am only a neophyte...  take this with a grain)  Some of his steps are overly complicated. 

Ahhh..Where to take this....Did Lee Harper put you up to this??  ;)

The PPW has many good points and quite a few flaws; even Dan M has admitted that...remember that PPW was originally designed as a quick and dirty work flow for fast processing of large amounts of images. It is becoming somewhat of a standard for some very good reasons but it also is part of a race to the bottom philosophy; in that speed is used as an excuse for automation; and in most cases quality is suffering.  To get over that loss Dan has begun advocating multiple versions that are to blended together to form a "best of" image.  Why not do it right the first time? 

Some things I have noticed about using the PPW Panel:

In most cases it does go too far but that is intentional.  The line of thought seems to be flatten the tonality and open the shadows as far as possible.  This leaves room for a later color and contrast "boost". The HK effect comes into play because the supersaturation that occurs in the MFM and color "boost" steps; over saturates the entire image not just the color ranges you want to "boost".  The workflow tries to get around this by forcing a selection on you to protect a hue range from the boost but this is in many cases insufficient to protect the areas most effected by the HK effect.

Many of the steps PPW takes are not even necessary if you use CM.  There is a whole different approach that will do the job.  It is more of a blend of some of the layer techniques from PPW and using CM to for some of the tonal and color adjustments.  I have been writing a whole class around this and I will be bringing more information out later this year.    Most of you have seen all or part of this in the changes in my work flow.  The best part of the CM process is that there is no guess work and you make solid choices based on measured values.

Greg

I downloaded the new PPW from ledet website, but my Adobe Extention Manager (AEM) oif PS CS6 64 would not work. I send an email to Giuliana Abbiati and ask if this new PPW vers 3.0 was only for PS CS5 because it installed ok on my CS5 version.  What a pleasant surprize I got. This is software free of charge, it did not cost me anything, but this wonderful lady bent herself backwards and even emailed me another file with instructions on how to install it manually to bypass AEM. It is working perfectly well now. Amazing that a foreigner would go through so much trouble to help. I am very thankful. I thanked her for PPW workflow, but told her that I only use certain parts of it; I use CM for my colour corrections. There are handy buttons for shadow/highlight, for sharpening etc.  I would be glad if Greg could tel us what his workflow is in terms of CM version of "PPW"

Martin,
I might have some video I can post about this...we covered it a bit in the CM 101 class conference Call.  Let me work on the video and I'll edit out the section we did on the PPW panel and some comparisons...

We did this last Friday...I am editing the video over the weekend and I will pull the section out after that. 

I ask for a bit of patience...
You might be surprised how far CM can get you without giving up control to automation...
Greg

Thanks Greg, you are as awesome as Giuliana ;D

The new PPW panels do not replace CM.  CM is wonderful for the first step (color correction).  Later color boost is arguably better with CM.  PPW does it with a one click.  CM allows adjustments and more control.  The PPM action aka Modern Man from Mars is different than curvemeister.  I have not enough experience to say that it is always better or worse.  It is close.  Perhaps after a few more critical adjustments on important images could sway me.

The new PPW panels do more.  The sharpening and bigger hammer are good.

Bottom line (as of today) CM is essential.  Without correct color, nothing works.  CM is a tool that does the best manual color correction.  PPW is good and has useful tools.  I use it all the time. 

I would have to say today...for now...the only thing I will be using out of the panel is the sharpening action. 
All the rest I can and do complete in CM this includes some of the tonal masking stuff. 

The process is fairly quick but not 3 minutes quick...
I would say in general I can do most of an image in under 5 minutes.

IF I push it hard...I do not like to work for speed... http://www.curvemeister.com/joomla25/index.php/item/134-the-sacred-cows and I would caution you to not work that way either...

Greg

I feel exactly the same as Steve. Greg, I hear you, but once I knowand understand how things work, I guess it's OK to fly on autopilot when I'm in a hurry from time to time :P

Greg can you point me to information on CM doing Bigger Hammer?  Sometimes the highlight detail is crucial. 

Also, multiplication plus mask is a powerful technique.  Is it easier in CM?

(I am still going through the book.  It is a good education, but when I am done...  perhaps mostly CM.)

One of my self help projects is to print a hue clock and put hints on the edge.  I am pretty good about it, but sometimes a reminder helps color correction.

I can be easier in CM because you get to choose the channel you use.  The most common channel used is the red channel but you have all the channels in the mask cart at your disposal.

You can use the Overexposed curves in addition to a inverted channel mask in CM all in one step. 

So a rough walk through would be:

• When you want to use "Bigger Hammer" you can open your image in CM RGB.


• Choose a channel for the mask you want and invert or otherwise curve it.


• Open one of the multiply masks via the "load" command


• Choose the Multiply curve you want from 1 through 5 times multiply


• Use the "Fade" slider to adjust the multiply effect.

This is a very flexible way to add tonal effects to your images you maintain control and have tons of options.

Greg