Rhonda--Wreath

This is the discussion thread for the September 2010 Class.
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Postby mikemeister_admin » Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:12 am

I don't think I had much luck with this image.  In real life, will we be using CMYK or HSB much compared to RGB and LAB?  I worked on this image, but I had no idea what I was doing--read the Video Tip, but was not pleased when I tried to duplicate the results and I just messed around a bit more.  My hue clocks weren't working (all 0's) for the first image, but they were back the next time I opened the program. 

I have both a screen shot of the CM curves and a Photoshop image, but I'll try uploading just the screen shots of the curves so I can get everything on the same post.

I also tried a LAB version, and even though there are shadows still apparent, I like it better.  What version do you think works the best?
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Postby mikemeister_admin » Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:24 am

Greg--I read what you wrote to Steve about setting the neutral, which I hadn't thought to do, duh.  So I went back to try again.  Hue clocks were on the fritz again--all 0's.  Reloading didn't help this time. 

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Postby ggroess » Sun Sep 26, 2010 2:02 pm

Rhonda,

Hue clocks aside...you have a nice correction here...Watch the greens a bit.  The Cyan adjustment made them more green than yellow and while they look ok...if you increase the saturation they start to look fake...

Greg

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Postby mikemeister_admin » Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:31 pm

Sorry to be so persistent in my questions, but although the assignment was CMYK, which of the three do you think was better and which one's cyan adjustment made the color look off?  Thanks for all you do for this class!

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Postby mikemeister_admin » Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:12 pm

Once again, I'm persistent--sorry!

Again, I was reading your response to Steve's wreath and saw this:

Remember that in CMYK the GCR is like a volume lever.  The heavier the GCR the less adjustment for the same effect.  Heavy GCR is the easiest to see on the monitor.  The printed results...well actual mileage may vary....

You can color correct in CMYK without the K, if you add more CMY without changing the K you get the same values but the shadows look incomplete, muddy, or somehow lacking in POP.  If you had to you could make an adjustment without the K but it would take a great deal of CMY. 


Since I don't understand darkroom or printing concepts, this information didn't quite click in my aged brain.  I looked up GCR in the Help manual, but only vaguely had a clue as to what it meant.  Is it worth trying to figure it out, or will I not use it enough to benefit from the time spent to learn these concepts? 

A suggestion for Mike--make it possible to save or bookmark your "favorites" or most helpful topics in the Help section.  I tend to click from one topic to the next and then can't get back to one that I found interesting early on.   

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Postby mikemeister_admin » Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:58 pm

As you cycle thru the GCR settings the histograms for the colors march across the grids which might make color adjustment easier.I sometimes use cyan(or  magentaand yellow) to change  the sky in an image).GregM

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Postby ggroess » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:28 am

Rhonda,
The GCR is Gray component replacement.  It allows the printers to replace a certain amount of the colored inks with Black. CMYK is a offset printing press image color space. An example would be... If the color value in a sample is say  C40%,M30%,Y25% in CMY you can use the K value to reduce the inks and print with values like C20%,M10%,Y5%,K20% in  CMYK  The K value reduces the other inks, they cost more so printers like to reduce the amount needed.  So you can have multiple GCR profiles depending on the printer you are sending your images to.

In today's world this is nice to know but 95% of the people that take this class will never care about this and just set the GCR to max.  It's a safe bet and if you need to do a custom CMYK separation you would always be better using someone who completely understands the color separation process and CMYK with GCR corrections.

Your first Cyan adjustment seems to be the culprit.

Greg

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Postby mikemeister_admin » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:35 am

OK--thanks for explaining.  I use CMYK inks in my printer.  I always knew that I ran down the Black if I didn't shut down the other colors, even if my printout was black and white text.  Bingo, I think!

When you have time, I posted this on Steve's page about his Moon Lake tries, but thought you might see it more easily here--ignore if you addressed it there or don't have time:

Greg G--OK--I know there are no dumb questions, but I think this is laughably basic and I shoud know, but here goes:

Can you explain what you meant/saw when you made this comment:
The Red curve line is telling you you have a problem...Nice of it to do that  ::)...you have created an impossible tonal range and CM is telling you that. . 


Sounds like something I should watch out for, but perhaps the L channel in the shot that he posted isn't big enough for me to see what you mean.  I see it's crooked...

Thanks.  Learned a lot by reading that exchange!


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