art London flower

[mikemeister_admin]

Here is the picture of the guy standing next to the flowers.

[ggroess]

Art,
The color looks great...Can you open the shadows a bit..not too much just let me see in the window a bit....

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Greg, I don't know how to do that.  If I adjust the lightness in LAB, the smallest adjustment causes me to lose some detail in the paper wrapping around the flowers.

[mikemeister_admin]

Here's a way to get some more detail  in the window.GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

GregM, how do you know where to pull the curve back to?.....where to place the control point?.....and the fact that you even know to do that?  See, that is where I get lost.  I'd never know that I should do that, because I don't understand how curves work.

If I was told to lighten up the darker areas, this is what I'd end up with (see attached photo), and it doesn't involve curves because I wouldn't know what I'd need to do with curves.

When I tried to lighten up the shadows using CM, I tried adjusting the lightness channel in LAB.  When it didn't give me the results I wanted, then I'm done with CM because I have no idea what to do next, so I'd exit CM and use what I know works.  Curves is still too complicated for me.  I know how to do a few things with CM (thanks Greg), and if those things don't work, then I'm lost.  CM and curves will always be a mystery to me. 

I'd never know I had to place a control point somewhere else along the lightness curve.  How would anyone know that?  Even when I place a control point on the RGB curves, it's just a guess....which is what I said it was all along.  It might be an educated guess, but it's still a guess.

[mikemeister_admin]

This is explained by Greg G  at the posting "Specialized curves."GregM

[ggroess]

Art,
That is an acceptable solution.  Curves can make that adjustment but are not the only tool in the toolbox.  There are quite a few ways to go about getting the desired results for that area of the image...

For me...I would fix it in CM because I was in CM making other changes and it would be another part of the image to fix.  I personally know of 5 different ways to do this...I might or might not choose any one of them.

For this example, for today...it is possible to fix it in CM if you choose that...I did not necessarily require CM for the fix...just that you open the shadows in the window a bit...you certainly did that in your next posting....

Greg