JoAnn's Fruit Vendor - correct by numbers

[joann]

I think I've FINALLY got this right. I've watched the video so many time I almost know it by heart. Is there a way to save the video to my computer?
This is what I understand..... Highlights use the highest number, BEFORE, and make all the AFTER numbers match the highest number. ...  Shadow use the highest number, BEFORE, and make all the AFTER numbers match the highest number.
Neutral: Add the BEFORE numbers together, divide by 3. Make all the AFTER  numbers the same as the result of dividing by 3.

After I got all the numbers to match, I clicked "apply". Then went back to LAB and brightened just a smidge.
JoAnn H

Oh, boy...I had that ALL wrong. I was using the AFTER values. Back to the drawing board.
Thanks again for your help.
JoAnn H

So Far So Good...
Now for the tweak....

You are trying to go with Absolute values for the correction and this is not necessarily the goal.  Remember that each image has it's own highlight and shadow value.  Most times you do not want to drive the shadow down to "0"  nor do you want the highlight to be "255". 

For instance in your posted image you have shadow and highlight values in the hue clocks shown.  The Highlight value is 234 on the screen shot.  Your goal is to make all three channels have "234" as the value for the highlight.  This makes the highlight neutral in RGB.  For the shadow you have "7"  All three channels should equal 7.  That makes the darkest shadow you have chosen neutral.

The Mid-tone Gray is another story.  As Greg M stated.  The Mid-tone is an average of the "before" values.  Setting it to the middle value of the hue clock will upset the contrast.  You should take the before values on the hue clock and average them.  I get "96" , Your value of 106 makes the mid-tones too bright and then you have to fight for contrast later.

Try out these values and see if it gets easier to find the contrast...

Greg

[joann]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to try one of my own to see if I understand what I THINK I understand. This has been really difficult for me because I really didn't get the concept. I was (am) determined to get this right.
JoAnn H

here's another image done BTN.A bit of sunrise glow is added to the window.GregM
For the highlight,pulling the red and green up to 230 meant some hefty correction was going on and I lost the edge of the roof in the sky.Leaving the shadow at 7 not 6 was sheer laziness,under 10 things are going to pretty black anyway.BTN can be quick and precise so try it on some of your own images.GJM

[ggroess]

The Idea here is that in RGB you can have a color cast based on brightness. The trouble is that sometimes the shadow has a red cast and the highlight has a blue one...Then what do you do??

The nice part is that RGB allows you to correct the mixed color shifts using BTN.  It cannot be done in LAB because there is only 1 neutral value.  It is not dependent on brightness it is just neutral...

Try it on one of your images...
Greg