Curvemeister Forum

Greg

This nearly sent me mad. Still its done now and I haven't had a total meltdown. I was unsure how to move the neutral to change the numbers. I stayed on the middle line and went left or right is that what I needed to do. It also seemed that I had to re-adjust at times, things seemed to be shifting as I adjusted the shadow, highlight and neutral points. Was I doing something wrong.
I'm not happy with the result. The skin looks a little off and I couldn't seem to get a good contrast going. Oh well, you cant win them all!

julie

It sounds like you set a neutral for this correction??  In The BTN approach you do not actually set a neutral..you create one...
I might be parsing sentences here or you might be going in the wrong direction...

If you set a neutral you need to try again without a set neutral.  The idea is to pick a highlight / Shadow / and neutral point that should be gray.  and adjusting the curves until the points are correct.

If you did this without a set neutral, and your values change, it is quite normal...as you pull the curve around in one area it will force changes in in other areas...you have to go back and check the values on the fly like I did in the video.

Greg

Julie,
Contrast can be adjusted after the BTN correction by  simply adjusting the Master curve.  Shot 2

The skin tones should fall into place if you choose a solid S/H/N for your correction.  The highlight got you a bit because the glass has a slight color tint to it...remember the cookie plate??  If you choose a highlight inside the room you can get a better BTN for the lighting that Dan is in.  The Grey of the squirrel is pretty solid and if anything the tint of the window would cause the correction to warm up Dan just a bit.

Greg

Greg
No, I think its ok. I didn't set a neutral I just noticed as I changed the values in highlight/ shadow/neutral it affected ones I had already corrected. I did this late at night from the written notes. I had watched the video but a few days ago. I'll have to watch it again. Is it possible to download some of the videos?


Am I right in thinking that if I want to get rid of a colour cast I should do it in RGB first (before other adjustments) and then close. I can then re-open in lab and keep going.
thanks
Julie

It sounds like you set a neutral for this correction??  In The BTN approach you do not actually set a neutral..you create one...
I might be parsing sentences here or you might be going in the wrong direction...

If you set a neutral you need to try again without a set neutral.  The idea is to pick a highlight / Shadow / and neutral point that should be gray.  and adjusting the curves until the points are correct.

If you did this without a set neutral, and your values change, it is quite normal...as you pull the curve around in one area it will force changes in in other areas...you have to go back and check the values on the fly like I did in the video.

Greg

Greg,
I had forgotten the cookie plate. I now have added this to the tips blue tacked down the side of my monitor. Beware glass! I think I'll need a bigger monitor the way I am going.
Julie

Julie,
Contrast can be adjusted after the BTN correction by  simply adjusting the Master curve.  Shot 2

The skin tones should fall into place if you choose a solid S/H/N for your correction.  The highlight got you a bit because the glass has a slight color tint to it...remember the cookie plate??  If you choose a highlight inside the room you can get a better BTN for the lighting that Dan is in.  The Grey of the squirrel is pretty solid and if anything the tint of the window would cause the correction to warm up Dan just a bit.

Greg

I would answer your first question with a qualified yes...

BTN is a choice.  Dan Margulis puts a lot of weight into this method of color correction and I would say that for a really important image I will do a BTN correction just to verify that I cannot do any better elsewhere.  But for most of the things I do I can get away with a LAB correction.  BTN gets faster as you do it more...I use it more on portraits and commercial work where the color is more critical.

Think of it as another tool in the tool box...something to use when you know the image is wrong for LAB.

Just beware glass when you know there is an obvious cast...