Merry Go Round

[mikemeister_admin]

I had to resize to get under 200KB.Just want to see what this does to the picture.Greg M

[ggroess]

Greg,

Very nice job so far...

Try this and see if you like the shadows a bit better.  I went from your image so if you open it as you have it saved and make this type of change you will see what I am talking about. 

The shadows on the image need saving.  If you make the shadow adjustment shown. You will really mess up the curve.  This is where the control points come in.  The curve wants to pivot around the points you have set, you need to control it by placing points on the curve that return it to a more "normal" set of values.  Start by making the adjustment for the shadow and then grab the center of the curve and pull it back to the middle of the graph.  How steep you make this depends on the contrast you are trying to achieve.  The steeper the curve the more contrast you will have. 

Your goal is to make a nice even transition from the adjustment back to the "normal" range.  If you make the adjustment too steep you will get results that look "fake".

The last thing I did was I bumped the highlights a bit.  Only slightly, but it addes contrast to the overall image and brightens up the day a bit...

Greg

[-default]

Very nice illustration, Greg.  Notice that Greg has white on the left, which is perfectly acceptable and the normal way that people used to print orient their curves.  You can swap this in Curvemeister by clicking on the diamond shape in the center of the upper margin of the curve.

[mikemeister_admin]

Thanks,I tried it and got more detail in the roof.Greg M

[ggroess]

wonderful...
That is a technique you will use often to change colors and highlights or shadows..it is one of the most useful tool you will find...