Curvemeister Forum

This example is quite different from the gorilla image.  In this case, I wanted to bring out the texture and color of the rust colored metal skeleton.  I started by clicking on the black tab in the preview window, and adjusted the GCR setting until I had a fair amount of texture in the metal. 

Looking at the other tabs, I saw that the cyan "plate" or channel had the least contrast of the three - this is typical of a reddish object.  The curves simply increase the contrast in cyan, and in the black areas of the skeleton, which increased the texture and color variation of the metal.  The additional point on the cyan curve bring it back to the diagonal base line, and avoid adding a color cast to the entire image, and kept the brassy color of the saxophone.

Besides duplicating what I did, try doing this image in Lab and RGB, and see if you get a different result.

Thank you very much for giving examples for when and how to use the wgCMYK :D, These examples are very useful for demonstration. For example 2, I think you've chosen "Heavy GCR". Please correct me if I am wrong! However, the hard part is how to choose which GCR? As far as I know, for the majority of the images, we use "Light GCR". For example 2, I think you want to put more black ink to the quartertone so that you can add contrast by steepening the black curve. But why didn't you choose "Maximum GCR"? I would be most grateful if you would elaborate on this issue ???

Best wishes,
Wai-hong Chung from Hong Kong

No GCR is the same as RGB.  In general, light to medium GCR gives more control over color, and heavy GCR gives you more leverage over the shadows, but it's best to experiment and see what works best for a particular image.

Thanks to your enlightenment, Mike :D