Curvemeister Forum

I love the new curve rotation - just like you say, Mike, double-pinning and rotating the lightness curve is a great way of adjusting contrast in particular areas.

I did the following and it stopped working though: (in Lab)
double pin
rotate L curve
move L curve points (the ones from pinning - do you call them pins in this context?) around a bit with mouse
rotate 'a' curve
maybe move 'a' curve points around, can't be sure
ctrl-Z

now only one of the pins-curve-points has its dotted halo and dotted horiz and vert lines,  and rotation doesn't work on any of the curves (I try clicking in curve borders and get no response)
I have a ctrl-PrtScn screen shot but not sure how to upload it

Curve rotation is enabled only if Curvemeister can figure out what to rotate.  The rules are as follows:

1) if there are only the two endpoints, rotate them around their midpoint.
2) if there are three points total on the curve, rotate the outer two points around the middle point.
3) If two adjacent points are selected, rotate them around their midpoint
4) if two points are selected with one selected or unselected point in the middle, rotate them around the middle point.

I think that's all the combinations.  If the selection "halo" goes away, you can restore it by ctrl-clicking on the control point.  It's actually a toggle, so you can unselect a selected point by ctrl-clicking on it.

Double pinning will create two selected points (or one if both points would be the same).  This is an older version of the term pinning, which refers to any automated way of creating curve control points - in this case by pinning the two extreme ends of a range.  Using color pins to create curve control points is another example of "pinning", where the new curve points are created to enforce a particular neutral or other color.  In that case, the color pin remains attached to the curve points, so that you can drag a color pin around and the control points will reorient themselves, changing the shape of the curve.  If a pin is for a neutral, or a hue, you can move one of the control points in RGB mode, and the curves for the two other channels will change shape to maintain the color.

Soon there will be documentation for some of this - and perhaps a video tutorial.

BTW - to upload an image, first make sure it is 180K or less.  Then click on the Additional Options link below and to the left of your post, and then use the Browse button to locate your image.  If you are using Quick Reply, click the Preview button to make the Additional Options link appear.

thanks Mike - that makes a lot of sense of why the curve rotation stops working.  Now I'm clear (but maybe would be nice for benefit of newbie/reviewer exploration to include a dialogue when they try to curve rotate and its not possible).

I'm still a bit concerned about the 'undo' function though - worried about whether a reviewer or newbie might see this and dismiss curvemeister as buggy or over-complicated. (Amazing isn't it, a bit of beta-testing and I'm right on board, really wanting this to succeed!!). 

My thoughts are:  I'm making double-pinning adjustments, so I've got two active pins and I can rotate or drag them together.  Then I  undo (ctrl-Z) and I wind up in a state where I've only got one active pin and I can't rotate any more (and as a newbie I don't necessarily know how to get the second one back).  The undo has put me into a state I never went through myself.

So would it be possible to undo the users last move with the curve?

(And I'm sure this'll have to wait for the next version, but a multiple undo function would be wonderful!!!)

Hmmm - perhaps a tool tip that lights up with either a hint that you are allowed to rotate, or a quick hint that you need to select two points for rotate to work.  I'll need to digest this a bit, but it's not a bad idea.

Re Undo - I'll take a look.  At this point I can't add any complexity, but I can take a look at where I snapshot the undo state.  If I can just add an additional undo snapshot at the start of the rotate operation, that should do the trick.

Multiple undo would be nice, and not that difficult, but it's not for this release.

sounds good

This will be fixed in the next version, due out shortly.

yep, its fixed, great!

but......

now if I double-pin, rotate (either H or B of HSB.... same for L of Lab) then undo, I lose the pins as well as the rotation.  It work fine if I double-pin, rotate one curve then rotate another.

Another case of not doing an undo "checkpoint".  Easy to fix once found.  Thanks, Roy.