Corner Points

[leeharper_admin]

Returning to the theme of CurveMeister offering a level of quality that cannot be matched by Photoshop, I think that there is scope for improving the way that curves themselves function within the plug-in (or hopefully, standalone application ;)).

Something that Photoshop allows users to do to a curve (if you are tone mapping an HDR file) is add corner points, rather than the bezier points that normal curve interfaces use. If you've not used this before, adding a corner point is optional - it's not the default behaviour.

Corner points would enable users to lock down an area of a curve with a single point - something that currently requires two or three points. This would be especially helpful for the a and b curves in Lab.

Corner points would also be helpful when working in the centre of the a and b curves because they would enable finer control.

Because the a and b curves are so sensitive, and because common pixel values are located at the centre of the curve grid, at the moment I usually need to place 3-5 points very close together to control colour the way that I want to. The only reason that I need to use so many points is because I cannot use corner points. With corner points I could probably do what I need with just two points. Not only would this make my curves look more elegant, but - importantly - I would have better control of my curves.

I would also (in returning to a saved curve file/or a curve created via a Smart Filter) be better able - at a glance - to understand what each point was controlling. Quite often I use lots of points on a curve, but most of them are not doing anything (they are just locking the curve to the baseline). This is a side-effect of having to always use bezier curves even when I want a straight line.

I've looked into the math of defining bezier curves - adding a corner point option would appear to be a whole lot simpler. It also raises the bar again, and offers potential users another compelling reason to give CM a try.

What do you think?
Lee.