Curvemeister Forum

This was posted by Dan earlier to day on his Color Theory group:


Last week I updated the list archives at

http://www.ledet.com/margulis/ACT_postings/ACT.htm

adding what I considered to be the best threads of 2007 and the first three
months of 2008, with all advertising and redundant quoting stripped out.
There are 44 new threads in all including 25 in the color correction section.

This brings the total number of posted threads to almost 300, making this one
of the most significant resources for information on these topics.

We also added five more Makeready columns to the archive at

http://www.ledet.com/margulis/makeready/ACT_Makeready_descriptions.htm

The columns archived were chosen by popular demand: the "Age of the Enlightened"
column celebrating the turn of the millennium, the "Infinite Number of Monkeys" column
that predicted what the advent of cheap digital photography would do to professionals,
the notorious piece complaining about inaccurate terms being used in referring to
resolution, and the articles introducing two major techniques, the false RGB profile and
the Man from Mars Method. Reminder that these are historically interesting but that they
do not necessarily represent my current thinking.

The general page linking to my books and articles is

http://www.ledet.com/margulis/articles.html

The Makeready archive can also be accessed from that page.

Thanks to all those who participated in threads during this time.

Dan Margulis

Thanks Mike. I have not read them yet, but they are bookmarked.
      Barry

Thanks for this link, Mike! I'm now reading some Margulis "Makeready" pieces I have missed -- his "The Age of the Enlightened" is especially noteworthy, as it takes a large-scale historical view of The World & Its Graphics Stuff. I chuckle at the reference to a 1 Tb storage device that was hot-but-expensive for most folks in 1999 -- a $1,500 200-DVD jukebox system! Today, I just ordered myself my first 1 Tb hard drive, a Samsung wonder which costs almost peanuts (less than $200, I think, though I'm bled a bit more here in Norway). Ah, these are good times for us graphics guys!

Dan is a fun person to read, not just for the color and graphics discussion, but the ancillary stories and analogies that he provides.

Dan has a few critics due mainly to his "old fashioned" views on color correction which are firmly rooted in his vast professional pre-press printing experience, but there is no one who knows color correction in Photoshop as well as Dan.  I own every book he has written, and recommend them highly.  It is a tremendous tribute to Mike and his work with Curvemeister that Dan talks briefly about Curvemeister in his last Professional Photoshop 5th Ed. book.  No one gets a plug (no pun intended) from Dan unless they are doing things right.

Having said that, Dan's readers will know that Dan seldom uses masks for his work, prefering to use the color channels and curves and blending modes to tweak colors to accuracy and add contrast.  He is a master at that.  The rest of us often resort to masks for one reason or another for various reasons, and the new mask features in Curvemeister 3 are a brilliant addition to an indispensable program.  I have used the skin mask feature to slightly blur faces to smooth skin and reduce blemishes and wrinkles.  When I can't figure out how to adjust color balances using only curves, I can always use a mask to "cheat" from Dan's methods.

Reading Dan's work is ... well, WORK.  It is relatively entertaining reading (not dry), but there is an enormous amount of information packed in those books (and links).  I've read his Professional Photoshop books until the bindings crack and fall apart, and I'm still learning from Dan (and Mike).  Curvemeister makes implementing his instructions easier and for visualizing what Dan is saying.  The "worms" or "caterpillars" are great for that.

If you have the time and are seriously interested in color theory on a professional level, I would strongly recommend joining Dan's ColorTheory group.  But a word of warning, don't post questions or comments to that group until you have monitored it for a few months.  The group is mostly highly trained professionals who are not charitable to novice questions, so lurk a good long while before you say anything.  Most of the questions you may have can be easily (and very quickly -- thanks Mike and Greg) answered right here on the Curvemeister forum.

Thanks for all the links.

Mike D - I've been a bit cheeky and sent you a pm about how you use masks to help smooth skin.  Also, I've enjoyed viewing your pbase galleries.

Keep up the good work, Mandy

Hi Mandy,

I'll answer this here on the forum since it may be of generic interest.

The idea is simple.  Use a skintone mask from Curvemeister to limit your editing to just that area.  Then apply a Gaussian blur to the skin (I'd use a new layer - Ctrl-J) and reduce it to taste using the opacity slider.  This gives the underlying detail but the blur on the top layer softens creases and other imperfections without eliminating the features that make that face unique.  This is very effective on older people where the wrinkles can be retained but de-emphasized, and you can control the amount of blur easily.

Thanks for sharing!

I'll go and have a play.

Hi Mike!

When I wanted to post a reply, your forum has issued a warning:


"Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 30 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic."
  :)

I couldn't prevent myself from smiling. Only today I could go through most of these tips of Dan Margulis. I believe they worth to be offline saved. I also smiled when I read about the feasibility of working in 16-bit mode, and remembered you when you organised a contest. I don't remember the outcomes of that contest (3 or 4 years ago I suppose)! 

Believe me I would highly appreciate if someone has led me to these links 10 years ago when we learnt many of these tips the hard way (from our own money).  ;)

Thank you Mike.. As usual you are our teacher who saves no effort in sharing what he learns with others.


Mohamed Al-Dabbagh
Senior Graphic Designer


PS: I forgot to say, Mike, that your curvemeister software is being pirated in many parts of the world, as I learnt (including Yemen, where I live right now). IMHO, this is an indication that curvemeister tools are known all around the world. I congratulate you.

LOL - thanks for the kind words, Mohamed Al-Dabbagh.