Curvemeister Forum

This one should be a lot more simple....
Keep the skin in a good place and make the overall color pop....

Greg

Hi,

I set the shadow (black area at bottom) and highlight (white T shirt) points in RGB. I also tried it in LAB but I didn't like the result.

Richard

Not too shabby...
It might be a bit cool but overall it looks pretty good.
The skin tones are in a good place and the whites are not blown out...

Solid correction...
Greg

Try by me. CM adjustment:)
ThomasD

Hi Thomas!

Thanks for the posting...Can you tell us more about what you did??
Greg

Here is my correction for this image..

I decided I wanted to open the darker parts of the image like Thomas did. 

1. Shot1.jpg

I Used LAB to set a neutral on the Gray undershirt of the taller boy.  I then set a highlight threshold by moving the light end of the L channel closer to the center of the Curve grid.  To open the shadows I dropped the curve line a bit in the upper right hand side.  this opens the shadows but leaves the highlights alone.  When I did this the mid-tones take a slight beating so I propped them up with the middle adjustment point.  I finished with a slight saturation slider adjustment to bring back the colors that are reduced by brightening the image in LAB.

2. Shot2

I Created a "Skin" mask in Curvemeister by using the "skin channel" that is a part of CM.  This is a created channel that the program makes based on the general range of the skin tones.  I adjusted the skin channel mask to make the skin as black as possible so that when I saturation boosted the image I would not make a mess out of the skin.  I copied the skin mask to a new layer in PS and then I painted out all of the black on the mask except the hands and faces.

3) Final Shot.

I opened the masked layer in CM and used the saturation slider to saturate the colors.  I held back the red and blue a bit to keep the image "real"  It is a bit overdone in the color but I wanted to illustrate the Skin Mask and show you a good use for it. I then sharpened using a new tool I am trying out called Infocus by Topaz Labs. 

Greg

The 3 screen shots shows my quick workflow

I will try to remember. My usual workflow which I believe is quite fast and works well for most pictures. I open the photo in Elements and then I go to CM. I use the LAB option which is the one I prefer for most pictures.

The main object then is to find a good grey point for the grey picker. I preferred the grey sweater. I also used some hue clocks for the skin  in order to check everything ok during process.

I then set the white point. Black quite ok. Increased saturation in LAB mode with slider, quite easy and works well.

Final adjustment in Elements with Shadows/Highlights a combination with CM that works quite well for me.


Regards
Thomas
PS Sometimes I also adjust L curve in LAB mode as to my liking. DS

Hello

The image posted was corrected with CM using the Color Wizard.  I played around with different black and white points.  I used RGB.  I plan on experimenting with LAB.  In general, is there a rule for when to use RGB vs LAB?

It seems some of the other people are using some of the more sophisticated features of CM such as CM masks and skin masks.  I assume the class will get into how to this starting next week.  Is this correct? 

Thank you
David Krassen

Absolutely....
The Masking and LAB are covered quite well.  Just hang in there and look forward to learning them...

We will also talk more about Lab Vs RGB.  It is usually more about color control than anything else.  LAB is rather coarse in Color corrections.  RGB is much better at Color Corrections.  If the image is in no real color trouble than LAB is fast and furious for the corrections.  If you have color casts that change slightly with brightness then RGB is your best bet.

Greg