Curvemeister Forum

Hi

This is my attempt here. I found this a bit challenging. It needed a lot of contrast added but too much was not good. I may have erred on the side of caution but I figured maybe it was a grey dull day. I didn't bother sharpening as it was so grainy looking. I also boosted colour
Julie

Hi Julie,

Where did you set your shadow, neutral and highlight points? Your version looks pretty good, but it's a bit small so it's hard to judge. I remember that this image gave me a bit of trouble when I tried it - I couldn't (easily) pick a good neutral (got there in the end...). From memory, I think that my version was a bit warmer (not necessarily better - I just wanted to emphasise the sunlight hitting the side of the building)...

Lee.

Julie,
I had to work from your posted screen shot so forgive the choppiness of the image.  Great Job by the way...I'm going to use you as an example so don't be offended.

Everyone,
I am posting this correction not to confuse you but to point out one of the advantages of LAB. 
In Julie's image the tonality was good.  I needed to fix the color a bit and make it pop some. 

There are two real problems. 
1- As Lee pointed out the building has a nice sunlit facade.  I wanted to bring that out too. 
2- the water tower was too blue green.  I wanted to make it a bit more neutral. 

The only other thing I needed to do was add a neutral since I felt the image was overall too "cold"  If you look at the hue clock...the A and B numbers are both negative.  That puts the color in the green / blue area.  I set a neutral on the image; after shopping it around a bit; on some of the bricks in the water front.  I then went to tackle the water tower.

The curve shown in shot1 is possible because of one of the unique features of LAB.  When you set the neutral you are also creating a pivot point for the curve.  You can rotate the curves around that point to boost the colors.  This is only possible in LAB. Once the neutral was set I needed to find the point on the curve where the water tower colors existed.  Looking a the hue clocks I knew I could leave the A channel alone since the value was pretty small and experience has taught me that I should only tackle 1 thing at a time in LAB.  I switched to the B channel and made the window larger by dragging the frame edge to the left.  The larger the grid the more precise I can be with the adjustments.

I found that the color of the water tower was very close to the center and I added a point to the curve there.  I then pulled the blue side down to the center line making a flat spot on the curve.  This flat spot is parallel to the center line and it creates a "neutral zone" segment on the curve.  This zone is only for the Blue side of the curve since I have a neutral and the adjustment is not allowed to spread to the yellow side I can reduce the "blue" cast in the water tower.  Notice the hue clock after the adjustment in shot1.

Having the water tower "fixed" I went on to item 2: The building front.  I wanted to add some yellow to the building face as Lee had suggested so again in the B curve in LAB I was able to bend the yellows by moving the curve closer to the center line.  If you go to far the yellow blows out the face of the building and you have to back off a bit.  Once I had the colors I wanted I applied the curve as shown.

Shot 2 is just adjusting the saturation slider in the Lab interface; another thing that is only possible in LAB and CM.  I adjusted it until it was over the top again and then I backed off until the colors look too vibrant but normal...I admit the color might be too far...

PLEASE NOTICE THAT I DID NOT TOUCH THE L CHANNEL AT ALL TO MAKE THE CHANGES...This is something you cannot do in RGB.

Greg