JoAnn's Fruit Vendor - correct by numbers

[joann]

I can't tell you how many hours I've spent on this and I'm still not happy.

[ggroess]

By The Numbers it looks pretty good...

what were your goals for the image??  If the frame is one of them then you need to set the middle tone on a part of the frame that will get rid of the most color cast.  possibly even a highlight....

I'm sorry you are frustrated...Hang in there... this is tougher stuff....
Greg

[joann]

For me the frame would be secondary to the fruit. But I understand what you are saying and at one point I did put the neutral on the frame and also a highlight but in the end I changed.
I guess there is no concrete solution. Thanks for your input.
JoAnn H

By The Numbers it looks pretty good...

what were your goals for the image??  If the frame is one of them then you need to set the middle tone on a part of the frame that will get rid of the most color cast.  possibly even a highlight....

I'm sorry you are frustrated...Hang in there... this is tougher stuff....
Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

JoAnn,in by the numbers the neutral is the average of the first column of numbers(102.6,or102,103)
Everyone makes this mistake at first.To hit the low number for shadow you can slidethe top of curve down the side of the color box to hit low numbers like9 or3.GregM

[ggroess]

Good Catch Greg...

I missed the mid tone average....
Jeez, and I wrote the paper on that......Ouch....

[mikemeister_admin]

Took me months to catch on.GregM

[joann]

OK, here's my new try. I really had a problem with getting the average on neutral or mid range to balance. My highlight and shadow all numbers the same but it took forever and many resets to get neutral the same. I did go back after applying RGB to Lab to add a little saturation.
JoAnn H

[ggroess]

So Far So Good...
Now for the tweak....

You are trying to go with Absolute values for the correction and this is not necessarily the goal.  Remember that each image has it's own highlight and shadow value.  Most times you do not want to drive the shadow down to "0"  nor do you want the highlight to be "255". 

For instance in your posted image you have shadow and highlight values in the hue clocks shown.  The Highlight value is 234 on the screen shot.  Your goal is to make all three channels have "234" as the value for the highlight.  This makes the highlight neutral in RGB.  For the shadow you have "7"  All three channels should equal 7.  That makes the darkest shadow you have chosen neutral.

The Mid-tone Gray is another story.  As Greg M stated.  The Mid-tone is an average of the "before" values.  Setting it to the middle value of the hue clock will upset the contrast.  You should take the before values on the hue clock and average them.  I get "96" , Your value of 106 makes the mid-tones too bright and then you have to fight for contrast later.

Try out these values and see if it gets easier to find the contrast...

Greg

[joann]

Oh, boy...I had that ALL wrong. I was using the AFTER values. Back to the drawing board.
Thanks again for your help.
JoAnn H

So Far So Good...
Now for the tweak....

You are trying to go with Absolute values for the correction and this is not necessarily the goal.  Remember that each image has it's own highlight and shadow value.  Most times you do not want to drive the shadow down to "0"  nor do you want the highlight to be "255". 

For instance in your posted image you have shadow and highlight values in the hue clocks shown.  The Highlight value is 234 on the screen shot.  Your goal is to make all three channels have "234" as the value for the highlight.  This makes the highlight neutral in RGB.  For the shadow you have "7"  All three channels should equal 7.  That makes the darkest shadow you have chosen neutral.

The Mid-tone Gray is another story.  As Greg M stated.  The Mid-tone is an average of the "before" values.  Setting it to the middle value of the hue clock will upset the contrast.  You should take the before values on the hue clock and average them.  I get "96" , Your value of 106 makes the mid-tones too bright and then you have to fight for contrast later.

Try out these values and see if it gets easier to find the contrast...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

here's another image done BTN.A bit of sunrise glow is added to the window.GregM
For the highlight,pulling the red and green up to 230 meant some hefty correction was going on and I lost the edge of the roof in the sky.Leaving the shadow at 7 not 6 was sheer laziness,under 10 things are going to pretty black anyway.BTN can be quick and precise so try it on some of your own images.GJM