quadkiteflyers

[mikemeister_admin]

Went back and had a crack at our old friends.It was a lot easier and the results were better.GregM

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Definitely better.  Two problems remain.  One is that you have no pure black in the image  - this is because the "zero" or black end of the Lightness curve has been moved vertically.  It's possible that your monitor is adjusted a bit on the dark side, which is not unusual.  When possible, it is better to use  a shadow point, or thresholding,  to set the shadow, rather than adjusting the curve manually while looking at the image.

Also, the shirts are still blue - using a neutral to make them gray gives a good result for this image, and again does not depend on calibrating your monitor to get an exact gray.

All that said, congratulations on getting a better result.  Revising previous images is a good way to gauge your progress, and you've obviously accomplished a lot.