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There was a "Levels vs curves" thread here awhile back, and I posted the following link by Jay Arraich who has the guts to describe curves as "abominable".
http://www.arraich.com/ps8_CurvesCommentary1.htm
Now there is a post in an ongoing "emulsion side down and histograms" thread in comp.periphs.scanners that seems to agree with Jay’s comment. It also dispels the common wisdom that Curves can do everything Level can.
The first paragraph in the following post was describing the operation of Level. The meaty part is at the end.
Let the debate begin, again.
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In article , writes
No. You can prove this to yourself by moving the central point up or down sufficiently. The result is that the black or white levels clip, depending on the direction it was moved. The gamma function *never* clips – although it may result in rounding of the result to a saturated level, there is never a discontinuity in the slope of the curve. —
Kennedy
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed.
Python Philosophers (replace ‘nospam’ with ‘kennedym’ when replying)
http://www.arraich.com/ps8_CurvesCommentary1.htm
Now there is a post in an ongoing "emulsion side down and histograms" thread in comp.periphs.scanners that seems to agree with Jay’s comment. It also dispels the common wisdom that Curves can do everything Level can.
The first paragraph in the following post was describing the operation of Level. The meaty part is at the end.
Let the debate begin, again.
=======
In article , writes
Kennedy McEwen wrote:Yes
The left-most triangle controls where the black point is. The right-most triangle controls the white point. The central triangle controls the gamma that is applied to the data between those two points. Only the central triangular control adjusts gamma, the other two controls do not affect gamma at all. When the central triangle is equidistant from the black and white point triangles then the gamma is set to 1. As the central control moves towards the white point, the gamma reduces and as it moves towards the black point the gamma increases.
From this description, I will conclude that there is only one formula in level, regardless of which points are moved.
Does the same statement holds true for Curves?No – the curves controls are much more flexible in that a transfer function can be defined which is the cubic spline through the defined points. There are no gamma adjustment controls in the curves dialog of PS, although predefined gamma curves can be created and loaded as required.
I’m aware that curves offer more flexibility over level, and always thought that any edits done with level can be done with curves, but not vice versa. In the case of gamma adjustment, isn’t moving the level’s mid point the same as moving the curves’ mid point (vertically up and down)?
No. You can prove this to yourself by moving the central point up or down sufficiently. The result is that the black or white levels clip, depending on the direction it was moved. The gamma function *never* clips – although it may result in rounding of the result to a saturated level, there is never a discontinuity in the slope of the curve. —
Kennedy
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed.
Python Philosophers (replace ‘nospam’ with ‘kennedym’ when replying)
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