CS4 transition problem

On Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:32:42 -0600, Misifus
wrote:

Hi, I’ve been using PS since PS5, but I’ve got a problem with CS4 that I’m not finding a solution to.

In previous CS versions, I’ve been able to find the darkest and lightest points in an image using a temporary Threshold layer. I launch the Threshold layer, and in the dialog box, I move the slider the the left until only the blackest spots are left. Then, I can hold down the Shift key and sample those spots, by clicking on them with the data for each spot showing up in the info window.

I do the same with the lightest spots. Of course it varies with different images, but often these spots serve as good black points and white points. At this time, I cancel the Threshold layer and add a Levels layer in which I can manipulate the individual R, G, and B channels to produce good black and white points in the image.
My problem is that in CS4, I can’t find a way to identify these points once I’ve located them. The old "hold down the Shift key and Click" doesn’t work anymore, and I haven’t found another way to do the same thing.
I’ve already spent the money for CS4, but I’m so used to my earlier workflow, that I find myself reverting to CS3 just for that function. Is there something I’m overlooking?

I use this technique frequently. Open the "Color Sampler Tool" (In the Eyedropper tool group) and click that on your blackest point and your whitest point. That will place a symbol and number on those points.

The third step is the Dave Cross method to find the gray (midtone) point. Add a new layer over the other layers, fill it with 50% Gray (a drop-down in Fill), change Blend Mode to Difference for this layer, then add a Threshold adjustment layer over this. Drag the slider all the way to the left (image turns white) and the back right until the first area of black appears. Mark this with the Color Sampler Tool. Dump the fill and threshold layers.

Your image now has three numbered marks…black, white, gray. Correct with a Curves adjustment.

Here’s Dave Cross’s method explained by Kelby:
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1350898

—
Tony Cooper – Orlando, Florida

tony cooper wrote:

On Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:32:42 -0600, Misifus
wrote:

Hi, I’ve been using PS since PS5, but I’ve got a problem with CS4 that I’m not finding a solution to.

In previous CS versions, I’ve been able to find the darkest and lightest points in an image using a temporary Threshold layer. I launch the Threshold layer, and in the dialog box, I move the slider the the left until only the blackest spots are left. Then, I can hold down the Shift key and sample those spots, by clicking on them with the data for each spot showing up in the info window.

I do the same with the lightest spots. Of course it varies with different images, but often these spots serve as good black points and white points. At this time, I cancel the Threshold layer and add a Levels layer in which I can manipulate the individual R, G, and B channels to produce good black and white points in the image.
My problem is that in CS4, I can’t find a way to identify these points once I’ve located them. The old "hold down the Shift key and Click" doesn’t work anymore, and I haven’t found another way to do the same thing.
I’ve already spent the money for CS4, but I’m so used to my earlier workflow, that I find myself reverting to CS3 just for that function. Is there something I’m overlooking?

I use this technique frequently. Open the "Color Sampler Tool" (In the Eyedropper tool group) and click that on your blackest point and your whitest point. That will place a symbol and number on those points.

The third step is the Dave Cross method to find the gray (midtone) point. Add a new layer over the other layers, fill it with 50% Gray (a drop-down in Fill), change Blend Mode to Difference for this layer, then add a Threshold adjustment layer over this. Drag the slider all the way to the left (image turns white) and the back right until the first area of black appears. Mark this with the Color Sampler Tool. Dump the fill and threshold layers.

Your image now has three numbered marks…black, white, gray. Correct with a Curves adjustment.

Here’s Dave Cross’s method explained by Kelby:
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1350898

Thank you. I was familiar with the rest of the story, the grey point and using curves, but I couldn’t figure out what you’ve just given me. Thanks, again.

-Raf

—
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiii
home: http://www.rafandsioux.com

On Jan 9, 4:32 am, Misifus wrote:

I’ve been able to find the darkest and lightest

points in an image using a temporary Threshold layer.  I launch the Threshold layer, and in the dialog box, I move the slider the the left until only the blackest spots are left.  Then, I can hold down the Shift key and sample those spots, by clicking on them with the data for each spot showing up in the info window.

I do the same with the lightest spots.  Of course it varies with different images, but often these spots serve as good black points and white points.
        -Raf
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert

Raf, not to flog an already "dead horse", but have your tried the "Blur / Average" method of picking your %50 Gray sample point?

I use it all the time now for color correction and seems to be the quickest method of the several ways to accomplish the same thing using PhotoShop.

After you have used the "threshold" adjustment pallette to ‘pick’ your lightest & then darkest tones ( and "mark" them using either the ‘shift’ key’ / click or ‘color picker’ eyedropper technique), you then duplicate your image ( >Image>Duplicate) and hit enter without having to enter any new data in the subsequent "new duplicate layer" box. This should generate a brand new duplicate image in its own seperate ‘image page’. Then go to >Filter>Blur>Average ( the top setting on the "Blur" pop out box). This will turn your new duplicate image into a full page "gray card" type rendition. Now you go back to your other "original" image which has your two light & dark "threshold markers" on it. Use either a Levels or Curves adjustment to then " set" your light, then dark corrections via the "light then dark" eyedroppers. Then, select the "gray" eyedropper and just click anywhere on the new duplicated image that you had created and had run the " Average / Blur" filter on. This will give you your middle gray color correction. Trash the duped "gray" image and you are done. It does what the other techniques accomplish, but eliminates a step or two and I find easier and much faster to "find" the sometimes elusive "gray" tone(s)……………..

Just another suggestion I am sure most PhotoShoppers already use, but perhaps there still might be someone who hadn’t been aware of this "quicker" way to skin the same cat.
Curt H.
Australia

On Sat, 9 Jan 2010 06:09:54 -0800 (PST), el Condor loco wrote:

On Jan 9, 4:32 am, Misifus wrote:

I’ve been able to find the darkest and lightest

points in an image using a temporary Threshold layer.  I launch the Threshold layer, and in the dialog box, I move the slider the the left until only the blackest spots are left.  Then, I can hold down the Shift key and sample those spots, by clicking on them with the data for each spot showing up in the info window.

I do the same with the lightest spots.  Of course it varies with different images, but often these spots serve as good black points and white points.
        -Raf
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert

Raf, not to flog an already "dead horse", but have your tried the "Blur / Average" method of picking your %50 Gray sample point?
I use it all the time now for color correction and seems to be the quickest method of the several ways to accomplish the same thing using PhotoShop.

After you have used the "threshold" adjustment pallette to ‘pick’ your lightest & then darkest tones ( and "mark" them using either the ‘shift’ key’ / click or ‘color picker’ eyedropper technique), you then duplicate your image ( >Image>Duplicate) and hit enter without having to enter any new data in the subsequent "new duplicate layer" box. This should generate a brand new duplicate image in its own seperate ‘image page’. Then go to >Filter>Blur>Average ( the top setting on the "Blur" pop out box). This will turn your new duplicate image into a full page "gray card" type rendition. Now you go back to your other "original" image which has your two light & dark "threshold markers" on it. Use either a Levels or Curves adjustment to then " set" your light, then dark corrections via the "light then dark" eyedroppers. Then, select the "gray" eyedropper and just click anywhere on the new duplicated image that you had created and had run the " Average / Blur" filter on. This will give you your middle gray color correction. Trash the duped "gray" image and you are done. It does what the other techniques accomplish, but eliminates a step or two and I find easier and much faster to "find" the sometimes elusive "gray" tone(s)……………..

Just another suggestion I am sure most PhotoShoppers already use, but perhaps there still might be someone who hadn’t been aware of this "quicker" way to skin the same cat.
Curt H.
Australia

This method of correction is similar to that used by cameras – it’s called something like the "gray world model", where the average color of everything is assumed to be

This works for most images – but for high and low key images the dramatic impact depends on an overall dark or light appearance of the image. Since this is a judgment call, I question the value of doing the averaging in the first place. The overall darkness of the image is a subjective call, and the shape of the curve you use is also based, in part, on a second subjective decision of which areas have important detail and texture.

As Rafael says, it depends on the image.
—
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com