Affinity Photo and Curves

[blackxacto]

19,1 iMac/Sequoia 15.4.1/Affinity Photo2.6.2:

Ive used AF2 Curves, Hilights, White Balance, Layer Hardlight & Opacity, but I cannot figure out how to SET WHITE the gloves, etc. I wish Curves was a useful tool like in other apps I've used. Anyone know if there is a way to SET WHITE. Please show me how? I don't want to do a lot of selecting and painting.

[dominik]

5 minutes ago, blackxacto said:

Ive used AF2 Curves, Hilights, White Balance, Layer Hardlight & Opacity, but I cannot figure out how to SET WHITE the gloves, etc. I wish Curves was a useful tool like in other apps I've used. Anyone know if there is a way to SET WHITE. Please show me how? I don't want to do a lot of selecting and painting.

Hello @blackxacto,

you might look into the technique in this video tutorial:

Using the colour balance adjustment offers a lot of detail adjustment. You can also use a curves adjustment. In my opinion it is a little less powerfull but is a little better to handle.

d.

 

[blackxacto]

Dominik, the tutorial says to start off by selecting VIEW/STUDIO. I don't have studio where it says to get it. see attached. what do I need to turn on? Is that it at the bottom?

[thomaso]

55 minutes ago, blackxacto said:

White Balance, (…) but I cannot figure out how to SET WHITE

White Balance can help to neutralize white colour (remove tint), but barely changes brightness/contrast. This image lacks real highlights, thus removing the colour cast in the apron will leave a light gray (e.g., RGB 210). To achieve full white, you would also need to manipulate the contrast, which, without selective editing (with masked areas), results in a different image, as you experienced already in your edited example.

However, one common method is to move sliders to avoid "empty" histogram ends, for example, with a Levels adjustment for each channel. Of cause, without masking, this affects all colours in the entire image and can lead to misrepresentations.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, blackxacto said:

Is that it at the bottom?

Yes. The video was using V1, where that panel was listed in the View menu. Studio view options were moved to the Windows menu in V2, probably because they can be separate floating windows.

[blackxacto]

Yes, Ive used Curves before. But if I say I want white in all whites, I do not want gray.

[RobWu]

7 hours ago, blackxacto said:

Yes, Ive used Curves before. But if I say I want white in all whites, I do not want gray.

Well... Color correct it to full 255 255 255 then.
And see all other colors go to shot

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, blackxacto said:

Yes, Ive used Curves before. But if I say I want white in all whites, I do not want gray.

That's why "White Balance" isn't sufficient. In this case Levels may be easier than Curves. The 'highlights' of the image get brightened (up to pure white) by using the "White Level" slider for "Master" + each colour channel.

But if you want to influence certain areas only (gloves, apron, hat etc.) you better select these areas with the Flood Select Tool and adjust only this parts (e.g. by filling with white)

[dominik]

14 hours ago, blackxacto said:

Dominik, the tutorial says to start off by selecting VIEW/STUDIO. I don't have studio where it says to get it. see attached. what do I need to turn on? Is that it at the bottom?

Hello @blackxacto,

as R C-R already mentioned the tutorial was done with a V1 edition of Photo. In V2 the panels were moved to the Window menu. I forgot to mention this, sorry.

I think to get a very good result from your original picture you have to do a little more adjustments because it looks faded and has that strong colour cast.

Good luck!

d.

[Old Bruce]

20 hours ago, blackxacto said:

Ive used AF2 Curves, Hilights, White Balance, Layer Hardlight & Opacity, but I cannot figure out how to SET WHITE the gloves, etc. I wish Curves was a useful tool like in other apps I've used. Anyone know if there is a way to SET WHITE. Please show me how? I don't want to do a lot of selecting and painting.

Biggest problem I had was that the glove has a lot of JPEG artifacts, here is a screenshot of it being emphasized. I don't know if this is because of the forum's software resampling and rendering it worse than it is in the original. I really don't like working with JPEG photos.

Anyway, I used a trick from lord knows where... I sample the colour of the glove and make a fill layer then set that fill layer to Divide for its blend mode. The Levels layer just dropped the White output to 97% so the glove wouldn't be blown out. Add a bit of contrast and I was done.

Photo document added for your perusal.

Pino.afphoto

[blackxacto]

Thanks everyone. Ole Bruce, i like your suggestion about using DIVIDE. Ill have to select because overall will blow out her face. Appreciate your time.