Curves in XXL

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jap47
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Curves in XXL

Post by jap47 »

Overall I am happy with the performance of XXL, but sometimes I wish it could do better.
For instance the Curves adjustment layer is fairly stripped. When I perform Apply Image in the layermask of the Curves adjustment layer I cann't use Curves to adjust the underlying layer.
In Curves I dearly miss the approach of the color channels. Is there a future enhancement in sight?

HaraldHeim
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Re: Curves in XXL

Post by HaraldHeim »

I am not sure what you mean with "Apply Image in the layermask of the Curves adjustment layer". Can you please explain more detailed?

Unfortunately the Curves adjustment layer of Photoshop Elements only supports luminosity and no color channels. Maybe it will be enhanced in the upcoming Photoshop Elements 12. If not, ElementsXXL would have to provide its own Curves dialog in order to support color channels. I have now put it on the to-do list. Thanks for the suggestion!

You can already edit individual color channels with the Curve filter (but not the adjustment layer) by switching to a color channel under Image > Channels and then running the Curve filter. To see the original color image while editing a color channel additionally activate Image > Channels > Show All.

jap47
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Re: Curves in XXL

Post by jap47 »

Thanks Harald for your answer. The odd thing is that in Levels the lumonosity as well as the color channels can be adressed. Here I can change the lighting and the color mood in one tool. It would be lovely to have this in the Curves adjustment layer also.

Here is what I meant by: I cann't Appy Image to Curves:
I want to have my project image in the mask of the Curves adjustment layer to make luminosity masks and or adress the colorchannels.

When applying a Curves adjustment layer the mask is active but I cann't do anyting with it. That is to say before I made a change to the contrast. When I go to Image>Apply Image it will not appear in the mask. I also cann't use alt-click on the mask to paste in the copy of a background layer. I have to commit first by OK. Then I can open the mask, but in the menu Apply Image is "grayed" out. When I try with the traditional way: Ctr-a ,ctr-c, ctr-d on the dupicate background layer, and then open the layer mask of the Curves adjustment layer and continue with ctr-v I can get the picture in it but then Curves freezes. PSE11 freezes also in some cases.

In Image>Channels I only can see a black and white version which let me do some adjustment in the luminosity of that channel. I tried two Curves adjustment layers on top of each other, one to adjust the contrast and one to change the info in the color channel (from Image>Channels), but this wouldn't work.
I also tried this: I chose a color channel, the image becomes black and white and then I tried to choose the Curves adjustment layer in the Layer menu and I get the message: "The command Make is currently not available."

In another situation I selected a channel, I got the B&W, I applied a Curves adjustment layer and clipped it to the active B&W color channel and I got this message: "Could not complete the command because the settings in the file are invalid."

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Re: Curves in XXL

Post by HaraldHeim »

Apply Image is a filter that changes the pixels of an image layer. That is why it is grayed out when you have an adjustment layer selected. The Image > Channels menu is meant to be used together with filters, e.g. the Curves filter, and not with adjustment layers. So both features cannot be used in connection with adjustment layers.

As I pointed out before ElementsXXL will have to provide its own Curves dialog in order to support color channels for the Curves Adjustment layer. If you want color curves, please use the Channels sub menu together with the Curves filter (Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Curves) and apply the Curves filter to an image layer or the background.

I had no problems, freezes or crashes when using the mask of the Curves adjustment layer. ElementsXXL only creates the Curves adjustment layer. Photoshop Elements handles the mask and does the rest, so I can only suspect that there is a problem with your Photoshop Elements installation. In any case make sure that you have version 1.02 of ElementsXXL installed.

It is an ElementsXXL bug that it is not possible to add one of ElementsXXL's adjustment layers when a color channel is selected. ElementsXXL should activate all three color channels before adding an adjustment layer to avoid the "Make" error message. That will be fixed in the next update.

I was not able to reproduce the error message "Could not complete the command because the settings in the file are invalid".

jap47
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Re: Curves in XXL

Post by jap47 »

Harald, thank you for the clarification. I'll dive in some more in the world of Apply Image. The thing is that I have a tutorial in my memory in which the teacher used Apply image to the mask of an adjustment layer, but I cann't refind it now.

(I noticed that I can choose Image>Channels>Show all. Then apply a layer mask to a layer and do Image>Apply image which results in a blended composite. Appy Image sits in the layer mask and when I make a luminosity selection via the mask and go to Curves its layermask will show the grayscale mask according to the prior made selection. I can refine the selections by shift-conrtol-alt-click in the mask and find them back in the maks of a new Curves adjustment layers. With several curves layers I could adjust several luminosity levels.)

Maybe my PSE 11 has a problem but with version 12 coming up I will leave it for now. However I uninstalled XXL1.02 (restarted my computer and all the blue colored menu items were still there(?)) and reinstalled XXL. I couldn't find a difference in performance.

Hereafter is a piece I don't understand yet: "The Image > Channels menu is meant to be used together with filters, e.g. the Curves filter, and not with adjustment layers". Where do you point at with the word filters and Curves filter?
Attachments
Apply image and Curves.jpg
Apply image and Curves.jpg (46.53 KiB) Viewed 23446 times

HaraldHeim
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Re: Curves in XXL

Post by HaraldHeim »

You are right. In Photoshop it is possible to fill a layer mask with Apply Image. However, the Apply image feature of Photoshop Elements is a bit limited. It is planned to make Apply Image more versatile in a future version of ElementsXXL.
Where do you point at with the word filters and Curves filter?
I am not sure what you mean with your questions. You can run filters from the Filter menu and you can apply them either to the image layer or to the layer mask.

jap47
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Re: Curves in XXL

Post by jap47 »

Thank you Harald. I understand.

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