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Light Machine

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:18 am
by Roleg
8) I have bought the Light Maschine,and so far I'm happy with it.
It was mainly to be able to handle the most common problem in image editing, dark underexposed parts.
It's very versatile and makes processing easier, even if it still takes time. With more experience I will probably learn to finish quicker. It also has the ability to change colors separately, wich PS Elements doesn't have for instance.
I have realised though that it can't handle all pictures. But that's not surprising with the great number of variations there are. Even personal taste can play a role when desiding wich parts of a picture one wants to change.

I think the easiest way still is to use LM and then afterwards select the parts that shouldn't have been affected, and restore them to the original,

The alternative is of course to use your regular editing program and do
it all manually, wich is possible, but very time consuming.

I have one thing I like to ask about. It's the Colour filter.
I can't figure out what's going on, it doesn't seem to work as intended,but I've probably misunderstood it.

The same explanation is given both on the shadows and highlights tabs. It says:.."for filtering image areas of a certain color from the shadows"
Does "filtering from" mean that the particular color should be covered and not affected by the changes?
I see some changes of the mask when moving the filter slider but it's not consistent. It covers some parts of Red but not others for instance. And Green seems to be even more difficult.
Not that this is a big problem for me,I don't think I will use it, but who knows?

Leif G.

Re: Light Machine

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:30 am
by HaraldHeim
Roleg wrote:I have realised though that it can't handle all pictures.
LightMachine works on 8bit and 16bit RGB images only. You can convert other images to RGB to run LightMachine on them.
I think the easiest way still is to use LM and then afterwards select the parts that shouldn't have been affected, and restore them to the original,
You can apply LightMachine to a dublicated layer and erase the parts of that layer to make the original pixel from the layer below visible. You can use a selection plus the Del key to do that or you can use the eraser tool.
I have one thing I like to ask about. It's the Colour filter.
The same explanation is given both on the shadows and highlights tabs. It says:.."for filtering image areas of a certain color from the shadows"
Does "filtering from" mean that the particular color should be covered and not affected by the changes?
Sorry, but that sentance makes no sense to me either. Where can I find it exactly?
I see some changes of the mask when moving the filter slider but it's not consistent. It covers some parts of Red but not others for instance. And Green seems to be even more difficult.
Try the Impact and Range sliders from the Color Mask tab sheets to controls the affected color area. Anyway, if a color area isn't strictly limited to a certain image area, but softly blends with other color areas, it is difficult to affect it completely.

Re: Light Machine

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:31 pm
by Roleg
Tank you Harald, I will try your advice.

.."for filtering image areas of a certain color from the shadows"
Does "filtering from" mean that the particular color should be covered and not affected by the changes?
H: Sorry, but that sentance makes no sense to me either. Where can I find it exactly?

Yes, it's a bit unclear, that's why I asked.
On the Auto Mask tab, when you point at Color filter,
it's shows in the Help box.


Leif G.

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:00 pm
by HaraldHeim
Ok, I see now to what you are referring. I guess it could be better formulated. Let me explain: If image areas are near the shadow/highlight border and have the color that is choosen in the Color Filter combo box (or selected with the Color Filter slider), they are removed from the shadows and assigned to the highlights in the shadow/highlight mask.

I know it is quite a complex function, but if you activate the N or P button and scroll the Color Filters slider, you can see how it affects the shadow/highlight mask.

The result of a Color Filter setting is hard to predict, so it is best to try out all options of the Color Filter combo box. That's what I do, too. The Green option works fine for many images.