RE: filmscanners: autolevels was re: filmscanners: Vuescan blue anomaly

["Jawed Ashraf" <Jawed@cupidity.force9.co.uk>]

> >Of course you soon discover that curves are where it's at - but
> Levels does
> >things that Curves is a RPITA to do, e.g. set gamma!  There's
> nearly as much
> >value in learning how to grapple with Curves as there is in
> choosing PS in
> >preference to something less functional (well, I say this, but I haven't
> >used any other graphics editing software anything like as
> seriously as I've
> >used PS).
>
>
> Jawed, I'm not sure how you mean that last paragraph,
> but IMHO, the Curves tool is the single most powerful
> tool for color correction.  Period, end of story.

Agreed.  All I was saying is that if you specifically want to play with
gamma, then Levels is the place to do it.  The curve that a given gamma
setting produces is not obvious.  Once you've seen a gamma curve, you'll
understand why the Curves tool is somewhat fiddlesome as it does <1 gamma
OK, but it fights you if you want to do a >1 gamma.

Also the histograms in Levels mean that it is much easier to choose where to
aim at for the black/white points.  The curves tool obviously supports
setting black/white points, but you're driving in the dark with no lights
on.  I'm hoping Adobe realises that a histogram in the background of the
Curves dialog (perhaps with Levels-like sliders, too, just like Nikon Scan
has) is exceptionally useful and will add this functionality.

The UI of PS is poor in many respects (like the Image menu, talk about a
disaster!).  e.g. Why can't we have an option to have a twice-size Curves
dialog - it's fiddlesome trying to play with curves on a 1600x1200 screen...

And boy, do I wish PS would get VBA (tee hee).

Jawed