Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

This one is a doosey!!

OK, there are times when you want to pep up an image with a boost of color, but Saturation does all the colors, or else you have to diddle around with 30% or this color, and 24% of that color, and 35% of another color... and it's tedious.
That's what most editors do... turn up the color knob!!

Qimage Ultimate does it better... albeit as close to perfect as can be.

It's Called: Smart Color Boost.

Basically, Mike has added a new button in the  SEL COLOR tab.
It is Smart Color Boost.

It's smart, very smart!  It checks your image and Smart Color Boost allows color boost to the various colors, but never allowing any color to over boost and CLIP. (blow out)
It also shows you a box with Check Marks,,,,  If you do not want a certain color boosted, just uncheck the colors boxes and Click OK.

By way of example, Many of my shots have blue sky and blue water.... (Can't help it! Sarasota Florida)  :)
So in my case, I don't want my sky or water to get lighter. I uncheck the "B" for Blue, and the "C" for Cyan.
Then I click OK.
Notice that the sky is the same in both images.

It is automated to let us finally make use of Sel Color.

Remember, I told everyone that there were only two people in the world who could work SEL COLOR with comfort. Einstein Died, and the other person is Mike. :D
Now we all can enjoy it.
You can still tweak numbers if you wish...
See the attached snaps.
You can see what Smart Color Boost did, with just a click or two. Have fun!!

Remember three factoids.... even though this feature's changes are saved as a filter, each image is scanned individually so it isn't a good idea to use APPLY TO ALL in the queue.
Factoid two... This is a beautiful feature which allows us to pop some life into an image that can use some vitamins, with attention to the image quality.
You don't have to use it on EVERY image. It is a tool! Like Levels, or Curves...
Factoid three!
Use this feature before you might want to use Levels or curves...  
 

Fred

..... forgot to mention using a tool that is already in Ultimate.
When you clicked your SCB button (Smart Color Boost) and got some action from the booster, remember to Right Click on the Yellow button on the live preview box, and select the item marked SEL COLOR.
Then, when you HOLD down on that yellow button with the mouse, the Live preview box will pop in and out with before and after your change. You can see your sky, or the leaves, or whatever is part of the picture changing boost!


Have fun!!
Fred

I was hoping a few more people would have tried and commented on this new feature  :o
I've spent  some time trying it out on different images and it is certainly a very useful feature.
It's not appropriate for every image, as always it's a matter of personal taste. Sometimes the effect is quite subtle, on others it is more dramatic. It seems to be good where there are dark areas in an image that need a boost.
See 2 examples of before (on right) & after (on left) attached below.
Small adjustments were made to some of the row values in the Select Colour matrix - it would be nice if Mike gave us a quicker way of changing those values - and some contrast increase was made with a curve.
EDIT. I've now added screen shots of the Sel Col tables.
Note the changes to blue and cyan for the country pub scene to darken and add contrast to the sky and a reduction in the yellow row for the statue. Powerful tool this Sel Col!  :o

Terry

Hello Fred, Hello Terry.

I installed this update as soon as is was available, but only yesterday got an hour and half spare time to properly check it out.

The additional feature will I think be a great assistance, and allow greater use to be made of 'sel color'. (it was pretty much beyond me except to increase the yellow to liven up some greens)

Checking past images it appears to increase all values to a greater or lesser degree, if I think one or two colours have gone over the top I now have a starting point for individual adjustments.

Am I being told that all (most) of my images require a little colour boost?  I must say I generally like the boosts.

Should work flow now be, check raw development - again mostly the program does the best, and then first check the sel color before messing about with curves, levels, and other adjustments?

My thanks to Mike for the continual improvements/refinements/additional features, they keep this old brain stimulated.

Jeff

     

Hi Jeff,
That is correct, Fred did mention that in an earlier post.
Have fun  ;)
Terry

Terry,

"That is correct, Fred did mention that in an earlier post."

Could you give us a workflow then, please?

Tony

Hi Tony,
Following any raw refine operations and if it seems that the image needs further enhancement in the editor, the the first step to would be to check out SCB.
However, remember that not every image will benefit from SCB.
Any existing edits for levels, contrast, brightness, curves and saturation must be removed first.

It's a quick operation to check out SCB on any image but some points to note:
Un-tick blue and cyan when there is a blue or even grey sky so that is not lightened.
If a particular colour is affecting the amount of SCB applied, ie. it's already very bright, then click the SCB button again and un-tick that colour; note that all colours will be reset with a tick.
You can set a colour row back to 1.0 by clicking the colour letter, R, G,... etc. but that is not the same as starting again and un-ticking in the SCB dialogue.
It's worth spending a little time experimenting with a few images.
Following any SCB changes, carry on as normal with other adjustments in the editor.
Terry

Jeff,
Been there, done that!  ;)
Terry

Went out very early today with good light outside, and got a couple of shots worth sharing vis a vis, the new SCB, Smart Color Boost!
The first image, #041, is right out of the camera. Both the exposure matrix in the camera and Qimage spotted the pure whites in the boats, and locked the exposure so it would not obliterate the boats for the sake of the sky.
Of course we can go into REFINE, adjust the exposure and fill light, but let's have a look what Smart color did to this image.
One click of SCB, and look at image #042.
By leaving all the checks in place, the sky and water also brightens up, and now you have cloud definition etc.

The next two snaps show less difference because Smart Color Boost reads the image and applies only what it can handle.
Notice also, the sky and water in the second set remained the same because the sky and water were just right as shot. So unchecking B and C for Blue and Cyan leaves those untouched.

 
My point is to avoid over complicating... just try the button and see what happens.

Fred

Here are the other two snaps.

A couple of weeks ago I asked if somone could post a workflow.

I ran Smart Colour Boost over a set of images I shot on Wednesday and all of the colours were moved to 1.15. I ran it over my Thursday shots and they were moved to 2.45. All outdoor shots. All sunshine.

I then re-ran the Thursday shots and QU/SCB set them all to 2.15.

As Terry knows I have been concerned that too many of my shots needed manual Fill in the Raw Refinement mode. Interestingly the sequence with the SCB at 2.15 hardly contained any that needed extra RAW fill. It would be lovely to know why.

Terry said one should use SCB before making any changes to levels, saturation, etc. I had not realised that. I always add some DFS and Contrast 10+ to every shot and I did this before I ran the SCB. Is this why Wednesday I get 1.15 and Thursday I get 2.45 and then 2.15?

As Terry and Fred know I am a batch processing merchant. I have probably shot about a thousand frames this week and don't have the time to tinker with individual shots until my "client" tells me which ones they want to use/publish. I am wrong in running SCB over a batch of RAWs? Is the SCB only evaluating the first file and applying that setting to the rest of the batch?

I have an odd feeling that using SCB over a batch is getting me images that are 'better' for want of a word.

Hence the wish to learn more, please.

Tony

Tony,
I also said "It's not appropriate for every image, as always it's a matter of personal taste. Sometimes the effect is quite subtle, on others it is more dramatic."
No you cannot do that because all you are doing is copying the same Select Colour table to every image. SCB is more sophisticated that you think - it examines and processes each image individually so each image must be considered on it's own merits.
It may be possible with very similar shots taken in the same lighting conditions and of the same subject, that is all.
I think  revision of work flow is required here, putting on my process optimisation hat  ::) (ex Pro Engineer and all that), I would say you need to make use of the QU rating feature and reduce the number of image you show to clients. Pick the ones that are good technically and you know the client is likely to want, process those properly and then shown him relatively few samples. I'm sure a client would not want to look at 100's of images or would get confused. Or, merely use camera jpeg's and let the camera do the processing for you.
 Terry

Tony,
I had posted on the very first day what you see below.
Factoid one specifically advises against batch use of SCB due the fact that Qimage scans individual images. The results of which are not going to be the same from image to image.
If you choose to ignore the caveat, then you are not using teh tool properly.

If I was teaching you how to drive an automobile, and advised; Make sure you closed all the doors of the car before driving away, and you choose to ignore that, well not much hope for you, is there?

Fred

Remember three factoids.... even though this feature's changes are saved as a filter, each image is scanned individually so it isn't a good idea to use APPLY TO ALL in the queue.
Factoid two... This is a beautiful feature which allows us to pop some life into an image that can use some vitamins, with attention to the image quality.
You don't have to use it on EVERY image. It is a tool! Like Levels, or Curves...

Let me try again.

"As Terry knows I have been concerned that too many of my shots needed manual Fill in the Raw Refinement mode. Interestingly the sequence with the SCB at 2.15 hardly contained any that needed extra RAW fill. It would be lovely to know why.

Terry said one should use SCB before making any changes to levels, saturation, etc. I had not realised that. I always add some DFS and Contrast 10+ to every shot and I did this before I ran the SCB. Is this why Wednesday I get 1.15 and Thursday I get 2.45 and then 2.15?

I am trying to learn how this SCB works.

Tony

Tony
Because it "brightens" the image but without over-doing the bright/nearly saturated areas. This is not the same as Fill which affects the darker areas of the image whereas SCB affects he darker areas less.
If you have contrast, brightness, saturation, curves already in place they affect the RGB values in the image, that affects the SCB processing which checks those values to ensure none are boosted too much.
In simple terms, my understanding is that it brightens an image by boosting RGB values in a controlled manner.
I processed a couple of hundred images from an outing last week and deliberately checked SCB to see the effect. It was useful on some but had little effect others; I'm beginning to get a feel for when it is a useful tool, it's an ongoing learning effort.
Terry

Thanks Terry,

You said "Because it "brightens" the image but without over-doing the bright/nearly saturated areas."

That explains why Fred said "By way of example, Many of my shots have blue sky and blue water.... (Can't help it! Sarasota Florida) 
So in my case, I don't want my sky or water to get lighter. I uncheck the "B" for Blue, and the "C" for Cyan."

What was fooling me, probably, was the word 'boost'. Over here in the UK we'd think boosting the sky and water would make them bluer - so we would not want to hold back the boosting by removing the tick. The tick lightens as well as boosts.

You saying the software 'brightens the image' explains why some of my shots that needed RAW Fill work without it if I let the new feature work on the image.

In one of my Thursday shots which the booster applied an overall 2.45 increase on were over saturated. When I clicked it again and it dropped back to 2.15 the shot looked lovely - almost certainly better than RAW Fill.

I think what I'll do is to create some Custom Filters with a range of 'boosts'. I'll also use that Custom Filter right click drop down as it gets at the 'boost' icon without a lot of screen rebuilding.

As you say - lots to learn.

Tony

You'll be missing out on the "Smart" part of SCB if you do that. By the time you have tried different fixed Sel Col filters, you may as well do it properly.
Terry

Thanks Terry,

I know you jest about my obsession with batch (!) but the 'smart' only works if I page through file by file. That I can do using CTL + Q.

As you pointed out yesterday running SCB over a batch gets it to be 'smart' over the first frame and then replicates that adjustment over the remainder. If I create filters for, say, 1.15 and 2.15 I can run them over every frame and see what percentage I prefer.

I always have to go back and individually tweak between ten and twenty percent of each batch - but it's a heck of a lot faster than working each one separately.

And, yes, to pick up your suggestion of using the rating facility yesterday. It is great but so much slower than doing my culling in BreezeBrowser. With which....off downstairs to cull Friday's probable 400 shots to forty.

Back soon.

EDIT. And here I am. The SCB is now producing different readings over the files I used it on earlier in the week. Files coming up with readings of 2.15 and 2.45 now show 1.10.

I have produced a named filter with 1.50 in each field other than the bottom one and my PC is running a conversion to jpg whilst I have a coffee. As I said yesterday I have a filter that adds some DFS and contrast of 10+. It'll be interesting to see how many of my 77 (about 350 culled to the recycle bin) shots need a second treatment.

Tony

If your numbers are changing, you changed one (or more) of the following on those images:

- Curves
- Levels
- White balance
- Raw refine parameters

The thing you need to keep in mind is that SCB is not a filter which is why it can't be saved or applied in batch!  It is a tool on the sel color tab that molds the sel color filter values for the current image you are working with.  The tool requires a decision on each image as to which colors are important in that image (hence the checkboxes).

I agree with Terry.  By the time you can diddle with one or two saved (random) values to see what they look like, you could have clicked once on SCB and done the job right.  The SCB tool automatically chooses the highest possible color boost without producing noticeable clipping.  You're going to have to have some good eyes and try a lot of different values to do the same job manually.

Mike

Thanks Mike,

"If your numbers are changing, you changed one (or more) of the following on those images:
- Curves
- Levels
- White balance
- Raw refine parameters"

I could easily have done. I have accessed the settings so frequently that I could easily have made a change!

"The thing you need to keep in mind is that SCB is not a filter which is why it can't be saved or applied in batch"

But you don't mind if I create a filter based on Sel Colour at, say, 1.75 on each box other than the bottom one and applying it to a batch of files presumably?

I'm of the impression that it might give me the sort of images I prefer. It was Fred who spotted that my Lighroom RAW conversions were suffering from overblown highlights - and what decided me to use QU for RAW work as well as printing. A decision I never regretted. However, I still feel that the QU defaults are a bit 'flat' for me - hence the quest for a pack of filters that suit my (possibly slightly odd) tastes.

For all that, every week I feel my images are getting better - thanks more to QU than anything else these days.

Tony

Tony,
I think that is counter productive since SCB is intuitive per image and not guess work. I've always regarded the Selective Colour feature as a tool for individual images even before SCB. The only exception being to create B&W images with the existing saved settings. Putting 1.75in each box is rather like using random numbers and seems meaningless to me.
Terry

Thanks Terry.

I'm not using SCB. I am using a filter created by modifying the Sel Colour matrix.

I am finding that I get more hits per batch if I add 1.75 into the Sel Colour matrix (apart from the bottom line) than if I leave each line at 1.0. Yes, I have to revisit some and add some more RAW Fill , but fewer than without the filter. For me that is progress.  :)

Not once have I ever had to reduce Fill since I started using QU to process my RAWs. That's maybe 250 shots a week for 26 weeks. Not once in 6,500 shots has QU given me too much fill.

I am sorry if I offend the purists  >:(

I'd love to use SCB on every RAW I process but my machine is too slow even though it is SSD, 8 core and so on. Hence my obsession/need for short cuts.

I am still in active contact with photographers processing 250 shots a day (not like me a week) and they are frustrated with Adobe and Lightroom. Give Qimage a try I say! It is too slow for batch work is the most frequent reply. I'm doing it, I say. I am not sure how many migrate to QU but I try!! Look at DPR some time and you'll see what an ambassador for Qimage I am  ::)

Sweet dreams. It is cocktail time in SW6  ???


Tony