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Solar curve

Started by TerryB, September 29, 2009, 11:06:44 AM

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TerryB

Encountered the Solar Curve discussion on RetouchPro this morning; hadn't heard of it before.  I downloaded the action and ran it on a few of my restos and found the results interesting insofar as being able to detect repairs that aren't absolutely perfect.  How many imperfections I found will remain a secret.

Evidently, some printing devices will see imperfections/blemishes/banding that the eyeball doesn't. 
Margie, Tess, Hannie, any feedback from the QC folks on that?

Curiosity is forcing me to ask if anyone has worked with the Solar Curve?  Found it useful?  Overkill?  Perfection paralysis?   Should it become part of the routine workflow?

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-retouching/17214-solar-curve.html
Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.

Mhayes

Terry, thanks for the link, I will check it out today--after I come in from painting. Anything that would catch areas that we might miss after staring at a photo for too long, sounds great and would help QC.

Margie

"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

TerryB

Quote from: MarCat on September 29, 2009, 12:23:01 PM
Terry, thanks for the link, I will check it out today--after I come in from painting. Anything that would catch areas that we might miss after staring at a photo for too long, sounds great and would help QC.

Margie

Since you're still painting Margie, I take it the cats weren't much help?


Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.

Hannie

Hi Terry,

I tried out the solar curve method a couple of times today, looks interesting, not easy to read though.
I have saved a couple of curves presets and will try them later on to check out cloning marks etc.  They look kind of pretty in a psychedelic way (hence the new avatar), far out man!

Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

lurch

Terry,

I've used a solar curve (and grayscale variants thereof) on occasion. Very useful to check out cloning on an even-toned background, among other things. What the curve does is show up where gradients  are moving too fast and might result in posterization when printing. I don't think it's a tool that's necessarily part of our standard workflow (if there actually is such a thing), though. I can see where one might develop perfection paralysis (love that term!) using it.
<C>

TerryB

Wow Hannie!  I saw your new avatar and my aged brain immediately recalled the sweet smell of strawberry incense.  Truly far out!  Thank you, thank you, thank you. :cool:



Lurch, thanks for your observations on this.  Since it's more of a diagnostic tool than anything else, maybe it's simply academic if the imperfections it detects aren't evident in the final prints.  Hopefully we'll get some words of wisdom from the printing and/or QC  folks.

Actually, I do have a standard workflow:
1. Remove personal information
2. Save as .psd copy
3. Duplicate background.
4. Many, many left clicks
5. Many, many Ctl-Alt-Z
6. Lots of selections
7. Bunch of layers
8. Many, many more left clicks
9. Many, many more Ctl-Alt-Z
10. Ask for help/suggestions in the forum http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo258/Cyberwretch/StealthKattalk.jpg
11. Aspirin and short nap
12. Final tweaks
13. Save as sRGB .jpg
14. Send to Gallery Manager
15. Request another one

Obviously, I have too much time on my hands this morning.  Sorry.

Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.

Ausimax


You can remember all that?

My work flow - open image - wonder what the hell I was going to do next. :-\

Max
Wisdom is having a well considered opinion .... and being smart enough to keep it to yourself!     MJS

"Life" is what happens while you are planning other things!

TerryB

Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.

Hannie

Workflows are great, Ctrl-Alt-Z is even better and Ctrl+S should prevent any work getting lost, NOT!!

The other day I had finished a particularly labour intensive GHF restore, thousands and thousands of white dots and I got rid of them all by hand, no tricks, no filters and guess what?  I deleted the folder with the finished restore, I even deleted the recycle bin at the same time for no other reason than that I can be very very dense sometimes....

Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

glennab

Terry & Max, thanks for the afternoon laugh!  I can so relate.

Hannie, I had a similar brain fart yesterday at work.  I'd made a lovely ad for a Japanese restaurant, then had to make it an inch wider to accommodate our layout.  I saved the enlarged psd over the original, so now I have a flattened eps for the original and a psd that'll have to be recreated to the smaller size.  No command Z for that little ditty! Sheesh!

I STILL miss you all!

GK
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

TerryB

Quote from: Hannie on September 30, 2009, 11:32:29 AM
I deleted the folder with the finished restore, I even deleted the recycle bin at the same time for no other reason than that I can be very very dense sometimes....

Hannie


Hannie:
Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you try to retrieve it with FreeUndelete?
http://www.officerecovery.com/

Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.

Hannie

Terry, thanks for the link, that is a really neat little program!
Unfortunately the PSD photo file was in very poor condition and I couldn't open it any more. 
Some of the other deleted photos came right back to life.  The trick is to use this program as soon as you realize you've deleted something by accident.  That way there is good chance to recover your file.

Thanks anyway, I will use this program in the future, I'm quite sure!

Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

Mhayes

You guys are a riot! Sorry I have been missing in action, but I am in a race against the contractors and also a desire to get both my garage and house painted before I leave for Cedar Rapids next week.

Right now I can barely move and cannot bend down very easy. Terry, as to the cats, yes they have been most helpful. One cat is particular has taken out 3 of the dogs who got too close. The dogs (contractor's and crew's) got their revenge. Some of the siding that I had painted before it was put up, now has the signature paw prints of one of the dogs. All that is lacking when I look up is to see the date next to their signature!

From the heating pad,

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Hannie

Margie, you better stop painting and save yourself for the copy run, I'm afraid there will be a revolt if we don't get more photos in our galleries!  ;-)

Hope you get well soon,



Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

krishirt

Hannie, I have to say you're looking quite vibrant today!  :D

This does seem like an interesting sort of tool, but when one is already plagued by pixel perfection, PERHAPS this is something to pass. (I tried for more alliteration, but "puzzled" was all I could come up with, and it didn't fit!)

I'll play with it because it's pretty, and maybe will be able to make some reasonable sense of it.
I love poking my nose in these posts, I just never know what I'll come away with!