Color Corrections, Masking, Sharpening, Touch ups

I used to argue that the four most difficult tasks in photofinishing and photo editing were color corrections, masking, sharpening and touch ups. But the good folks from Adobe, Corel, Ulead and a host of plugin suppliers have been slowly but surely whittling away at these problems. Color Corrections have moved well beyond Hue/Saturation/Lightness and Brightness Curves with a broad set of tools that apply color corrections in “smart” ways. There is no better example than the spate of Flash Fill tools that lighten selected areas of image where the brightness is one or more stops lower than the surrounding image. Given clever use of masks its as if users had a software, after the shot flash attachement. And Paintshop Pro’s Manual Color Correction allows shifting colorcasts in precise ways that are invaluable in doing color adjustments.

Speaking of masking, that used to be one of the weakpoints of Photoshop. No more. First, with the Quick Mask Mode toggle one could use any brush, eraser or other tool to apply a mask that was a step up in sophistication. Now Photoshop CS3 is featuring the new smart Quick Selection tool with Refine Edge dialog that considerably speeds up applying masks. This tool replaces in one foul swoop Photoshop’s frustrating magnetic lasso and hope-it-wont fidget tools. Likewise, Corel’s PaintShop Pro has one of the best sets of masking tools with convenient Edge Seeker and Smart Edge Tools (now a clear notch behind Photoshop’s Quick Selection Tool; but nonethless still quite productive). Given the trend in photofinishing to apply effects and adjustments much more selectively, the photo editors have considerably enhanced their tools in the nick of time.

And the world of touch-ups has seen the cloner brush augmented by a whole array of new, smart touch up tools. For example, all of the photo editors have stamped out red eye with their Red-eye Remover tools while adding smart color replacement. And Corel has added some nifty skin and blemish control with its Makeover tool. Meanwhile Photoshop’s deadly retouching line up of Healing Brush, Perpsective correction and Patch tools provide touch up artists with plenty of extra “photo gardening” tools.

So that leaves us with sharpening. And though Adobe, Corel, and others have new Unsharp Masks and Smart Sharpeners, the movement in this arena has been somewhat glacial. But that has changed. There are a series of very smart plugins that use some of the advanced algorithms developed for military photo enhancement and now aply them to the cheeky faces and figure of frineds and family who simply do not want to sit still for a photo. The results are sometimes quite impressive. Again, its almost as if users had an after-shot image stablizer similar to the way software fill flashes work.

Okay – not yet as effective as SLR camera image stabilizers (both in camera and in lens), but the new sharpening tools are bringing more marginal shots on board. Take for example Topaz Sharpen (see screnshot above). This tools is not only edge aware but also brightness/contrast gradient savvy as well so that as users indicate the radious of action they want sharpening to take place in, the tools is able to sharpeness more intelligently. As well because Topaz Sharpen “knows” about lines and edges in the image users can also emphasize or not these features. In short, sharpening is getting pretty smart – and it shows in what can be done. Strong blurs are not corrected – but vexing soft focus is now under control.

In general, sharpness control is one of the last and most inventive (and controversial) arenas of photofinishing. As our coverage of plugins expands, I shall also plan to review sharpening theory and some of the better new sharpening plugins available. This should be bloody good fun.

(c)JBSurveyer 2007 – If you liked this, let others know: