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Selectors
Selectors allow you to limit image adjustments to only parts of the image, leaving the rest unchanged. You may want to use selective operations for several reasons.
- The interesting objects need adjustment but other objects are ok. For example, someone in the shadows needs brightening but the sky should not change.
- The interesting objects are ok, but other uninteresting objects are too bright or prominent.
The use of brightness, tone, acuity and cropping to emphasize interesting subjects and de-emphasize uninteresting subjects in a pleasing way is called composition. ColorBender is designed for easy, fast and powerful image composition.
In the following example, changing the brightness pattern is used to center attention on the subject rather than the play structure.
For the next example, cropping and selective brightness are used to improve composition and to open the shadows.
These types of operations can be done quickly and easily in ColorBender with only a few clicks.
Approaches to Selective Adjustments
Low end applications do not have selective operations. High end applications, such as photoshop, have a variety of methods and tools for selection that generally take two steps: first, create a mask that is the shape of the object to be adjusted, and, second, add an "adjustment layer" to limit the changes. While powerful, this approach envolves skillful editing and drawing at the pixel level and can be quite time consuming.
ColorBender does not use pixel editing. (ColorBender is a resolution independent application and, for good technical reasons, individual pixel editing is not a desirable operation.)
ColorBender Selector Buttons
The following panel shows all of the ColorBender Selector controls. There are three groups of buttons: Regions, Colors and Neutrals.
With these buttons, even intricate selections can be done in just a few clicks.
Regions Colors Neutrals
Region Selectors
The following table gives several examples for describing regions. Only 18 of the 512 possible patterns are shown. In the following table, the pattern on the right is the inverse of the pattern on the left. The left and right patterns can be switched by pressing the "inverse" button.
none all top middle and bottom middle top and bottom bottom top and middle left center and right top left all except top left top right quad left and bottom inside outside foreground background
Color Selectors
The following table shows 10 of the 64 Color Selection patterns. As with regions, pressing the "inverse" button will switch between corresponding patterns on the left side and right side of the table.
none all reds G non reds Y primaries secondaries warm colors cold colors reds and yellows greens, blues, cyans and magentas
Neutral Selectors
Since there are only three neutral selectors, there is no advantage in using the "all" and "invert" buttons, so they are not included. All 8 possible combinations are shown in the following table.
none all whites grays and blacks grays whites and blacks blacks whites and grays
Example of Region Selectors
This example changes the brightness pattern to improve composition. In this case, the inside brightness is increased and the outside brightness is decreased.
original image processed image
the two processing stepsThis results took a total of 2 clicks and two slider adjustments. The processing steps are:
- Click the middle center region button which leaves the outside region selected
- Decrease the brightness (-64)
- Press the "invert" button which then leaves the inside region selected
- Increase the brightness (21)
Example of Combined Region and Color Selectors
The advantange of ColorBender selectors is that they work together. While each group of selectors (regions, colors, and neutrals) is simple to understand and control, together they give powerful selectivity.
In this example, the color of the eyes are to be changed while the blue toy next to the face is to remain the same color. The problem is that the toy is nearly the same color as the eyes. By using a combination of color selectors and region selectors, just the eyes can be selected. (Notice that when the Color Shift operation is selected, the neutral selectors are dissabled, since color shift does not effect neutrals.)
control settings original image processed image
This results took a total of 6 button clicks, 1 click/select and 1 slider adjustment. The processing steps are:
- Select Color Shift in the adjustment popup menu
- Press the region buttons: invert, middle center, and middle right
- Press the color buttons: invert, cyan, and blue
- Adjust the slider to the desired color
- Next, you will probably want to adjust tone to give a more realistic look as described in the tone example
Selectors and Composition
ColorBender region selectors are based on the "rule of thirds." An important part of image composition is the placement of objects of interest. The following figure show subject placement on one of the 4 key points.
http://www.dvforever.com/article.php3?id_article=95
In this graphic, the subject is positioned in the top left quad and is viewing the bottom right quad. When composing, one might decide to enhance her, or, what she is looking at. Further discussion of composition can found in this article.
Selective operations based on composition regions is a key capability of ColorBender. For most images, this gives a simple and powerful way to adjust composition. Other applications, using complex masks can selectively adjust specific objects, but the time and skill required to create the masks and adjustment layers make them a tedious way to adjust composition.
ColorBender 1.1 is a Universal Application that runs on Mac OS X 10.4 or later
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