iCorrect Color Blog

The PGA Championship came to the Twin Cities last week and we were lucky enough to find a few tickets for Monday’s practice round.  Since we were looking for a topic for this month’s PictoScript, we figured we justify an afternoon walking the beautiful Hazeltine National Golf Club.  As it turns out, cameras (for non-credentialed observers) are allowed only during the three practice rounds, so off we went hoping to catch a glimpse of and maybe even a few shots of Tiger at work.  Mission accomplished. 

In order to show a possible RAW workflow, I did all the shooting in RAW.  Using Camera RAW 4.6 in Adobe Photoshop CS3, I simply relied on the Auto function with some minor tweaking to the Exposure and Brightness to establish an fairly good baseline image from which to start.  I prefer the tool set within iCorrect EditLab Pro Plug-in and iCorrect EditLab ProApp for making further refinements.

Whereas Camera Raw allows you to preserve the maximum amount of data and image detail during the raw conversion and sets a good baseline from which to work as you optimize your photos, it does not offer an entirely intuitive toolset for making additional color corrections.  This is especially evident with colors like blue sky and green foliage.  Take, for example the following image of the magnificent 9th hole.  Although the initial Camera Raw image looks O. K., and it provides a great starting point, the EditLab ProApp image, with just single click on the grass and one on the sky, looks absolutely stunning.  The built-in Memory Color definitions take care of everything.

ProcessQ Streamlines Color Workflow

At the heart of iCorrect EditLab ProApp is ProcessQ, the completely redesigned image queue that allows you to easily view, sort and manage your color corrections for efficient, time-saving workflows.   After adding images to ProcessQ, they are displayed as thumbnails in the filmstrip at the bottom of the main panel.  With ProcessQ, you can correct and save any number of images – either one at a time or as an entire group.  You can even Synchronize adjustments across multiple images.  

Although PictoColor Software is most widely known for our line of iCorrect Photoshop plug-ins, we also offer a unique stand-alone product for batch processing of high volume jobs.  iCorrect EditLab ProApp is a professional color correction and color editing software that combines iCorrect EditLab Pro color technology with automated workflow tools and advanced  batch processing features to make digital photo correction extremely fast and easy.

iCorrect EditLab ProApp’s workflow is built around the concept of an image queue called the ProcessQ, which is displayed at the bottom of the main EditLab window.

Images are held in the ProcessQ during an editing session, and although any edits that are applied do not become final until the contents of the ProcessQ are saved, the thumbnails in the ProcessQ do reflect the effects of any color corrections that have been applied.

Edited thumbnails also have “sticky notes” attached to them, making it easy to see which images have been corrected. A C indicates that a color correction has been applied, an S indicates that sharpening has been applied, and an N indicates that noise removal has been applied. The image that is open for editing in the main window is outlined in black. You can drag the bar above the thumbnails up and down to change the size of the thumbnails that are displayed. Note that the size of the main window will limit how large they can be.

Adding Images to the ProcessQ

You will be prompted to add images to the ProcessQ whenever it is empty, and you can place additional images into the ProcessQ at any time by clicking the Add… button, or by using the Add Images to the ProcessQ… command in the File menu. Multiple images may be selected at a time, and you can add as many batches of images as you want. When selecting multiple images from the Open File dialog (using the Shift and Control keys), EditLab appends that particular batch of images to the end of the ProcessQ. You cannot reorder the images in the ProcessQ. However, you may remove any number of images from the ProcessQ at any time.

Selecting Images in the ProcessQ

To select an image for editing, saving or removal from the ProcessQ, simply click on the corresponding thumbnail.

Whenever the mouse is not over the preview image in the main window, you can also use the arrow keys to advance from one thumbnail to the next. It is important to note that when you open a thumbnail, any edits that have been made in the currently open image are automatically applied to that image before the new image is opened, as described below. That is, opening a thumbnail is the same as clicking the Apply button and then selecting a new thumbnail.

You can select multiple thumbnails by using the Shift and Control keys, and you can select all of the thumbnails with the Control-A keys. Selected thumbnails will be outlined in black, and the image that is open in the main window will also be outlined in yellow. The titles of the Remove, Save and Sync buttons will be updated to indicate the number of images you have selected.

Removing Images from the ProcessQ

Clicking the Remove button, or selecting Remove from the File menu, will remove any selected thumbnails from the ProcessQ. The title of the Remove button and the corresponding File menu item will reflect the number of images you have selected for removal. Note that removing an image from the ProcessQ does not delete the corresponding image file from your hard disk. It simply removes the image from the set of images that is available for editing in EditLab.

Editing Images in the ProcessQ

To open an image for editing, simply click on the corresponding thumbnail. If any edits are already applied to that image (you can use the Add Image Preferences to specify an edit to be automatically applied to images as they are added to the ProcessQ), the controls in the main window will reflect those settings. Proceed to edit your image using the four edit tool tabs as described in Chapters 6-10 of this User Guide. When you are happy with the result, Apply and/or Save the edit.

It is important to understand the difference between Applying and Saving an edit. When you apply an edit, the edit parameters become associated with the image in the ProcessQ, the thumbnail in the ProcessQ is updated to reflect those edits, but the corresponding image file is not updated. This allows you to quickly edit many images, deferring the processing time associated with updating image files until you all done editing. This also allows you to re-open an edited image if you decide to make further modifications. Of course, you are also free to save an image at any time, at which point any applied edits are saved in the corresponding image file.

The most obvious way to apply an edit is by clicking the Apply button, which applies the edit, closes the image, and opens the next image from the ProcessQ. You can also simply select another image from the ProcessQ for editing. Any edits that have been made to the image that is currently open are automatically applied before a new image is opened. If you want to close the current image without applying any new edits, you must click the Cancel button. Finally, if multiple images have been selected from the ProcessQ, the Sync button can be used to apply the current edit to all selected thumbnails. The title of the Sync button will reflect the number of images that have been selected for synchronization, and if the Sync button title ends with ‘…’, the Sync Preferences will be displayed before any settings are applied.

Saving Images from the ProcessQ

When you are ready to finalize your edits by updating the corresponding image files, select the corresponding thumbnails and either click the Save button or select Save from the File menu. The title of the Save button will reflect the number of images that have been selected. To save all of the images in the ProcessQ, use the Control-A keys to select all of the thumbnails, and then click the Save all button. If the title of the Save button ends with ‘…’, the Save Image Preferences will be displayed before any images are saved.

Each selected image will be corrected according to any applied edits and then saved according to the current Save Image Preferences.

If you need to stop the Save operation, you can press the Esc key at any time.

Saving the ProcessQ as a Job File

If you need to interrupt an editing session before you are ready to save the edits, select Save Job… from the File menu to save the state of the ProcessQ in a job file. You can save a job, quit the application, and then resume that job later by selecting Resume Job… from the File menu. This is a convenient way to temporarily pause an editing session for a short period of time, but if any image files associated with the job are deleted, moved, or modified, the job file will be obsolete and you will not be able to resume the job. Therefore, after you have resumed a job, you will probably want to delete the corresponding job file.

At the heart of iCorrect EditLab ProApp is ProcessQ, the completely redesigned image queue that allows you to easily view, sort and manage your color corrections for efficient, time-saving workflows. Here is how to make ProcessQ work for you.  We color corrected 15, 3MB+ images with similar color issues in 2 minutes and 4 seconds.  Try that in Photoshop!

 

Step 1-Setting iCorrect EditLab ProApp Workflow Preferences
The first step is to customize EditLab ProApp’s preference settings for the specific job or your desired workflow.  You can access the Preferences selection window by clicking on File Menu/Preferences or the Preferences button located under the color tool panel. Detailed instructions for each preference category can be found in the User Guide. Click Here Each preference has a “recommended” default setting, however, each preference can be optimized to maximize your efficiency and workflow.

 

 

In our example job we used the default settings in each category except for the Save Image File Folder

Step 2-Add Images to ProcessQ Next we select and add images to the ProcessQ by clicking on the File Menu/Add Images to ProcessQ and selecting the pictures to be corrected from a folder   and clicking on Open and the pictures are added to ProcessQ. In this example we selected images that were taken under the same conditions.

Step 3-Color Correct Test Image

Next we select an image from the set that represents the average color of the batch and color correct it using the EditLab ProApp tool set.

Tool Tab 1: Color Balance   With the first tool tab, you begin by correcting the color balance by simply clicking on any neutral (black, white, or gray) colors within the image.  In this case the display shows that the original image had a predominantly yellow color cast.

Tool Tab 2: Tonal Range   The next tool tab establishes the tonal range by automatically setting a new black point and new white point.  You can also adjust the mid tones in the center of histogram display.

Tool Tab 3: Brightness/Contrast/Saturation   The third tool tab addresses brightness, contrast, and saturation.  You can even adjust the highlights and shadows independently. We simply increased the saturation slightly.

Tool Tab 4: Hue-Selective Editing   The final tool tab allows you to finely tune specific colors on a hue-selective basis.  Simply activate a color on the hue-wheel by clicking on a color in your image.  You can then adjust its hue along the color wheel as well as independently adjust its brightness and saturation.  We used the skin tone memory color to improve the skin tones. Click Apply to finish.

Step 4-Apply Color Correction to Selected Images-Sync
Next we select the images to apply the color correction parameters and click on the Sync button and the color correction settings are applied to all of the selected images. At this point the color correction is only applied to the proxy (thumbnail) image and can be still be changed.
 
 

 

 

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Step 5-Check Corrected Images and Save
Next we check a few of the images to make sure the color correction settings are okay.  If not, further adjustments can be made to specific images.  After checking a few images to be sure the color correction is okay, select the thumbnails you wand to Save.  The Save button title will reflect the number of selected images and, when clicked, will apply the changes to the images and put them in the destination folder selected in the Preferences (Step 1)

 

 

 

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 How Long Did it Take to Color Correct 15, 3MB+ images with similar color problems?

Total Time: 2minutes, 4 Seconds!!

Every so often, we receive an inquiry wondering which of our products would be best suited for their application.   As a response, we have put together a synopsis of our iCorrect color correction software to briefly describe how each one works.  Hopefully this will help you decide which will work the best for you.

Which iCorrect is best for me?

iCorrect OneClick	iCorrect Portrait	iCorrect EditLab Pro

 

iCorrect OneClick-”

iCorrect OneClick, our newest and simplest color correction plug-in, reduces the  color correction task to a single click for most digital photos. Click on a neutral (black, white, or grey) area of the image iCorrect’s SmartColor technology will automaticallyHere is what a customer has to say about iCorrect OneClick. Rick Straub – www.yearsofwonder.com

• Remove any color cast by correcting the white balance.

• Correct the tonal range by making the darkest colors black and the lightest colors white.

• Correct the exposure by adjusting the overall brightness

• Adjust the saturation

If required, tools are provided to fine-tune the exposure and recover extra detail by independently adjusting:

• Overall Brightness

• Shadows

• Highlights

• Contrast

• Saturation

• Auto Black & White Conversion

• Auto Sepia Conversion

 

If you want the easy way to make your photos “pop”, you need to get iCorrect OneClick. I typically use Pictocolor’s iCorrect EditLab and iCorrect Portrait plug-ins for all my digital photo editing in Photoshop. What I realized is that 99% of the time, I was using the Smart Color button in each of the first 3 tabs. With OneClick, now all I have to do is “one click” and it turns out exactly the way I would have tweaked the colors with a lot less effort and time. Even if there aren’t any neutrals, you can check a box and OneClick still manages to make the color right. Pictocolor has done it again by reducing my post processing time and really making my client’s say “WOW!”
 

iCorrect Portrait-”Point and Click to Perfect Color Portraits”

iCorrect Portrait is a quick and easy color correction plug-in with outstanding skin tone technology designed primarily for color correcting pictures of people. A few more clicks are required to color correction a picture. First click on the Auto White/Auto Black buttons to automatically set the the white and black points. Next adjust brightness and contrast,. And finally, click on the skin to fix the skin tones.

Point-and-Click Color Correction

• Automatically set black point and white point

• Easily adjust brightness and contrast

• Automatically correct color balance, skin tones, and other colors with just a click!

• Time saving workflow options and custom settings

Time-Saving Features

• User-definable custom settings

• Save corrections as Custom Settings and apply the same correction to multiple images.

• Launch iCorrect Portrait to start with Custom Settings or Previous Settings as a starting point for large jobs.

• Add your own custom Memory Colors to suit you preferences or add backgrounds, team colors, and other items.

• Record iCorrect Portrait into an Action for automated workflows.
   

iCorrect Portrait Plug-in–Fast and accurate color correction plug-in for Photoshop  by Jay Nelson, Macworld Magazine Click Here to read review         “For me, the perfect photo correction tool would take just a few seconds to use, require minimal tinkering, and vastly improve my photos. PictoColor’s iCorrect Portrait 1.0.1, a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop (versions 4.0 through CS2) and Photoshop Elements (versions 1.0 through 3.0) reaches for this ideal and succeeds. As its name implies, iCorrect Portrait was designed for portraits, and is targeted to commercial photographers and advanced hobbyists. (PictoColor offers another product, iCorrect EditLab Pro, for advanced color correction.) Read Macworld Review

 

iCorrect EditLab Pro-”Frustration Free Color Correction”

iCorrect EditLab Pro is a color correction AND color editing program and is available as both a Photoshop plug-in or stand alone application. iCorrect EditLab Pro has a more extensive tool set than OneClick and Portrait and is ideal for pictures requiring more correction. For example, iCorrect EditLab Pro SmartColor technology makes it easy to remove color cast, individually adjust white/black points, correct mid-tones, boost saturation, adjust highlight and shadows, boost saturation, and selectively edit hues. Color correction and editing with iCorrect EditLab is much faster and easier than the complex tools in Photoshop. EditLab Pro also offers noise removal and sharpening and Auto Black and White and Sepia Tone Conversion.

Many of our customers, particularly wedding, portrait, and school photographers, have both iCorrect Portrait and EditLab and we offer a bundle discount when purchasing both at the same time. Below you will find links to a couple of reviews in MacWorld and tutorials on our website that will help you decide which iCorrect product or combination is best for you.

Our line of iCorrect color correction and color editing plug-ins take the guesswork out of making the color right and simplify the process from start to finish.  Our engineers have created several software programs that utilize fairly complex digital color technology yet offer a simple, straight-forward and intuitive approach to the otherwise often difficult task of getting the color right.  Even though there are countless other color correction and color editing programs available for all levels of users. However, few offer the combination of speed, simplicity, and accuracy of iCorrect.

With iCorrect Color Blog we will try to show that color correction and color editing doesn’t have to be the most difficult, challenging or time-consuming aspect of your digital workflow.  Whether you prefer the automated approach of iCorrect OneClick, the point and click approach of iCorrect Portrait with its unique skin tone technology, or the more comprehensive tool set in iCorrect EditLab Pro for fine tuning and tweaking your images, iCorrect should minimize the frustration of your color correction workflow and improve the quality of your finished product.