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Restore Original Color and Remove Grey Mist

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    Restore Original Color and Remove Grey Mist

    Hi all,

    At first, sorry for my poor English, especially words about photography and Photoshop.

    Recently I became interested in 8bf plugins. Tried lots of them. However, only 2 plugins are suitable for me and very helpful, the rest are just toys - you just play it around with one or two of your photos.

    OK, they are perspective transformation and smartcurve. I use them on tons of photos.
    Only after watching a Photoshop tutorial, I realized how useful smartcurve can be. Before this it's just another toy for me, LOL. Let me show you:

    Only a small portion of your photos have good light. Quite some have grey mist. There are several methods to fix this in Photoshop, including tunnel and selective color.

    Smartcurve does the same job as PS's tunnel, just it's more automated and faster, much lower computer requirement, if working with irfanview.

    Steps to get back true original color and fix grey mist:

    1. Call up the smartcurve plugin;
    2. Drag the window to the upper left corner, then drag the lower down corner grabber to maximize the window, this way you can see the preview photo will be maximized;
    3. On the right hand, press Auto button, you can see three new lines appear in curve charts, which are red, green, and blue. Same as Photoshop's tunnel, but it's automatic ! Very convenient, saving at least nine mouse steps! Now, if the 3 lines (or at least one) are distinctively away from the black line, you'll get a good result, so just jump to the next step. On the other hand, if all 3 lines are too close to the black line, barely noticeable, you may want to try another tool: the shadow and highlight eye-droppers:
    4. Just move the mouse around in the preview area to find the darkest and lightest points - look at the curve chart, there'll be a point moving when you move mouse, you can also keep an eye on the RGB value at the upper right corner. Find and remember the darkest and lightest points in the photo, and mark them with the two eye-droppers.
    5. Now, add 1 or 2 points to the black curve line, do a contrast adjustment or make the whole photo brighter or darker, it depends on the photo and your purpose.(Rightclicking a point will delete that point.)


    Press OK and go back to IrfanView. Use ctrl+Z and ctrl+J (undo and redo) to compare original photo and the result. If you're satisfied, save the changes.

    That's it.
    Last edited by Bhikkhu Pesala; 14.04.2015, 06:32 AM. Reason: Fixed English and Improved Formatting

    #2
    I've built a tool with Autohotkey, see the attached file. This will add hotkey "win+Q" to call out smartcurve plugin, as well as maximizing preview area. (it also adds "win+P" hotkey for perspective transformation plugin, in which it will press some buttons.)

    If you are not comfort with exe file, just look at my .ahk code and compile it on your own. Or just install Autohotkey and run .ahk as a script.

    In order for it to work, just make sure you put the .8bf plugin files into ...\Plugins\Adobe 8BF\ folder.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Bhikkhu Pesala; 14.04.2015, 06:27 AM.

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      #3
      Thanks for your efforts. I fixed your English a bit, and improved the post formatting, while moving the thread to the plugins forum, which is where I think it belongs.

      I could not find the smartcurve plugin in either forum, just a broken link to one. I am wary of downloading anything from some sites like Softepedia. If you have a trustworthy download source, please let us know. On others that I found the plugin was marked as discontinued.
      Before you post ... Edit your profile • IrfanView 4.62 • Windows 10 Home 19045.2486

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        #4
        Originally posted by Bhikkhu Pesala View Post
        I could not find the smartcurve plugin in either forum, just a broken link to one. I am wary of downloading anything from some sites like Softepedia. If you have a trustworthy download source, please let us know. On others that I found the plugin was marked as discontinued.
        OK, I'll upload mine here:
        Attached Files

        Comment


          #5
          As of now, the original website by the creator of the filter, Alois Zingl, is still online, including the download:

          SmartCurve, Photoshop Elements, filters, graphics, plugins, plugin, plug-in, plug-ins, Photoshop plugins, Photoshop filters, painting, drawing, rgb, curves, gradation curves, color counter, colour counter, display calibration, monitor calibration, calibration, gamma value, gamma, gamma test, white point, gray point, grey point, black point, shadows, midtones, highlights, photo-paint, paint shop pro, photoimpact, gimp, FilterMeister, paint, photoshop, photo, photograph, colors, colours, computer, display, monitor, software, digital image processing, process images, processing images, photography, easy, easy filter, easyfilter


          For all I know the filter was also included in the IrfanView 4.38 package (the Plugins part, I think)

          currently running 4.56 / 32 bit

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            #6
            The Smartcurve filter was one of the 8bf filters which, since v4.37, are now downloaded and installed automatically with the main Irfanview program. You do not need to search for it. You probably already have it. Just select Image > Adobe 8BF Plugins > SmartCurve.

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              #7
              FYI, the "Auto" function is approximately the same as Auto Level. And if you hit it holding SHIFT key, it will be equal to Auto Contrast, which is less dramatic but less color shift, comparing with Auto Level.

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                #8
                Thanks joshatt. Useful to know. The result when holding down the Shift key with Auto in Smartcurve looks very similar to what you get by using "Auto adjust colors" from the Image menu of Irfanview. Despite its name that is basically an Auto Level function too.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Mij View Post
                  ...very similar to what you get by using "Auto adjust colors" from the Image menu of Irfanview. Despite its name that is basically an Auto Level function too.
                  I just did a test: "Auto adjust colors" will make a photo brighter/whiter, while Auto in Smartcurve will make a photo darker.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by joshatt View Post
                    I just did a test: "Auto adjust colors" will make a photo brighter/whiter, while Auto in Smartcurve will make a photo darker.
                    Yes you are right, although "Auto adjust colors" does depend a bit on how light the original image was. It seems to do a bit of "Auto white balance" as well as adjusting contrast to improve details in areas of shadow but not very much Auto adjusting of colors. I expected "Auto" in Smartcurve with Shift pressed to do much the same but it does look as though it moves White balance in the wrong direction and makes the image darker, as you say.
                    Most of my pictures these days are taken with a camera that has already adjusted White level and optimized contrast so the "Auto adjust" features in Irfanview are not as useful as once they were.
                    The "Auto" button in Smartcurve (without Shift pressed) does seem to do a useful enhancement of colors in a drab image so I will probably continue to use that from time to time.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Mij View Post
                      Most of my pictures these days are taken with a camera that has already adjusted White level and optimized contrast so the "Auto adjust" features in Irfanview are not as useful as once they were.
                      I think most professional and semi-professional cameras do that these days, unless you deliberately disable these features before shooting. Heck, even my HTC Desire's 5 MP camera does it, which is why all indoor shots look terribly noisy.

                      There are good reasons to disable auto-white level and auto-contrast in the camera, if you can. Because desktop tools allow you more control and may be able to do the job with more precision, yielding better results.

                      You may also try "Auto Brightness", "Auto Contrast" and "Auto Levels" of the latest version of the IrfanView Filter Sandbox plug-in. They are fully automatic and process the image in floating-point precision, allowing much higher dynamic range. For images that are already normalized / maximized, the result will remain the same, i.e. they will not make images darker.

                      Auto Brightness - Increases the brightness of an image to the maximum possible without affecting color balance or contrast.

                      Auto Contrast - Increases the contrast of an image to the maximum possible without affecting color balance.

                      Auto Levels - Increases the contrast for each channel independently, affecting color balance. (If you've taken the photo with yellowish light, this will normalize the blue channel to equalize the color temperature back to white.)
                      Last edited by jewe.org; 31.05.2015, 11:28 AM.
                      IrfanView Filter Sandbox - Create and share your own image filters and effects.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by jewe.org View Post
                        You may also try "Auto Brightness", "Auto Contrast" and "Auto Levels" of the latest version of the IrfanView Filter Sandbox plug-in. They are fully automatic and process the image in floating-point precision, allowing much higher dynamic range. For images that are already normalized / maximized, the result will remain the same, i.e. they will not make images darker.

                        Auto Brightness - Increases the brightness of an image to the maximum possible without affecting color balance or contrast.

                        Auto Contrast - Increases the contrast of an image to the maximum possible without affecting color balance.

                        Auto Levels - Increases the contrast for each channel independently, affecting color balance. (If you've taken the photo with yellowish light, this will normalize the blue channel to equalize the color temperature back to white.)
                        Thanks for the info. I just downloaded Filter Sanbox in irfanview website. But there's no "Auto xxx" in it. Under "scripts" there're some "availabe effects", including "BlackBox",etc.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I don't think the new version of the Irfanview Sandbox filter has been released yet. It is certainly not included in the Effects plugin you can currently download from the Irfanview.com website.
                          If you click on the link at the bottom of the post from jewe.org it takes you to his website which shows you what his new version will look like.

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