Idaho Airships, Inc.

Mike Russell’s CurveMeister, v3, is simply incredible.

I’m sorry that it took me so long to get around to investigating the latest version of this Photoshop Plug-in. I’m going to be very blunt about my conclusions.

1. I claim no expertise in software marketing, but I’d like Mike to know that I would have paid a good multiple of his asking price for v3. Its value as an image manipulation applet is equalled by its value as an instruction and diagnostic tool. As with medicine (I do hope this doesn’t trouble you…), sometimes a disease must be diagnosed not by its symptoms, but by which therapy works and how. In that respect, the Curves manipulations of CM (now referring to CurveMeister v3) are incredibly potent.

2. The independent Luminance Channel in CM’s HSB Working Gamut is a great improvement over the single PS option, Lab, to my way of thinking, since it is paired (obviously) with an single, independent Saturation Curve. Yeh, it’s carried over from v2, but it enjoys many improvements in control afforded by the new version. Incidentally, CM provides a symmetrical control that effectively combines Lab’s a and b into a single saturative control. Very kewl.

3. Mike has either created or acquired a Wide Gamut CMYK Working Space that has distinct advantages (as his excellent tutorials explain) in isolating the K (Black) constituent for low key manipulations. It also affords extremely precise control over Hue adjustments. Mike doesn’t explain much about the Gamut, stating only that it is mathematically equivalent to RGB (doesn’t that get your mind racing?). This too is a carry over from v2, made more potent by the improvements in v3.

3. I didn’t experiment enough with v2 to know if it would allow Curves, or segements of Curves to be rotated. However, I know v3 does, and it’s remarkable. I never even considered such a ”Transform” style capability (though I have effectively rotated those Curves by individually manipulating control points).

4. The Saturation Curve in Lab has a slider, which rotates the a and b Curves symmetrically. They may be initially or subsequently adjusted manually, and the slider does offer numerical input (but does not respond to Arrow Key increment/decrement).

5. v3 offers Masking. It’s an extremely well thought-out Masking, but it is relatively coarse (balanced for the advantages of ease and speed) compared to what can be accomplished in PS. To compensate for this, v3 allows the employment of Alpha Channels constructed in PS. Freakin’ brilliant!

6. There is a wide variety of workflow improvements in v3, such as the ability to highlight Curve effect and Masked areas, multiple and draggable “Hue Clocks” (you’ll have to see it to believe it…), and CM’s ability to export and import .acv’s (Photoshop Curve Files).

My higher grade (not batch- or simplified-process) workflow employs both CM and GamutVision to ensure that I’m either accurate (necessary for technical or forensic work) or effectively saturated and spatially idealized (necessary for various types of aesthetically purposed products). The importance of a properly selected Working Space, virtuous preparatory techniques (Adjustment Layers, Masking, Blending Modes, et. al.), and accurate color management cannot be overstated.

L