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In the lower right corner of the window is a cluster of items:
The Linear checkbox is a special control that is intended to be used for specific situations only. Most users will not use it at all. This control is displayed only for 16-bit per channel images, and should be used only if you know that the image data is linear (i.e. from a gamma = 1.0 source). Images of this type may be produced by certain high end scanners, digital cameras and scan backs. A linear image, when viewed uncorrected on a monitor, will typically look very dark. If you know that your image is linear, the Linear checkbox will do a better job correcting it than using just the global Brightness control. SmartColor will attempt to determine whether 16-bit per channel images are linear, so if you know that you will not be working with linear images, you may want disable this feature of SmartColor by unchecking the Linear checkbox in the SmartColor Preferences window.
Clicking the Preferences... button will open the Preferences window.
Clicking the Undo button will undo the last correction that was made, whether it resulted from changing a slider, clicking SmartColor or Reset, or sampling a neutral pixel for color balance.
When the master SmartColor Mode checkbox is checked, automatic corrections are determined and kept current for all of the edit tools, as described earlier in the SmartColor Mode section of this User Guide. The initial state of this checkbox is determined by the Start With preference. If you uncheck the checkbox, all of the current settings remain unchanged (whether they were set automatically or not). Unchecking the checkbox simply turns off the automatic updating of settings from that point on. If the SmartColor Mode checkbox is rechecked, automatic updating is re-enabled, and automatic settings are immediately updated based on the currently active edit tool. That is, if the Black/White Point tool is currently active, the automatic Brightness/Contrast and Hue Selective settings are recalculated.
If you want to use SmartColor without having the settings kept current for you as you work, you can turn off SmartColor Mode, and click the SmartColor button when you want to apply automatic corrections. Note that there is also a SmartColor button inside the edit tool panel. This button will only calculate settings for the controls in the current edit tool panel, and will affect the settings of the other three tools only if the master SmartColor checkbox is checked.
You can further customize SmartColor's behavior, as described in the SmartColor Prefs section of this User Guide.
Clicking the Prev button will uncheck the SmartColor Mode checkbox, and will set all edit parameters to the values that were used on the previous image.
Clicking the Custom button will uncheck the SmartColor Mode checkbox, and will set all edit parameters to the values that were loaded with the Load Custom Settings... button in the Preferences window. If custom settings have not been loaded, the Custom button will be equivalent to the Reset button.
Shortcut Tip:You can load custom settings and immediately apply them by holding down the key while clicking the Custom button. This is equivalent to opening the Preferences window, clicking the Load Custom Settings button, selecting a custom settings file, clicking OK to return to the main EditLab window, and then clicking the master Custom button.
You can save the current color correction in a parameter file at any time, using the Save Custom... button.
Clicking the Reset button will also uncheck the SmartColor Mode checkbox, and will set all color correction parameters to values that effectively turn the edit off completely.
Note that there are also SmartColor, Prev, Custom and Reset buttons inside the edit tool panel. These buttons will modify the selected edit tool, and will affect the settings of the other three tools only if the master SmartColor Mode checkbox is checked.
Check the Sharpen checkbox to apply unsharp masking to the image. Check the Remove Noise checkbox to apply an adaptive noise removal filter to the image. Click the Setup... button to open the Sharpen / Remove Noise setup window, from which you can set parameters that control the strength of these effects. Although they are not color correction tools, it can be helpful to apply sharpening and noise removal in combination with color correction, such as in a case where noise in an image is exaggerated by a color transformation.
Note that SmartColor and Reset do not affect sharpening and noise removal. If you typically sharpen your images, you can turn sharpening on and it will stay on until you explicity turn it off by unchecking the checkbox, or by loading previous or custom settings in which sharpening was disabled.
If you click Cancel, you will close the image without change. The next image in the Queue will be opened automatically.
The last button, located in the lower right corner, is used to apply the completed color edit in the manner stated on the button. If you recall, EditLab can operate in any of four different modes:
The current mode is determined by the Preferences. However, if you hold down the key while you repeatedly click this button, the modes are cycled through — a convenient way to change modes without visiting the preferences panel.
These four modes are described in detail in Chapter 9.
Let's now proceed to the use of each specific edit tool.
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