Colormancer Documentation

Please note that updated and more extensive documentation can be found online at http://colormancer.com/support/colormancer/manual.htm

• Installation Instructions
• System Requirements
• Quick start guide
• Controls in-depth
• Support

Installation Instructions

System requirements

Mac:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3
• OS X 10.4.0 or higher
• PowerPC or Intel processor (the plug-in is a Universal binary that works on both platforms)

Windows:

• Adobe Photoshop CS, Photoshop Elements 2 or higher
• Windows XP/Vista

Quick Start

• The three most useful controls are Contrast, Brightness, and Saturation.
  
  Most images will benefit from a boost in Contrast, usually in the range of around 6 to 14. As with all the controls, you can drag the slider around to adjust the setting to taste.
  
  Some (but not all) images will benefit from an adjustment to Brightness. Decreasing brightness can make an image darker and moodier while increasing brightness can help flatten out shadows. Be aware that adjusting Brightness will have an effect on perceived contrast. To compensate, increase the Contrast setting when increasing Brightness and vice versa.
  
  The Saturation control does what its name suggests. Adjust it to taste.
  
• The Reset button will reset all controls to their default neutral positions. This can be helpful when starting with a new image.
  
• Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the proxy (preview area). Click and drag the proxy area to move around in it.
  
• The other controls (Brightness/Contrast Adjust, Luminance Compensation, and the Luminance coefficients for red, green, and blue) change the effect of brightness, contrast, and saturation. In many cases, their effect is quite subtle so these controls can be ignored.
  
• Note that Colormancer can be used as a Smart Filter (*Photoshop CS3 required). It can also be combined with other filters such as Shadow/Highlight to recover any shadow detail that may be crushed when enhancing contrast.

That's all you need to know to get started!

Controls In-depth

Brightness: This changes overall brightness of the image similar to the effect of the Midtones slider in Photoshop's Levels adjustment.

Contrast: This increases contrast in the image by applying a s-shaped curve to the image. This is equivalent to using a s-shaped curve in Photoshop's Curves adjustment.

Brightness/Contrast Adjust: This control changes the Brightness and Contrast algorithms and alters their effect. Higher values tend to make the image appear more pastel. Lower values will make saturated colors darker. This value does nothing if both brightness and contrast are at neutral positions.

Saturation: Higher values increase saturation. Saturation is never increased in a way that would cause clipping. Each pixel is evaluated individually. Negative numbers can be used to create negative saturation.

Luminance compensation: This control changes the saturation algorithm. If set to 0, luminance compensation will be disabled. Without this, increasing saturation will increase the luminance of saturated colors, making them brighter than they should be. The default setting (1.0) will maintain constant luminance so that saturation adjustments do not affect luminance at all.

Luminance coefficients: These are the co-efficients, or weightings, used to calculate luminance. Changing these settings will adjust the weight given to each color in the saturation algorithm. In most cases the effect is subtle and you do not need to adjust these parameters.

Show original: Toggle this button to see the image without any effect applied.

Support

For technical support, please visit http://www.colormancer.com/support/