Color Editor

Optics Pro used to have a color editor (Multi-Point Color Adjustment), but that functionality was dropped somewhere in the change from Optics Pro to PhotoLab. At the moment there is nothing within PL to use to do specific color editing and I was wondering if there was going to be a replacement for the old color editor in any future releases.

Mike,

You can do that with Upoint and then adapting selected color.

I guess I do not see how they are equivalent.

With a Color Editor you can select any color you wish and then adjust the HSL values for that color regardless of where in the image those colors are. Selecting the color is usually done with a picker tool so you get exactly the color you want.

With the U-Point functionality you have to first select the areas you want, which may be all over the photo, and then you can only adjust the hue, saturation, vibrance and so on. I do not see how to adjust the Luminance and it can be extremely difficult to select all of the places where the color exists. In fact you may not be able to do that at all, given that sky color, for example, shows up as reflections in all parts of the image.

I may be missing the correct way to use the U-Point technology, but what I see is a circle that encloses the selected area and that does not seem to me to be the same thing as selecting a single color and adjusting it.

Mike, I thought I knew OP pretty well … but I am unaware of it having a “Multi-Point Color Adjustment” tool (?)

Perhaps you’re referring to the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) tool ? - which is still part of PL.

  • If not, could you pls show us a screenshot of the tool in OP that you are referring to.

Regards, John M

We had in previous version (until 10?) a specific tool “color editor (Multi-Point Color Adjustment)” with which you could select a color, then replace it by a new color.
This was a Mac specific tool, not available in Windows version.

When local adjustments were coming, question was to continue to keep it, or make with new local corrections. It has been decided to remove it, and then aligned with windows version.

Mike,
probably new U-Point is not 100% equivalent, but I think we should be able to do the same with the TSL cursor (extreme right of the color palette of local correction with U-Point).
I’ve just tested replacing yellow by red, and I find it easier than with the previous tool, as I can refine the zone by adding new U-Point with the yellow slightly different which was not totally good, and then it’s ok.
Please note that I made this only for test purpose as I’m generally not changing colors in an image.

John
That was an old feature for Mac OS.

No, I was not referring to the HSL tool.

Optics Pro (on the Mac) has a Multi-Point Color Adjustment tool which could be opened by clicking on the icon in the menu bar. This opened a circular display with a single rotating “hand”. Rotating the hand changed the selected color to whatever color lay on the circular display and sliding the thumb on the “hand” changed the saturation.

To be honest it was not a great tool, at least in my opinion, but it did give me another option for modifying the display and its removal was a bit of a disappointment.

I think I still have Optics Pro on one of my older laptops so I will look and generate a screen shot to show you the tool. If I do not still have it installed I will reinstall it and do that same. Give me a bit of time. I am not sure if the same tool existed on the Windows version.

I have tried that, but all that I see is an adjustment to the Hue. There is no Luminance adjustment that I can find. And, again, that only affects what is inside the control-point. I sometimes need to adjust some color all over the image, not just in one localized section.

While I also am not generally “changing colors” in an image I found this tool to be helpful adjusting the sky. If it was too saturated I could reduce the blue saturation. If it was too dark I could change the Luminance, and it was much more color-specific than the HSL adjustment which acts with a broad brush in terms of what color ranges it changes. And, in places like Bryce Canyon National Park in the US, where the ground and rock formations are strongly yellow and red tinted, it allowed me to adjust large sections of an image in which the color was not accurate.

Please do not misunderstand. If I had to choose between the new U-Point functionality and the Color Editor I would quickly choose the U-Point functionality, but the color editor would be a nice addition, if possible.

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There are not only Upoints for Local Corrections.
The Graduated filter is perfect to do this.

Here is a screen shot of Optics Pro and the Multi-Point Color tool open.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n65y2f4wk2xmlnh/Multi_Point.jpg?dl=0

I would do the same choice, and until now I don’t regret this tool, as for my work I prefer the new “local” which can be somehow extend to global by appropriate selection to make color adjustments, and as Pascal wrote, not only the U-Point can do it but all local tool.
I’m also sometimes adjusting sky, and depending of context I use U-Point or Graduated filter.

Anyway, I’m not try to convince you that the previous tool is not adapted to your case, just trying to help giving some other possibilities with new tools supposed to replace the old one.

Wow - That looks like a pretty handy tool - - It was NOT available on the Win version (of OP).

I wonder why it was dropped ? … Seems it befell the same fate as Smart Lighting mode = Optics Pro 9 !

Regards, John M

It was a old Mac OS GUI who was harmful for this modern software.
The Hue correction in LC do the job.

Pascal

The tool was not very good and was dropped. It did not compare well with other similar tools and I can live with that loss.

If DxO added a possibility to pick colors in the HSL tool, I‘d be quite happy…

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Yep - That would be handy … t’would save having to guess between, say, Blue & Cyan !

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How was it “harmful” to the modern version? I do not understand.

As for using the Hue correction instead, I think it is not as useful. With the Multi-Point Color editor I was able to target specific colors for adjusting - that is, not just “green” but “this specific shade of green”. If they would add a color eye dropper to the HSL tool, then I would agree with you but without it the HSL tool is too broad a brush.

I dislike Lightroom and almost never use it (although I do have LR6 on my system), but it allows you to select a specific shade of any color with an eyedropper and adjust it. If PL did that I think would easily replace the Multi-Point Color Editor.

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Yes. Exactly!

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