Curves

The Curves control offers four groups of Curves parameters to give you precision control over smooth contrast and color adjustments. There are individual controls for adjusting the Red, Green and Blue channels as well as all RGB channels together. The RGB Curves, in particular, are good for the power user or color finisher. Curves provide a quick way to boost colors or get a film-like contrast in the image.

How the Curves work

The unique part of Curves in Colorista III is that it gives you the ability to create strong contrast, but keeps you from automatically losing color data. With other Curves tools like After Effects' Curves plugin, the weighted curve by default will clip or crush itself at the blacks or whites. You will at times accidentally over-correct and lose Shadow or Highlight information because of this functionality.

With our Curve, we make it really hard to lose information in the shadows and highlights. We give you blended curves so you're not pulling individual color values as you would in a different curves control, and are not clipping or crushing. You have to set Curves to their extreme values in order to clip or lose data. When you adjust the Midtones, you never touch the pure white or pure black at the end of the curve. This lets you add a pleasing contrast adjustment.

Left to right, Colorista Curves and After Effects' Curves. The Shadow's black point gets crushed in the AE Curves but not in Colorista.

Curves graph

Curves is weighted for three regions: the Shadows, Midtones and Highlights. Each control is weighted to a segment of the graph curve. There is an aggressive tapering that is built into the curve.

- Shadows: These controls weighted along the bottom portion of the curve, blending into the midpoint. Represented by a full black circle.
- Midtones: These controls are weighted from the middle point, but it blends all the way into the Shadows and almost into the Highlights. Represented by a grey circle.
- Highlights: These controls are weighted to the top portion of the curve, blending into the midpoint. Represented by a white circle.
- Contrast: These controls create an S-curve between the Shadows and the Highlights. Represented by a half white/half black circle.

RGB, Red, Green, Blue Curves

When you click a Curve button, you activate the controls for a single color channel or for all three channels together. For instance, when you click the Red button, you activate the Red color channel. When you click the RGB button, you activate the Red, Green and Blue channels.

Each color channel has its own graph display and subgroup of controls. For instance, when you adjust the Green Contrast slider, the Green button and Green graph are active.

The subgroups are RGB Curves, Red Curves, Green Curves and Blue Curves. Each of the four Curves subgroups allow adjustment on individual color channels or all channels together.

The Green channel's button, graph and subgroup.