Hello –

This is the third issue of the Asiva Newsletter, and we thought we’d reiterate why we are sending these out. Asiva technology, although awesome, is a completely new concept to the still image world and with that comes a learning curve. We intend to help you out in any way to shorten the learning curve and help you to smoothly integrate Asiva into your everyday workflow. These newsletters will assist you in understanding all of the ins and outs of the software and the many ways it can help you with your work. Please stay tuned to the newsletter for new tips and tricks and explanations for Asiva. If there is anything you would like us to discuss, please feel free to contact us at: info@asiva.com.

Shapiro Consulting Group, Inc.

Correct vs. Apply Color

The two Asiva® Operations Correct Color and Apply Color may sound similar but are very different in how they work and how they should be used. These two Operations are found in Asiva Photo and in the Correct+Apply Color plug-in for Photoshop®. In the most general sense, Correct Color replaces one color with another color, and Apply Color paints a color on top of one or more colors. In other words, Correct Color 'replaces' the original color pixels with another color, and Apply Color simply applies a color on top or the original using a blend amount to create a new color. Both of these Operations use Asiva's three Maps (Hue, Asiva Saturation and Luminance) to specify the source colors to be affected and how much to affect them. They both have a Target Color you can choose and modify at any time. This makes it easy to create variations once you have the curves in your Maps set properly. However, the Apply Color Operation has a Blend Amount Slider not found in Correct Color.

The Correct Color Operation changes one or more colors in the source image to a user-specified Target Color, while trying to maintain the pre-existing range of shadows, mid-tones, and highlights that existed in the source color(s). Correct Color will create variations of saturation and luminance of the Target Color that best fit into what has been selected by the three Maps.

The appropriate use of Correct Color would be when you want to change some particular color or colors to a single other color, while maintaining the integrity of the existing shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. For example, Correct Color could be used to remove color-casts from drum-scanned images. It could also be used to change a range of tones existing in a face, say from magenta to reddish-brown, to a single consistent hue. A great use for this Operation is to create color-matched catalog items of different colors, from automobiles to apparel, where only one picture was taken.

The rest of this article can be read here.

The Value Of Good Pre-Production

Great post-production tools can very often save our behinds when something unexpected arises during the production process, but there is truly no substitute for careful planning and pre-production. The important basic processes of correct composition, set-up, lighting, exposure, correct film stock and shutter speed really have not changed despite the advancement of software technologies designed to correct some of the problems caused by incorrect pre-production decisions.

If you had a clear understanding of the technologies available and the ability to use them correctly, you would plan your production to give you the most flexibility during the post-production process. Good special effects directors and post production supervisors in the feature film industry understand this concept well. So much so that post-production colorists, editors and effects specialists are often very involved during the early pre-production and production stages of almost all modern features. Once the ‘film is in the can’, it’s often too late and expensive to make any major creative changes to the shot’s content, unless the shot was planned with that flexibility in mind.

The Asiva technology is a wonderful tool for enhancing your image by correcting color, brightness and saturation imbalance, as well as softening and sharpening detail. When used properly, it is very possible to achieve incredibly natural looking results. Masking, cutting, pasting and dramatic effects are not what Asiva is about. As with most other high-end, post-production tools, Asiva’s strengths are most apparent when used in conjunction with proper planning and execution.

Over the next few newsletters we will go into specific pre-production topics that will guide you through planning your next shoot to best utilize the capabilities of the Asiva technology. Understanding these topics will save you hours of grief after your 'film is in the can'.