A point on the color balance

[davidh]

The manual probing of the remove color picker does not set the neutral Add color to the same luminance as is described in the ColorBalance.pdf.
After opening the transformation, it stays either at the "auto with range extension" max value default setting or at the "auto without range extension" value if it was clicked on before the manual mode.
It never follows the luminance of the probed points of the input image automatically.

This seems to be common to PWP versions 5 - 7 beta (do not know, how it is in 4.x and older), but since nobody else has mentioned this so far, perhaps it is correct behavior after all.

[davidh]

I have just happened to find a way when the luminance do synchronize:

With the Remove color picker open and the probe button depressed the Add color picker luminance does not synchronize.
But if I then click on the Color balance dialog box, this "un-presses" or cancels the probe button on the Remove color picker and since then both color picker luminance values get synchronized.
Is it a bug or have I just "discovered America"?

[den]

This is by design...

The Remove and/or Add Color Picker Probes will update the Remove/Add color pairs of the ColorBalance transform's Probe whose Add colors are selected to neutral gray the Remove colors.

Changing the transform's Probe selections allows for color matching a series of images for similar tone/colors... ...a consistent 'golden hour' color cast for a photo series, for example.

By experience, if a Remove or Add Color Picker Probe is 'active'... ...care must be used when navigating among images open in the work space as one might inadvertly click 'in-frame' selecting an un-wanted color!!!

Also the Color Picker dialogs operate in the HSV color space model and by switching from RGB to HSV notations, it may make what you are seeing more intuitive, especially when matching a Remove HSV-V and an Add HSV-V... ...rather then trying to track 'luminance' which is not necessarily intuitituve.

...den...

[davidh]

Den, thanks for the details. In fact, not long after I posted the point I found that to remove a color cast it is not necessary to get the color picker and activate the probe. All that has to be done (after you disable the auto white) is just to click in the image where white or neutral gray is expected. Very simple. Until now I have always used the probe to do it.
David

[jsachs]

For some reason, the code to set the Color to Add to have the same luminance as the Color to Remove had been commented out so I restored it - hopefully this will not create some other problem elsewhere. There were also some problems with the status of some points being reported incorrectly as Error when they were OK which I also fixed.