ColorWasher2: a review

[Erik]

PLEASE NOTE: this specific review is an exception (for its length/detail). It was written before this board was created and included here to help kick off the board. But general "user-to-user" reviews should be much shorter than this.
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[size=18px]ColorWasher2:[/size] a plugin for correcting photographs

Introduction

When light hits the photo-sensitive area of a camera it is measured and a mean value is calculated following the algorithms the manufacturer has built in. This means that extreme differences of light intensity are usually misinterpreted. This also means that a photograph taken under special conditions, like artificial light and sunset, often shows an unwanted colour cast. Add to this the mistakes in exposure, don't forget that the machines that create paper copies of your negatives, slides or files have an ?average? setting too, and you quickly get an idea why so many photographs are unsatisfactory, because they?re either too dark or contain colours that are washed out, or show a visible colour cast.
In the days of the real darkroom, colour photography was expensive and difficult because film was very sensitive to several external conditions like temperature, the number of times the baths had been used etc. For most photographers, there was no real alternative to having their pictures printed. Often they would get results that were really disappointing.
Since the digital revolution has begun, things have gotten better. Many people nowadays own a scanner that delivers quality no professional scanner could deliver less than say, seven years ago. Computers are fast and powerful and the digital darkroom is within the reach of many. Several companies produce high-quality software with a really incredible set of tools to manipulate pixels; and yet something is still missing.
Although many companies try to make the software as easy to use as possible, colour-correcting photographs is cumbersome and a lot of experience and a fairly good knowledge of the software is needed. Without histograms, levels, curves, adjustment layers and masks it?s difficult to obtain acceptable results. Many people who spend a lot of money end up with a feeling of disappointment as the learning curve of the recommended software is quite steep, and, without at least six months of intense study, the goal they aimed at, namely to be able to enhance their photographs, proves to be unattainable within the period of time and the effort they want to invest.
Other people, professionals and so-called prosumers still face the limits of the available tools in their favourite software (no better proof of this than the regular updates) or the fact that the tools are not grouped into one window. Which is why I was testing out some add-on applications.

Many plug-ins have appeared in recent years, some more expensive than some others, but not one has ever truly given me the feeling of "this is it". This changed when I ran into ColorWasher1 by Harald Heim. I tested it out, wrote a review on it and gave it the rating "highly recommended". But at that moment mr.Heim told me that he was working on a new version, and asked me to join the beta-test team. Which I did because of my enthusiasm for v1, and also to see which of the things I thought could be improved would be added or implemented.
This plug-in offers good value for your money and is clearly conceived by a someone who is well aware of a photographer's needs, and knows how to offer a solution to these needs by developing really outstanding software.

One last remark: this is a very personal review, and I hope you don't mind my saying that I normally don't care too much for plug-ins. Most of them are like puddings: they taste good, but they don't give the necessary nourishment to live on. So I approached this plugin with the idea of proving that I could do more in my favourite software, than with these plugins. But this proved to be wrong in version1, and version two really outperforms the big applications in all situations it covers.


My test setup

Home-built Pentium IV 3.06GHz HT with 1,5GB DDRam and Radeon9800Pro 128MB graphics card; English Win XPPro, Photoshop 7.01 as host and an IIyama VisionMaster Pro 454 set to 1600x1200 pixels as main monitor. The monitor is calibrated every forthnight.

[Erik]

I. An Introduction to Colour Correction

The standard procedure of colour correction is to find an area that should be neutral grey, then look in the Info palette of Photoshop (or another application) what values the pixels in this area have and adjust these to a mean value that is entered in the R,G and B channels. This quest for grey is a very personal interpretation, as many neutral areas are in reality not grey, but something close to it. Uniform: yes, but not greyed out.

The complete workflow is more complicated: most professionals need four steps to achieve the goal.

First the contrast needs to be adjusted. Not too much, but certainly not too little either. Of course this is not done with the contrast and brightness tool of the application, but with a Levels tool in which the three channels are individually set to their maximum. This results in a gapped histogram.

Secondly, an eventual colour cast must be removed. Herefore we need a curves adjustment layer on which we set neutral values for highlights, dark shadows and, eventually, a really grey object.
We also pay attention to skin tones. Why? Because we are very sensible to them, and any cast on them would destroy our correction.

In a third step, we adjust saturation.

In a fourth step we sharpen the image. But that falls outside this review. Mr. Heim has a plug-in for that called "FocalBlade", and I will review that one later.

You can do this in most applications. But, as said: for many people this is very tricky to do, and for these a plug-in like ColorWasher2 comes in very handy, most certainly because it can correct most photographs accurately in Easy-Mode. If you are a prosumer or a professional, you will be impressed by what it can do without you touching any tool or slider, and if you want to finetune (most often you'll have to admit that the solution it offers at least equals your own) or attack that difficult file it cannot do automatically, you'll find a lot of tools and options you didn't even find in Photoshop. And those you do find are outperformed by their CW2 challengers.


II. The Manual

Colorwasher comes with a very complete 60-pages thick pdf and html manual. It includes detailed instructions on how to install the software in the most commonly used applications the plug-in can work with, a good introduction to monitor calibration and an overview and an in-depth covering of its tools and options. It also includes a list with shortcuts.
I like the fact that it is written in an understandable language and comes with a lot of good advice, tips and tricks (the tenth tip for tough cases is o so true!) and that the real technical terms are as often as possible replaced by their better-known equivalent.
The manual can be printed. A critique I had on the printable version of CW1, namely that printed result is a bit chaotic because of a lack of clearly discernable titles and chapters has been taken care of. The only thing I miss a bit is a table of contents. But that is easily made if it is really needed.


III. Installing and Interface

I had no problems installing ColorWasher. Photoshop users are often treated as the main users -the plug-ins are after all called "Photoshop compatible" plug-ins- and therefore much software refers to the plug-ins folder of Adobe's flagship. Not this one: here, all applications are equal, so everyone has to browse to the plug-ins folder of her/his software whilst installing. Don't forget to do this or you will have to start again.
I did this on purpose: I installed the plug-in in the default folder, uninstalled it and then, finally, installed it in the correct folder. I didn't meet any problems.
Amongst the applications in which you can install this plug-in (andI don't want to say that these are the best, only perhaps the best known) are the inevitable Photoshop, Photopaint, PaintshopPro, Canvas and Photo Express, but also IrfanView, Freehand, Illustrator, Xara X and Righ Hemisphere Deep Paint.
As will be covered later on, the interface has two appearances: one for quick and easy mode, and one that shows all options. Changing between both is done by checking a box in the bottom left-hand corner. Quick and easy mode only shows the automatic and semi-automatic (dropdown boxes with several choices per item) settings.

[Erik]

easy mode:

[Erik]

This is the Easy Mode interface.

The checkbox to switch to Expert Mode can be found on the bottom left-hand side. You see the preview, set to Right View (the view at the right displays the corrected image) and the new Multple mode which shows the same image in both views. Apart from the three Auto buttons which cover most casts you can meet, you'll notice that you can still set a cast type, the contrast (the prefered contrast can be very personal) and an exposure fix to correct eventual mistakes in the exposure of your photograph. You'll also notice the textbox. This is a superb idea as it displays really good comments, hints and tips. More on this lin a minute.

Another thing I wished for when reviewing CW1 was a larger preview. The new CW2 interface dialog is resizable, so you can set it to your own wishes.

Apart from the usual Cancel and OK buttons and a question mark that opens the html version of the manual, there is also a Reset button. This resets to the default values as far as Cast Types and its sliders is concerned. To get the image as it is loaded in your application, you need to manually set both Auto Contrast and Exposure Fix to Off as Reset sets them to their default settings.

There is also an Instant Preview button. This is self-explanatory and it is quite logical that on slower machines its functioning depends on the size of the previewed image.

There is a dropdown list with a series of sizes in which the image can be seen in the preview. Yet there is no option (and no necessity in my opinion) for a preview that is larger than 100%.

There is a Neutral button that, when clicked, displays the areas CW considers as being neutral (which does not mean that they are considered as grey!), and a B/W button to save impossible files in black and white.
The preview offers a lot of options.The dropdown list offers ways to split the image so that the uncorrected and the corrected results can be seen together, options to see different cast types and stripes for hue, exposure etc. These stripes reminded me of the hours spent in the improvised darkroom developing black and white photographs. One great option is that it is easy to move the separating line between two spits by holding down Alt while dragging it.
Another handy feature of the preview is when the zoom function is set to optimal, right-clicking activates the possibility to drag the image so as to see additional parts. (Optimal gives the largest view, meaning that the image isn't displayed fully unless it is square.).

And last but certainly not least, there is the text box. This is the first software I know of that comments your every move immediately, that gives advice like a sample area being overexposed, too dark or just fine. This is not only funny: it allows one to start immediately without having to study the complete manual. Even for seasoned pros the texts are worth reading. There is an option to not display the texts, but I don't think I will ever use it or advize anyone to shut this help option down.

[Erik]

advanced mode:

[Erik]

This is the Expert Mode interface.

You can see how this window has a different size. This is because I adjusted it to the size of this photograph.

You will notice that now you have five Auto cast removing modes, and tabs that handle Cast, Color, Brightness, Extras, Help, Histo, Info and Prefs. More on these later. The histogram at the bottom right is really only one out of the many, as well in appearance as in data it displays.

You will also notice that Expert Mode offers the option to save presets and to re-use them. This can come in very handy, for example when you have to create a larger version of your file and need to colour-correct it again, or when you have to remove a knwn cast like that of a negative film.

In Expert Mode, the reset button is controlled by the set preferences for it. These include an "own defaults" setting which can be saved and re-opened.

[Erik]

IV. Tools and Results

As all tools from the easy Mode are also available in Expert mode, I will only cover this latter one.

The Cast Tab
Aside from the five Auto modes for removing colour casts, CW 2 offers a dropdown list of several cast types. In most cases Autodetect will work fine, but sometimes it can be better to choose a specific cast type yourself. But the most useful tool is undoubtably the Sample Area tool.

In the preview window, you can click, hold and drag a sample area. To work well with the built-in algorithms, this should be "neutral". Be shure the help text box will tell you whether you made a good choice, or a bad one. In case of doubt, and if you're not very experienced b(yet), you can click the Neutral button which shows you the areas that CW considers to be neutral. Drag your sample area and click one more time on the Neutral button to go back to normal view.

For most images, the first four Auto buttons give an astonishingly good result. The first three are more conventional and cover 95% or more of what can be achieved with these automatic settings. These are the three that are available in Easy mode. For people who used the previous version of ColorWasher, a word of caution is well at its place here as the first and second mode now have changed places: now the first button looks at the midtones and the sacond one at the complete file.The third still looks at the highlights.
The fourth one is a new one, and combines the two of the first three that gave the best results ( as seen by CW2's internal algorithms.
The fifth one, in the previous version number four and nicknames "the smurf" can be useful for very strong casts, but I only got special effects with it, which is not what I was looking for right now.

The Cast Type section comes with a dropdown list with several algorithms ranging from Auto-detect for most files over a special algorithm for treating old bleached photographs to a setting that is also mostly an effect producer. In full mode, each setting can be adjusted with a slider and a precise checkbox. Being used to having to do a lot of tweaking, I used it a lot while testing, but I have to admit that Auto-detect produced nearly always the beter result. Used together with a Sample Area it usually hits the nail on the head. As said, this Sample Area can easily be chosen as the interface comments on one's choice and, in case of doubt, there is the Neutral Button to help you out.
There is now also a cast statistics text label. Here you get information on the data of the cast, its removal, and of the efficiency of CW2's settings.

The Color Tab
The color tab offers another set of tools for attacking casts. Not only there are five different colour models available:RGB, HSL, LAB, the exotic YCbCr and Temperature with the appropriate sliders, there is also a source and a target color box, and a balance button to preserve the images' brightness. Good work here!

The Brightness Tab
As said in the introduction to colour correction, other important items when it comes to colour correction are the contrast and saturation settings. The Brightness tab deals with these.

The Auto Contrast section comes with a dropdown list with Off and five degrees of contrast, varying from mild to extreme, and also a manual mode. Whichever one is chosen, it can be adjusted with the accompanying slider although this seldom produces a better effect than the Auto settings that were calculated by the software's algorithms. In many of my tests, Mild proved to be better than Normal, but this may well be because of my way of taking pictures. Intense is usually too contrasty, but it can do wonders on really wshed out pics. There is also a "boost" option to enhance contrast even more.

The Exposure Fix section has eight different modes and an off-setting. These eight include the expected range from mild to extreme, an autoselect, and three settings that put emphasis on darks, midtons and highlights. There are also sliders that allow fine-tuning of exposure and sensitivity.

There are also boxes to keep saturation constant and also to remove gaps in the histogram. I checked this several times, and it works very well.
The moment you work on contrast, it is advisable to switch to the Histo tab as it displays the histogram (see later), and to read the manual as that gives very useful info on when to use which setting.


The Extras Tab
Here you find sliders to adjust brightness of highlight and shadows, and also sliders that control the contrast of these two adjustments. The BW button can really be of good use with these as the colour info is hidden. Clicking the BW button a second time takes you back to full-colour setting.
The saturation slider allows for adjustment of the saturation. Nothing special here, if it weren't for a dropdown list with several saturation methods that compensate the effect of colur lost due to a cast. The results are impressive.

The Help Tab displays the text help I mentioned earlier. One good advice: never ever turn tis off!

The Prefs tab contains the preferences options: how you want CW to be at start up, what should happen when you press Reset etc.

The Info Tab offers additional info. I prefer to display either the Help or the Histo tab here. One of the most important features on this tab is the option to have CW2 show blown-out highlights.

The Histo Tab is another jewel. It offers four different diplay modes: filled, gradient, line and dot, and ten different histogram options (RGB, Intensity, Luminosity, Red, Green, Blue, Saturation, Lightness and Colors). I have never ever encountered so many options. And it also shows labels with which value occurs most often (peak), the average value (mean), and how the file can be divided in shadows, midtones and lights.

Yet, and this is so remarkable, in most cases a simple Sample Area will perform a very accurate correction.


V. Conclusion

Being used to a lot of work and even more tweaking, at first I mistrusted the Automatic and Semi Automatic settings. But nearly never I could come up with a better result. And all images I tried were, if not fixed, then at least visibly enhanced.
In my opinion this plug-in can be used by photographers that want to correct their pictures without having to take up first a study in complicated software -this knowledge can come naturally when gaining experience over time. It is also a very welcome add-on for those who are used to do colour correction in their favourite software: not only because of its speed but also because all necessary tools are available on one interface. It can also be very udeful for people that are not photographers but who create files like 3D renders (poser, Bryce,...perhaps even high-end applications) and fractal artists.
ColorWasher2 handles large files easily and without using all of your system's resources. Version2 is noticeably faster than version1. Also, I never had my system freeze or crash. (I must add that I have PS' swap file one a small partition of 1GB all for itself and nothing else.) It can now also run in 16bit mode, yet neither in LAB or CMYK. As These are not that important when it comes to colour correction, this is not something I miss.

What can it not do? It cannot fix the effects of a flash (red eyes, over-exposed areas,...). It cannot fix the artifacts of a low-quality jpeg. It also cannot repair the general view of an unevenly lit photograph. But when used with layers and masks and applying the result to selections on separate layers, a lot can be done. And as always, much easier and quicker than without it. It cannot repair noise on badly lit film that is pushed from Iso 200 to iso1600 and is still under exposed. Yet it still manages to get decent results (in Expert Mode of course)

Indeed, I have some wishes. Wishes like the the complete set of photo plug-ins as a standalone version (even Ctrl+Alt+F becomes too much after a while). And also that one day there will be a version for the mac.
Speaking of laziness: there is also a cloak mode that allows to use the plug-in on a series of pictures as this way ColorWasher can be used in a Action and this action can be Batch processed.

I cannot come up with anything really negative. ColorWasher is a plugin I will use and use again and II simply wouldn't want to restart correcting my photographs as I did before.

Final verdict: It was a real pleasure to test this plug-in. Seeing as its price is so reasonable, I can only say:

Highly Recommended!


VI. Where to get it?

http://www.thepluginsite.com
normal price: $49.95 (+16%VAT if you live in the EU) download
upgrade price: $24.95 (+16%VAT if you live in the EU) download and free if you ordered CW in 2004

Some Examples?
If you wish to see some example images please head to The PluginSite url mentioned above.