Custom Curves

While the Color Wheels are excellent for general balancing, they are broad. If you adjust the Lift wheel, it primarily affects the shadows, but it also gently affects the lower midtones to ensure a smooth transition.

If you need surgical precision—for example, you want to crush the absolute deepest blacks without affecting the dark gray shadows at all—you must use Custom Curves.

The Master Curve

The Curves panel is located next to the Color Wheels. By default, it displays the YRGB Custom Curve.

  • The bottom-left corner represents pure black.
  • The top-right corner represents pure white.
  • The diagonal line represents the current state of the image.

Creating an S-Curve (Adding Contrast)

The most common use of the Master Curve is to create an "S-Curve", which adds contrast in a highly filmic, organic way.

  1. Click on the line near the bottom-left to create a control point (the Shadows).
  2. Drag this point slightly downwards to darken the shadows.
  3. Click on the line near the top-right to create another control point (the Highlights).
  4. Drag this point slightly upwards to brighten the highlights.

Your line now looks like a gentle "S". You have increased contrast without clipping the absolute brightest or darkest pixels.

HSL Curves (Hue, Saturation, Luminance)

Beyond the master curve, Oraphim offers a suite of advanced HSL curves that allow you to target specific parameters based on other parameters.

1. Hue vs. Hue

Changes one specific color into another color.

  • Use Case: The client wants the blue car to be green.
  • Click on the blue part of the color spectrum line. Oraphim adds three dots. Drag the center dot up or down to cycle the blue pixels through different hues until the car becomes green.

2. Hue vs. Saturation

Increases or decreases the saturation of a specific color.

  • Use Case: The grass is too vibrantly green and distracting from the actors.
  • Click the green section of the line. Drag the center point downwards to desaturate only the green pixels, leaving the rest of the image colorful.

3. Hue vs. Luminance

Changes the brightness of a specific color.

  • Use Case: A red stop sign in the background is too dark.
  • Click the red section of the line. Drag the center point upwards to brighten the red pixels without affecting the exposure of the rest of the scene.

4. Luminance vs. Saturation

Changes saturation based on how bright the pixel is.

  • Use Case: Cinematic film print emulation. Film stocks naturally lose color saturation in the deepest shadows and the brightest highlights.
  • Drag the very bottom-left point (black) down to 0 saturation. Drag the very top-right point (white) down to 0 saturation. This ensures your pitch-black shadows are purely black, with no ugly colored noise.