Pinning a Logo
In this example I pin a logo to its nominal Lab color, and save that color as a pin for future use. In this case the logo color was determined by a spectrophotometer scan of the original art. The source image, shown below, is very close, but not exactly the same as what we need.
Although you may simply read this tutorial, your time will be better spent if you copy the original image to your hard drive, and follow the example in Photoshop. This goes for all of the examples.
The
left image is the original, taken by a digital camera.
On the right is the image after the red portion of the "Spy Ear" logo
has been pinned to its exact nominal lab values.
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1. If this is your first example, please check the instructions for an earlier example to see how to start Curvemeister within Photoshop. Start by alt-clicking on a red portion of the logo to create a sample point. Since this is a photograph, and subject to lighting variation, there will definitely be variation in the Lightness channel. In this case, there is also variation in the a and b channels. Be that as it may, use the hue clock to pick a spot that is more or less average. In this case, I will pick the upper sample as the pinning point. |
 Figure 1. In an imperfect world, there will be variation even within the solid color of the logo. We deal with this by looking for an average color. |
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2. Double click on the point whose Lab value we are going to pin, and enter the nominal Lab values for the logo. In this case, we use spectrophotometer measurements. In Photoshop, you would normally pick the designated spot color for your logo, using Photoshop's color picker. In Elements, you will need to get the Lab values for your spot color and illuminant. Click OK in the picker, and BOOM - see what we've got. |
 Figure 2. Manually enter the values, or click the Custom button to chase down a spot color. |
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3. Notice that the Lab values in the sample match the Lab values we typed in. By default, Curvemeister will create curve points that constrain the sample to the hue, saturation, and brightness. In this case it works fine, but ... |
  Figure 3. Lab was chosen as the color space for this result. RGB (on right) is often better for pinning, particularly when there is more than one pin. |
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4. For many images, such as product shots where the logo may vary in brigthess, you will do more justice to the remainder of the image, while still keeping the correct logo appearance, by pinning only the hue and saturation, and not the brightness. This requires only that we un-check the Brightnes item in the Pin Mode, and takes about one second to accomplish.
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 Figure 4. Better results are sometimes achieved by un-checking the pin mode's brightness option. |
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5. Here's the resulting image. Although it does not reproduce the brightness of the logo accurately, the Hue/Sat pin does a better job of preserving the remaining colors on the original art, which were more neutral in tone. |
 Figure 5. Pinning Hue and Saturation results in a darker logo, but a better overall match to the original art. |
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6. Are we done yet? Since this is a logo, we'll probably want to save it as a pin for later use. To do this, click on the "Save Sample as Pin" menu command. |
 Figure 6. |
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7. Supply the appropriate information to the Pin Edit dialog, and click OK to save your pin. |
 Figure 7. The Edit Pin dialog. You may change any and all information about your new pin here. |
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8. Voila! Our new pin is safely installed in the pin palette, ready to use next time. |
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