am I over-leveling?

[sl^sh3r]

Hi,
sorry, but I'm just a n00b at cleaning (started today xD)

just wanted to get some opinions on whether I am over-leveling the pages or not?

Here's a raw :-
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/t120633_raw.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i120633_raw.jpg)
Here's the page after I cleaned it :-
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/t120634_final.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i120634_final.jpg)

Thanks a lot for the help :D

[Allashandra]

I'm sorry to say but yes that is overleveled. You reduced the white area to point of removing the gray tone in the panel on the upper right hand corner. That gray tone was intended to be there. And then to compensate for over doing the whites you brought the blacks into a condition where much of the anti-alias is now gone. I suggest you read Angry'sleveling tutorial (http://mangahelpers.com/forum/index.php?topic=6022.0). That should give you some insights into how to level.

Here is how I would have leveled that page.

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6039/examplebc0.th.png (http://img64.imageshack.us/my.php?image=examplebc0.png)

Notice that there is still a strip of gray dirt down the right side of the page. That is a result of not debinding the tank/book before scanning and it's called gutter shadow. You should never try to level to point of getting rid of gutter shadow since that will make the rest of the page incorectly leveled. You will need to use other techniques to get rid of that. Where it is all white space just paint with white. There are a few methods to use for the patterned area like the dodge tool, clone tool, or making a patch with copy and paste. All of these methods have their pros and cons though.

I hope this helps

[sl^sh3r]

No, I didn't try to level to the point of removing the gutter shadow.
I had just assumed that the gray in the upper right panel was part of the gutter shadow and thus removed it completely.
I used the brushes to remove the gutter shadow at the bottom of the page.
Anyways, thanks a lot for the help !
Oh and apart from the upper right panel, did I over-level the bottom two panels as well?

[Allashandra]

Yes the blacklines in all the areas are overleveled. They now have jagged edges that should be smoother.

[sl^sh3r]

thanks a lot!

what about now?

raw :-
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9607/wanpi0016xj3.th.jpg (http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wanpi0016xj3.jpg)
clean :-
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/582/wanpicleanedif9.th.jpg (http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wanpicleanedif9.jpg)

[manu]

I suggest you learn how to denoise. Um really it has nothing to do with leveling but its a very important step that gets done before leveling. Somewhere in the forums there should be a tutorial.

[GGpX]

These forums need to teach you how to do adjustment layers (Or like I call 'em, Level Layers). You screw up the leveling? Big deal! Delete the layer and try again. Instead of "Delete the picture and try again"


Now, for all you crazy people who want to level these pages (I do mean crazy...I mean...leveling a raw? you must be insane), here's a quick, easy tutorial on how to do so (assuming you're using photoshop):

1. open up your raw
2. hit the small button that is half-black half-white, and choose the 'levels' option
http://www.illuminati-manga.com/Anath/picture1.jpg
http://www.illuminati-manga.com/Anath/picture2.jpg
3. level as usual
4. hit okay when you're done, and the leveling will be on its own layer, with your edit being ready to be re-leveled at the touch of a couple buttons.

Thanks to Anath from oishii-manga for the quick guide ~

[sl^sh3r]

instead of doing that....can't I just delete the level in the history tab...that takes 2 seconds
(although that method does have its advantages especially if I want to re-level panels in saved files instead of changing the level of the whole page.....)

[Vato Loco!]

Personally I think you might have under leveled the whites. Or if you think that's the best you can do the whites, then I would have taken the middle slide button (for the grays) and brought it closer to the black slide to get rid of most of the gray dust (usually if I'm gonna try for an HQ page since I'll be re-doing it all). Otherwise, I would try to get it with only the black or white slide buttons because the gray slide will affect all of the grays not just dust.

[Fnuckale]

Okay, so I decided to level the gutter out on this one, it just takes like 2 minutes and the result is pretty cool:
http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/5822/untitled1iz0.png

[sl^sh3r]

no that was pro : O
Not only did you remove the gutter but you also kept the gray shadow :O
And one more thing,
I finally managed to complete my Sogeking clean.
Can you just tell me how you would rate this clean ? (Hope its not LQ T_T)
The original page and a semi-clean (without cleaning the sfx) was posted above.....
Thanks again :)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/61/sfx111hq9.th.jpg (http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sfx111hq9.jpg)

[Fnuckale]

Isn't there an expelenation about the quick mask in the cleaner's compandium?

Well I'd give the sogeking page MQ at most, because the lineart is a bit grungy, still a bit of dust in the blacks here and there and I don't really like the pattern you used for the sfx.

[sl^sh3r]

sorry about that, I just realized that I had to press the inverse button to select only the area I wanted to mask.......

[beautifuldreamer1289]

heres my version of that level.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5287/wanpi0016xj3ba4.th.jpg (http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wanpi0016xj3ba4.jpg)

note that the white area is alot cleaner



instead of doing that....can't I just delete the level in the history tab...that takes 2 seconds
(although that method does have its advantages especially if I want to re-level panels in saved files instead of changing the level of the whole page.....)
you cant do that cuz it will go back and undo the leveling u did after making the levels layer. just delete the layer itself.

and on the finished clean, yes well, u still over leveled. read the leveling tutorial, or even just the quick one on the cleaners compendium, thats the technique i used, and it does look alot better and smoother.

[sl^sh3r]

Well I'd give the sogeking page MQ at most, because the lineart is a bit grungy, still a bit of dust in the blacks here and there and I don't really like the pattern you used for the sfx.

Well I haven't reached line-art yet,as I have only done leveling and cleaning sfx and whites till now....will post as soon I learn more :)
Two days into cleaning.....and its awesome :D!
And thanks again for the help :)[br]Posted on: January 12, 2007, 10:37:41 AM_________________________________________________ok I have another question.....

How would you clean these two pages? (except for the little dirt between some panels)

page 1:-
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5186/21thcenturyboys010005ia3.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=21thcenturyboys010005ia3.jpg)

page 2:-
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4182/21thcenturyboys010006vu3.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=21thcenturyboys010006vu3.jpg)

[Fnuckale]

Not much to clean about them really. Perhaps redraw or cut off the bottom left of the first page, but that's all the "hardcore" cleaning needed for these pages.
You should also level them a bit, seeing as how there's a little dust in the whites.

[sl^sh3r]

Arigatou!
I didn't notice that :D[br]Posted on: January 13, 2007, 04:57:58 AM_________________________________________________Hey what looks better?

Without Blur :-
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/8395/cb001ry2.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cb001ry2.jpg)
With Blur :-
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/8791/cb002fo1.th.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cb002fo1.jpg)

I think I should refrain from blurring the 6th and the 8th panels as the background looks a bit too black...

(note I haven't finished cleaning the page yet, just wanted to ask whether I should blur it a bit after I finish to get rid of the jagged edges)

[Fnuckale]

Yeah, I guess the bluuriness helps it a bit, but I would avoid from getting them jagged lines to begin with.

[sl^sh3r]

ahh I guess i over-leveled again, so I'll redo most of the levels to remove the jagged lines.
(and GGpX thanks for the level layer tip, its become quite helpful in the long run :)

[Fnuckale]

Just go for 245 whites and about 60 blacks, that should work better.