Introduction to the Tone Management System

Short Names

In concept, the various Tone Management System methods work the same.  However, each one is slightly different.  To distinguish one method from another, I have named the methods I have developed with a three letter acronym that identifies the techniques used.  The format of the acronym is as follows.  The first letter of the acronym denotes the pre-chosen luminance: M for measured luminance, G for grayscale, L for Lab.  The second letter of the acronym denotes the Adobe Photoshop control used for converting to the pre-chosen luminance: C for Channel Mixer or H for Hue/Saturation.  The third letter of the acronym denotes the main Photoshop adjustment layer used to manage tone by color: L for Levels, C for Curves and (less frequently) H for Hue/Saturation.  For example, MCL is the name of the Tone Management System method using Measured luminance, a Channel Mixer adjustment layer for monochrome conversion, and a Levels adjustment layer for tone management by color.

Annotations might use a lower case x, such as MCx, which is a wild card and denotes the specific adjustment layer has not been designated and can be any of the adjustment layers.  It is important to understand that a method may have more than one tone adjustment layer.  When they do, the subsequent designations are lower case, such as MCLc.  The last two letters denote Levels and Curves.
 

Table 1.  Some Tone Management Acronyms