Tuesday, December 23, 2008
XDR, Part V
Using Photomatix to enhance your extended dynamic range images
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White Point. Controls white point clipping. Brightens the image by moving all the tones right.
Black Point. Controls black point clipping. Darkens the image by moving all the tones left.
Gamma. Controls brightness without clipping shadows or highlights. Move left to raise gamma, darkening, compressing shadows and expanding highlights. Move right to lower gamma, lightening, expanding shadows and compressing highlights.
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| Sub-Menu Tone Details | Sub-Menu Color Details | Sub-Menu Micro Details |
Temperature. Controls color temperature. Move left to raise (cool/blue); move right to lower (warm/yellow).
Saturation Highlights. Controls highlight saturation without affecting midtones and shadows. Move left to lower; move right to raise.
Saturation Shadows. Controls shadow saturation without affecting midtones and highlights. Move left to lower; move right to raise.
Micro Sub-Menu
Micro-Contrast. Controls accentuation of small-scale contrast (detail and texture). Move left to reduce; move right to increase. Accentuates edges with some darkening.
Micro-Smoothing. Controls suppression of small-scale contrast (noise). Move right to increase effect. Strong applications may suppress texture so much that the image can look synthetic or generated.
S/H Sub-Menu (Shadows/Highlights)
Highlights Smoothing. Controls brightness of highlights only. Improves contrast. Reduces halos.
Shadows Smoothing. Controls brightness of shadows only. Reduces contrast.
Shadows Clipping. Clips shadows to black, affecting darkest values only. Increases overall contrast with some loss of noise and detail. Modified by Shadows Smoothing.
Controlling Essential Elements
When tone mapping you weigh a balance of many concerns: brightness, global contrast, midtone contrast, small-scale contrast, halos, noise, and global and local saturation. Each control is designed to target specific components aggressively, but they often have affects on other components. Below you’ll find the strength of the effect each control has on these essential elements.
| Brightness High—Luminosity, Gamma Medium—Strength, White Point, Light Smoothing Low—Micro-Contrast, Micro-Smoothing Contrast High—Black Point, White Point Medium—Shadows Clipping, Highlights Smoothing Low—Micro-Contrast, Micro-Smoothing Midtone Contrast High—Luminosity, Gamma Medium Low | Small-Scale Contrast High—Micro-Contrast Medium—Strength Halos High—Light Smoothing,Strength Medium—Highlights Smoothing Low | Noise High—Micro-Smoothing Medium—Shadows Clipping, Shadows Smoothing Saturation High—Saturation Medium—Saturation Shadows, Saturation Highlights |
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