![]() The default value of +2 works well for many images but may make things look too contrasty for some. Micro-contrast determines the degree to which details will be accentuated. Keep an eye on the histogram while you adjust Luminosity. The best setting is quite dependent on image content. Set it too high and the image will be way blown out. Set it too low and the image may well turn completely black. Increasing it will allow you to see greater detail in the shadows. Luminosity controls how shadow detail is rendered. For my work, I've found little use for negative values. Increasing it will give more natural results. ![]() Setting it too low will result in obvious halos around edges. ![]() Light Smoothing controls how aggressively Photomatix will be in smoothing luminance variations within the image. While you can certainly adjust saturation here, I'd suggest doing so only in situations where you need to make extreme changes since Photoshop natively provides much better controls for this. Somewhere between 70 - 100% is a good place to start.Ĭolor Saturation allows you to adjust the saturation of colors in the image. Play with this setting to see what works for you. The maximum setting of 100% will give you good results with some images but you may need to back it off for others to avoid harshness. The filter dialog also contains a histogram and buttons to allow you to save and reload your settings.Īs its name implies Strength controls the overall strength of the contrast enhancement effect. As you hover your mouse over each, a small description of its function can be seen at the very bottom. The controls themselves are lined up down the left-hand side of the window. The " Show Original" button allows you to toggle between previewing the effects of the filter and seeing your original image. If your monitor is big enough, go for the 1024 pixel sized preview so you can see what you are doing better. Once open, you can select the size of preview image you desire. To access the plug-in, select it from the Filter menu as you would a regular plug-in. The values used by each tend to be highly image dependent, but I'll try to give you some guidelines here. By contrast, the Photomatix plug-in is full of options you can tinker with. Photoshop itself offers four methods of mapping high dynamic range images into 16-bit or 8-bit format: "Exposure and Gamma," "Highlight Compression," "Equalize Histogram," and "Local Adaptation." Only Local Adaptation offers a reasonable to degree of control over the conversion process. My review here is based on the current version 1.1.1. The exact features included in the plug-in have changed somewhat from release to release as new ones continue to be added. Once Adobe released Photoshop CS2, HDRSoft created a Photoshop plug-in version of their excellent tone-mapping function and it is this that we will look at this week. The first version of Photomatix was released in February of 2003 and they have continued to improve the product ever since. Photomatix is made by HDRSoft, a France-based company that was founded early in the decade. While I expect this situation to improve in future releases of Photoshop, users don't need to wait for Adobe. The 32-bit HDR (High Dynamic Range) feature released as part of Photoshop CS2 has the potential to allow photographers improved access to the wide range of tonality present in nature, but the tools needed to map the resulting files into something that can be displayed in print or on a monitor remain somewhat primitive.
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