some quick tips from a magazine reviewing photomatix 3.0

night86mare · 11th May 2008

mainly on tone mapping settings - i guess it should apply for most other versions as well, frankly - anyways there was an explanation on what each parameter does, as well as a short guide on what region you should keep your values at, should you wish to keep a "natural look".

Strength
-controls the strength of local contrast enhancements
-values above 60 will give a comic hypperreal look
-generally a value between 30 and 50 is good for a natural look

Luminosity
-this affections the compression of the tonal range, which has the effect of adjusting the global brightness level
-move it to the left for a more natural look
-move it to the right for more shadow detail

Light smoothing
-this slider affects the smoothing applied to light variations throughout the image
-for more depth in shadows, reduce
- a higher value will reduce halos, a lower value increases sharpness

Color saturation
-increasing this gives more vivid colors
-a value between 50 to 60 is usually good for most scenes
-this slider affects all 3 rgb channels equally

White Point, Black Point and Gamma
(i think gamma is not available in earlier versions, but i may be wrong)
-white point and black point determine at what point pure white and pure black kick in for the tone-mapped image
-start with a value of 0.25%
-gamma adjusts the mid-tone of the tone-mapped image globally

Microcontrast and Microsmoothing
-set at 0 to keep shadows and midtones light
-microcontrast shows how much local contrast is applied
-microsmoothing smooths out local detail and gives a cleaner look by reducing noise in the sky

cheers!

MLSK · 11th May 2008

really apprec these tips! many thanks!

11th May 2008	#1
night86mare Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: in your mind Posts: 19,357	some quick tips from a magazine reviewing photomatix 3.0 mainly on tone mapping settings - i guess it should apply for most other versions as well, frankly - anyways there was an explanation on what each parameter does, as well as a short guide on what region you should keep your values at, should you wish to keep a "natural look". Strength -controls the strength of local contrast enhancements -values above 60 will give a comic hypperreal look -generally a value between 30 and 50 is good for a natural look Luminosity -this affections the compression of the tonal range, which has the effect of adjusting the global brightness level -move it to the left for a more natural look -move it to the right for more shadow detail Light smoothing -this slider affects the smoothing applied to light variations throughout the image -for more depth in shadows, reduce - a higher value will reduce halos, a lower value increases sharpness Color saturation -increasing this gives more vivid colors -a value between 50 to 60 is usually good for most scenes -this slider affects all 3 rgb channels equally White Point, Black Point and Gamma (i think gamma is not available in earlier versions, but i may be wrong) -white point and black point determine at what point pure white and pure black kick in for the tone-mapped image -start with a value of 0.25% -gamma adjusts the mid-tone of the tone-mapped image globally Microcontrast and Microsmoothing -set at 0 to keep shadows and midtones light -microcontrast shows how much local contrast is applied -microsmoothing smooths out local detail and gives a cleaner look by reducing noise in the sky cheers! __________________ Gallery \| Dreamscapes 09 Pentaxian 伪君子之所以更可憎

11th May 2008	#2
MLSK Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Siglap area. Posts: 803	Re: some quick tips from a magazine reviewing photomatix 3.0 really apprec these tips! many thanks!