3.0 How to get good results automatically?

Yes and No. Adjust globally with the exposure module until you think your main subject has the correct brightness (even if highlights get clipped). Then fine tune with the middle gray in filmic. It doesn’t have to be 18% (in scene tab) in all images. Maybe you want to watch the videos of Aurelien on filmic rgb where he explains how the tone mapping is done in this module (and where the 18% is coming from).

It’s to account for different workflows. Some want to keep RGB code values between 0 and 1 to use modules that expects them in that range, then raise the exposure in last before going to SDR. Some don’t care and prefer to raise the exposure first, which is the easiest way to use it if you are not going to use tone curves and levels.

Again, the spirit is to understand what it does rather than applying recipes. Then, figure out what is best for you.

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It’s to account for different workflows. Some want to keep RGB code values between 0 and 1 to use modules that expects them in that range, then raise the exposure in last before going to SDR. Some don’t care and prefer to raise the exposure first, which is the easiest way to use it if you are not going to use tone curves and levels.
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Because those modules (tone curve, levels) come before filmic in the pipe and they don’t understand RGB values <0 or >1, right?
What about the tone equalizer, does it care about RGB values outside the range or do you first have to sort of bring them back with the mask exposure compensation to be able to apply changes?

They can deal with values outside [0; 1], it’s just that you don’t have control nodes to set up RGB values that lie out of that range.

Exactly, the mask exposure compensation does an on-demand rescaling, so tone equalizer can deal with anything at the input because the mask will be scaled internally, and the core operation is a simple pixel multiplication, so the range doesn’t matter.

Exactly, the mask exposure compensation does an on-demand rescaling, so tone equalizer can deal with anything at the input because the mask will be scaled internally, and the core operation is a simple pixel multiplication, so the range doesn’t matter.

Thanks a lot. This helps me to understand how to use Tone Equalizer. If I push to the right in the exposure module and highlights get clipped, my luminance histogram in the tone equalizer will be clipped as well without exposure compensation of the mask, even if I did tone mapping in filmic, because it comes later in the pipe.
Slowly getting there…

You are referring to rgb curve and rgb levels?

Yes.

Does this mean that the filmic module will process the image so that the output is never clipped?

Filmics output is scaled between 0 and 1. Whether that clips data, depends on how you set your white and black points.

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I am having some concerns, trying to process with Linear RGB and avoiding Sharpening Module. The final images tend to be a little too soft-blurred.

I hate too-much sharpening, so I don’t think the issue is my preferences for high sharpening and strong halos. That is not me.

But a Bayer raw is naturally a bit blurred. I want to fix that, only just enough so it does not look slightly blurred.

How can I do that with the Linear RGB tools?

cheers

Use local contrast module

Yes, I have been, but it seems to change the character of the image in too many other ways, not just blur reduction. I don’t always like that effect. Yes, the default LC doesn’t change the ‘look’ too much, but it barely touches the appearance of blur either. So I turn it up a bit, and … too may other aspects of the ’look’ start changing.

Maybe there is a way to use LC that clears up blur without giving a ‘cranked-up LC’ look?

Contrast equalizer? You can control the what frequencies you want to sharpen.
You can control the luma or chroma.

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That all depends on what sort of blur you want to get rid of (haze, lens, demosaicing, …). For lens blur, there is no deconvolution module for now.

Also, avoid pixel-peeping too much. Exporting a 24 Mpx raw at 4K resolution means you compress 8 input pixels into one output pixel, so evaluating the sharpness of the picture zoomed-in at 100% doesn’t make much sense.

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OK, thanks.

Contrast equaliser was suggested, and I am looking at it now. It is pretty complex — I will have to study it — but its ‘sharpen’ preset looks promising.

The blur I am keen to address is from demosaicing.

cheers

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Let us know how you go with it.

The contrast equalizer is quite powerful. I myself use it a lot for chroma denoising.

I too was looking for a replacement to sharpen and I was also redirected to using contrast equalizer (CE). I am now using routinely softer versions of the presets “sharpen” and “clarity” as straight replacement to sharpen and local contrast modules. By softer version I mean that I reduce their opacity to 50/60%. You may want to have a look at those presets.

The sharpen preset in CE with reduced opacity does very little zoomed out and you only see the effects at 100%, which is what you’re after I think.

@aadm @T_N_Args You may know but many don’t that the last dark bar sets the limit of the finest detail in a particular image that we can see and it changes with the zoom level that you are at. So any curve changes above that actually have no effect (see around 15 min in the video). Once I discovered this I was able to lift the luma curve at the edge of this bar to enhance fine detail and get some really fine sharpness. As you mention I think the presets are a bit too harsh so if I do a quick application of one I usually knock it back…also I have found bumping up the middle detail can give a nice effect as well maybe as high as the first horizontal scale mark with a lift at 2 of the adjacent markers… This is an old video but a good one for the equalizer… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzVXK4eAM5E

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@aadm @T_N_Args Try to use bilateral verson of LC…often I like it better …seems sharper and doesn’t seem to brighten the highlights in the detail as does the default…in fact bilateral with a really low coarseness…and contrast produces some nice find detail enhancement…