I added a guided filter in the module, instead of the planned laplacian pyramid, in order to preserve the local contrast. It’s faster and simpler, and easier to control too.
So let’s see a well exposed image (from Anna Simon, used for her workshop at LGM2019) with filmic set up to get no blown highlights and bright enough midtones:
The picture arguably lacks some crunch because the subject doesn’t pop out enough from the background. So, let’s enable the tone equalizer in its naïve mode, to perform a dodging and burning:
The contrast has improved on the subject, but on the background too, which is quite disturbing. We would like to treat the subject as one single exposure blob, but showing the luminance mask used to compute the exposure compensation (new feature, by the way), here is what we get:
To isolate the subject from the background, we need to use an edge-aware surface blur to decompose the image into piece-wise smooth exposures areas. That’s where the guided filter comes in handy:
And here is the result:
Working from that starting point, we can fine-tune the masking:
To check the robustness to halos (which are the pest of the shadows/highlights module), let’s use a much contrasted picture:
Let’s enable the naïve tone equalizer:
A lot of local contrast is lost in the sky. Using the guided filter, we can revert that:
Comparison with the current shadows/highlights output (with bilateral filter):
A bit of color-grading with color balance, and you are good to go:
Notice the relatively short stack of modules:
Life is too short to loose it on computers. Shoot longer, post-process faster, enjoy more.