An example: Using Polygon-Mask with Local Contrast

[ejm]

[NOTE: Moved this from “Play Raw” to “Software ART”]

Yesterday I offered up a “Play Raw” thread (Canyon + Clouds + Biker - Roadsign = ???) which included a cyclist riding up a steep canyon road.

I thought the use of a polygon-shaped mask to make the biker stand out might be of interest to others who are delving into what ART can accomplish with its well-conceived masking tools.

In this case, I used a Local Contrast function with a polygon-shaped mask drawn around the biker.

The goal was to make the cyclist more visible, and keep him from blending into the background behind him. Here’s how the image originally came across after a straightforward B&W conversion:

I zoomed in close and drew a polygon-shaped mask under the Local Contrast panel within the Local Edit tab. Zooming back out a bit after completing the polygon trace, here’s the mask:

… I also pulled the Local Contrast curve seen to the right to its highest level across the entire tone spectrum (white line at the top of the curve). This will maximize the contrast of the masked cyclist.

Now, after turning off the mask’s visibility, here’s the result:

This masking and contrast boost has the effect of exaggerating the sun’s reflection and highlights on his shoulder, arms, helmet and bike frame. It also further darkened his shirt and tires, making the cyclist stand out more clearly against the vegetation behind him.

Before the isolated contrast boost to the cyclist, he was a small detail easy to miss in the image. With the selected contrast boost, he becomes a bit harder to miss. And seeing him helps reinforce the scale of his surroundings while adding human interest to the scene. In my opinion, ART’s ability to let me make this edit meaningfully improved the composition.

Here again is the larger scene as I cropped it @ 16:9:

I hope this example helps others interested in learning to further exploit ART’s local editing features. Enjoy!

This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

[montagdude (Dan)]

Nice example! I hope you don’t mind me sharing another. Here is a photo a friend took with my camera the other day. (I brought it in to a music practice for him to play with, so not a dedicated photographic opportunity, and not good lighting.) This the version without any local edits.

First I lifted shadows on the face using a color similarity mask combined with a brush mask to limit the area to the shadows around the eyes and cheeks. I realize now I probably should have avoided the eyebrows. (The next three images show masks.)

Next I darkened the background by painting over the subject with a brush mask and inverting.

Finally, I whitened the eyes with another color similarity + brush mask.

And here is the final result:

If you click back and forth on the first/last picture, you can see the before/after comparison. I definitely think local editing tools are invaluable in a RAW editor, and ART’s are quite powerful and easy to use.

[ejm]

Nice demonstration of how different ART masking options can be used and combined. Thanks for adding to this thread. Hopefully it can become a resource for future ARTists.

[Terry (Terry Pinfold)]

Thanks for the demonstration of ART’s masking ability as I had previously mentioned the value of masks in editing programs.

[ejm]

It’s where much of the creative dodging and burning of the good old days in one’s wet darkroom come back into the fun of photography.