ART (the software) news

#1

hi,
I’ve opened this new thread to post some news about ART (the raw processor, just to be clear :slight_smile:) in case someone is interested.
I have just tagged version 0.2, which, besides bug fixes, contains the following features:

  • reorganization of the UI, with some tools moved, some removed, some simplified. I hope it is more logical this way, and without obvious duplications (there are still some tools that are somewhat overlapping, but they have different strengths and weaknesses, so their fate is still uncertain)

  • added a colour cast slider to the b&w tool, to e.g. easily get a ‘sepia’ look

  • ported film negative from RT

  • ported some performance improvements from RT (plus some specific of ART)

  • revamped tone equaliser. now the detail slider is called ‘regularization’ (for lack of a better name), and when set to >0 activates a 2-pass algorithm operating at different detail levels. this should help in preserving the local contrast when using the tone equaliser to compress the dynamic range (if you use it to increase contrast, instead, it’s better to leave regularisation at 0)

Update: if you are looking for Windows binaries, you can find them at:

https://keybase.pub/gaaned92/ART-W64NightlyBuilds/

6 Likes
Using Both Raw Therapee and Darktable
#2

Do you want to have ART’s own category?

#3

thanks, but I don’t think it’s necessary

#4

Sure, just let me know of you change your mind! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#5

ART works perfectly here. I’ve been using it almost exclusively the past couple weeks.
Congrats, and thanks!

Maybe it’s the solution to Can we make RawTherapee look less complex on very first sight (for brand new users)?…

2 Likes
#6

Hello @agriggio

Thanks a lot for your efforts!
I am proud an Italian developer (I am from Italy too…) is improving a software such important as Rawtherapee. Nope, sorry, I meant ART :slight_smile:

Just out of curiosity…
From what I have gathered so far your current work is mostly geared towards improving the tools to retouch (Exposition, sharpness - noise, colour corrections etc).
Do you plan to improve also the “Sorting - culling” part of ART (with Rawtherapee this part is quite neglected compared to Darktable)?

More precisely, I am thinking at the option to zoom in-out on 2 RAW images, side by side (e.g. to evaluate their different sharpness). As soon as both images are zoomed-in you can now pan and move them together (this is the very useful part of this feature…).
This option is available only with Digikam at present AFAIK (open source stuff…) but from what I have read Digikam only allows to visualize their jpeg thumbnails not the real Raw files.

Here is a screenshot of Picasa with this side by side zooming (it works in sync with the 2 images):

COMPARE_PICASA
COMPARE_PICASA.jpg1464×917 384 KB

#7

Siril + ART 0.2 + Gimp for sky/foreground/shooting compositing:

4-pp-final
4-pp-final.jpg1256×1920 710 KB

The shooting start trail was obviously on 1 frame only, so I used Gimp to bring it back into the final stacked image.

5 Likes
#8

Hi,

Well, to be honest, I did do some changes there (whether they are improvements or not is up to you to decide :-). For example, now you can rate/assign colour labels to your files using the application you like, and as long as it stores the info in XMP sidecars, ART will be able to pick up the edited metadata.

I have also tweaked the UI of the “inspector mode”, so that it automatically expands when you select it, and it automatically switches among images without mouse clicks, for a smoother navigation. Together with the fact that it allows you to inspect the original raw files (quickly demosaiced) instead of the jpeg thumbnails (this is already in RT), it gives you a reasonable way of inspecting sharpness. It’s true that there is no side-by-side comparison though, but honestly this is not something I plan to add anytime soon.

Anyway, here’s a little demo of what I’m talking about:

#9

RT does this as well. Or do I miss something?

#10

it switches the inspector mode, but it doesn’t select the thumbnail in the browser, at least as far as I remember

#11

I does

#12

I just checked with the 5.7 appimage, and it’s not what I’m seeing (the thumbnail doesn’t have the keyboard focus, for instance…) – though it’s really a minor point

#13

What is really the function of residual contrast in the Local contrast menu ?
SM

#14

see residual image/contrast in http://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Wavelets

I use it to reduce global contrast without reducing at the same time local contrast and so give some room if you want to increase local contast.

In RT, local contrast is located in wavelet/final touchup.
I don’t know how it works as I don’t succed to get the same effect with Wavelet/contrast
@agriggio could you provide some simple explanation?

1 Like
#15

@agriggio
I have sometime a problem with th UI. The mouse rolling is ineffective whatever I put the cursor. I have to quit and reload ARt to recover the normal behavior of the mouse.

Milky Way over the caribbean sea
#16

sorry, this is a bit too vague… can you please open an issue at https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/issues and provide as much information as you can (including the steps to reproduce if you know them)? Thanks!

#17

your explanation is good. In fact, it should work exactly the same as in RT.

#18

I am not expert enough to fill a new issue.
What I can say, is that I use a linux version of ART 0.2 I compiled myself.
The scrolling of the mouse within the panels of ART is efficient in the browser, the image editor, the toolbox. After the use of various tools it happens that, the scrolling of the mouse was inefficient.
I am unable to zoom with the mouse in the image editor, and unable to scroll withing the tool menu. I have to use the side slider. I have to halt ART and to open a new session to recover a normal behavior.
Sorry for my bad explanations.

#19

This is a bug ART has inherited from RawTherapee, I see this in both RT and ART. There previously was an issue that the mouse scrolled in the wrong direction:


The fix:

Probably now when GTK messes up the mouse we always fall into the “do nothing” branch.

@agriggio: The issue here is that at some point scrolling the mouse wheel stops doing anything. You can’t zoom in/out in the editor, you can’t scroll up/down in the file browser or the side panels. You need to drag the scrollbar or press the fit/1:1/+/- buttons. Unfortunately for me when GTK enters that unusable state I have a hard time grabbing the scrollbars, it seems it has an active width of just one pixel, if I don’t hit it it will minimize again.

#20

@agriggio To be more specific, what is the difference between using wavelet contrast (or CBDL) and “local contrast”? I ask as I feel I cannot obtain the same effect with wavelet contrat or CBDL as with local contrast.