I love the idea of this module since the very first iteration by @Wilecoyote, so I’m happy to have another go. A “thorough evaluation” will take more time, but this is what I think so far.
I’m now trying it the 2nd or 3rd time, but have not in detail read any explanations, so some of this will be exceedingly stupid.
- when it works, it works easily, and well, and it allows for rather strong contrast enhancements with few artifacts
- I expected that it’s “different sliders for different frequencies”, but that is obviously incorrect;
does every larger scale contrast slider always include all the higher-frequency/finer-detail sliders as well?
maybe - it’s in the name, “pyramidal”, it looks like it, and the artifacts I see with noise, and your answer to @s7habo - but … yeah, intuitive is what you know.
I resorted to “compensating” by negative adjustment of a finer level, but is that how it’s supposed to be? - it would be nice to document in the tooltip how the feature scale relates to the sliders; like “fine contrast at a feature scale of 2 is like local contrast at 1.2” or something like that - how much does it give?
- Now that you named this module “contrast management”, I’d expect the default settings to be neutral (i.e. local contrast should not be at +25% by default)
- Compared to LC or D&S, this module prefers to brighten the lights more (where D&S would instead darken the shadows), or vice versa. this means the effect will be different, sometimes. Is this something that could be “just another slider”? (not a request, but asking for a friend)
- I still don’t get the CSF slider to do something for me. Needs more experimentation.
- The colorimetric contrast can be fun, but I’d have to lie if I’d say its effects are expected. The effect in the recent “Pizzeria Neon Sign” play-raw is very pronounced.
Real problem in practice, for me, after obviously only short time using it:
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Halos are an issue. I first thought, insurmountable, then I tought “oh, it’s just the stacking of the detail ranges”, but then, again, “once I push it were I want it, it halos”
- See for instance the Play Raw “morning sun in Oman”. Building on what I submitted there, I deactivated the local contrast and diffuse and sharpen modules, and tried to work toward something similar again. It needs care to not make the palm tree from hell a christmas decoration, but hilltops etc. really take away a lot of the “it’s so easy and intuitive!” feeling from the module that it has when used on textures only.
- See for instance the Play Raw “morning sun in Oman”. Building on what I submitted there, I deactivated the local contrast and diffuse and sharpen modules, and tried to work toward something similar again. It needs care to not make the palm tree from hell a christmas decoration, but hilltops etc. really take away a lot of the “it’s so easy and intuitive!” feeling from the module that it has when used on textures only.
So, to clarify:
- Are the effects of each slider computed independently, and then merged - or are they done in series?
For now, I give up, as the comparisons against D&S burned a hole in my poor little CPU-only system. Hopefully it survives the attack.
Thank you so far for pushing this further along!