It’s one way, but it doesn’t give much control to you. If the result is ok for you, you can do it that way.
Using RGB curve or tone equalizer without guided filters gives more control.
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I see adjusting the curve in rgb curve or tone equalizer with the default settings is effective for adjusting contrast, what method/other settings in these modules do you guys find particularly helpful?
I find myself willing to adjust contrast in a number of modules. Filmic is nice because it seems to not clip the extremely bright or dark parts of the image when I use it. The contrast slider in color balance rgb is also another nice way to adjust contrast. But I am a big fan of filmic V6 so it is nearly always in my pipeline.
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Yeah I like the contrast slider in color balance rgb, though it’s recommended against in the documentation because it may void settings in filmic.
I’m assuming it’s fine if filmic isn’t being used?
I like filmic too, but have been enjoying editing jpeg images and filmic doesn’t seem to work well with them.
That’s because filmic has a specific task: it transforms an image in scene-referred linear encoding to display-referred log encoding. Something like that is needed for raw files, but the transform has already been done for jpegs. And doing such a transform twice is “not recommended”.
That’s because with filmic you set the contrast around “middle gray” and filmic adjusts the transform curve so that the extremes still fall within the output range 0…1. So increasing contrast in filmic will actually decrease contrast in highlights and shadows.
All methods that increase global contrast with one slider will increase the dynamic range of the image as well. That increased range will then have to be compressed again with filmic, undoing at least part of the contrast increase…
“Tone equaliser”, like RGB curves, can limit the change in dynamic range, and adjust contrast for part of the tonal range (of course, the rest will get an adjustment in the opposite sense…, you can’t both increase global contrast and maintain the same dynamic range).
So you will have to decide where you want to increase contrast. Or apply some local contrast (but that can introduce some risk of artifacts/haloing)
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From the manual, under color balance rgb:
The contrast algorithm gives natural results that mimic the central part of the contrast curve of analog film. However, it will also increase the image’s dynamic range, which may void filmic settings in the pipe. For global contrast adjustments, you should normally use the tone equalizer module – the color balance RGB contrast slider is best used with masks, e.g. for selective corrections over the foreground or background.
Boris has a few videos where he decreases the contrast in filmic rgb to get the image rather flat - and then gets contrast back in color balance rgb
It works!
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Great reply rvietor, thanks.
To adjust contrast in a jpeg image, is either tone equalizer or rgb curve better for any reason?
Any other recommendations?
Which is better depends on what you want to do.
Personally, I prefer the tone equaliser, but that’s a personal preference, and I hardly ever use the rbg curve module.
But you might be better off with some local contrast (either “local contrast” module, or “diffuse and sharpen”). Then again, I hardly ever edit jpeg images for the last 10 years, so I’m not the best to ask about that…
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For jpegs I personally prefer rgb curves. But tbh I haven’t really tried tone equalizer with jpgs, and it does have more options, which may (or may not) be useful!
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That’s because highlights and shadows are more compressed after increasing global contrast? I’m not sure I understand it.
Note that RGB / base / tone curves are all limited to values 0…1, and can therefore result in hard clipping.
I mostly use filmic’s contrast for quick adjustments – but, as others said, there the contrast is fixed at mid-grey (which is often fine, as I want to adjust the mid tones, not the extreme shadows or highlights).
color balance rgb lets you move the point (the fulcrum) around which contrast is increased (brighter pixels become even brighter, darker ones become even darker).
tone equalizer has presets:
The simplest way to adjust the fulcrum is using the mask exposure compensation control on the masking tab – but this may be a bit confusing, as a higher exposure compensation brightens the mask, shifting the mid point, which is the fulcrum, towards darker pixels:
For example, with the mask exposure compensation shown above (note: the mask is enabled):
With a higher value - the mask shifted, and looks different:
The original image (from [PlayRaw] Sunset on ferry):
Contrast with the original exposure compensation:
Contrast with increased exposure compensation (fulcrum effectively shifted towards the darker pixels – note that the mouse hovers over a pixel where the mask has a value of about -4 EV – that’s the fulcrum now; pixels darker than that become even darker; brighter ones even brighter):
Finally, with a large negative exposure comensation, the fulcrum shifts toward very bright pixels, meaning that almost the whole image is darkened:
You can combine the contrast effects (both for color balance rgb as well as for tone equalizer with parametric and/or drawn masks) for finer control.
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My understanding is:
The contrast slider in filmic increases contrast in the mid tones, and decreases contrast in the shadows and highlights so as to keep the same dynamic range; avoiding clipping.
Increasing global contrast (i.e color blance rgb’s contrast slider, not filmic’s) pushes shadows and highlights furthur apart, eventually clipping them.
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Thanks for the reply kofa.
Is there an advantage to using the tone equalizer like this as opposed to color balance rgb?
It seems to me the slider in color balance rgb allows for a more accurate contrast amount than using the limited number of presets in tone equalizer.
Apologies if I’m missing something.
With the color balance rgb, you have no control over the shape of the curve (it’s simmetrical, but exactly what it looks like, you don’t know), and you can only have one fulcrum. Also, without masking, it’s going to move the white point and the black point, pushing them further away from mid-grey.
With the tone EQ, you have complete control. For example, you could lift the shadows (negative contrast), without affecting the highlights. (Edit) When used without detail preservation, it’s a tone curve, but instead of directly specifying the curve, you specify how it should deviate from a straight diagonal.
Or a contrast between midtones and highlights, without affecting shadows:
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I think the idea is that you start with a preset, then pull the curve around like in rgb curves. 
Think of the s-curve…if you steepen it then you expand the toe and the shoulder, ie compress more the shadows and highlights…essentially lengthen the flat regions of the curve so more compression and loss of contrast in those areas…
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Don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but haze removal tool or even diffuse and sharpen can give you nice control over contrast, it’s not perfect though.
That is a nice description of what is happening. I had presumed that is what filmic was doing. DT handles contrast so well and with so many options to suit the specific task.
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That is what I love about DT. We have so many options to support our personal choices and preferences. I personally only use tone equalizer to brighten or darken the parts of the image and then return to filmic to correct the contrast shift created by tone equalizer.
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