New episode: Use of masking options in the color balance rgb module
Raw file in the video was used from:
by Brian Poindexter (c)
Licensed under a (CC-BY-SA)
I didn’t try the processing additionally also with sigmoid, because I focused first on color balance module. I will do that in the next episode, since I wanted to introduce sigmoid briefly anyway.
A very nice video tutorial 
. I will forever be “food-processing” these flower images I take. Every year I do this I get new challenges.
One comment I would share is that one way to kind of bump up the overall brilliance, without losing too much petal surface texture detail, is to use the “home grown local contract” trick where one can use some kind of blur effect in subtract mode. Starting with an image that is a bit “bright”, it will darken the image (or the affected masked areas if masks are used) as well increase surface details, after which you can use an instance of exposure with a raster mask to bring it back up to what suits the look. I used that technique with my own edit of this image and it worked really well.
Using sigmoid on this image, as another experiment, I was able to get close to my “best” edit (using a doctored version of filmic v6). I still like my original best, but the Sigmoid version I ended up with was almost as good.
Thank you Boris.
You make it easy!
Nice use case of the mask tab of RGB color balance, I never ventured there (is 2 tabs the max for me ?) so never really understood it but now I know what’s it’s used for 
Great couple of videos, particularly the explanation of what’s happening behind the colour shifts, Boris. Many thanks for your efforts. I always struggled to make sense of the display mask function on Color balance RGB but looks like it’s been updated and is clearer now? (I haven’t updated to 4.2 yet) or your use of it is better than I ever managed. Cheers
New episode: Comparison between filmic and sigmoid tone mapper modules:
Note:
Although I took care to make an objective evaluation, the comparison is based on my own workflow and accordingly it may be that I did not consider all aspects.
Nevertheless, I think you can get a good first overview of differences and similarities of both modules.
Excellent. Can’t wait to watch this later tonight
Hello,
Congratulations for this video. It is very instructive. 
I agree 100% with your conclusion.
Thank you very much for your videos,
Greetings from brussels,
Christian
Thank you very much for the video. In each episode one can get so many new tips and tricks.
Comparing Filmic and Sigmoid I came to a similar solution: If the dynamic range of a photo is really high filmic is the better choice, in other cases with Sigmoid you can get faster good looking results.
Thanks for the video! Very good as always. I like sigmoid a lot, after some initial doubt - I think you did a very fair assessment of the two tonemappers. 
I see you left v5 out of the discussion . I have found the ability to tweak saturation in v5 and the lack of the gamut handcuffs is useful many times where the newer version needs more support from other modules… I guess comparing v6 to sigmoid is a more straightforward framework for the video…
Hi Todd. You mentioned a macro for use with filmic v5 in a comment on YouTube. What were you referring to? Thanks
In some cases it can be helpful to go back to the “older” V5 version, but that is not always a good substitute for V6.
In the example of the sunflower I processed in the video, with V5, no matter what method of chrominance preservation you use, desaturation takes place way too early, before you reach the limit of dynamic range in highlights.
Of course you can compensate this with the “mid-tones saturation” slider, but then you have to reckon with over-saturation in other areas.
Although you can get better results in the end, I find juggling 4 different color sciences, each with 4 different algorithms for perservation of chrominance overkill.
Indeed. Going back to V5 was not necessary in the examples, would have required an additional explanation and would not have changed the fact that you still have to pick up on other modules when using filmic.
Thanks Todd
Exactly.
Thanks for another interesting video. Your comparison matches my personal experience. I now tend to prefer sigmoid because of the more natural look right from the beginning and less fiddling with color science. And if the result isn’t satifactory it’s really good to have filmic as a second option.
Thank you for all the effort you put in the videos.
Very informative, and I especially apprecheate the little didactic tricks, like the sketch of the portrait in the middle grey
Ya I don’t bother to fiddle any more with color options…When I use filmic I just use v5 with no chroma preservation. I really don’t care about what the other modes correct or don’t correct. I set the latitude to be ~25-50% and then just adjust the midtone saturation and shift it if needed towards the highlights or shadows until i get the look I want… I find this to offer the most control… If you zero that slider you will have a basically an monochrome image and if you push it to the max it will be over the top saturated with color so I find this one of the best ways to fine tune a starting point. Its much less flat than v6, you don’t get the strict gamut handcuffs and often you don’t need to do much with color balance other than tweak the color rather than have to add substantial chroma and saturation there that is needed when you use v6. I am sure there are arguments against this approach but for me it just feels like it offers offers the widest range of possibility. I am just glad that it was not replaced by the new version and it is an option… The good thing is now there are 4 options for people…basecurve, 2 versions of filmic and sigmoid so DT can really cater to providing an initial look that shoudl suit most people…
Do you decide whether to use filmic or sigmoid at the start of your edit? I normally left filmic alone previously, maybe making a few minor tweaks of the curve but mostly using it as an automatic guardrail for dynamic range. However, now that we have sigmoid as an alternative it means I use filmic as the default as usual then try sigmoid at the end to see if it does a better job. In some cases it does but in others obviously it won’t because I’ve already edited the pic to fit with filmic. My guess is I need to decide on one or the other earlier but it’s not 100% clear to me at the start of an edit which would be the better option. Maybe I’ll figure it out from experience…
I still use filmic because it’s routine for me and I get desired results quickly enough. With some photos I try also like you sigmoid to have comparison. However, I then process these versions from the start.