Highlight and midtone control like Luminar's capabilities

took me 50 sec in LR

lr_w_grad_web

 
and with a gradient mask
lr_vs_luminar_web

 
I also betatested Luminar (and for that matter most of professional photo and video software out there), has some interesting tools, lum masks, wow effects (which are hard to tame) – ah the IA, yes yes, the AY! - and plenty filters. They keep adding stuff but even with saved pressets (which do not keeo the masks) at the core the workflow is way too slow for me.
It is interesting to see where the guys who want to eat the crumbs left by adobe’s super duper tyranic system are going, they are probably all going to the restroom to copy each other to death {sigh}… I haven’t seen anything worth writting home about… not in the DAM world… the last surprise was Oleg’s innovative 3DLut creator (like in 2013) and very possitive experience from camera bag photo, very cool, even if they max output is 8bit tifs. Sorry I digress

 
 
2 min in Photoflow, lift shadows w luma mask, oposite with HL, split details as TM

lum_vs_phf_web

 
the horrendous desktop wallpapper is from apterus :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

This is my try: DSC_6210.NEF.pp3 (10,8 KB)

1 Like

Well, I can’t say I disagree, but OTOH I did tell you I didn’t like it :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Just FYI, here’s a version that I consider acceptable – without any attempt to emulate what Luminar gives. (warning: you may very well dislike this as much as the previous one)

@Halo I like your photo.

1 Like

If you want to strongly boost midtones & shadows, this looks decent to me. Done with Darktable.

DSC_6210
DSC_6210.NEF.xmp (4.4 KB)

Since you don’t care about halos and poisonous vegetation, BAMM:
DSC_6210_R

Do I like my version? Hell, no but I shot everythnig I could find at it! :japanese_ogre::japanese_goblin::space_invader::alien::robot::poop::grin:
DSC_6210.NEF.pp3 (10.6 KB)

3 Likes

@Halo I believe the point of your post is that you want a one-slider solution to add contrast to the highlights, and I would like that too. An “Add punch to the clouds without halos in the sky” slider.

As for the instagrammed Luminar challenge,
DSC_6210.jpg.out.pp3 (10.8 KB)

4 Likes

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. I tried some suggestions. Some came close, but ultimately a few sliders to put contrast and color back into compressed highlights would be hugely useful I think to the majority of RT users who love the interface and control.

RT is the best raw converter I’ve ever used, and I’ve used so many the past decade and a half. I love it, and I hope sometime this feature can be built in. It would perfectly round out the program for all my needs.

Today I received an email promotion about upcoming Luminar 2018. I think this post of @Halo is an advertisement because this person seem to be just repeating that Luminar has what he wants and RT doesn’t. I hope @Halo (who joined this forum just a day ago) clarifies this doubt to all of us.

For Macphun’renown I hope no, as the processing example provided seems to me very bad and overdone.
Surely @Halo doesn’t fear halos :grinning:

1 Like

Easy now guys, let’s keep the accusations to a minimum. The best thing about this forum is that we welcome all people. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I’m not a perfectionist, no, but I also would just be happy if I could get more color and contrast in highlights alone. I don’t need shadow boosting as much.

Neither me and sorry for the joke

Haha. I don’t plan on buying Luminar 2018 and I would discourage folks from doing so if they don’t need contrast and color boost in compressed highlights. I need it for a very, very limited number of files.

Furthermore, the program is hugely buggy on my machine, and Macphun has been less than forthcoming with a proper solution. For that reason along I will not be buying as product support for a paid product is essential for me.

If that improves markedly, then I’ll spam this board until the very end about the awesomeness of Luminar. lol

3 Likes

I did also try to make a result comparable with the example from @Halo.

Scaled image down to 25%, because of my old pc.

Only three filters:

G’MIC>Testing>Garagecoder>Normalize brightness (garagecoder):

G’MIC>Details>Tone enhance (garagecoder):

G’MIC>Details>Local variance normalization (Jérôme Boulanger)
For a little bit sharpening.

Result:

1 Like

Also Photivo can be used to hurt the eyes:

I think something like Reinhard brightening is used in the Luminar example. But maybe I’m wrong.

For all people here: please forgive me for the horror. I know Halloween is over. But I like to see if I can replicate an example.

1 Like

At this point, it looks like an illustration that architects and city planners provide: “This will be what the waterfront will look like my fellow citizens. Now about that tax hike!”

1 Like

That’s actually pretty close. What were your settings in Photivo?

Also, do you find that Photivo doesn’t shift white balance well? It’s like it happens after highlight/shadow adjustment/compression.

For what is quickly turning into a PlayRaw, a quick spin through RT. Just a couple of sliders and a tone curve.

2017-11-03_whats-luminar.jpg.out.pp3 (10.4 KB)

FWIW, isn’t HDR the normal approach for getting loud colors out of the darker areas?

:boom:

2 Likes