Shadows & Highlights vs. Tone Equalizer

[akgt94]

DT 3.8 noob (and Sony user).

I had my module presets set to scene-referenced. When I changed to default, I discovered Shadows & Highlights. Wow!

On one hand, It made short work of restoring detail (contrast) in highlights that Filmic RGB (?) has been crushing into oblivion. On the other hand, I’m seeing halos and other artifacts that RTFM says is a side effect.

Note: my season is winter. Restoring contrast in highlights is showing reflections in ice that I didn’t know were even there.

RTFM recommends Tone Equalizer instead of Shadows and Highlights.

I’ve watched several videos touching on Tone Equalizer. This seems to be a difficult module to master. Tuning the mask seems to be more important than the basic adjustments. More or less, I can correct un-even lighting. But haven’t figured out how to tune it to enhance local contrast.

What tips are available to use Tone Equalizer as the replacement for Shadows and Highlights?

[afre (Alan)]

The first thing I would do is search the forum. The other thing would be to examine people’s xmps in the Play Raws. Better yet, start your own Play Raw thread.

[paperdigits (Mica)]

I’d say:

1. Use the simple tab.
2. Explore the presets, then back off if they’re too strong using opacity
3. Post a Play Raw and call out the tone equalizer. Be specific about what you’re trying to achieve.

You can also try the Local Contrast module or Diffuse or Sharpen’s Add local contrast preset.

[priort (Todd Prior)]

If you stick with SH…use bilateral to help with halos and use the white point correction if you need to I find you often end up with a better result…For general SH I have moved mostly to the Tone EQ…using soft or medium compress preset and then just use exposure comp slider to shift the mask along the x axis…finally sometimes I tweak the curve…often follow this with a second instance using the tone curve preset and basically doing the same…

[priort (Todd Prior)]

@akgt94

But haven’t figured out how to tune it to enhance local contrast.

Might find some of this useful…from this post and following

Editing moments with darktable

@s7habo Boris, you frequently increase filmic rgb contrast, which I have read is to bring back contrast that filmc often reduces. Whereas, you never seem to use color balance rgb contrast, which has a fulcrum adjustment. Is that just to keep your edits in your videos as simple as possible, or is there another reason? BTW, I really appreciate your videos.

[Tim (Tim Cuthbertson)]

This video by Bruce Williams helped me understand the Tone Equalizer

darktable ep 058 - The Tone Equalizer module