Digital Light & Color

The May issue of Outdoor Photographer has a brief mention of PWP 5.0. It mentions new features like "vibrancy." I am familiar with a vibrancy feature in RAW editors like Lightroom. Is this a similar feature in PWP? Where is this feature?

Thanks,
Chris

There is no vibrancy feature in PWP. Vibrancy is not a technical term - what most people seem to mean is some combination of increased saturation and contrast.

Thanks Jonathan:

I did not recall seeing any vibrancy option in PWP, so I was surprised when I saw it mentioned in Outdoor Photographer.

- Chris

Most imaging editors make changes for tone/color in the RGB color space model were individual changes in the R, G, B channels may not always be intuititive.

PWP's HSV default color space model and the HSL color space model can perhaps be more easily understood and applied since gray tone contrasts [V or L] can be adjusted seperately from color [H,S] contrasts.

Favored PWP transforms for making tone/color changes:

(1) ColorCurves transform: provides access for making perference changes in each of the H, S, V, L, R, G, and B channels independently of each other.

(2) ColorCorrect transform: http://www.dl-c.com/discus/messages/2/11025.html

(3) Remap transform: http://dl-c.com/forum/comments.php?Disc ... e=1#Item_0

The primary feature of a Vibrancy adustment is that it is not a linear increase in saturation but rather one in which less saturated colors are boosted more and highly saturated colors are relatively unaffected. PWP's two S curves, S>V and S>H, are much better for doing this than the simple slider interface in PS/ACR or LR. Another feature is that Vibrancy does not change skin tones. A simple Color Range mask will accomplish this.
Elie

Though I'm not sure what 'vibrancy' actually does, it seems that in PS RAW it desn't do much more than PWP's Satruration with 'preserve low' or 'preserve low an high'. I don't think there is a special thershold for skin tones in any implementation I've seen - unless masks are used. I thinks is a gimmick.

But, sometimes, it's the speed and convenience that matters: case in point - 2-tones/3-tones transformations were quite possible in PWP4 - it just took a lot of work to do that...

In similar vein, I have a related question: there are several nice and different way of blending images with Composite. How difficult would it be to allow Clone tool to use some more of them (e.g. High/Low pass or soft light...)? Or, for instance, clone just specific channels and leave others alone...

Cheeers!

Wow, this is the reason that I continue using PWP, not only for the excellence of the program itself, but also for this community. Your replies to what I thought was a question simply about a certain feature have been most informative and useful.

After researching the saturation transformation, it appears that the "high" setting in HSL color space achieves a similar result to the vibrancy option in Lightroom. Your feedback has highlighted the additional precision to be added by these other possibilities.

Many thanks,
Chris

I have been doing a little more poking around on the internet regarding Vibrance and ElieD's post above seems to best describe this rather loosely defined image charactistic.

I also came across something called a 'Vibrance Mask' that may be of interest. It will limit the increase of high saturations so that detail is not lost as well as protect preference low saturations/hues [skin color]. Its formation builds on ElieD's 'MaskTool-ColorRange' suggestion.

The Vibrance Mask:
(1) open or click on a Starting Image;
(2) Extract its HSV-S channel [results in an 8-bit BW image suitable to be used as a mask];
(3) click on the Starting Image and open the Mask Tool - Combine Masks;
(4) Add -- 'lower-left Apply' the extracted HSV-S image to the Starting Image;
(5) Subtract -- 'lower-left Apply' a preference or a skin color ColorRange selection [select F1 Help for the Mask Tool - Color Range feature description when the Mask Tool is the active window if needed]; and
(6) click OK, creating the Vibrance Mask or leave the Mask Tool 'active' on the Starting Image.

In general the mask will not need a blur and/or feathering if adequate feathering is performed with the ColorRange black pointer sliders in Step (5).

As this mask is based upon the HSV color space model, best photo-realistic saturation changes will most likely be achieved if made in that color space, i.e., ColorCurves - HSV-S, ColorCorrect [HSV], Remap [HSV], Levels&Color - HSV, and Saturation [HSV - Neither].

Additional clarifications regarding the 'Vibrance Mask' described above:
(1) if your Starting Image is 48-bit color, then the Extract-ed HSV-S channel image will have to be Convert-ed from 16-bit BW to 8-bit BW for use as a mask image.
(2) use the default HSV color space for the Mask Tool - Color Range 'Subtract - lower left Apply' selection.
(3) the 'Vibrance Mask's white represents 0% saturation, black represents 100% saturation plus the 'Subtract-ed' low saturation ColorRange selection, and the grays map the original saturation gradient from low to high saturations.

Den:

Thanks for the info on the vibrancy mask. I have tried it and find that it works very well.

- Chris