DP2m: first images, first problems

Roland Karlsson wrote:

mclaudio wrote:

Roland Karlsson wrote:

BTW, it is not really micro contrast,

sorry for my lack of terminology and ignorance, actually I'm using negative clarity in LR5 to reduce this effect

which is at pixel level, but rather like using "clarity" in Lightroom, adding higher contrast to textures.

You are in good company. Lots of people in the Sigma forum talks about micro contrast when they are referring to the grittyness of Merrill. But, micro contrast is a measure of sharpness. If you e.g. run unsharp mask with a small radius you increase micro contrast, and the image look sharper.

The grittyness in Merrill on the other hand is an enhancement of local contrast, like using unsharp mask with a larger radius, but without getting the halos. How it is done I do not know, just as I do not know how LR do clarity.

Got a bit interested in how clarity works - found this not so technical description. But, it sounds rather correct.

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/clarity-explained-lightroom-camera-raw.html

Good link to a good site. Also CiC has their "3-stage" method which I loosely follow:

In SPP (for Merrill) set sharpness to -1.0 which gives just a smidgeon of the so-called 'capture sharpening' but with no overshoots and therefore no halos.

In FastStone Viewer and dependent on the captured scene apply USM anywhere between 1.7 and 3.3 pixel radius and amount between 7 and 13.

Then, still in FastStone, apply USM again with 0.3 pixel radius and amount 23.