Contrast Enhancement

[jrsforum]

Is it possible to do "contrast enhancement", a.k.a "local contrast", with Focal Blade?

The reason to use is as described in the following articles:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutor ... ment.shtml
http://www.fovegraphy.com/70_300DO_TipsE.php

If FB can do it, is it possible...after getting the general parameters down...to set it up in batch....with, I guess, doing local contrast first, then reqular sharpening.

I am looking to get the 70-300 DO for travel, and would like to batch the pix for my family website. Pix for printing would be PP'd individually.

Thanks...JOHN

[HaraldHeim]

FocalBlade offers a maximum radius of 16 pixel, so you can only do a local contrast effects on web graphics with it. FocalBlade was optimized for sharpening, so we sacrificed the possibility of local contrast effects for the sake of better sharpening performance.

However, our LightMachine plugin can do Local Contrast adjustments. It even has a slider called "Local Contrast". You can also use LightMachine for batch processing.

If you want to sharpen and adjust local contrast of an image at the same time, you have to set your priority. Is the local contrast adjustment more important or the sharpening. A strong local contrast effect can make any sharpening useless, because it visually overpowers it. There are also other problems that can occur like stronger halos or blown highlights. So you need to find a suitable balance.