Hi @James Ritson,
Thank you for such a detailed response. I really appreciate the effort here.
Yes i render out to EXR. To explain my general workflow i saved out all images from 3ds max as true linear images without tonemapping. I would then open them in Corona image editor and do my tonemapping there to bring the image down to better values closer to 0-1 (i could do this in the frame buffer within max if is so chose but this way provides maximum flexibility with renders for post production). I then save this image as 16bit exr with the tonemapping baked in. From here i bring it to photoshop and do some small bits and pieces like clarity, and playing with contrast, shadows and highlights in camera raw, If i needed to hand paint anything this is when i would do it before saving out as a jpg/png etc. The main benefit to this workflow is that is that changes to the base render are very simple, quick and consistent to perform, i can go back at any point and its a very fast process. Speed and flexibility being key here.
I do appreciate what you are saying. Photoshop is not fantastic in 32bit, hence why i tonemap outside and bring in a 16bit bound image rather than working exclusively in photoshop. Having worked in Linear workspace most of my career the pitfalls of it are burned in to my brain now To describe what i am seeing better, i am bringing the same 16bit image in to both Photo and PS and performing the same adjustments side by side and PS seems to just have more range in it which is what i am finding so weird. I tried doing all my 32bit tonemapping in photo just as test and i can certainly say it handles this considerably better than PS but doesn't beat my current way of tonemapping. Blender has certainly come on leaps and bounds and is a real contender, autodesk etc must be worried as they are really disrupting things. The filmic macros are essentially clamping highlights, applying different contrast curves, tints, saturations, white balance and applying LUTs is that correct?
I haven't configured anything in photo in terms of OpencolourIO, i was just trying a like for like comparison. Without going too much in depth as to why they are different./ This was the reason i asked here, as knew there would be some differences in the way the software handles colour and it would likely take me a while to find these on my own.
Thanks again for sharing your expertise here, its really appreciated. I will continue experimenting with it and see if I can make it work.