Ap 1.7.0.100 Clarity Filter dosen't work ...

[Puck]

Hi there, Filter / Live-Filter "Clarity" does not work properly. Also the values are now displayed in % and not in px.

 

Best regards

Puck

 

iMac mid 2010, High Sierra

[Chris B]

Hey Puck,

We've changed the Clarity filter so that you have a (bigger) range of -100% to 100% starting at 0% (in the middle). 

If you open an older 1.6 file and modify the existing Clarity filter, it should use px and not the %. I believe this was done so existing files do not break when you open them in 1.7.

Technically, the Clarity filter was broken before we changed it in 1.7. 

[Puck]

Thanks for your quick response, Chris. But the "new" filter has almost no effect. Not even at 100%.

[Chris B]

Really? On the image I was using the filter seemed to give me a much bigger range and the 100% was much more dramatic than the 100px. 

Could you attach your image so I can look into this some more for you?

[Polygonius]

The algorithm looks very different. Fisrt one old, second new: Booth with 100.

Depending on what i want, I would like to have BOOTH. 

[Puck]

Hi Polygonius, the old one looks a lot better imho! 

 

Best regards

Puck

[Chris B]

The second image looks more dramatic but I think that's because 100% isn't the same as 100px. From my tests, I'd say 40% is about equal to the old 100px (depending on the image it might be more or less than 40%).

[Puck]

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

The second image looks more dramatic but I think that's because 100% isn't the same as 100px. From my tests, I'd say 40% is about equal to the old 100px (depending on the image it might be more or less than 40%).

I wonder why a working filter was "rewritten". The old filter was perfect. The new one seems to be the same as in the Develop Persona (of course it's not a live filter there).

[Chris B]

Because development would argue it was never working correctly so they fixed it and made it the same as the Develop Persona.

If you cannot get similar results in 1.7 that you were getting with 1.6 that is a worry. I'm not saying the results should be the same if the slider is positioned at 100% and 100px but you should be able to find the same result somewhere along the slider.

[James Ritson]

If you want to achieve the same effect as the old Clarity filter, just use a live Unsharp Mask, drag its radius to 100px and set the blend mode to Lighten.

Alternatively, create a luminosity mask (CMD-Shift-click on a pixel layer) then add the Unsharp Mask and drag its radius to 100px.

That's basically what the old Clarity was: local contrast enhancement using unsharp mask with luminosity blending. The new version is more complex and is far more effective, but if you preferred the old look you should be able to follow the above instructions. Hope that helps!

[Polygonius]

4 hours ago, James Ritson said:

If you want to achieve the same effect as the old Clarity filter, just use a live Unsharp Mask, drag its radius to 100px and set the blend mode to Lighten.

A litlle but much steps. Why not just implement clairity smooth (old) AND clarity drama (new)?????? So we have booth, depending on what we want. BOOTH algorithm are already exist!

[Puck]

14 hours ago, James Ritson said:

If you want to achieve the same effect as the old Clarity filter, just use a live Unsharp Mask, drag its radius to 100px and set the blend mode to Lighten.

Alternatively, create a luminosity mask (CMD-click on a pixel layer) then add the Unsharp Mask and drag its radius to 100px.

That's basically what the old Clarity was: local contrast enhancement using unsharp mask with luminosity blending. The new version is more complex and is far more effective, but if you preferred the old look you should be able to follow the above instructions. Hope that helps!

Thanks a lot, James

[Andy Somerfield]

Is it "Lighten" or "Luminosity" James?

I can't remember :)

A

[Jowday]

Rewriting features and replacing old ones (and pixels with percent) is confusing. It not great that he has to come here with questions and for work arounds (he has to remember) either.

 Why not name these methods and give users a choice, like in Capture Pro:

 

Then you can even add presets or additional methods in later versions of Photo.

[R C-R]

17 hours ago, James Ritson said:

If you want to achieve the same effect as the old Clarity filter, just use a live Unsharp Mask, drag its radius to 100px and set the blend mode to Lighten.

1 hour ago, Andy Somerfield said:

Is it "Lighten" or "Luminosity" James?

From what I can tell by eyeball comparisons, it appears it should be Luminosity -- Lighten did not do much in my few tests.

FWIW, I made a simple macro to create the live Unsharp Mask, set its blend mode to Luminosity, & make the radius adjustable in the macro, with a default value of 100px. I have only tested it on a few unmodified JPEG files (not preexisting afphoto files). It seems to work reasonably well, but the default radius changes depending on the pixel size of the file.

In the macro adjustment, it also lets me set the px radius to up to 1024 px (!!!) but if I then open the live filter normally & move the radius slider the range goes back to 100px max. The beta doesn't crash or anything with the radius set to 1024 px, but it does take a while to update. I suppose that is to be expected?

Unsharp (1.7 clarity fake).afmacro is attached if anyone wants to play with it -- note that since it is a single macro file it has to be imported in the Macro panel, not the Library panel.

[Puck]

On 11/22/2018 at 8:57 AM, Wafer said:

Rewriting features and replacing old ones (and pixels with percent) is confusing. It not great that he has to come here with questions and for work arounds (he has to remember) either.

 Why not name these methods and give users a choice, like in Capture Pro:

 

Then you can even add presets or additional methods in later versions of Photo.

Great idea, Wafer !!