The Dynamic Contrast Filter - ON1 Photo RAW 2021

hi gang scott here let's talk about dynamic contrast this is my favorite filter in the effects module in on one photo raw it touches a lot of my photos a lot of my photos so we'll run down the filter the sliders how it works i'll show you a few examples how you can apply it to your photography and more than just a drop it on the photo and move on there is quite a bit of nuance and crafting and shaping we can do with dynamic contrast if you like videos like this hit the subscribe button if you're thinking about adding on one photo raw or any of the on1 plugins to your toolkit check the show notes there is an offer code down there that can save you some money let's now dive into dynamic contrast this photo here is a good one to show the sliders and how dynamic contrast changes the photo there's a lot of texture in this thing there's a lot of nuance in this let's do this let's add our dynamic contrast filter and let's zoom in really close here so we can see all sorts of detail and for the purposes of this demonstration i'll add a gradient mask so we can just have a cut line and be able to see the before and after of our uh of our dynamic contrast matter of fact i think i can just do the preview can i do that with the preview and just put the line up here let's do that that'll be even easier right we'll take the line and we'll put it like right here so on the right hand side we have our dynamic contrast and on the left hand side we have nothing so you can already see there's a little bit of a change here let's run down the the basics of the sliders and the filter and so forth we have our normal stuff we have opacity we have a few styles we have a few more in here natural is the default and it does a good job surreal is kind of the opposite end of natural right that gets really really really crispy and so you need to uh you need specialized locations and times for that but take a look at natural versus surreal and what happens with the sliders right we the sliders change so the defaults this is usually where i'm playing with dynamic contrast controlling the small medium and large texture and this is based on kind of like the size of the elements that are being adjusted let's see it's looking at edges and the small slider will look at small tiny details medium medium ones and large and large ones i'm going to zero these all out so we can just see the individual effects of let's push small and we're going to see very fine details like in these scratches here those are starting to show up right and i push that really far we can see how detailed and nuanced in those rivets we can see those rivets rising and falling all the little small details like right out up in here to return that now medium will still see that same contrast pop but it's a lesser degree the objects the deltas the edges that are being detected they're more well they're they're medium sized things so like looking around is that rivet again as i push medium farther i'm seeing some of that detail some of that contrast being crispened around the wider edge but if i bring that down to zero compare that to small you know inside the rivet like where there's these micro details that's what small is touching right zero that out negative one that's gonna be good enough then large is you know kind of the most uh like nuanced of them as far as looking for objects now here we'll see differences primarily in like the very dark tones like this smudged you know blackish grayish charcoal stuff versus the yellow and gold we see that accentuation but not too much else we're not seeing all those little micro contrasts that we saw with small like here i'm trying to see little small scratches and ridges there so you can use these sliders in combination to really get exactly the level of detail that you want return to natural and for a scene like this natural might be not strong enough because this photo is all about the texture of this door you know this thing has just been weathered and it's got dents and welts and all sorts of interesting character so you know this one might be a texture enhancer and we'll see smalls get really pushed up but the other ones kind of stay pulled back as far as the rest of the sliders in this filter tone highlight shadows you know i am i'm not doing too much with these here in this filter these are all things that are your basic tone coverage we have those in develop we have those in other tools they're here as conveniences as you adjust contrast if you realize well it's making the scene i don't know a little bit too dark you can push the shadows up and and just as opposed to having to jump to another tool or add another filter you've got that uh that option here this this this interesting this application i just did of this texture enhancer that points out one interesting thing about dynamic contrast something i want to point out is masking if you notice this interesting looking mask showed up because that particular style adds a mask and so getting into practical application that's one of the first things to look at is using masks with dynamic contrast let me show you an example and this photo here is an hdr blend hdr is often we're doing those with very textured kind of grungy feels i've actually got two dynamic contrast filters added here the first one let me open that up turn it on and this is a classic right this is just the natural setting this is the default it's being applied globally right before that change and after and just look at all the additional texture and just depth that is being added into especially around the archway of this somewhat in the center it kind of didn't quite hit the center as much as i wanted so the beautiful thing about filters we can add a second one adding this one here before and after and take a look at the mask right we're using a radial mask so it's one of our masking bugs here it is and this becomes like a spotlight right i can just push this around the shape is edges i'm masking the look of the filter i should say i'm masking the filter away from the edges and so i have this very tight area where i want this little scene here this uh this you know this desk and chair and all this kind of stuff this to have the most texture boost and then fade it out and i happen to be using another natural setting uh we could play a little bit with surreal and really go kind of hog wild there and then maybe dial back the opacity some because hdr photos you know sometimes we want to have that extra pop that extra contrast as you know really crisp things coming in here so surreal this is this is kind of where it fits in with um really really textured things but even at uh at uh at full strength even on a textured scene like this you kind of do have to dial it back a little bit let me show you another recipe we can do with dynamic contrast this is for a wet pavement or a wet street kind of look where you know the streets look really neat after it's rained there's like some sheen there's you know and it's just an extra burst of contrast looks really good on cobblestone but sometimes it just doesn't rain as you don't get that look uh here is a photo like that this is like the the causeway going up to castle san angelo in rome and there's just nice reflections happening on the other street lamps coming off this uh this cobblestone way but uh wouldn't it have been cool if it had rained and this was really like you know dark and shiny well a general dynamic contrast for the scene overall looks really good let me add another one and this will be for the wet pavement now right now i'm just going to look at the pavement i'm going to hit surreal it's too strong i'm just watching the cobblestone right you know i'm watching the cobblestone that looks pretty darn neat and now i can mask away right we'll open our masking tools let's uh let's grab a gradient we'll drop it up here take it away from the top part and then we can continue cleaning up with our brush we can paint out maybe i'll paint out at actually around half strength is good so i can paint it away from these areas here just some right there and same thing down this side here so i want your eyes to be looking at this pretty cool looking cobblestone and less so on the outside there but i also want a nice nice looking fade we'll view that mask i missed a little spot there we'll take care of that i like to add a little feather on the mask just to smooth out the edges there cool and now we can play with you know making that that street just shine and look at that extra boost before and after probably need to take it away out here a little bit a little bit strong right but now we've got that nice look where it's like it had rained things are shiny and it just adds something extra to the photo so if you've got one of these scenes where oh this would have looked great if it had happened just after a rain try dynamic contrast and you can go out pretty strong on that surreal setting play with the opacity dial it back a little bit and you get a nice looking wet street type of look one more recipe for you this is a great one for your landscapes especially if you're doing things with water in the scene you know waterfalls seascapes for me it could be lakes it really could be anything with landscapes where you want to have certain parts get crisp and get detail and use that dynamic contrast in other parts of the scene you want to stay soft usually with a landscape the softer areas are the brighter areas the sky the ocean the lake or the stream or the waterfall and the darker areas like rocks or grass or the land you want that to get crisp and there is a very easy way to do that with dynamic contrast and leveraging a luminosity mask now for this one dynamic contrast overall looks pretty good it's a little strong for the water so i'll cut that down to about halfway but i want more pop on the rocks i'll add a second one and here's the recipe right open up your masking area hit the lumen button and hit invert and what that does is it changes the mask if i view the mask the rocks become kind of the brighter parts that become white this is a mask and what does the mask mean well the white mask reveals or applies the contrast and the black or dark mask conceals it and of course we can play around with our settings here and and dial in exactly what we want you know maybe we we want to bring that uh that shadowy area up we want to cut down what's what's uh happening up in the in the sky there change this level here shifting things so that i'm really targeting toward the rocks i'll turn off that view and just so you can see what's going on if i hit surreal you'll see those rocks pop but the rest of the scene is not being affected right before and after of course i'm more of a natural kind of guy but you know maybe we'll nudge things up a little farther on the sliders because we're only impacting the darker tones of the photo so that recipe again is dynamic contrast luminosity mask invert the mask that'll target your dynamic contrast the darker areas of your scene it's very often what you want for a landscape scene and that will wrap it up for the video hope you enjoyed it there's a lot of different ways you can use dynamic contrast to improve your photos leverage the masks leverage the styles don't be shy about pulling back on opacity or adjusting small medium and large depending on what your scene needs hope you enjoyed it got questions go ahead and drop them below and until next time my name's scott davenport have fun you

Channel: Scott Davenport

Views: 2,080

Keywords: scott davenport, photography, tips and tricks, tutorial, education, photo editing, landscape photography

Id: HAVTVp5VX7s

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 08 2021