tonal contrast

[stuart wanuck]

started using tonal contrast seems to provide an added boost to my images.can you comment on this ?reg stuart

[Desmond Chan]

started using tonal contrast seems to provide an added boost to my images.can you comment on this ?

Hey Stuart, sound interesting. What is tonal contrast though? Is that some program you use and could you tell me which one?

Thanks!

[Harold Davis]

desmond, tonal contrast is in the plugin Nik Color Efex Pro.

stuart, i use also. sometimes multiple times when working images. i like that if you dial in negative contrast you can smooth stuff out and also the + and - control points to pinpoint where you want it. it's a valuable tool when processing landscapes!!

[Scott Grant]

and a very valuable tool to bring contrast back to feathers, both dark and light. it is easily overused and should be applied with control points to the areas one would like to bring back some detail in.

here's an example of how i use it in my images...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2525/3960445210_4f28bbabab_o.jpg

i wish i had the original hosted somewhere.

as you can see the light was extremely harsh in this example as it was shot at midday in August. i used a slight reverse s curve to reel back the contrast, used the highlight and shadow sliders to bring back a little detail and upped the SAT just a touch to bring back a little color that the highlight and shadow sliders adjustments took away, added a very slight vignette and then used the tonal contrast filter at 15/15/15/0 and applied with control points to both the white feathers on the breast and also the dark feathers on the backs. as compaired to the original i think the tonal contrast filter makes a large difference.