# On1 - Dynamic Contrast



## Colin Grant (May 14, 2016)

In On1 Effects module there is a great filter called Dynamic Contrast. It does a great job at bringing out detail and I use it a lot. BUT......surely I should be able to do the same thing in LR using Clarity and Contrast but I never can. Any ideas?

Thanks
Colin


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## PhilBurton (May 14, 2016)

Colin Grant said:


> In On1 Effects module there is a great filter called Dynamic Contrast. It does a great job at bringing out detail and I use it a lot. BUT......surely I should be able to do the same thing in LR using Clarity and Contrast but I never can. Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks
> Colin


Submit that idea to Adobe as a feature request.  Isn't competition wonderful.


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## Colin Grant (May 14, 2016)

But the was not the question. It must be possible to replicate using Adobe controls and I wondered if anybody had any ideas. Clearly not.


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## PhilBurton (May 14, 2016)

Colin Grant said:


> But the was not the question. It must be possible to replicate using Adobe controls and I wondered if anybody had any ideas. Clearly not.


Not the feature as such.  The idea of a feature that would achieve the same result.


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## Colin Grant (May 14, 2016)

Sorry I am lost. I do not want a feature, I do not want an enhancement - I just want to do it long hand.


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## Ian.B (May 15, 2016)

Sorry; no knowledge or experience with on1 however you can  rip the LR sliders back and forth to see what happens Colin. You will never harm the photo or file by experimenting. I have feel I have seen the look recently and personally I thought it looked a bit of over kill imo; but that is a personal thing

Note to LR learners: to keep editing education at simple as possible stick to one main program; LR naturally, and learn as much as you can before venturing into other programs. The more programs you have on your computer the more complicated this editing thing becomes IMO.   I would concede PS is handy for just a few things for me but it's not a have to have for photography. I do have the Nic collection also but seldom use it.


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## Harley_Rider (May 15, 2016)

@colin, you could try the Nik collection/add-ons.  Color Efex Pro has some powerful contrast adjustments.    Nik is now free....


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## Ian.B (May 15, 2016)

Harley_Rider said:


> @colin, you could try the Nik collection/add-ons.  Color Efex Pro has some powerful contrast adjustments.    Nik is now free....


Yep; that is certainly a great thought. I have it, don't use it much but it's handy for some edits. I used to run a single photo through hrd and then finish the edit in LR . I also use hrd to combine the files but do all editing in LR so I don't get the hdr look. Like everything, does fit all photos though.


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## Colin Grant (May 15, 2016)

Ian.B said:


> Sorry; no knowledge or experience with on1 however you can  rip the LR sliders back and forth to see what happens Colin. You will never harm the photo or file by experimenting. I have feel I have seen the look recently and personally I thought it looked a bit of over kill imo; but that is a personal thing
> 
> Note to LR learners: to keep editing education at simple as possible stick to one main program; LR naturally, and learn as much as you can before venturing into other programs. The more programs you have on your computer the more complicated this editing thing becomes IMO.   I would concede PS is handy for just a few things for me but it's not a have to have for photography. I do have the Nic collection also but seldom use it.



There is a place for plugins - they can make some difficult jobs quite easy and especially so if PS is not available. The look I am talking about can be applied variably so it can be as "in your face" or as subtle as one likes. It can be downloaded as a free plugin - I just wanted to understand how the effect was obtained.


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## Hal P Anderson (May 15, 2016)

Colin,
It may not be possible. On1's description of DC implies that it takes the relative size of detail into account, which you have no control over using Clarity:
An Introduction to Dynamic Contrast – ON1, Inc.


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## Colin Grant (May 15, 2016)

Hal P Anderson said:


> Colin,
> It may not be possible. On1's description of DC implies that it takes the relative size of detail into account, which you have no control over using Clarity:
> An Introduction to Dynamic Contrast – ON1, Inc.


Thanks Hal.


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## johnbeardy (May 15, 2016)

Without trying the plugin myself, I had a quick look at the example on An Introduction to Dynamic Contrast – ON1, Inc.. As a guess, I think I'd go for a very moderate Clarity adjustment, more Contrast, positive Shadows, possibly negative Highlights. Another guess is that it may be close to Nik's Structure which can target high/mid/shadow tones and its Fine Structure.

John


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## clee01l (May 15, 2016)

johnbeardy said:


> ... guess is that it may be close to Nik's Structure which can target high/mid/shadow tones and its Fine Structure.


Speaking of which, the Nik Structure adjustment was probably for me the most effective adjustment that i used.


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## Colin Grant (May 15, 2016)

Shame that Nik must be considered doubtful for the future. I really do wish Google would either open source it or let someone take it on.


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## rob211 (May 15, 2016)

Macphun's applications (and I think DxO) have some finer controls than Lr as well. I could achieve something similar to what On1 does with lowering blacks and clarity but as On1 notes the devils in the details.  And in Ps you could use masks to do it if you wanted more control.


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## Colin Grant (May 15, 2016)

Yes, Macphun do have similar, I have their Intensify plugin (amongst others). What I don't like about Macphun is all their separate apps to do what On1 can do within a single app, Effects. That said Intensify can give some great results....if one dials it all back a bit.


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## Ian.B (May 16, 2016)

clee01l said:


> Speaking of which, the Nik Structure adjustment was probably for me the most effective adjustment that i used.


 True, very powerful. But easy to over do it more than we really needed or wanted. All this chat   has me thinking it's about time to play in the Nic collection again


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## pdxrjt (May 16, 2016)

It is pretty easy to overdo it with any program.... not just plug ins (just turn LR Clarity up all the way for example.)  IMHO plug ins do often add some functionality not found in LR.  As stated above, there is no way to match the effect of Dynamic Contrast from On-1 exactly with just LR.  You can select small, medium or large details and also protect highlights or shadows.  Several blending modes are available as well.I also find the masking in On-1 "better" in many ways, than the masking in LR (although I think they have the same masking tools, I have the entire On-1 suite, not the free version of Effects 10.)  Dynamic Contrast is likely my favorite filter in the On-1 collection.  I have made a couple of presets with a series of filters which I like and Dynamic Contrast is always the first one (of course, I do shut it off on occasion too!)


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## Ian.B (Feb 22, 2017)

Ian.B said:


> *Sorry; no knowledge or experience with on1* however you can  rip the LR sliders back and forth to see what happens Colin. You will never harm the photo or file by experimenting. I have feel I have seen the look recently and personally I thought it looked a bit of over kill imo; but that is a personal thing
> 
> Note to LR learners: to keep editing education at simple as possible stick to one main program; LR naturally, and learn as much as you can before venturing into other programs. The more programs you have on your computer the more complicated this editing thing becomes IMO.   I would concede PS is handy for just a few things for me but it's not a have to have for photography. I do have the Nic collection also but seldom use it.



I have now and I this thread popped up while doing an  on1 Dynamic Contrast search so I could understand it more --- certainly a powerful tool and not sure LR has that power which is very easy to over do . You might say it's Clarity+Contrast on steroids so as I said 'it's easy to over do' and to go too far past the natural


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## Tony Jay (Feb 22, 2017)

I have just happened on this thread.
From the gist of the thread the way to try to recreate this filter in Lightroom would be to reduce highlights to -100 and increase shadows to +100.
At this point most images actually look nauseatingly bland (which makes sense).
Now increase whites - exactly where to stop is a matter of taste but in an image with a high dynamic range I would go until the histogram is just shy of clipping the highlights.
Reduce blacks - again where to stop is also a matter of taste but I would usually aim for at least a bit of true black in the image (i.e. a bit of clipping).
Midtones, will likely still look a bit bland even though global contrast has been restored - this is exactly what clarity does - it increases midtone contrast.

The result of the above edits will maximise detail in both the shadows and the highlights, with the clarity slider employed to emphasise detail in the midzones.
If an image is either underexposed or overexposed to a degree then use the exposure slider to normalise the midtones first before trying this maneuver.

To maximise the effect the key edits are to reduce highlights and increase shadows as much as possible to -100 and +100 respectively.

One other point to bear in mind is that doing tonal edits in this fashion will usually make the colour in the image "pop" remarkably. If that is what you want - fine, otherwise just reduce vibrance and/or saturation to get the colour back under control again.

Tony Jay


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## Colin Grant (Feb 22, 2017)

Thanks, Tony


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