Photomatix Pro 7 User Manual

You may sometimes wish to limit your image adjustments to just one part of your image. This is possible using Selective Adjustments, in Photomatix Pro, and there are two types:

1. Selective Color adjustments: For changing saturation, hue, temperature, and/or brightness – in the image areas you select. The opacity of a color effect can be set, from one to 100%.
2. Selective Blending adjustments: For blending a source photo, with no adjustments applied, into the merged bracketed set – in the image areas you select. Any source photo can blended in, from one to 100% (If you opened just one photo, the blend will be between the adjusted Preview, vs. the unadjusted original).

You can apply color or blending adjustments multiple times across an image, with different settings area-by-area, as needed. There are two alternative Selection tools for specifying the where in your image a given Color or Blending adjustment will apply:

1. The Brush: Lets you select image areas using an additive "paint-on" method, with a variable sized brush.
2. The Lasso: Lets you select image areas by outlining them, using a polygonal or a free form "lasso".

Both tools have an edge Softness setting. Use the “Brush” icons in the Color and the Blending sections, to access the Brush and the Lasso.

Selective Adjustment Workflow

The Selective Adjustment Mode begins when you click the Brush icon, in the Color Settings section or the Blending section. The Brush / Lasso Tool window will then open.

For Blending adjustments, Selections made using the tool work in tandem with the Blending section's Opacity slider and Source Photo menu.

For Color adjustments, the Selections made using the tool work in tandem with the sliders in the Color Settings section.

Making Selections

In Selective Adjustment mode the entire image is masked and protected from adjustment, until you use the Brush or Lasso to define where in the image your adjustment will selectively apply. A "Selection" is thus like a window or a keyhole through the mask, allowing adjustments which would normally affect the entire image, to instead affect just the areas of the image that you've selected, with Brush or Lasso.

A “Selection” is a free-form sub-section of your image, the shape, edge softness and opacity of which you define. You define a Selection by painting with the Brush or outlining with the Lasso, in separate areas of the image. These defined areas will apply the current color or blending adjustment settings.

Adjust your settings and refine your Selections until you are happy with the effect. Then either close the Brush / Lasso Tool, or keep it open in order to apply additional adjustments to other areas of your image.

If you want to apply different color or blending adjustments to other areas of the image, click Add Selection to start a new Selection. Color or Blending settings will revert to their default, allowing you to set up a new adjustment, for your new Selection. An image can have (essentially) an unlimited number of Selections, each with its own independent color or blending settings.

Making a Selection using the Brush Tool

The settings in the Color or Blending section define the specific adjustment that will be applied to your Selection. After opening the Brush / Lasso Tool, make at least one color or blending settings change before you start, so that your Selection-in-progress will be immediately apparent upon your first brush stroke. You can continue to extend your Selection with additional brush strokes, and adjust and refine the color adjustments for this particular Selection before, optionally, making additional Selections.

To make a brush selection, click the brush icon in the Color Settings section. The Brush / Lasso Tool window will open and you will be in Selective Adjustment mode. The mouse is now a size-adjustable round brush which, when tapped on or dragged across the Preview image - in other words "brushed" onto the image - will select that portion of the image, and apply the current selective adjustments to it.

You define the shape of your Selection with brush strokes over the areas of the image that you want to adjust . Brush Size, Transparency and Softness settings let you to customize your Brush strokes.

To begin working on a new brush selection, click the "Add Selection" button. The Color or Blending settings will revert to their defaults, allowing you to specify new color or blending settings for your new Selective Adjustment.

The "Undo" button removes the most recent Brush stroke.

If you want to remove all brush strokes of a Selection with their associated adjustments, right click inside the Selection, and select Remove from the contextual menu.

Making a Selection using the Lasso Tool

Polygonal lasso:

1. Click on the image to set the starting point.
2. Move the mouse to draw the first line segment and click to set its end point.
3. Repeat to create additional segments.
4. Double-click to complete the polygon.

Normal lasso:

1. Click and drag the mouse to draw a freehand Selection.
2. Release the mouse button to close the Selection.

The Polygonal Lasso is good for areas with straight edges, and for large areas because you don’t have to hold down the mouse button while you are working (as you do when painting a large area with the Brush tool). The Normal Lasso is good for areas with irregular shapes.

Brush / Lasso Tool Window Elements

The Brush Tool tab

The Brush Tool tab provides a customizable round-shaped brush, attached to the mouse, which you use to "paint" a Selection onto an image. This brush, and the Selections it makes, are subject to these controls.

• Brush Size slider:
  From 1 to 100, with 50 as the default. This brush size scale varies proportionally with the image size.
• Softness slider:
  From 0 to 100. Gives the Brush a softened edge. A soft-edged brush is helpful for making a subtle transition, when applying a color adjustment to one area but not to an adjacent area.
• Opacity slider (Color mode only):
  From 0 to 1, in 100 steps. Fades the brush's shape, to allow translucent Selections.
  Note: Opacity is intrinsic to the concept of a Blending adjustment, as opposed to being a brush option as with color adjustments. This is why you will find the Blending Opacity setting in the Blending section, rather than in the Brush Tool palette.
• Shape menu (Blending mode only):
  Lets you choose a round or a square brush. A square brush may be useful when painting over areas with straight edges such as windows.
• Detect Edges checkbox:
  Limits the brush stroke to areas that do not include sharp contrast or color differences. This is helpful, for example, if you wish your brush stroke (and thus your color or your blending adjustment) to affect the blue sky, but not the buildings silhouetted in front of it.
• Sensitivity slider:
  Works in conjunction with Detect Edges. Sets the amount of contrast required to trigger edge detection.
• New Selection button:
  Adds a new Selection. Multiple Selections are allowed, each with its own color or blending adjustment setting.
• Clear All button:
  Clears all Selections, and the brush strokes that created them.
• Undo (arrow icon) button:
  Removes the most recent brush stroke.

The Lasso Tool tab

• Lasso Type menu:
  Choose between Polygonal and Normal Lasso.
• Softness slider:
  Sets the edge softness of the Selection.

Examples of Selective Adjustments

Example 1: Adjusting Color – using the Brush Tool

Follow these steps, to see an example of using the Brush Tool to make a Selective Color adjustment:

1. Click the Color Settings section brush icon, to open the Brush / Lasso Tool in color mode.
   Select the Brush Tool tab.
2. In the Color Settings section, set Saturation to -10.
   Set Color Saturation to -10.
   Image result: Nothing yet, as you've not yet made a Selection.
3. Now, click and drag your mouse over the image.
   Image result: The image areas you painted with the brush become desaturated.

Additional options to try:

• Adjust the size of the brush, in conjunction with zooming in the Preview, to make precise adjustments.
• Click on “Add Selection”, change the Saturation, Temperature and Brightness settings, then use the Brush to paint another area with the new color settings.
• Change the brush Opacity setting, to adjust the strength of the color adjustment that is applied to the image.

When you close the Brush / Lasso tool window, you leave Selective Adjustment mode. Further color adjustments will apply to the whole image.

Example 2: Blending Source Photos – using the Lasso Tool

The Blending tool allows you to select areas of your image, and use the lassoed area as a "key" to display just one of the source photos, in place of the HDR image. The chosen source photo can be blended at any fade level, from 100% to just a slight hint of accentuation, using a setting near zero.

Follow these steps, to see an example of using the Lasso Tool to make a Selective Blending adjustment:

1. Load and merge a set of bracketed photos
2. Click the Blending section brush icon, to open the Brush / Lasso Tool in blending mode.
   Select the Lasso tab.
3. In the "Blend with" menu, choose the photo you wish to use for the lassoed area, either to replace it with the chosen source photo (when Opacity is set to 100), or blend it more or less strongly depending on the Opacity setting.
4. Select the Normal Lasso, and then lasso a section of the Preview image. The source photo selected in step 2 now shows through in your lassoed area. How strongly does it show through? Set this in step 4.
5. Use the Opacity slider to set the blending strength of the source photo you selected.

Additional options to try:

• Compare different source photos and different Opacity settings for your lassoed area.
• Make multiple Selections, to try different source photos in different areas.