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Getting Started

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1 - Welcome
RawTherapee is a cross-platform raw image processing program, released under the
GNU General Public License Version  3. It was originally written by Gábor Horváth of
Budapest, and development was taken over in 2010 by a team of people from around
the world. Rather than being a raster graphics editor such as Photoshop or GIMP or a
digital asset management program like digiKam, it is specifically aimed at raw photo
post-production. And it does it very well - at a minimum, RawTherapee is one of the
most powerful raw processing programs available.

2 - Get RawTherapee
RawTherapee can be downloaded from our website [https://rawtherapee.com/downloads] or
from your package manager. Always use the latest stable release to benefit from new
tools, improvements to existing tools, faster code, smaller memory footprints and fixed
bugs.

Should you wish to compile RawTherapee yourself, the process is documented for Linux,
Windows and macOS.

If you want to help test the bleeding-edge code, see the Downloads - Development
Builds article.

3 - Start RawTherapee
When you start RawTherapee you will land in the File Browser tab, and it might be
empty. You need to point RawTherapee to where your raw photos are stored. Use the
folder tree browser on the left of the File Browser tab to navigate to your raw photo
repository and double-click on the folder to open it. Then double-click on a raw photo
to start editing it.

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4 - Edit your first image

First, a little background. A raw photo
contains a dump of sensor data, which makes
up the bulk of the raw file. This sensor data
does not look like a pretty image, in fact it
does not look like anything - it is "raw" data, RawTherapee in Single Editor Tab Mode -
ergo the name. It must be "cooked" to look Vertical Tabs, showing: 1- Main sections:
File Browser (currently opened), Queue,
like the image you saw through the
Editor and Preferences. 2- Panels used
viewfinder. Your camera cooks the raw data for navigating to files and folders. 3-
into a pretty image, which it stores as a JPEG Thumbnails of the currently opened
folder. 4- Filters to limit the thumbnails
file inside the raw file (yes, even when you're
shown to only those which match some
shooting in only "RAW" mode as opposed to metadata or state. 5- Thumbnail zooming
"RAW+JPEG" mode). Due to this fundamental and info. 6- Quick image operations. 7-
Sub-tabs of the File Browser: Filter
fact of the data being "raw", there is no one
(currently opened), Inspect (to see a full-
correct way for a raw photo to look - the way sized embedded JPEG preview), Batch
your camera makes it look is not "the right Edit (to apply some setting to all selected
images) and Fast Export (low quality and
way", nor is it the only way. However, many
bypasses some tools but fast saving -
photographers would like to use the "camera don't use this for typical saving!). 8-
look" as a starting point for further Right-click context menu (you will
typically use this to apply some
adjustments, and RawTherapee makes this
processing profile to all selected files).
possible.

When displaying a raw photo in the File Browser which has never been edited in
RawTherapee before, the photo's thumbnail is based on the JPEG image embedded
inside that raw file -- the exact same image you see when viewing that photo on your
camera or in most other software. Once you open that photo in the Editor, RawTherapee
creates a new thumbnail based on the actual raw data. Since creating an image from
raw data requires "cooking" it, and since you have not manually edited that image yet,
RawTherapee uses parameters from the default processing profile for raw photos to
process it. From that moment on, the photo's thumbnail is no longer based on the
embedded JPEG but on the actual raw data. When you make adjustments to the image in
the Editor, the thumbnail is updated to reflect your changes.

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Editing is done in the Editor. This is where you work with RawTherapee to create
stunning works of art - or perhaps just apply first aid to your snapshots. When you
open a raw photo in the Editor for the first time, the default processing profile for raw
photos is applied, which as of RawTherapee 5.4 is set to "Auto-Matched Curve - ISO
Low" (unless you changed it in Preferences), and it automatically adjusts your raw
photo to look like the out-of-camera JPEG. It does so by analyzing the JPEG image which
was created by your camera and is stored within the raw file, and adjusting the tone
curve so as to match it. In most cases this match is very close to the "camera look". In
rare cases it may fail. See the Auto-Matched Curve article for more information.

Take a moment to look around this Editor tab.

Notice that there are tabs within this tab - on
the right of screen towards the top. These
tabs and the controls under them are the
Toolbox. You probably have the first tab open
and, if you hover your mouse over it, you'll
find that it's called the Exposure tab. Below
the choice of tabs are the tools the chosen The Editor.
tab contains – Exposure, Shadows/Highlights,
Tone Mapping etc. If you click on one of them
it will expand so that you can see its contents. Click again and it will collapse. Right-
click on one and that one will expand while all others will collapse - a time-saving
shortcut. To the left of each tool's label is a power button ( on / off ) which lets you
turn it on or off, or in some cases instead of a power button there is a triangular
expander . Read the Tools section of the General Comments About Some Toolbox
Widgets article for a detailed explanation. Browse through the tabs and panels until you
feel totally overwhelmed by all that's available.

Before you start working on an image, here is some important advice – Don't Panic! You
are in no danger of destroying any of your prized images if you make a mistake.
RawTherapee has some features which help you protect your images:

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RawTherapee does non-destructive editing of your raw files. This means that
RawTherapee will never, ever change the raw file itself. All changes are stored in
sidecar files. You can find out more about them in the Sidecar Files - Processing
Profiles article.

When using the Editor, you'll see the History panel on the left. This panel shows a
history stack of every change you have made to your image. To go back to any step
(including when the image was first loaded), just click on the relevant line in the
History panel.

Under the History panel you'll see a Snapshots panel. You can skip it for now, but
you'll find it handy when you gain experience with RawTherapee. This panel stores
the state of all the tools as a "snapshot". This allows you to easily, for example,
tweak your photo to a nice and colorful look and take a snapshot, then tweak it
again to a lovely black-and-white look and take a snapshot, and then compare the
two just by clicking on either snapshot. (Note: RawTherapee does not save
snapshots to the PP3 file yet, it will do so in the future. If you have three snapshots
which you want to retain, you will need to click through them and save a PP3 file
each time under a unique name).

As you might expect, Control-z will undo the previous change.

4.1 - Basics
. Open the raw photo. RawTherapee automatically makes it look like your camera's
output. If you're happy with the result, you're done. Else read on.

. Click on the Color tab and expanding the White Balance tool by right-clicking
on it (or use the w keyboard shortcut). RawTherapee will start with the white
balance used by your camera. Most white balance adjustments involve moving the
Temperature and Tint sliders, or using the Spot White-Balance Picker on a
colorless (neutral gray) patch. Adjust to taste.

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. Next, fix the exposure by going to the Exposure tab, expanding the Exposure
tool and adjusting it to taste. For now, just use the Exposure Compensation and
Saturation sliders.

. If your image is noisy, switch to the Detail tab, zoom to 100% either using the
button or using the z keyboard shortcut, because the effects of the tools in
this tab are only visible in the zoomed-to-100% preview (and of course in the saved
image), and enable the Noise Reduction tool by clicking on the power button
leaving the settings at their default values for now. RawTherapee has automatically
removed color (chrominance) noise. Luminance noise is removed manually, though
leave it for now as luminance noise generally lends a pleasing, grainy, film-like
look. As a general rule, when using noise reduction don't use sharpening. Zoom
back out to see the whole image either using the button or using the f
keyboard shortcut key.

. Now you decided you want to fix the geometry and composition of your photo.

First make the horizon level, or correct the things which should be vertical
such as street lamps or building edges. To easily do this, press the "s" key on
your keyboard (the same as clicking the button), and click-and-drag a line
along the horizon or along the edge of a building over the preview. Your image
will rotate accordingly and you will automatically be taken into the
Transform tab.

To crop the photo, press the c shortcut key on your keyboard (or use the
button) and click-and-drag a crop over the preview; you will notice that the
Crop tool becomes automatically enabled. There is no need to "apply" a crop -
it takes effect the moment you draw it. You can zoom to fit the crop area by
using the f keyboard shortcut, or ⎇ Alt + f if you want to fit the whole image.
You may want to set the Crop "Guide type" to "none" if it's a problem.

Finally, you want to downscale the photo, because who wants to upload a 10MB
JPEG to your social network. Enable the Resize tool and the Post-Resize
Sharpening sub-tool, and leave them at the default settings. The resizing effect
is only applied to the saved image, not to the preview, so you won't see any
change in the preview as you enable these tools.

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. You're all set, let's save it straight away. Click the Save Current Image button, or
use the ^ Ctrl + s keyboard shortcut. Save it as a JPG file using default settings
(quality at "92", subsampling at "balanced"). These are good all-round settings.
Choose a folder where you want it saved to, and after a few seconds your file will
be ready in the folder you selected. If you close RawTherapee, the settings you used
will be stored in a PP3 sidecar file next to the raw file, so that you can re-open the
raw photo in the future and retain the tool settings you used.

Now that you went through basic photo adjustment and are familiar with the steps, let's
recap the steps but with more advanced details.

4.2 - Advanced
Always read each tool's article here on RawPedia before using it, to get a firm
understanding of what it does. The articles explain how the tools work in RawTherapee,
while the general concepts unspecific to RawTherapee are left to the user to find on
Wikipedia or elsewhere.

Be sure to see the Keyboard Shortcuts.

The order of the tools inside RawTherapee's engine pipeline is hard-coded, so from that
point of view it does not matter when you enable or disable a tool. However some tools
can make a large impact on other tools, e.g. changing exposure may require you to re-
adjust color toning, and some tools may require plenty of CPU power to calculate the
preview making updates of the preview from then on slow, so it is for this reason we
suggest you stick to this general order of operations:

. Start off by making sure that RawTherapee's environment is set up correctly,

meaning:

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Make sure that RawTherapee is using your monitor's color profile if you use a
color-managed workflow. Check Preferences > Color Management. You may
also need to load the appropriate calibration curves into your graphics card if
you built your monitor color profile on top of them, though how you do that is
outside the scope of RawTherapee.

Make sure that the Color Management tool is configured correctly. Usually the
defaults are best. Read the Color Management and Color Management addon
articles. If instead of using the color matrix or DCP or ICC profiles shipped with
RawTherapee you decide to use an external one, for example a self-made DCP
or one from Adobe, load it as the first thing you do, otherwise you may need to
re-adjust some of the color tools. Always use an output profile - in most cases
the default one, RT_sRGB. If you think you're being smart by selecting "No ICM:
sRGB Output", you're mistaken.

. If you want to use a Flat-Field and/or Dark-Frame image, do so now, to avoid re-
adjustment.

. Now set the correct White Balance. You may fix the exposure first if the image is too
dark (or too bright) to see white balance changes.

. Next, adjust the Exposure, using the Exposure Compensation and Black sliders to
get the image into the right ballpark. Once in the right ballpark, continue with
using both tone curves. Be sure to read the Tone Curve section in the Exposure
article to learn why there are two of them and how best to use them - they are a
very powerful tool!

. In the Basics section above we suggested that you use the Saturation slider (in the
Exposure tool). Now that you've learned the basics and are exploring more
advanced techniques, we suggest you not use the Saturation slider anymore, and
instead use the more powerful CC curve in the Lab Adjustments tool, as it gives you
finer control.

. The order of the rest gets fuzzy. Some tools will unavoidably influence others. Carry
on with the Lab Adjustments tool and then the rest of the tools in the Exposure tab.

. Then use the tools in the Color tab.

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. Then zoom to 100% and use the tools in the Detail tab. Generally, don't sharpen
if you're using noise reduction.

. Finally, zoom out again and use the tools in the Transform tab. The reason you
left these for last is that they may make the preview image appear a bit blurry,
because in order for the preview to be responsive, RawTherapee uses that very
preview image you see at the very resolution you see - small - to show what the
tools do, and when you rotate or otherwise change the geometry of a small image,
there is a clear softening. This is not a problem when saving as by that point
RawTherapee does its processing on the full-sized image, which is slow but of high
quality.

. You can edit metadata in the Meta tab at any time before saving.

. Save, either directly when you want to save a single photo, or via the Batch
Queue when you want to process many photos. See the Saving Images article.

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Features

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Open-source, cross-platform.

Easy camera-like starting point. By default, RawTherapee matches your raw photo to
look like the out-of-camera JPEG photo. You can export as-is, or make further
tweaks.

RawTherapee uses SSE [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_SIMD_Extensions]

optimizations for better performance on modern CPUs, and performs calculations

in floating point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_point] precision.

Color management [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_management] using the LittleCMS [htt

ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LittleCMS] color management system.

Supports DCP and ICC [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile] color profiles.

Supports most raw formats, as well as floating-point HDR images in the DNG
format. Also supports JPEG, TIFF and PNG.

Support for film negatives and monochrome cameras.

Queue your photos for later exporting, freeing up your CPU for working with the
preview in a responsive way.

Rate photos using a 0-5 star system (ratings are read from embedded Exif and
XMP), tag them by color, filter by filename and metadata.

Scroll the tool panels using your mouse scroll wheel without worrying about
accidentally misadjusting any tools, or hold the Shift key while using the mouse
scroll wheel to manipulate the adjuster the cursor is hovering over.

Efficient use of vertical screen space by right-clicking on a tool to expand it while

automatically collapsing all other tools.

A Before|After view to compare your latest change to any previous one.

Lossless editing - all adjustments are stored in PP3 sidecar files.

Dedicated command line support to automate RawTherapee using scripts or call it

from other programs.

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Preserve, edit or strip metadata from exported images.

Localized in over 15 languages.

Adaptation of the CIECAM02 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIECAM02] color appearance

model ratified by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) to maintain
accurate colors and to, given a set of initial viewing condition parameters, convert
the image so that it will look the same under the target viewing conditions.

Profiled lens correction (vignetting, distortion, chromatic aberration) using Lensfun

or Adobe Lens Correction Profiles (LCP).

Dark frame subtraction and flat field correction to eliminate some forms of noise
and sensor dust and correct vignetting and lens color casts.

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The Floating-Point
Engine

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RawTherapee performs all calculations in 32-bit floating point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F

loating_point] precision (in contrast to 16-bit integer as used in many other converters
such as dcraw [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dcraw] and also in RawTherapee up to version
3.0).

Classical converters work with 16-bit integer numbers. A pixel channel has values
ranging from 0-65535 in 16-bit precision (to increase precision, converters usually
multiply the 12- or 14-bit camera values to fill the 16-bit range). The numbers have no
fractions, so for example there is no value between 102 and 103. In contrast, floating
point numbers store a value at a far wider range with a precision of 6-7 significant
digits. This helps especially in the highlights, where higher ranges can be recovered. It
allows intermediate results in the processing chain to over- or undershoot temporarily
without losing information. The fraction values possible also help to smooth color
transitions to prevent color banding.

The downside is the amount of RAM that floating point numbers require, which is
exactly twice that of 16-bit integer. Together with the ever-increasing megapixel count of
digital cameras, a 32-bit operating system can quite easily run out of memory and cause
RawTherapee to crash. Therefore a 64-bit operating system is highly recommended for
stability.

We officially ended support for 32-bit versions of RawTherapee with release 5.0-r1 in
February 2017. Do not file bug reports regarding issues on 32-bit systems.

If you nevertheless need to use RawTherapee on a 32-bit system, the following will help
make the most of it:

Use 4-Gigabyte Tuning in Windows. See "4-Gigabyte Tuning: BCDEdit and Boot.ini [htt
p://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb613473%28VS.85%29.aspx]" for an explanation of what
it is, and find out how to do it by reading the guide "How to set the /3GB Startup
Switch in Windows XP and Vista [http://avatechsupport.blogspot.se/2008/03/how-to-set-3gb-sta
rtup-switch-in.html]".

Close other programs while working in RawTherapee.

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Use a single Editor tab.

Turn off "auto-start" in the Queue. Add photos to the Queue as usual. When ready
to start processing them, restart RawTherapee to free up RAM (no image open in
the Editor), and start the queue.

Ensure that RawTherapee does not load dark-frame or flat-field images if you do
not use them.

Avoid having more than a few hundred photos per folder, as each photo requires a
little RAM (thumbnail, embedded ICC profile, etc.).

5 - Memory Requirements
To open an image in the Editor, RawTherapee 5.6 needs very roughly this much RAM, in
bytes:

Non-raw

8-bit: (width * height * 3) + (width * height * 4) + (previewWidth *

previewHeight * 28)

16-bit: (width * height * 3 * 2) + (width * height * 4) + (previewWidth *

previewHeight * 28)

32-bit: (width * height * 3 * 4) + (width * height * 4) + (previewWidth *

previewHeight * 28)

Raw

(width * height * 4) + (width * height * 4) + (width * height * 12) +

(previewWidth * previewHeight * 28)

Some overhead memory is additionally required, for example for generating thumbnails
of other images which reside in the opened image's folder.

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The memory requirement for processing and saving an image depends on what tools
you use and can vary significantly from the above - the above pertains only to opening
an image.

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Bit Depth

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6 - Introduction
You will hear terms such as "8-bit", "16-bit", "24-bit", "32-bit", "64-bit" and "96-bit" with
reference to digital images. This article will clarify what those things mean.

Digital images consist of millions of pixels, and each pixel describes one or more color
channels. Grayscale images need only one channel (a value of 0 could represent pure
black, 255 could represent pure white, and the values in-between would then represent
shades between black and white), while RGB color images need three channels - one
describes red, one green and one blue. Each channel describes only an intensity, so
there is nothing inherently green about a number which describes a pixel from the
green channel; colors derive from the interaction between all three channels in the RGB
color model [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_model].

A single pixel could represent more than three channels, for example it could contain
information about an alpha channel (which describes transparency) or an infra-red
channel (which some scanners support).

The higher the bit depth, the more precisely a color can be described, at a cost of
requiring longer computation, more RAM and more storage space.

7 - Bits Per What?

Bit depth is expressed as a value which describes either the number of bits per pixel
(BPP), or bits per channel (BPC). The very popular JPEG format [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J
PEG] typically saves images with a precision of 8 bits per channel, using three channels,
for a total of 24 bits per pixel. The TIFF format [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF] supports
various bit depths, for example 32 bits per channel for a total of 96 bits per pixel.

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When describing bit depth, state what you're describing to leave no room for ambiguity.
For example, if someone says they have a "32-bit" image, does that mean the image has
32 bits per channel, or does it have 4 channels at 8 bits per channel?

8 - Precision
What difference does bit depth make? The more bits are available to describe a color,
the more precisely you can describe that color.

A precision of 1 bit per channel means that there is only 1 bit to describe the value.
A bit can only be 0 or 1, so you can only represent two values, which typically would
mean black or white.

A precision of 2 bits per channel means there are two bits available to describe a
color. Since each bit can be 0 or 1, and there are two of them, they can represent 4
possible values:
[00] = 0

[01] = 1

[10] = 2
[11] = 3

If we use 0 to represent black and 3 to represent white, there are two additional
shades of gray which can be described.

A precision of 8 bits per channel means there are 8 bits which can represent 256
values:
[0000 0000] = 0

[0000 0001] = 1

(...)
[1111 1110] = 254

[1111 1111] = 255

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If we use 0 to represent black and 255 to represent white, 254 shades of gray can
also be described. This is what JPEG files use - 8 bits per channel, with 3 channels.
It is sufficient to be used for most ready-to-view photographs in the sRGB color
space [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sRGB] without visible posterization [https://en.wikipedi
a.org/wiki/Posterization], so you can use it when saving photographs ready to be
viewed over the internet. It is not suitable as an intermediate format nor as a
final format if there is a chance you might need to tweak the photograph later on,
as you run the risk of introducing posterization artifacts, depending on the
strength of adjustments. 8-bit precision is not enough to represent a high
dynamic range scene in a linear way without posterization, i.e. you theoretically
could use 8 bits of precision to describe a high dynamic range scene linearly, but
the numbers would be so far apart that heavy posterization would occur. For
instance, if a photograph captures a sunny day in the park, and if we assume that
black should be 0 and white should be 1 000 000, we could map 0 to 0 and 255 to 1
000 000, but then there would only be 254 values left for describing all the
remaining 999 999 shades of the original scene.

A precision of 16 bits per channel (16-bit integer) means there are 16 bits which can
represent 65536 values:
[0000 0000 0000 0000] = 0
[0000 0000 0000 0001] = 1

(...)

[1111 1111 1111 1110] = 65534

[1111 1111 1111 1111] = 65535

Digital cameras typically capture light in 12-bit or 14-bit precision (and due to
noise and imprecise electronics the lowest bits are of dubious quality). 16 bits per
channel are enough for most photography needs, including for use in
intermediate files (if you want to pass an image from one program to another
without data loss).

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The values of a 16-bit floating point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_arithmetic]

image, also known as half-precision floating point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-preci
sion_floating-point_format], are spread in a way more suitable to sampling light than in
16-bit integer. This is so for various reasons: human vision is more sensitive to
small changes in dark tones than to small changes in bright ones; our eyes respond
to light in a logarithmic way (light must be 10 times more intense in order for us to
see it as twice as bright); and specular highlights which can be the the brightest
elements in a scene (the sun reflecting off a door knob) need not be described as
accurately as all the other tones. In 16-bit floating-point notation, values are
distributed more closely in the (lower) darker tones than in the (higher) lighter
ones, thus allowing for a more accurate description of the tones more significant to
us.

A 32-bit floating point [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_arithmetic] image can

represent 4.3 billion values per channel, and requires roughly twice the disk space
as a 16-bit image. Few programs support 32-bit images.

One of the reasons bit depth affects mostly shadows is due to the way colors are
stored. Each color is defined by a mixture of red, green and blue. Using an 8-bit image
and the color orange as an example, many values are possible when describing bright
orange, but the number of samples available to describe dark orange drops to very few,
i.e. only the lowest 3-4 bits from each channel can be used to describe dark orange,
which means only 16 possibilities exist. The higher the bit-depth, the more colors can
be described, and posterization avoided.

9 - Gamma Encoding
Gamma encoding [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction] can be used when saving
image files, meaning that values are modified in such a way that more can be allocated
in the shadow range than in the highlight range, which better matches the human eye's
sensitivity. This means that an 8 bit JPEG can display as much as log2((1/2^8)^2.2) = 17.6
stops of dynamic range, which indeed exceeds the 14 stops of the current best cameras,

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which explains why you sometimes can see a camera's shadow noise even in an 8-bit
JPEG. However, due to the non-linear distribution, we lose precision compared to the
raw file recorded in a linear way by the digital camera. Practically this is not a problem
when the output file is the definitive one and will not be processed anymore, however a
photo can be vastly improved when saved as raw data and processed using a state of
the art raw processing program, such as yours truly - RawTherapee.

10 - A er RawTherapee
Once you have adjusted a photo in RawTherapee and are ready to save, you are faced
with a choice of output format, per-channel bit depth, color space and gamma
encoding. If you plan to post-process your photos after RawTherapee in a 16-bit-
capable image editing program, it is better to save them in a lossless 16-bit format.
RawTherapee can save images in 16-bit integer precision (denoted as "TIFF (16-bit)" in
the Save dialog) as well as 16-bit floating-point precision (denoted as "TIFF (16-bit
float)"). Uncompressed TIFF at 16-bit integer precision is suggested as an intermediate
format as it is the fastest to save and is widely compatible with other software. 32-bit
files are roughly twice the size and not well supported by other programs.

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RGB and L*a*b*

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RGB [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_space]

and CIE L*a*b* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_col

or_space] (or just "Lab") are two different color
spaces [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_space], or
ways of describing colors.

Many people wonder what the differences are

between adjusting lightness, contrast and
saturation in the RGB color space, or RGB cube.
lightness, contrast and chromaticity in the Lab
color space. RGB operates on three channels:
red, green and blue. Lab is a conversion of the same information to a lightness
component L*, and two color components - a* and b*. Lightness is kept separate from
color, so that you can adjust one without affecting the other. "Lightness" is designed to
approximate human vision, which is very sensitive to green but less to blue. If you
brighten in Lab space, the result will often look more correct to the eye, color-wise. In
general we can say that when using positive values for the saturation slider in Lab
space, the colors come out more 'fresh', while using the same amount of saturation in
RGB makes colors look 'warmer'.

Comparison of RGB and Lab adjustments

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Neutral RGB Lightness

+30

Lab Lightness RGB Contrast

+30 +45

Lab Contrast +45 RGB Saturation

+25

Lab color space.

Lab Chromaticity Vibrance +25

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Lab Chromaticity Vibrance +25

+25

The difference between the Lightness slider in the Exposure section (in RGB space) and
the Lightness slider in the Lab section is subtle. A RGB Lightness setting of +30
produces an image that is overall a bit brighter than when using a Lab Lightness setting
of +30. The colors in Lab Lightness are somewhat more saturated. The contrary is true
for the Contrast sliders; when using a RGB Contrast of +45 the colors will be clearly
warmer than when using a Lab Contrast of +45. The contrast itself is about the same
with the two settings. Do not hesitate to use both sliders to adjust saturation and/or
contrast. As for the Saturation/Chromaticity sliders, setting the RGB Saturation slider to
-100 renders a black and white image which appears to have a red filter applied, while
the Lab Chromaticity slider renders a more neutral black and white image. Positive RGB
Saturation values will lead to hue shifts (the larger the value, the more visible the shift),
while positive Lab Chromaticity values will boost colors while keeping their hues
correct, rendering a crisp and clean result. Lab chromaticity (via the "Chromaticity"
slider or "CC" curve) is the recommended method for boosting colors.

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Making a Portable
Installation

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RawTherapee and the cache folder can be stored "self-contained" on a USB flash drive
or any other mass-storage device.

11 - For Windows
Get the latest build of RawTherapee. Since we want it portable, we don't want the
installer, just the bare, zipped program. If the latest version on our website is in simple
zipped form without an installer, you can skip this step. However, if it is an installer, you
need to first extract the RawTherapee files.

If it is an Inno Setup installer (.exe extension, all recent Windows installers are Inno
Setup ones at the time of writing, summer 2014), get innounp [http://innounp.sourceforg
e.net/] or innoextract [http://constexpr.org/innoextract/] to unpack it.

If it is an MSI installer (no recent Windows builds use this at the time of writing),
fire up a command prompt and type:

msiexec /a RawTherapee.msi TARGETDIR="C:\TargetDir" /qb

Replace the name of the MSI installer and the target directory as
appropriate. Spaces in the TargetDir path are allowed, as the path is
enclosed in quotes.

Let's assume that you've unzipped your archive into E:\RawTherapee , where E:\ is the
drive letter of your USB flash drive. Open the E:\RawTherapee\options file, and set the
MultiUser option to false . Now when you run RawTherapee, it will store the cache
and your settings in subfolders relative to the executable, named mycache and
mysettings , respectively, so in E:\RawTherapee\mycache and
E:\RawTherapee\mysettings .

See also the File paths page on how to set a different location for these two folders.

When updating RawTherapee, it is recommended to unzip the new version to a new

folder and simply move mycache and mysettings into it.

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12 - For Linux
Getting RawTherapee to run off a portable medium such as a USB flash drive on various
Linux systems is not straightforward due to the nature of Linux systems. While the
Windows version of RawTherapee comes bundled with all required libraries to run on
any Windows version, Linux distributions differ significantly from each other and as a
result a version of RawTherapee built for one distribution is unlikely to run under a
different distribution. One way around this is by using an AppImage.

A RawTherapee AppImage is a single file which contains a RawTherapee executable

along with all the required files needed for it to run on any Linux distribution.
Download it, make it executable, and run it. We are currently in the testing phase
regarding AppImages. They are not yet available from our Downloads page, but you can
find them on our "development builds" page in the forum [https://discuss.pixls.us/t/download-
rawtherapee-development-builds/2924?u=morgan_hardwood].

Regardless whether you use the AppImage or a "proper" RawTherapee build from the
distribution's package manager, you will want to be able to hang on to your
RawTherapee configuration and processing profiles.

In order to backup your configuration you will want to copy RawTherapee's config folder
onto your USB stick. Specifically, you want the "options" file, your custom
"camconst.json" if you made one, and any custom PP3, ICC, DCP and LCP profiles. The
File Paths article describes where to find these.

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The File Browser

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The File Browser tab is where you review your photos, select photos for editing, or
perform batch-editing operations. It consists of the following parts:
The left panel

The "Places" panel on the top links to

your home folder, USB card readers,
the system's default "photos" folder,
or custom folders.

Below this is a standard tree-type file

browser that you can use to navigate RawTherapee in Single Editor Tab Mode -
to folders containing your photos. Vertical Tabs, showing: 1- Main sections:
File Browser (currently opened), Queue,
RawTherapee does not complicate
Editor and Preferences. 2- Panels used
things by requiring you to import for navigating to files and folders. 3-
photos into databases as some other Thumbnails of the currently opened
folder. 4- Filters to limit the thumbnails
software do.
shown to only those which match some
metadata or state. 5- Thumbnail zooming
The right panel
and info. 6- Quick image operations. 7-
Sub-tabs of the File Browser: Filter
The "Filter" tab lets you show only
(currently opened), Inspect (to see a full-
photos which match the parameters sized embedded JPEG preview), Batch
you specify. Edit (to apply some setting to all selected
images) and Fast Export (low quality and
The "Inspect" tab shows a preview at bypasses some tools but fast saving -
don't use this for typical saving!). 8-
a fixed scale of 100% of the image
Right-click context menu (you will
your mouse cursor is hovering over, typically use this to apply some
which is either the largest JPEG image processing profile to all selected files).
embedded in the raw file, or the
image itself when hovering over non-
raw images.

The "Batch Edit" tab allows you to apply tool settings to the selected image or
images. This allows you to quickly enable some tool in many photos at once.

The "Fast Export" tab lets you quickly process the selected images by bypassing
certain tools even if they are enabled in the processing profiles of those
images, so that you can get a quick preview of the raw files for example to
delete the shots which are blurry or out of focus.

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The central panel shows thumbnails of the folder currently selected.

You can hide the individual panels using the "Show/Hide the left panel " and
"Show/Hide the right panel " buttons - see the Keyboard Shortcuts page.

When you open a folder, RawTherapee will generate thumbnails of the photos in that
folder in the central panel. The first time you open a folder full of raw photo files,
RawTherapee will read each file and create a thumbnail based on the embedded JPEG
image (every raw photo has an embedded JPEG image, sometimes even a few of various
sizes). This can take some time on folders with hundreds of photos, but it only happens
the first time you open that folder. All subsequent times you go to a previously opened
folder, RawTherapee will read the thumbnails from its cache if they exist, and this will
be much faster than the first time you opened that folder.

The JPEG image embedded in each raw photo is identical to the out-of-camera JPEG
image you would get if you shot in JPEG mode (or in "RAW+JPEG" mode). This JPEG is not
representative of the actual raw data in that photo, because your camera applies all
kinds of tweaks to the JPEG image, such as increasing the exposure a bit, increasing
saturation, contrast, sharpening, etc.

After you start editing a photo, its thumbnail in the File Browser tab is replaced with
what you see in the preview in the Editor tab, and every tweak you make is reflected in
the thumbnail. The thumbnails are stored in the cache for quick future access. If you
want to revert to the embedded JPEG image as the thumbnail, then right-click on the
thumbnail (or selection of thumbnails) and select "Processing Profile Operations >
Clear".

Use the zoom icons in the File Browser's top toolbar to make the thumbnails smaller or
larger. Each thumbnail uses some memory (RAM), so it is advisable not to set the
thumbnail size too high ("Preferences > File Browser > Maximal Thumbnail Height").

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You can filter the visible photos by using the buttons in the File Browser's or
Filmstrip's top toolbar, as well as by using the "Find" box or the "Filter" tab. Possible
uses:

Show only unedited photos,

Show only photos bracketed +2EV,

Show only photos ranked as 5 star,

Show only photos with a specific ISO range,

Show only photos with a NEF extension.

If your screen's resolution is too low to fit the whole toolbar, some of the toolbar's
contents (buttons, drop-downs, etc.) may become hidden. To see them, simply hover the
cursor over the toolbar and use the mouse scroll-wheel to scroll the contents left and
right.

13 - Rating
RawTherapee allows you to rank images between 0 and 5 stars. RawTherapee 5.7
introduced support for reading the rating information stored within the image's
metadata, e.g. as set by your camera or by other software, and showing it through its
star rank system.

Metadata tags used for conveying the rating have evolved over the years, and
RawTherapee prioritizes them in the following ascending order:

. Exif rating

. XMP rating

. PP3 rank

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That is, if an image has an Exif rating tag with value 1 and an embedded XMP rating
tag with value 2, then RawTherapee will show 2 stars. If you then rank it 3 stars in
RawTherapee, the 3-star rating is shown in RawTherapee's File Browser and Filmstrip.

Note that RawTherapee's star ranking does not get exported to saved images. That is, if
you saved the image from the above example, the saved file would contain
Exif:rating=1 and XMP:rating=2 if you set "metadata copy mode" to "copy
unchanged" - it would not reflect the 3-star rank anywhere. Furthermore, if you set
"metadata copy mode" to "apply modifications", the saved file would only contain
Exif:rating=1 , as editing XMP is unsupported so it gets stripped.

14 - Batch Adjustments - Sync

RawTherapee lets you batch-adjust, or sync, the processing settings in many photos at
the same time in generally two ways. It lets you copy and paste a processing profile (a
collection of tool settings), in parts or in full, to any number of images. It also lets you
select any number of images and adjust any tool in all of them at once (sync), and it
lets you do this in two ways. Let's take a closer look.

Both ways involve making a selection of photos you want the processing profile or
adjustments applied to. Selections are made using standard key combinations:
Shift+click to select a range, Ctrl+click to select individual images, or Ctrl+A to select
everything. Both ways are performed from the File Browser tab. The "copy & paste"
method can also be done via the Filmstrip.

14.1 - Copy & Paste

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Copying and pasting a processing profile to a selection of images is a very common

task. Assume you took a series of photos - for example studio shots, wedding portraits
or focus-bracketed macro photos. All images in each series are going to be very similar;
they will probably use the same lens, the same ISO, the same white balance, and end up
being used for the same purpose. This means that they will all probably require the
same processing settings - the same noise reduction, the same sharpening and lens
distortion correction, and so forth.

To process the lot, what you would usually do is open any one image from the whole
series in the Editor tab and tweak it to your liking. Once you have finished tweaking it,
you will apply this image's processing profile to all other images in the same series. To
do that, go to the File Browser tab, right-click on this photo and select "Processing
Profile Operations > Copy", then select the images you want to apply this profile to,
right-click on any one of them (it doesn't matter which) and select "Processing Profile
Operations > Paste". In one quick operation you have replicated the same tool settings
in the whole series of images.

Additionally, RawTherapee lets you apply only a part of the copied processing profile,
for example only the "Resizing" tool. To do this, use the "Processing Profile Operations
> Paste Partial" option instead of the "Paste" option.

14.2 - Sync
RawTherapee lets you instantly apply tool adjustments to a selection of images. Similar
functionality in other software is called "sync". This method is useful for when you don't
need to see an accurate preview of your changes, for example when you only want to
enable the "Resizing" tool in a selection of photos, because when working in the File
Browser tab your only preview are the small and inaccurate thumbnails. This method
can only be performed from the File Browser tab because you need access to that tab's
batch tools (the panel on the right).

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When you're in the File Browser tab, select the images you want to batch-adjust (sync),
then use the tool panel on the right to make adjustments. Your tweaks can either
replace the existing ones ("Set" mode), or be added to them ("Add" mode). For example
if you select two photos, one of which has previously been tweaked with +1EV Exposure
Compensation and one which has not, and you set Exposure Compensation to +0.6EV,
then the previously-tweaked photo would end up having +1.6EV Exposure Compensation
in "Add" mode and just +0.6EV in "Set" mode. The photo which was not previously
tweaked would have +0.6EV in both modes. You can decide which tools should work in
which mode from the Batch Processing tab in Preferences.

15 - Deleting Files
As RawTherapee is a cross-platform program, it has its own trash bin, independent
from your system one if you have a system one.

15.1 - Using the Trash Bin

To move files to the trash bin, either use the "Move to trash" button in the top-right
corner of each thumbnail, or right-click on a selection of files and choose "File
operations > Move to trash". These files are then marked as being in the trash bin, but
they are not deleted from your hard drive.

To hide all files which are marked as being in the trash bin, click the "Show only
non-deleted images" button in the top toolbar.

To see the contents of the trash bin, click the "Show contents of trash" button .

While you are viewing the contents of the trash bin a new "Permanently delete the
files from trash" button appears to the left of the thumbnails - use it to delete
all trashed files from your hard drive.

Click on the "Clear all filters" button to return to the default view.

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15.2 - Deleting From the Hard Drive

To delete files from your hard drive without using the trash bin, just right-click on a file
or on a selection of files and choose "File operations > Delete" or "Delete with output
from queue". Both options delete the selected photo and its sidecar file from your hard
drive, but "Delete with output from queue" also deletes the saved image whose filename
matches the template which you currently have set in the Queue tab, in the "Use
template:" field.

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The Editor

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The Image Editor tab in RawTherapee 5.5.

16 - Introduction
The Image Editor tab is where you tweak your photos. By default RawTherapee is in
"Single Editor Tab Mode, Vertical Tabs" (SETM) which is more memory-efficient and lets
you use the Filmstrip (described below). You can switch to "Multiple Editor Tabs Mode"
(METM) by going to "Preferences > General > Layout", however each Editor tab will
require a specific amount of RAM relative to the image size and the tools you use, and
also the Filmstrip is hidden in this mode, so we recommend you first give SETM a try.

17 - The Preview Panel

The central panel holds a preview of your photo. This preview is generated from the
actual raw data by processing it according to the settings either you manually set, or
those that are stored in the processing profile used when opening that photo, as
specified in "Preferences > Image Processing > Default Processing Profile". The preview

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will show you the effect of all the adjustments you make. Note that the effects of some
tools are only accurately visible when you are zoomed in to 1:1 (100%) or more. These
tools are marked in the interface with a "1:1" icon next to the tool's name.

The image you see in the preview is taken from the working profile's color space and
converted into the monitor profile's color space, if a monitor profile is loaded, or into
sRGB if one is not. It does not take into account the "Output Profile" section of the
"Color Management" tool.

17.1 - Eek! My Raw Photo Looks Different than the

Camera JPEG
After opening a raw photo you will notice that it looks different, often worse - darker,
less sharp, more dull, lacking contrast, more noisy - than your camera's JPEG, or than
the same raw photo when viewed in other software. What gives? Witches, aliens,
possums, or by design?

There are three things you must know first to understand what is happening here:

. Your camera does not show you the real raw data when you shoot raw photos. It
processes the raw image in many ways before presenting you with the histogram
and the preview on your camera's digital display. Even if you set all the processing
features your camera's firmware allows you to tweak to their neutral, "0" positions,
what you see is still not an unprocessed image. Exactly what gets applied depends
on the choices your camera's engineers and management made, but usually this
includes a custom tone curve, saturation boost, sharpening and noise reduction.
Some cameras, particularly low-end ones and Micro Four-Thirds system [http://en.wik
ipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Four_Thirds_system], may also apply lens distortion correction to not
only fix barrel and pincushion distortion [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_(optics)#Ra
dial_distortion] but also to hide severe vignetting [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignetting]
problems. Most cameras also underexpose every photo you take by anywhere from
-0.3EV to even -1.3EV or more, in order to gain headroom in the highlights. When

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your camera (or other software) processes the raw file it increases exposure
compensation by the same amount, making the brightness appear correct and
hoping to recover some highlights in the process. RawTherapee shows you the real
raw data which may mean your photos appear dark, so it is up to you whether you
apply the required exposure increase and how you go about doing so, whether by
using the Exposure Compensation slider or one of the various tone curves.
Increasing exposure compensation makes noise more apparent regardless whether
it is your camera or RawTherapee which does it, but other than this
[b]RawTherapee does not "add noise"![/b] Many cameras apply noise reduction to
the JPEGs (behind your back) to lower the noise level after increasing the exposure
compensation, so you should expect there to be a difference between your out-of-
camera JPEG and RawTherapee's image if noise reduction in RawTherapee is not
enabled.

. Every DSLR raw file contains a processed JPEG image. Most raw files contain a JPEG
image of the same full resolution as your camera can shoot, and some raw files
contain as many as three JPEG images differing only in resolution. When you open
raw files in other software, what you are usually seeing is not the raw data, but the
embedded, processed JPEG image. Examples of software which are either incapable
of or which in their default settings do not show you the real raw data: IrfanView [ht
tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrfanView], XnView [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XnView], Gwenview [htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwenview], Geeqie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeqie], Eye of
GNOME [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_GNOME], F-Spot [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Spot],
Shotwell [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotwell_(software)], gThumb [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
GThumb], etc. It is worth mentioning at this point that if you shoot in "RAW+JPEG"
mode, you are in fact wasting disk space and gaining nothing for it, as your raw
files already contain the embedded JPEG files which you can view using the listed
programs. The embedded JPEG may differ from an 'external' one as saved using
"RAW+JPEG" mode in compression.

. Most raw development programs (programs which do read the real raw data
instead of just reading the embedded JPEG) apply some processing to it, such as a
base tone curve, even at their most neutral settings, thereby making it impossible
for users to see the real, untouched contents of their raw photos. Adobe Lightroom

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is an example. Comparing RawTherapee's real neutral image to a quasi-neutral one

from these other programs will expose the differences.

RawTherapee, on the other hand, is designed to show you the real raw image in the
main preview, leaving the way you want this data processed up to you. When you use
the "Neutral" processing profile you will see the demosaiced image with camera white
balance in your working color space with no other modifications. You can even see the
non-demosaiced image by setting the demosaicing option to "None". To provide you
with a more aesthetically pleasing starting point, we do ship a collection of processing
profiles with RawTherapee. After installing RawTherapee, the default profile for
processing raw photos is eponymously called "Default". We also ship the "Default ISO
Medium" and "Default ISO High" profiles which are designed to give a good starting
point to moderately noisy and very noisy images, respectively.

None of the shipped profiles (at least none of the ones shipped in RawTherapee 5.0) are
designed to imitate your camera's look. Why not? Every camera is different. My camera's
image quality at ISO1600 could be far noisier than your camera's. My camera's response
to colors differs from yours. Even the same camera can behave differently at various
settings. To provide such profiles, we would need access to raw files for every supported
camera model, often multiple raw files in various shooting modes for a single camera,
and countless person-hours [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-hour]. This may be possible as a
community effort, but it is not a job for a small team. Even then, of what purpose would
RawTherapee be if you ended up with a camera JPEG look?

It is far more reasonable that you learn how to use the powerful tools that
RawTherapee provides to get the most out of your raws, to surpass the camera look.

As of September 2015 we are starting to ship DCP input profiles made using DCamProf [h
ttp://www.ludd.ltu.se/~torger/dcamprof.html] which include an optional tone curve [http://www.lud
d.ltu.se/~torger/dcamprof.html#dcp_tone]. This curve is modeled after Adobe Camera Raw's
default film curve and renders a result similar to your "camera look". The reason we
include the curve in new DCP profiles is because it makes for a good vibrant starting
point (as opposed to the flat look of using the "Neutral" processing profile) without

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having to use Auto Levels and without having to touch any of the other tools, and it is
entirely optional. Do read the article on input profiles. If we ship a DCP for your camera
model which includes the tone curve, the "Tone curve" checkbox in Color Management >
Input Profile > DCP will be clickable. Applying the (Neutral) processing profile will
disable the tone curve. While the input color profile is applied at the first stages of the
toolchain pipeline, the DCP tone curve is applied later in the pipeline at some point
after the Exposure tool.

You can create a processing profile ideally tailored to your camera and lens
combination, and set RawTherapee to use it by default on your raw photos. See the
Creating processing profiles for general use article to learn how.

17.2 - Scrollable Toolbars

The toolbars above and below the main preview hold a certain number of buttons and
other widgets which might not fit on lower resolution screens. If your screen's
resolution is too low to fit the whole toolbar, some of the toolbar's contents (buttons,
drop-downs, etc.) may become hidden. To see them, simply hover the cursor over the
toolbar and use the mouse scroll-wheel to scroll the contents left and right.

17.3 - Preview Modes

In addition to the normal preview, RawTherapee supports a number of other preview
modes to help you tweak your photos. Preview modes are controlled via buttons in the
Editor toolbar or via keyboard shortcuts. Only one preview mode can be engaged at a
time.

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Preview Mode Shortcut Button

Regular*

Red channel r

Green channel g

Blue channel b

Luminance channel v

Focus Mask Shift+f

* The preview is returned to

normal by deselecting any
other mode.

The following preview modes are currently supported:

Red channel,

Green channel,

Blue channel,

Luminosity, which is calculated as 0.299*R + 0.587*G + 0.114*B,

Focus mask, to see which areas are in focus

Preview modes

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Regular Red

Green Blue

Luminosity Focus Mask

17.3.1 - Red, Green, Blue and Luminosity Preview Modes

The clipped shadow and highlight indicators in the Editor allow you to easily see
which areas of the image are too dark or too bright. Highlighted areas are shaded
according to the much they transgress the thresholds.

The thresholds for these indicators are defined in Preferences > General.

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The clipped shadow indicator will highlight areas where all three channels fall at or
below the specified shadow threshold.

The clipped highlight indicator will highlight areas where at least one channel lies at or
above the specified highlight threshold. If you want to see only where all channels are
clipped, then enable the luminosity preview mode in addition to the clipped highlight
indicator.

Clipping is calculated using data which depends on the state of the gamut button
which you can toggle above the main preview in the Editor tab. When the gamut button
is enabled the working profile is used, otherwise the gamma-corrected output profile is
used.

Preview of individual channels may be helpful when editing RGB curves, planning
black/white conversion using the channel mixer, evaluating image noise, etc. Luminosity
preview is helpful to instantly view the image in black and white without altering
development parameters, to see which channel might be clipping or for aesthetic
reasons.

17.3.2 - Focus Mask

The focus mask is designed to highlight areas

of the image which are in focus. Naturally,
focused areas are sharper, so the sharp areas
are being highlighted. The focus mask is more
accurate on images with a shallow depth of
field, low noise and at higher zoom levels.To
improve detection accuracy for noisy images
evaluate at smaller zoom, around the 10-30%
range. Note that the preview is rendered more
slowly when the focus mask is enabled.
Focus mask indicating the focusing plane

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The current implementation analyzes the preview image which is rescaled from the
original captured size. This process of rescaling reduces the noise and is helpful to
identify truly sharper details rather than noise itself which may also contain micro
texture. At the same time, rescaling of the original image to the preview size
compresses larger scale details into a smaller size, and it may introduce aliasing
artifacts, both of which could lead to false positives. You can increase your confidence
by viewing the mask at various zoom levels. It is not always fault proof, but can be
helpful in many cases.

Warning: Be sure to double-check your images if you decide to delete them based on
the focus mask.

17.4 - Background color of the preview

The background color of the preview panel surrounding the image area may be changed
to ease image preview during editing and to better visualize image cropping. A vertical
stack of three thin buttons in the preview modes toolbar above the image preview panel
allows to set the background color of the area around the photo preview.

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Preview
Preview Background
Shortcut Button Description
Background and Crop
Visualization

The cropped area of

the image is masked
with a theme-based
color. The cropped
area visibility is based
Theme-based 8 on the crop mask
color and
transparency as set in
"Preferences > Default
Theme > Crop mask
color/transparency".

The cropped area of

Black 9 the image is masked
with black.

The cropped area of

White 0 the image is masked
with white.

17.5 - Detail Window

The "New detail window" button , situated below the main preview next to the zoom
buttons, opens a new viewport over the main preview of an adjustable size and of
adjustable zoom. This lets you work on the photo zoomed-to-fit while examining several
areas of interest at a 100% zoom (or even more). The benefit of using this feature is
particularly important to users with slower machines, though not only them, as the
zoomed-out main preview takes a shorter amount of time to update than if you were to

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zoom it to 100% because working at a zoom level less than 100% excludes certain slow
tools, such as Noise Reduction, while the little detail windows zoomed to 100% do
include all tools and are fast to update because of their small size. This allows you can
use the main preview for your general exposure tweaks where it is necessary to see the
whole image, and one or more detail windows to get sharpening and/or noise reduction
just right.

17.6 - Preview refresh delay

Changing any tool's parameters sends a signal for the preview image to be updated
accordingly. Imagine what would happen if there was no "delay period", and you
dragged, for example, the exposure compensation slider from 0.00 to +0.60. A signal
would be sent to update the preview for every single change of that value - for +0.01,
+0.02, ... +0.59, +0.60. Updating the preview 60 times would be completely unnecessary
and actually take longer than it takes you to move the slider. This is especially true for
more complicated tools, such as noise reduction, where a preview update can take even
a second (depending on your CPU and preview size). The solution is for RawTherapee to
wait for a very short period from the moment you stop moving a slider (you don't have
to let go of it, pausing movement is enough) until the moment it sends a signal for the
preview to be refreshed.

We have introduced two parameters which control the length of this waiting period:

AdjusterMinDelay
Default value = 100ms.

This is used for tools with a very fast response time, for example the exposure
compensation slider.

AdjusterMaxDelay
Default value = 200ms.

This is used for tools with a slow response time, for example the CIECAM02
sliders.

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You can adjust both of these values in the options file in the config folder.

18 - The Le Panel
To the left is a panel which optionally shows the main histogram ("Preferences >
General > Layout > Histogram in left panel"), and always shows the Navigator, History
and Snapshots. You can hide this panel using the hide icon, or its keyboard shortcut.

18.1 - Main Histogram

Histogram showing all 3 channels and luminosity.

A histogram in photography is a graphical representation of the number of pixels of a

given value. Typically the horizontal axis represents the range of possible values while
the vertical axis represents the count of pixels with that value. The axes need not be
linear - RawTherapee can also scale the histogram logarithmically.

Regardless of the photo's bit depth, the histogram itself has a precision of 256 sampling
bins. To understand this, let us look at the example of a 16-bit image using integer
precision. Its range of possible values spans from 0 to 65535 (2^16 = 65536 possible
values, and since 0 is a possible minimum value then the maximum value is 65535).
Drawing a histogram using 16-bit precision would mean that it would need to be 65535
pixels wide to faithfully represent the data, and no screen today is anywhere near that
wide. Instead, all pixels with values from 0 to 255 (65535/256*1) are grouped into the

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first "bin". The second bin consists of a count of all

pixels with values from 256 to 511 (65535/256*2). The
third bin represents values 512 to 767 (65535/256*3).
And so on until bin 256. This happens regardless of
the input image's bit depth - and RawTherapee's
engine uses 32-bit floating-point precision anyway.

The histogram in RawTherapee

The main histogram can simultaneously show one or 5.7, showing a histogram of the
more of the following: raw data in all three modes -
linear-linear, linear-log and log-
the red channel, log. We can see that the raw file is
not clipped.
the green channel,

the blue channel,

CIELab luminance,

chromaticity [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatici
ty].

red, green and blue channels of the source

raw image before demosaicing.

The histogram shows the channels listed above

using the gamma-corrected output profile when the
gamut button is disabled (default), or using the
working profile when the button is enabled. The
status of this button also affects the values shown in
the Navigator panel, as well as the clipped shadow
and highlight indicators. It does not affect
the raw histogram.
The RGB indicator shows the
Like water in a pipeline, image data flows through position in the histogram of the
R, G, B and L values of the pixel
RawTherapee from the input file through various
your cursor is hovering over.
stages, most of which the user can control, to the

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output. The output could be the image saved in a file, or the image displayed on your
screen. Each stage affects the color data. The histogram allows you to visualize this data
at several stages. By default, the histogram shows color data as it will appear if you save
the output image, including processing done at all intermediate stages. By enabling the
gamut button you can peak at the data at the early stage where it gets converted
into the working space. You can even look at the raw data before any transformations
or demosaicing are applied.

Let's examine the large histogram example above. Though it actually shows four
histograms (red, green, blue and luminance), focus on one histogram at a time. The
horizontal axis represents the possible values of the histogram, where "A" are the
darkest values possible, "C" the mid-tones, and "E" the brightest possible values. The
position of the histogram line on the vertical axis represents how many pixels have that
value. We can see that there are zero pixels in the red channel with values around "A"
(from zero to very dark), because the histogram line lies right along the bottom. There
is a significant number of pixels where the red channel is dark (between A and B), and a
significant number where it is light (around D). Then, importantly, there is a spike at the
right end of the histogram, at E - it tells us that a large number of pixels have maximal
red values - they are clipped.

Generally speaking, you should care when clipping occurs on skin, and not care when
it's due to specular highlights [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_highlight]. If a histogram
shows clipping, and if you care about the clipped regions, you should start by
establishing where the clipping occurs. Check the raw histogram - are any channels
clipped? If yes, then maybe highlight reconstruction can help. If the raw histograms are
not clipped, then all the required information is intact, and it is some stage
downstream in the pipeline which causes clipping. Ensure your working profile's gamut
is large enough by enabling the gamut button to see histograms at the working
profile stage of the pipeline. You might want to temporarily apply the Neutral profile to
disable all the tools while checking, then revert. If your working space is not causing
clipping (the default working space is ProPhoto and it's huge), then it's likely your
adjustments which are causing clipping. Reduce exposure, go easy on the curves, use
dynamic range compression if necessary.

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Knowing how to read a histogram is a basic and very useful skill, as it can point out
issues with your image regardless of how dim or miscalibrated your monitor may be.

To help you visualize the data, the histogram (as of RawTherapee 5.5) has three modes
which scale the data in the x and y axes differently:

Linear-linear mode. You find gridlines at halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths,
depending on the size of the histogram.

Linear-log mode. The x-axis is linear, the y-axis and the horizontal gridlines are
scaled logarithmically. The position of the gridlines still corresponds to the halves,
quarters, etc.

Log-log mode. Both the x- and y-axes are scaled logarithmically. The gridlines are
not scaled logarithmically, but correspond to stops [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure
_value] - with every gridline the value doubles, so there are lines for the values 1, 3, 7,
15, 31, 63, and 127 ( pow(2.0,i) - 1) ).

When there is a disproportionately bright area relative to the rest of the image, it will
show up as a spike in the histogram. If you want to show this on a histogram with a
linear y axis, the spike may push the lesser values down the y-axis, making them
difficult to see. Switch to one of the log modes to scale the data and help you get a
better overview of all values.

The histogram can be moved to the left/right panel from "Preferences > General >
Layout > Histogram in left panel".

18.1.1 - Raw Histograms

Raw files contain a dump of data captured by the sensor and quantified by the analog-
to-digital converter. The raw file as a container has a bit depth of its own, typically 16-
bit, while the data it contains could have a lower bit depth - typically it is 12-bit (0-4096)
or 14-bit (0-16384). To display the data from a raw file as an image, one of the several
key bits of information required to process the data correctly are the black and white

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levels. The black level is not necessarily 0, as the sensor and camera electronics
produce digital noise, so the noise floor may lie for instance at 512. The white level is
also not necessarily 16384; it depends on various things, and may lie for instance at
16300. For more information, see the articles Demosaicing and Adding Support for New
Raw Formats (especially the header of the camconst.json file). The black and white
level values used by RawTherapee are hierarchically set by looking in several places: in
dcraw.c , inside the raw file's metadata, and in camconst.json (latter takes
precedence). Furthermore, the user can tweak the raw black and white levels from
within RawTherapee.

The raw histograms show data after black level subtraction. The right end of the
histogram is anchored on the white level. The raw histograms are affected by the
detected black and white levels as well as by the black and white level adjustments
made by the user in RawTherapee.

When examining the raw histogram, you may also want to set the demosaicing method
to "none". This will reveal the sensor pattern in the preview, and also cause the
Navigator panel to show the raw RGB values of the pixel currently being hovered over.
These values are affected by the detected black and white levels as well as by the black
level adjustments made by the user in RawTherapee, but they are not affected by the
white level adjustments ("white-point correction") made by the user in RawTherapee.

18.2 - Navigator
The Navigator panel shows a thumbnail of the currently opened image, and RGB, HSV
and Lab values of the pixel your cursor is currently hovering over.

The values shown in the main histogram and Navigator panel are either those of the
working profile or of the gamma-corrected output profile, depending on the state of the
gamut button located in the toolbar above the main preview. When the gamut
button is enabled the working profile is used, otherwise the gamma-corrected output
profile is used.

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By clicking on the values in the Navigator you can cycle between these three formats:

[0-255]

[0-1]

[%]

RawTherapee 5.1 onward can show the real raw photosite values. To see them, set the
Navigator to use the [0-255] range, apply the Neutral processing profile, then set the
Demosaicing method to "None". The Navigator will show the real raw photosite values
after black level subtraction within the range of the original raw data.

18.3 - History
The History panel contains a stack of entries which reflect each of your image editing
actions. By clicking on the entries you can step back and forth through the different
stages of your work.

An entry is added each time you adjust a different widget - multiple edits to the same
widget are stored as one entry. For example, adjusting the exposure compensation
slider from "0" to "0.3" and then to "0.6" will result in one entry being stored with a final
value of "0.6". Likewise, when adjusting a curve, all individual control point adjustments
are grouped into one history entry. Should you wish to store the adjustments as two (or
more) history entries, you will have to split them by adjusting some other widget. For
example, assuming a curve is in "Film-like" mode and you want to keep to that way:
adjust several control points on the curve, then toggle the curve mode from "Film-like"
to "Standard" and then back to "Film-like" to create a new history entry, and then
continue adjusting the curve.

The history stack is not saved - it is lost as soon as you close the Editor tab. None of
your adjustments are lost though, as the final state of all tools is saved in the sidecar
file, ready to be used the next time you open that image.

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18.4 - Snapshots
Under the History panel is a panel called Snapshots. Its use is in that you can save a
snapshot of the photo with all the adjustments up to that point in time, and then
proceed to further modify your photo to give it a different appearance, saving new
snapshots at every moment you feel you might have reached a version of your photo
worth saving. Once you have two or more snapshots, you can just click on them to flip
through the different versions and stick with whichever one you like best. In the future,
the snapshots will be saved to the PP3 sidecar file. For now, the history and snapshots
are lost when you load a new photo in the Image Editor or close RawTherapee.

19 - The Right Panel

To the right is a panel which optionally shows the main histogram and Processing
Profiles selector ("Preferences > General > Layout > Histogram in left panel"), and
always shows the Toolbox. You can hide this panel using the hide icon, or its
keyboard shortcut.

19.1 - Processing Profile Selector

The Processing Profiles drop-down list lets you apply bundled or custom processing
profiles. See the File Paths article for information on where these processing profiles
reside on your system.

Pay attention to the "Processing profile fill mode" button!

"Fill" mode
When the button is activated and you open a partial profile, the missing
values will be replaced with RawTherapee's hard-coded default values.

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For instance if you apply a partial profile which contains only sharpening
settings, all of the remaining tools (such as Exposure, Tone Mapping, Noise
Reduction, Resize, etc) will pop into their default positions.

"Preserve" mode
If the button is deactivated and you open a partial profile, only those values
in the profile will be applied, and the missing ones remain unchanged.

For instance if you apply a partial profile which contains only sharpening
settings, only those sharpening settings will be applied, and your other tools
remain unchanged.

The state of this button will make no difference if you apply a full profile, but most of
the profiles bundled with RawTherapee are partial (for good reason).

19.2 - Toolbox
The Toolbox, in the right panel, contains all the tools you use to tweak your photos.
Each tool has its own RawPedia article.

20 - Editor Tab Modes

RawTherapee allows you to work on photos in two modes:

Single Editor Tab Mode (SETM), where you work only on one photo at a time, and
each photo is opened in the same Editor tab. There is a horizontal panel called the
Filmstrip at the top of the Editor tab showing the rest of the photos in that folder
for easy access. There are Previous Image and Next Image buttons in the
bottom toolbar (and keyboard shortcuts for them) to switch to the previous/next
image.

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Multiple Editor Tabs Mode (METM), where each photo is opened in its own Editor
tab. The Filmstrip is hidden in this mode and there are no previous/next buttons.
Having multiple photos opened at the same time requires more RAM.

Try both modes and see which one suits you best. To do that, click on the Preferences
icon in the bottom-left or top-right corner of the RT window, choose "General >
Layout" and set Editor Layout to your preferred choice.

Use this Preferences window to select a different language for the user interface, to
choose a different color theme, change the font size, etc.

It is also possible to start RawTherapee in no-File-Browser-mode (without the File

Browser tab) by specifying RawTherapee to open an image from your operating
system's file browser (in other words, right-click on a photo and select "Open With >
RawTherapee"), or by using the image filename as an argument when starting
RawTherapee from the command line ( rawtherapee /path/to/some/photo.raw ). This
mode was introduced for people with little RAM as not having a File Browser tab means
RawTherapee uses a little less memory, however in practice the amount of memory
saved is little and the usability cost outweighs the little benefit, so it is likely to be
removed in the future (see issue 2254 [https://code.google.com/p/rawtherapee/issues/detail?id=22
54]).

21 - The Filmstrip

RawTherapee-4.2 showing the Filmstrip with the toolbar visible, which takes up more screen space
but lets you easily label, rate and filter the visible thumbnails.

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RawTherapee-4.2 showing the Filmstrip with the toolbar hidden, which makes it less high and
provides more screen space for the main preview (partially visible at the bottom).

If you use Single Editor Tab Mode ("Preferences > General > Layout") you can display a
horizontal panel above the preview, this is called the Filmstrip. It contains thumbnails
of all images in the currently opened album, and is synchronized with the currently
opened image so that you can use keyboard shortcuts or the previous and next
image buttons to open the previous/next image without needing to go back to the File
Browser tab.

As of RawTherapee version 4.2.10, you can hide the Filmstrip's toolbar to save screen
space. There are two ways of doing this: one way just toggles the toolbar on/off without
resizing the filmstrip to the new height, and the other way does the same but also
automatically resizes the filmstrip's height. Both are invoked via keyboard shortcuts
only. As resizing the filmstrip's height will trigger a refresh of the image preview and
this might take a while if using CPU-hungry tools like noise reduction while zoomed in
at 100%, the mode that doesn't resize has been implemented for users with slow
machines. Users with fast machines will find the auto-resizing mode more helpful.

22 - Monitor Profile and So -Proofing

The widgets under the main preview in RawTherapee 5 allow you to apply a monitor
color profile to the preview image. This enables users who have calibrated and profiled
their monitors to get an instant and accurate preview of their work, whether you're
staying in sRGB or working in a wide gamut. Note: OS X users are limited to sRGB and
will not get an accurate preview otherwise (see discussion [https://discuss.pixls.us/t/wide-gam
ut-preview-in-os-x/2481]), while users of Linux and Windows will get a correct wide-gamut
preview.

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Go to Preferences > Color Management and point the "Directory containing color
profiles" to the folder into which you saved your monitor and printer ICC profile. Restart
RawTherapee for the changes to take effect. Now you will be able to select your
monitor's color profile in the combo-box under the preview. Use the "Relative
Colorimetric" rendering intent unless you have a good reason otherwise.

One can also enable soft-proofing of the preview. This will show you what your image
will look like once it gets transformed by the printer profile set in Preferences > Color
Management. If you want to adjust an image for printing and you have an ICC profile for
your printer-paper combination you could set that as your output profile, enable "Black
point compensation" in Preferences so that the blackest black in your image will match
the blackest black your printer-paper combination is capable of reproducing, then
enable soft-proofing. You will see what your image will look like if you print it. This
allows you to make adjustments and get an instant preview of the result, saving you
time and ink on test prints.

The icon with exclamation mark next to the soft-proofing button will gray out areas that
cannot be reproduced by your printer, i.e. areas where you will loose details.

You should have a calibrated and profiled monitor in order for the soft-proofing
preview to be accurate.

The items you see in the monitor profile combo-box (under the main preview) and in
the printer profile combobox (in Preferences > Color Management) are ICC files located
in a folder which you can point RawTherapee to by going to "Preferences > Color
Management > Directory containing color profiles".

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Batch Adjustments /
Sync

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RawTherapee lets you batch-adjust, or sync, the processing settings in many photos at
the same time in generally two ways. It lets you copy and paste a processing profile (a
collection of tool settings), in parts or in full, to any number of images. It also lets you
select any number of images and adjust any tool in all of them at once (sync), and it
lets you do this in two ways. Let's take a closer look.

Both ways involve making a selection of photos you want the processing profile or
adjustments applied to. Selections are made using standard key combinations:
Shift+click to select a range, Ctrl+click to select individual images, or Ctrl+A to select
everything. Both ways are performed from the File Browser tab. The "copy & paste"
method can also be done via the Filmstrip.

22.1 - Copy & Paste

Copying and pasting a processing profile to a selection of images is a very common
task. Assume you took a series of photos - for example studio shots, wedding portraits
or focus-bracketed macro photos. All images in each series are going to be very similar;
they will probably use the same lens, the same ISO, the same white balance, and end up
being used for the same purpose. This means that they will all probably require the
same processing settings - the same noise reduction, the same sharpening and lens
distortion correction, and so forth.

To process the lot, what you would usually do is open any one image from the whole
series in the Editor tab and tweak it to your liking. Once you have finished tweaking it,
you will apply this image's processing profile to all other images in the same series. To
do that, go to the File Browser tab, right-click on this photo and select "Processing
Profile Operations > Copy", then select the images you want to apply this profile to,
right-click on any one of them (it doesn't matter which) and select "Processing Profile
Operations > Paste". In one quick operation you have replicated the same tool settings
in the whole series of images.

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Additionally, RawTherapee lets you apply only a part of the copied processing profile,
for example only the "Resizing" tool. To do this, use the "Processing Profile Operations
> Paste Partial" option instead of the "Paste" option.

22.2 - Sync
RawTherapee lets you instantly apply tool adjustments to a selection of images. Similar
functionality in other software is called "sync". This method is useful for when you don't
need to see an accurate preview of your changes, for example when you only want to
enable the "Resizing" tool in a selection of photos, because when working in the File
Browser tab your only preview are the small and inaccurate thumbnails. This method
can only be performed from the File Browser tab because you need access to that tab's
batch tools (the panel on the right).

When you're in the File Browser tab, select the images you want to batch-adjust (sync),
then use the tool panel on the right to make adjustments. Your tweaks can either
replace the existing ones ("Set" mode), or be added to them ("Add" mode). For example
if you select two photos, one of which has previously been tweaked with +1EV Exposure
Compensation and one which has not, and you set Exposure Compensation to +0.6EV,
then the previously-tweaked photo would end up having +1.6EV Exposure Compensation
in "Add" mode and just +0.6EV in "Set" mode. The photo which was not previously
tweaked would have +0.6EV in both modes. You can decide which tools should work in
which mode from the Batch Processing tab in Preferences.

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Saving Images

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Your original raw file will never be altered by RawTherapee.

There are several ways of saving an image from the Image Editor tab:

Save immediately from the Editor tab,

Save via the Queue,

Edit Current Image in External Editor (described in its own article).

23 - Save Immediately
In the Editor tab, if you click on the little hard disk icon at the bottom-left of the
preview image, or hit the ^ Ctrl + s shortcut, you can "Save immediately". This works
as a standard "Save As" dialog. You can select the name and location for the output file
(RawTherapee will automatically add the extension based on the chosen format),
choose the output file format and bit depth, set the compression level, choose whether
you want the processing profile saved alongside the output image, etc. The last option
lets you choose whether you want to "Save immediately" or "Put to the head/tail of the
processing queue". If you choose to "Save immediately", RawTherapee will be busy
saving your photo as soon as you click "OK", so it will be less responsive to any
adjustments you might try doing while it's busy saving, and it will also take longer to
open other images as long as it's busy saving this one. For this reason it is
recommended that you use the queue if you want to tweak other photos right away.

The Save window will by default open the location you saved to the last time you used
this window. For your convenience, a shortcut to the folder containing the source image
is automatically added to the bookmarks panel on the left side of the Save window. If
you want to save the image to the source folder, clicking on this bookmark will save you
having to manually click through to navigate to that location.

A shortcut for the OK button is ^ Ctrl + ⌅ Enter .

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24 - Put to the Head / Tail of the Processing Queue

If you click on the gears icon or in the "Save" window choose "Put to head or tail of
the processing queue", your image will be kept in a queue of files to be processed, so
RawTherapee can make the most of your CPU and be responsive while you tweak your
photos. Once you're done tweaking and adding them to the queue, you can have
RawTherapee start processing the queue while you go and enjoy some tea. The benefit
of putting it to the queue using the "Save" window is that you can individually change
the file format, name and destination of each image, whereas putting images to the
queue without using the "Save" window will use the settings from the "Queue" tab.

25 - Naming
If your original raw file was called photo_1000.raw , the default processed file name will
be photo_1000.jpg (or .tif or .png ). There is an option in the "Save current image"
window: "Automatically add a suffix if the file already exists". When checked, you can
make different versions of one raw, which will be saved as photo_1000.jpg , photo_1000-
1.jpg , photo_1000-2.jpg , etc. The same applies when you send different versions of the
same image to the Queue.

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The Queue

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26 - Introduction
Saving images from RawTherapee can be done in several ways, the two most common of
which are either saving the image immediately from the Editor tab, or adding it to
the batch processing queue which resides in the Queue tab.

Using the "Save immediately" feature will put your CPU immediately to work, and as a
result, opening and tweaking other images in the Editor will be somewhat slow while
the image is being saved. The queue mechanism allows you to put edited images which
are ready to be saved to a virtual queue which you can start processing at a later time.
Adding them to the queue is instant, so you can continue editing other images and
making the most of your CPU for editing. Once you are done editing and putting images
to the queue, you can flip the large "On" switch and go off to brew yourself a coffee
while RawTherapee grinds away at all the images in the queue.

The queue is persistent - you can exit RawTherapee and restart it later; the queued
images will still be there. The queue can even survive a crash.

27 - Adding Images to the Queue

There are several ways of adding an image to the queue:

. When you are done tweaking an image in the Editor, click the "Put current image to
processing queue" button .

. Also in the Editor tab, click the "Save current image" button and select "Put the
the head/tail of the processing queue".

. Right-click on a thumbnail in the File Browser or the Filmstrip and select "Put to
queue".

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Regardless which method you use, when you go to the Queue tab you will see your
photos lined up, ready for processing (if you had the queue set to "Auto-start", it may
have finished processing before you viewed it).

28 - Queue Settings
The Queue has
several settings,
such as the output
file format and
destination. These
settings take effect
in all cases except
when you use the
"Save current
image" button ,
select "Put the the
head/tail of the
processing queue"
and enable the
"Force saving
The "Save current image" window. Notice the "Force saving options"
options" checkbox.
checkbox, which is disabled in the screenshot because neither of the
In this case, the "Put to the head/tail of the processing queue" options are enabled.
settings seen in the
"Save" window will
be used, and the ones from the Queue tab ignored. In all other cases, the settings from
the Queue tab will be used.

The settings speak for themselves. Two things worth pointing out:

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. "Save processing parameters with image" will save a sidecar file alongside the
output file, with the same filename as the output image but with a ".pp3" extension.
This is useful when you want to save multiple copies of the same photo, each one
tweaked a bit differently.

. The destination folder can be set by selecting "Save to folder", but if you need to
dynamically customize the destination folder and filename then select "Use
template" instead. Hover your mouse over the Use template input box and a
tooltip with an explanation will pop up:

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Specify the output location based on the source photo's location, rank, trash status

or position in the queue.

Using the following pathname as an example:

/home/tom/photos/2010-10-31/photo1.raw

the meaning of the formatting strings follows:

%d4 = home

%d3 = tom

%d2 = photos

%d1 = 2010-10-31

%f = photo1

%p1 = /home/tom/photos/2010-10-31/
%p2 = /home/tom/photos/

%p3 = /home/tom/

%p4 = /home/

%r will be replaced by the photo's rank. If the photo is unranked, '0' is used. If

the photo is in the trash, 'x' is used.

%s1, ..., %s9 will be replaced by the photo's initial position in the queue at the

time the queue is started. The number specifies the padding, e.g. %s3 results in

'001'.

If you want to save the output image alongside the source image, write:
%p1/%f

If you want to save the output image in a folder named 'converted' located in the

source photo's folder, write:

%p1/converted/%f

If you want to save the output image in

'/home/tom/photos/converted/2010-10-31', write:

%p2/converted/%d1/%f

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29 - Running the Queue

In the top-left corner of the Queue tab you will find an "On/Off" switch, and an "Auto-
start" checkbox.

. If "Auto-start" is enabled, processing will start as soon as an image is sent to the

queue. Usually you will not want this, as this will use your CPU for processing the
photos in the queue leaving very little CPU time for allowing RawTherapee to be
responsive while you tweak other photos.

. If "Auto-start" is not checked, you will have to activate the queue manually by
hitting the "On/Off" switch.

You can pause the queue by hitting the "On/Off" switch - RawTherapee will first finish
processing the current photo.

30 - Clearing the Queue

You can remove a specific image from the queue by clicking the small "Cancel job"
button in the corner of each thumbnail.

You can clear the whole queue right-clicking on a thumbnail and clicking "Select all"
and "Cancel job", or by using the ^ Ctrl + a keyboard shortcut to select all thumbnails
and then hitting the ⌦ Delete key on the keyboard.

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Edit Current Image in

External Editor

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The "Edit current image in external editor" feature allows you to have RawTherapee
fully process the current image and immediately open it in any external program. You
can use this feature to easily send the image to an image editor such as GIMP or
Photoshop for further processing, or you can set it up to send the image to an image
viewer so that with a single click of a button you get to see the final high quality image.

The button to send the image to an external application is located at the bottom-
left of the preview panel. When using this feature, RawTherapee processes your image
and saves it as a gamma-encoded 16-bit integer TIFF to the temporary folder. These
intermediate files, due to being outside of RawTherapee's control, do not get
automatically deleted when you close RawTherapee, so you should keep this in mind
and clean them out manually.

You should be aware that GIMP-2.8 and below cannot handle 16-bit images, so it will
down-sample them to 8-bit. You should also be aware that GIMP-2.8 and below discards
all Exif data from TIFF files! This is a GIMP bug, not a RawTherapee one. GIMP 2.9 and
above handle high bit depth images (up to 64-bit per channel!), retain all metadata, and
are quite stable, so you are advised to get GIMP 2.9 or higher [http://www.gimp.org/download
s/].

You can specify your external editor of choice in "Preferences > General > External
Editor". Click the link for more information on specifying an external editor.

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Command-Line Options

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31 - Explanation
< Chevrons > indicate parameters you can change.

[ Square brackets ] mean the parameter is not mandatory.

The pipe symbol | indicates a choice of one or the other.

The dash symbol - denotes a range of possible values from one to the other.

Since RawTherapee 5.1, two executables are provided.

31.1 - RawTherapee GUI

Use this application to start the version with graphical user interface.

Usage:

rawtherapee <selected dir>

Start File Browser inside folder.

rawtherapee <file>

Start Image Editor with file.

-w

Do not open the Windows console. This option is available in Windows

only. If you pass parameters to the RawTherapee executable it spawns a
console window so that you can see the verbose output of your
processing. Normally Windows closes this console directly after
RawTherapee is terminated. To let you see the output we added a prompt
which waits for you to hit a key before closing the console. By specifying -

w no console will be opened and therefore no key press is needed. Useful

if you want to invoke rawtherapee.exe in batch, e.g. from a PowerShell

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script. Please note that -w will have no effect for "Debug" builds where a
console window will be opened unless you're starting RawTherapee from a
console window already.

-v

Print the RawTherapee version number and exit.

-R

"Remote" mode, available since RawTherapee 5.2. When opening an image

using "Open with" or by passing its filename as an argument, without using
the -R option RawTherapee will open in "no-File-Browser" mode - that is
a mode which lacks the File Browser and Queue tabs as well as the
Preferences button. Using the new -R mode, RawTherapee will open in a
full-fledged instance. Using -R also allows you to open an image in an
already-running instance of RawTherapee, if that instance was also started
using -R . The no-File-Browser mode exists for historical reasons when
RAM requirements were higher and stability was worse. Now that
RawTherapee's memory usage is optimized and it can quickly and reliably
open folders with thousands of images, users may prefer using the -R

mode by default.

-h -?

Display these commands.

31.2 - RawTherapee CLI

Use this application to start the command line only version. You'll find all command line
options to develop your photos without any graphical user interface.

Usage:

rawtherapee-cli <options> -c <dir>|<files>

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Convert files in batch with default parameters if no <options> specified.

-w

Do not open the Windows console. This option is available in Windows

only. If you pass parameters to the RawTherapee executable it spawns a
console window so that you can see the verbose output of your
processing. Normally Windows closes this console directly after
RawTherapee is terminated. To let you see the output we added a prompt
which waits for you to hit a key before closing the console. By specifying -

w no console will be opened and therefore no key press is needed. Useful

if you want to invoke rawtherapee-cli.exe in batch, e.g. from a PowerShell
script.

Other options used with -c :

rawtherapee-cli [-o <output>|-O <output>] [-q] [-a] [-s|-S] [-p <files>] [-d] [-

j[1-100] [-js<1-3>]|[-b<8|16>] <[-t[z] | [-n]]] [-Y] [-f] -c <input>

-c <files>

Specify one or more input files or folders.

When specifying folders, RawTherapee will look for image files which
comply with the selected parsed extensions (see the -a option).

The -c option must always be the last one.

-o <file>|<dir>

Select output file or folder.

Saves output file alongside input file if -o is not specified.

-O <file>|<dir>

Select output file or folder and copy PP3 file into it.

Saves output file alongside input file if -O is not specified.

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-q<file>|<dir>

Quick-start mode. Does not load cached files to speedup start time.

-a<file>|<dir>

Process all supported image file types when specifying a folder, even those
not currently selected in Preferences > File Browser > Parsed Extensions.

-s

Use the existing sidecar file to build the processing parameters, e.g. for
photo.raw there should be a photo.raw.pp3 file in the same folder. If the
sidecar file does not exist, neutral values will be used.

-S

Like -s but skip if the sidecar file does not exist.

-p <file.pp3>

Specify processing profile to be used for all conversions. You can specify
as many sets of "-p <file.pp3>" options as you like, each will be built on top
of the previous one, as explained below.

-d

Use the default raw or non-raw PP3 file as set in " Preferences > Image
Processing > Default Processing Profile"

-j[1-100]

Specify output to be JPEG (default, if -t and -n are not set).

Optionally, specify compression 1-100 (default value: 92).

-js<1-3>

Specify the JPEG chroma subsampling [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsamp

ling] parameter, where:

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1 = Best compression: 2x2, 1x1, 1x1 (4:2:0)

Chroma halved vertically and horizontally.

2 = Balanced: 2x1, 1x1, 1x1 (4:2:2)

Chroma halved horizontally.

3 = Best quality: 1x1, 1x1, 1x1 (4:4:4)

No chroma subsampling.

-b<8|16>

Specify bit depth per channel (16 by default).

Only applies to TIFF and PNG output, JPEG is always 8.

-t[z]

Specify output to be TIFF (16-bit if -b8 is not set).

Uncompressed by default, or ZIP compression with 'z'.

-n

Specify output to be compressed PNG (16-bit if -b8 is not set).

Compression is hard-coded to level 6.

-Y

Overwrite output if present.

-f

Use the custom fast-export processing pipeline.

Your PP3 files can be incomplete, RawTherapee will set the values as follows:

. A new processing profile is created using neutral values,

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. If the -d option is set, the values are overridden by those found in the default raw
or non-raw processing profile,

. If one or more -p options are set, the values are overridden by those found in
these processing profiles,

. If the -s or -S options are set, the values are finally overridden by those found
in the sidecar files.

The processing profiles are processed in the order specified on the command line.

32 - Redirect Output
To redirect RawTherapee's output to a text file, you have to start it from a console and
append the redirection code as follows:

Windows (cmd.exe)
rawtherapee.exe > rtlog.txt 2>&1

Linux
rawtherapee &> rtlog.txt

33 - Examples

33.1 - Example 1
In Linux, process a single raw which resides in /tmp and is called "photo.raw", use its
sidecar file "photo.raw.pp3" during conversion, save it in the same folder as "foo.tif",
and overwrite the file "foo.tif" if it exists:

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rawtherapee-cli -o /tmp/foo.tif -s -t -Y -c /tmp/photo.raw

33.2 - Example 2
In the next example, we'll assume that you want to quickly process all your raw photos
from the /tmp/jane01 folder to a web sub-folder by using the default profile as a basis,
using the sidecar profile if it exist, but with removing some Exif tags (e.g. the camera's
serial number) and adding some IPTC tags (e.g. your usual copyright parameters), plus
resize and sharpen the image for the web (spread over multiple lines for clarity):

rawtherapee-cli -o /tmp/Jane01/web -p ~/profiles/iptc.pp3 -s -p ~/profiles/exif.pp3

-p ~/profiles/web.pp3 -t -Y -d -c /tmp/Jane01/

The processing profile will be built as follows:

. A new profile is created using internal default values (hard-coded into

RawTherapee),

. then overridden by those from the default raw profile ( -d ),

. then overridden by those found in iptc.pp3,

. then overridden by those found in the sidecar file ( -s ) if it exists, so you can force
some IPTC tags even if already set by iptc.pp3,

. then overridden by those found in exif.pp3, so you can force the profile to erase
some tags,

. then overridden by those found in web.pp3, to resize and sharpen the image, and
make sure that the output colorspace is sRGB.

As you can see, the position of the -s switch tells when to load the sidecar profile
relative to the other -p parameters. That is not the case for the -d switch.

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33.3 - Example 3
In the third example, we will see how long it takes to process every raw file in a folder,
assuming that each raw photo has a corresponding processing profile, and discard each
output file:

time {

for f in /home/user/photos/2011-11-11/*.raw; do

rawtherapee-cli -o /dev/null -S -t -Y -c "$f";

done

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Keyboard Shortcuts

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Note that some shortcuts, specifically ones

that involve one or more modifier keys such
as ^ Ctrl + ⇧ Shift , are known to not work on
some non-QWERTY keyboard layouts. This is
not a fault of RawTherapee. For reference, this is the standard United
States-NoAltGr QWERTY keyboard layout
SETM = Single Editor Tab Mode (required [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout].
for Filmstrip panel visibility)

METM = Multiple Editor Tabs Mode

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Cross-Platform Shortcuts

Where Shortcut Action

Switch to the File Browser
Anywhere ^ Ctrl + F2
tab.

Anywhere ^ Ctrl + F3 Switch to the Queue tab.

Anywhere ^ Ctrl + F4 Switch to the Editor tab.

^ Ctrl + c or ^ Ctrl + ⎀ Copy the processing

Anywhere
Insert profile.

^ Ctrl + v or ⇧ Shift + ⎀ Paste the processing

Anywhere
Insert profile.

Partial-paste the
processing profile. Pay
Anywhere ^ Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + v
attention to the processing
profile fill mode!

Editor, File Browser ⎇ Alt + e Switch to Exposure tab.

Editor, File Browser ⎇ Alt + d Switch to Detail tab.

Editor, File Browser ⎇ Alt + c Switch to Color tab.

Editor, File Browser ⎇ Alt + a Switch to Advanced tab.

Editor, File Browser ⎇ Alt + t Switch to Transform tab.

Editor, File Browser ⎇ Alt + r Switch to Raw tab.

Editor ⎇ Alt + m Switch to Metadata tab.

Anywhere F11 Toggle fullscreen.

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Where Shortcut Action

Anywhere ^ Ctrl + q Quit.

Editor z Zoom to 100%.

Editor f Zoom to crop.

Editor ⎇ Alt + f Zoom to fit whole image.

Editor + or = Zoom in.

Editor - or _ Zoom out.

Background color of image

Editor 8
preview: theme-based.

Background color of image

Editor 9
preview: black.

Background color of image

Editor 0
preview: white.

Toggle clipped shadows

Editor <
indicator.

Toggle clipped highlights

Editor >
indicator.

Editor ⇧ Shift + b Before/After view.

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Where Shortcut Action

Crop tool.
⇧ Shift + left-click-
drag within the
Editor c cropped area to
move the entire crop
border.

Edit current image in

Editor ^ Ctrl + e
external editor.

Editor ^ Ctrl + s Save current image.

Save Window ^ Ctrl + ⌅ Enter "OK" to save.

Force saving current

settings to the processing
profile.
This happens
automatically each
time you close the
image or
Editor ^ Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + s RawTherapee, but
you can also force it
to happen
immediately so you
don't lose any work
should the program
crash.

Editor ^ Ctrl + z Undo.

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Where Shortcut Action

Editor ^ Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + z Redo.

Hand/cross tool
(standard); use this to
navigate around a zoomed
Editor h
image or to move the
frame that defines where
the detail window is.

Toggle quick info (Exif info

Editor i
overlay).

Return to default cursor

(after having used the
pipette for white balance
or the straightening tool).
Right-click in the preview
Editor If the RGB indicator
area
bar is enabled, this
(un)freezes its
indicators.

Select straight line (Rotate

Editor s
tool).

Editor ⎇ Alt + s Add a snapshot.

Editor ⇧ Shift + drag crop Move crop border.

Spot white balance

Editor w
pipette.

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Where Shortcut Action

Toggle
Editor r
preview mode - red.

Toggle
Editor g
preview mode - green.

Toggle
Editor b
preview mode - blue.

Toggle
Editor v
preview mode - luminosity.

Toggle
Editor ⇧ Shift + f
preview mode - focus
mask.

Editor [ Rotate open image left.

Editor ] Rotate open image right.

Editor - Decrease preview size.

Editor + Increase preview size.

Rotate selected thumbnail

File Browser [
left.

Rotate selected thumbnail

File Browser ]
right.

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Where Shortcut Action

Rotate selected thumbnail
Filmstrip (SETM) ⎇ Alt + [
left.

Rotate selected thumbnail

Filmstrip (SETM) ⎇ Alt + ]
right.

Filmstrip (SETM) ⎇ Alt + - Decrease thumbnail size.

Filmstrip (SETM) ⎇ Alt + + Increase thumbnail size.

File Browser - Decrease thumbnail size.

File Browser + Increase thumbnail size.

Toggle thumbnail
File Browser i
information.

Toggle thumbnail
Filmstrip (SETM) ⎇ Alt + i
information.

Editor (METM) ^ Ctrl + w Close current image tab.

Navigate to the previous

image relative to the
Editor (SETM) F3
thumbnail selected in the
File Browser/Filmstrip.

Navigate to the previous

Editor (SETM) ⇧ Shift + F3 image relative to the image
open in the Editor.

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Where Shortcut Action

Navigate to the next image
relative to the thumbnail
Editor (SETM) F4
selected in the File
Browser/Filmstrip.

Navigate to the next image

Editor (SETM) ⇧ Shift + F4 relative to the image open
in the Editor.

Synchronize the Filmstrip

with the Editor to reveal
and focus the thumbnail
Filmstrip (SETM) x of the currently open
image and clear active
filters (rating, labels,
metadata filters).

Synchronize the Filmstrip

with the Editor to reveal
and focus the thumbnail
of the currently open
image, but without
clearing filters in File
Filmstrip (SETM) y
Browser/Filmstrip.
(Note that the
thumbnail of the
open file will not be
shown if filtered out).

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Where Shortcut Action

Resets Browse
Path box to
current directory.

File Browser/Filmstrip Clears Find box.

⎋ Esc
(SETM)
Does not
defocus.

Resets Browse
Path box to
current directory.

File Browser/Filmstrip Does not clear

⇧ Shift + ⎋ Esc
(SETM) Find box.

Defocuses.

Sets focus to Browse Path

box, selects contents.
Browse Path
shortcuts:
File Browser/Filmstrip
^ Ctrl + o Press ⌅ Enter to
(SETM)
refresh,

Press ^ Ctrl + ⌅
Enter to reload.

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Where Shortcut Action

Sets focus to the Find box,
selects contents.
Press ⌅ Enter to
execute search
(comma-
separated values
File Browser/Filmstrip
^ Ctrl + f list is
(SETM)
supported),

Press ⎋ Escape
to clear the Find
box.

Rank selected thumbnails

with 1-5 stars:
.

.
File Browser/Filmstrip
⇧ Shift + 1 through 5
(SETM) .

File Browser/Filmstrip Un-rank selected

⇧ Shift + 0
(SETM) thumbnails.

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Where Shortcut Action

Apply a color label to the
selected thumbnails:
. Red

. Yellow
File Browser/Filmstrip ⇧ Shift + ^ Ctrl + 1

(SETM) through 5 . Green

. Blue

. Purple

File Browser/Filmstrip Remove color label from

⇧ Shift + ^ Ctrl + 0
(SETM) the selected thumbnails.

Toggle filter for images

without a rating.
File Browser/Filmstrip
0 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

Toggle filter for images

with a specific rating.
File Browser/Filmstrip
1 through 5 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

Toggle filter for not edited

images.
File Browser/Filmstrip
6 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

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Where Shortcut Action

Toggle filter for edited
images.
File Browser/Filmstrip
7 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

Toggle filter for images

without a color label.
File Browser/Filmstrip
⎇ Alt + 0 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

Toggle filter for images

with a specific color label.
File Browser/Filmstrip
⎇ Alt + 1 through 5 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

Toggle filter for images

that were not saved.
File Browser/Filmstrip
⎇ Alt + 6 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

Toggle filter for images

that were saved.
File Browser/Filmstrip
⎇ Alt + 7 ^ Ctrl allows to apply
(SETM)
an additive filter.

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Where Shortcut Action

Clear all filters: ratings,
File Browser/Filmstrip
d color labels, (not)edited,
(SETM)
(not)saved, trash.

Rename file. If multiple

File Browser/Filmstrip thumbnails are selected,
F2
(SETM) the rename dialog will be
called for each.

File Browser/Filmstrip Show trash contents. Was

^ Ctrl + t
(SETM) just t prior version 4.2.10.

File Browser, Editor L Toggle left panel visibility.

File Browser, Editor ⎇ Alt + L Toggle right panel visibility.

Filmstrip Shit + L Toggle Filmstrip visibility.

Toggle the visiblity of the

Filmstrip's toolbar and
Filmstrip t
automatically resize the
height of the filmstrip.

Toggle the visiblity of the

Filmstrip's toolbar but do
Filmstrip ⇧ Shift + t
not automatically resize
the height of the filmstrip.

Toggle left panel and

Editor (SETM) ^ Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + L
Filmstrip visibility.

Toggle right panel and

Editor (SETM) ⎇ Alt + ⇧ Shift + L
Filmstrip visibility.

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Where Shortcut Action

Toggle left and right panel
File Browser, Editor ^ Ctrl + ⎇ Alt + L
visibility.

Toggle left panel, right

^ Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + ⎇ Alt +
Editor panel and Filmstrip
L
visibility.

Toggle all panels' visibility

File Browser, Editor m
(maximize preview area).

Add current image to the

File Browser, Editor ^ Ctrl + b
Batch Queue.

Navigate through
File Browser ← ↑ → ↓
displayed thumbnails.

Change the selected range

File Browser ⇧ Shift + ← ↑ → ↓
of thumbnails.

The slider is reset to the

value it had when the
^ Ctrl + (Ctrl-click on image was loaded in the
Tool Panel
slider's reset button) Editor, or when the image
was selected in the File
Browser.

Makes the point move

slower than the mouse
Tool Panel ^ Ctrl + drag a curve point
cursor, allowing finer
adjustments to the curve.

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Where Shortcut Action

The point is snapped to
⇧ Shift + drag a curve
Tool Panel key positions (highlighted
point
in red).

Right-click on a tool's Unfolds clicked section

Tool Panel
name and folds all others.

Queue ^ Ctrl + s Start/stop the queue.

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Windows-Only Shortcuts

Where Shortcut Action

Open resulting image in

the default image viewer
(must have been
File Browser, Editor F5
processed before). Uses
current queue settings to
determine output file path.

Open Explorer in the raw's

File Browser, Editor ^ Ctrl + F5 directory and select
current image.

Open Explorer in the Batch

Queue's output directory
File Browser, Editor ⇧ Shift + F5
and selects the current
image if already converted.

Temporarily enables both

shadow and highlight
clipping indicators while
Editor Right-Alt
the preview is being re-
drawn (e.g. while adjusting
exposure compensation).

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Adding Support for

New Raw Formats

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34 - Introduction
Supporting a raw format requires the following:

Being able to decode the raw file, so that the program has access to the image data
and metadata stored within each raw file. This is handled either by a program
embedded inside RawTherapee called "dcraw", or by custom code.

Being able to interpret the image data. This can be further broken down into:

Measuring the "white levels" (and sometimes the "black levels") of the decoded
image data, as every camera's idea of what is the whitest white (and sometimes
the blackest black) is different. White levels are measured using photos called
"white frames".

Determining where the actual image lies on the raw canvas - the "raw crop".

Creating an " input profile" to accurately reproduce the colors.

You will have to shoot the photos, but you do not heave to understand or carry out the
measurement - we can do that for you.

34.1 - Storing and Reading This Information

RawTherapee looks for information regarding how to interpret the image data (the
black and white levels, the color matrix, and some other details, but not the input
profile) in three places:

In the dcraw code which is embedded inside RawTherapee,

In the raw file itself,

In a text file on your system which is installed with RawTherapee called

camconst.json

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Information is gathered from all three places, and values from camconst.json are
prioritized above those from other sources. There is an exception for the input color
matrix, in that if the raw file is in the DNG format and the Software Exif tag ( 0x0131 )
does not begin with the string Adobe DNG Converter and the file does contain a
ColorMatrix2 tag, then the value from this tag is prioritized.

If you made any changes to camconst.json while RawTherapee was running, restart it
for the changes to take effect.

35 - White Levels
What are black and white levels? A sensor is made of millions of tiny photo-sensitive
elements called photosites or sensels. Each one measures the intensity of the light
which falls upon it, and records that intensity as a number - the more light, the higher
the number. The bulk of the raw file consists of these recorded measurements. Each
photosite has a level below which it cannot sense any light - there might be some light
falling upon it, but this light is too weak to register a signal. This is called the black
level, and it is not always 0. There is also a level beyond which the photosite will not
register a change in light intensity even if the light does keep getting brighter - this is
the white level. A photosite which cannot record any brighter light is said to be fully
saturated, and in post-processing this state is called clipping.

The white levels are measured based on completely overexposed photos called "white
frames".

Some camera models use the same white and black levels regardless of other settings,
while for other models these levels depend on other factors, such as ISO sensitivity. We
need photos from across the whole range of ISO values to determine this.

Some cameras have built-in noise reduction, often called LENR - Long Exposure Noise
Reduction. It could affect the white and black levels. If you enable it, typically it only
kicks-in when the exposure time is over 1s. The steps explained further on will explain

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when to turn it on and off.

The white levels for some camera models change depending on the aperture, but
generally this only happens for wide-open apertures. To avoid this being a problem, set
the aperture to f/5.6 or higher unless instructed otherwise.

For more documentation detailing the required photos and instructions how to
measure them, read the comments inside the camconst.json file:
https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/blob/dev/rtengine/camconst.json

35.1 - How to Shoot White Frames

Shoot raw photos in manual (M) mode. If your camera has several raw modes, use the
full one, uncropped, lossless compression if possible.

Each photo must be completely overexposed all across the frame. As such, it does not
matter what you shoot since everything will be white anyway, but its easiest to achieve
this while pointing the camera at the sky or at a white light bulb. It does not matter
whether the sky is sunny or overcast, but don't point it at the sun as you might damage
the sensor.

It does not matter what lens you use, but it will be easier to make the whole image
overexposed if you do not use a wide angle lens.

35.2 - Needed Photo Sets

We have broken down the image requirements into three sets, where each subsequent
set would improve the quality of support, but would also require more effort from you
and from us. In most cases, you only need to photograph the first two sets. All sets
involve photographing completely overexposed white frames.

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The sets:

. If your camera has LENR, turn it OFF. Set the aperture to f/5.6 or higher. Take a
series of photos, one photo for every ISO value your camera supports, making sure
not to exceed an exposure time of 1 second. As an example, you could end up with
about 8 photos for ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 and 12800. Most cameras
include intermediate ISO values, e.g. ISO160 or ISO320, so if you wanted to improve
white level accuracy you would need to photograph these intermediate values as
well.

. If your camera has LENR, turn it ON. Take a second series of photos, as described
above but this time making sure that the exposure time in all cases is at least 2
seconds, not less. That's another 8 or more photos. In most cases these two sets
should be enough.

. Some cameras scale raw values for larger apertures, particularly Canon and Nikon
models. The only way to know whether your camera does this for sure is to take a
photo and measure it. Take one photo as described above but using your lens's
widest aperture, e.g. f/1.7, at ISO100 with LENR turned OFF, and send it to us along
with the rest of the shots. If we detect that there is raw scaling (or if you detect it
yourself if you do your own measurements) then we will ask you shoot a series of
photos using an exposure time of less than 1 second, from the widest aperture
your lens supports down every 1/3 of a stop until such an aperture where raw
scaling is no longer performed. This could mean many photos. Handling raw
scaling caused by large apertures is not very important so don't feel daunted by it,
you don't need to do it even if your camera does do raw scaling, but if you have the
time and bandwidth then it would be better to check for it.

At the very least, you should end up with a series of about 8 photos from point 1. It is
recommended that you take photos for both points 1 and 2, leading to 16 or more
photos, plus the one raw scaling test photo from point 3. If it is found that your camera
performs raw scaling, you could additionally take the needed series described in point
3, but since this could potentially mean many photos (over 50) it is not expected.

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Compress all these photos, upload them to filebin.net [http://filebin.net/] and send us the
full link either through our GitHub [https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/issues/new] page
or in the Forum [http://rawtherapee.com/forum].

Completely clipped photos can have amazing compression, don't forget to compress
them (7-Zip, ZIP, bzip2, whatever) before uploading! As an example, 10 completely
clipped Sony 7M2 raw files with LENR disabled weigh 234MB but if you ZIP them you get
a 1MB file.

35.3 - Renaming
In order to simplify working with these white frame images, the filenames should
segregate the photos by LENR, aperture and ISO. ExifTool can rename them
automatically:

exiftool '-

FileName<${make}_${model}_${LongExposureNoiseReduction}_${aperture}_${iso}%-c.%le'
dir

36 - Raw Crop
The raw crop can be determined from any photograph, no extra photos are needed.

37 - Input Profile
An input profile is required in order to reproduce colors accurately. One is needed per
camera model. Read the "How to Create DCP Color Profiles" article to learn about the
types of input profiles and how to shoot photos of a color target so that we may create
an input profile for your camera model.

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File Paths

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RawTherapee makes use of a "cache" folder to store temporary files which are safe to
delete, and a "config" folder which stores your RawTherapee settings, custom
processing profiles and other user-editable files. These folders reside in a special place,
described below, and have a name that begins with the word "RawTherapee" optionally
followed by a suffix. This suffix is set by the person who made the build of RawTherapee
you're using. Some examples of what it can look like:

RawTherapee

RawTherapee4.2

RawTherapee5

RawTherapee5-dev

RawTherapee_test

And other possibilities always beginning with "RawTherapee"

The first part, "RawTherapee", is hard-coded. The second part, the suffix, is up to the
person who made the build. It might be specific, like "5.0-gtk2-123-g87654321", it could
be general, like "5", it could be anything else, like "_test", or it could be not set. We
recommend that RawTherapee stable releases not use a suffix at all, while all
development versions use "5-dev" - hopefully the person who made the build you're
using took this into account.

38 - Config
The RawTherapee config folder contains:

the "options" file, which contains all of your settings from Preferences,

the "batch" folder, which stores temporary processing profiles of the photos you
sent to the Queue,

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the user-editable camconst.json file, where you can define details of how a specific
raw format is to be treated (this overrides the values from the system
camconst.json file),

the dynamic profile rules,

and the "profiles" folder where you can save your custom processing profiles to if
you want them to appear in RawTherapee's drop-down list.

You could include this folder in your backups so that you can regain all of your settings
and custom processing profiles if you install RawTherapee on a new system.

Default locations for the RawTherapee config folder (look for the "RawTherapee*" prefix
as described above):

Windows XP
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\

Windows 7, 8 and 10
%LOCALAPPDATA%

Linux
~/.config/

macOS
~/Library/Application Support/RawTherapee/config/

Under the Finder's 'Go' menu click 'Go to Folder' (shortcut Command+Shift+g),
you can then type/paste any path you want to navigate to, even if it's hidden.

39 - Cache
The RawTherapee cache folder contains sets of cached items, where each set consists
of:

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a thumbnail,

metadata,

a sidecar file,

and optionally an embedded profile.

By default, RawTherapee keeps up to 20 000 cached sets. Keep an eye on the "cache"
folder as over time it may grow considerably in size! This is mostly due to the cached
thumbnails which are stored in the " images" sub-folder. Deleting the " images" sub-
folder is safe, you will not lose any image settings, RawTherapee will just have to
regenerate the thumbnails.

Default locations for the RawTherapee cache folder (look for the "RawTherapee*" prefix
as described above):

Windows XP
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\

Windows 7, 8 and 10
%LOCALAPPDATA%

Linux
~/.cache/

macOS
~/Library/Application Support/RawTherapee/cache/

Under the Finder's 'Go' menu click 'Go to Folder' (shortcut Command+Shift+g),
you can then type/paste any path you want to navigate to, even if it's hidden.

A cached set used to include a 32kB histogram file, but as of RawTherapee 5.5 the need
for storing the histogram was eliminated.

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40 - Custom config and cache folders

You can have RawTherapee use a custom config folder by setting the RT_SETTINGS
environment variable to an absolute path which you have read and write access to, and
likewise you can use a custom cache folder by setting the RT_CACHE environment
variable. How you do that depends on your operating system, so just search on the
internet for "how to set environment variables in <your operating system>".

Some examples:

Windows
Variable name: RT_SETTINGS , value: %LOCALAPPDATA%\rawtherapee\5.7

Variable name: RT_CACHE , value: Z:\rawtherapee\cache

Linux and macOS

RT_SETTINGS=/home/bob/.config/rawtherapee/5.7

RT_CACHE=/home/bob/junk/rtcache

41 - Processing Profiles
If you create your own processing profiles, to have them appear in RawTherapee's
"Processing Profiles" list you should save them to the "profiles" folder which you will
find inside the "config" folder as described above.

42 - Temporary Folder
The "Edit Current Image in External Editor" tool stores intermediate image files in a
temporary folder:

Windows

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The default location is the one stored in the $TEMP environment variable,
which is usually %LOCALAPPDATA%/Temp

If you do not have the $TEMP environment variable set, C:\ is used.

Linux and macOS

The default location is the one stored in the $TMPDIR environment variable,
which is usually /tmp

If you do not have the $TMPDIR environment variable set, /tmp is used.

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Preferences

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You can access the Preferences window by clicking on the Preferences button which
is either in the bottom-left corner of the RawTherapee window, or the top-right one,
depending on your Editor tab mode layout.

43 - About
The About button opens a window which contains a splash screen, technical details of
the specific RawTherapee build you're running, credits, licence and release notes.

Please include these technical details when filing a bug report.

44 - General Tab

44.1 - Layout
Editor Layout

The layout of RawTherapee's user interface can be adapted to suite your taste
and needs, specifically pertaining to whether you would like to have more
than one raw file open simultaneously, and whether you use one monitor or
more. The following modes are available:

Single Editor Tab Mode

Single Editor Tab Mode, Vertical Tabs

Multiple Editor Tabs Mode

Multiple Editor Tabs Mode (if available on second monitor)

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Remember that if you simultaneously open several images each in its own
Editor tab, each tab and instance will require a significant amount of RAM.
Only use multiple Editor tabs if you have quite a lot of RAM - exactly how much
depends on what resolution your images are, which tools you use, how many
other programs you run in the background, and so forth, however a rule of
thumb could be to not use multiple Editor tabs unless you have more than
8GB of RAM.

A restart is required for these changes to take effect.

Position of Curve Copy & Paste Buttons

Curves include adjacent buttons for copying, pasting, opening and saving the
curve, and some include buttons for placing a node on the curve by picking a
sample from the preview and for setting numeric in/out values. This option
lets you decide where these buttons will be positioned relative to the curve
widget.

A restart is required for these changes to take effect.

Histogram in Left Panel

Position the main histogram in the left panel above "History", or in the right
tool panel above the tools.

Show Filmstrip Toolbar

The Filmstrip is a narrow panel which

you can toggle to appear within the
Editor tab. It contains thumbnails of
the images in the currently opened
folder, along with the filter and ratings
toolbar. It can be useful to see the
Filmstrip while working in the Editor
tab, but you can hide it if you need the The filter and ratings toolbar (4) can be
extra vertical screen space. Use this shown in the Filmstrip.

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option to show or hide it. Note that you can also toggle its visibility from the
Editor tab by using the "Toggle the visiblity of the Filmstrip's toolbar"
keyboard shortcut.

Compact Toolbars in File Browser

Enable this option if you have a high

resolution screen to merge all the
toolbars at the top of the File Browser Disabled, great for low-resolution
screens.
tab into one.

If your screen's resolution is too low to

fit the whole toolbar, some of the
Enabled, requires that the screen has a
toolbar's contents (buttons, drop- high enough resolution to fit all the
downs, etc.) may become hidden. To elements horizontally.
see them, simply hover the cursor over
the toolbar and use the mouse scroll-
wheel to scroll the contents left and right.

Hide Vertical Scrollbar

You can hide the vertical scrollbar from the toolbox to save a little horizontal
screen space. Use the mouse scroll-wheel to scroll when the scrollbar is
hidden.

Tool Collapsed/Expanded State

If you have a few favorite tools which you would like to always see expanded,
you can expand them now, hide the others, then return here to Preferences,
disable "Automatically save tools' collapsed/expanded state before exiting",
click "Save tools' collapsed/expanded state now", and click "OK" to close the
Preferences window and commit your changes.

Alternatively, if you would instead like RawTherapee to remember which tools

are collapsed and which are expanded at the end of every editing session,
then enable "Automatically save tools' collapsed/expanded state before
exiting".

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44.2 - Language
Select a language for the user interface. "Use system language" will try to auto-detect
your language based on environment variables. You can override the auto-detected
language by selecting one manually.

If you would like to help by updating one of the translations or creating a new one, see
this post:

https://discuss.pixls.us/t/localization-how-to-translate-rawtherapee-and-
rawpedia/2594

A restart is required for these changes to take effect.

44.3 - Appearance
Theme

Choose a theme for the user interface.

Although you will see theme-related
changes as soon as you hit the "OK"
button, you need to restart for the
changes to take affect correctly.

The way human vision perceives colors

depends on various factors, of
particular importance to this The Image Editor tab showing: (1) the
preview background, (2) the crop mask,
paragraph are the properties of the (3) lockable color pickers and (4) buttons
area which surround the observed which toggle the color of the preview
region. The way you perceive the colors background between black, white and
theme-based.
of a photograph viewed on a screen
depends in part on the colors of the
area surrounding the photograph. You can read more about this in the
CIECAM02 article. In order to mitigate the errors the user makes while adjusting

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a photo, RawTherapee ships themes which use neutral background colors.

While all of the themes are based on shades of grey, the theme which is most
suited to avoid affecting human perception is "TooWaGrey - Average Surround",
available from version 5.2 onward.

Main font, and color picker font

Choose a custom main font, and a font for the Lockable Color Picker in the
Image Editor tab, marked "3" in the screenshot.

Some users will find the default font size too small or too large due to their
screen resolution and DPI setting. You can fix that by changing the font size.

Crop mask color

Adjust the color and transparency of the area outside of a cropped region,
marked "2" in the screenshot. By clicking on the colored button, a new window
appears where you can select a standard color or click on "Custom" to specify
a new color. The vertical axis adjusts hue, while the horizontal axis adjusts
transparency. Partial transparency is useful as it allows the cropped-off part of
the photo to remain somewhat visible (2), so that you can move the crop
around to find the best composition (hold the Shift key and move the crop
with the mouse).

Navigator guide color

Adjust the color and transparency of

the frame (marked "2" in the second
screenshot) visible in the Navigator
panel (marked "1") when the main
preview is zoomed-in.

Pseudo-HiDPI mode The Image Editor tab showing: (1) the

Navigator panel, (2) the Navigator guide
Scales the user interface so that text which marks the area currently visible in
and images remain sharp even on a the main preview when zoomed-in.

HiDPI screen. Introduced in

RawTherapee 5.6. Scaling in RawTherapee depends on font size, DPI and

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display scaling. While scaling has been

tested to work well in Windows, Linux
and macOS, there are some macOS
display modes which are incompatible
with it, specifically those modes
suffixed by "(HiDPI)" in macOS Display Normal interface and HiDPI scaled
settings. Some versions of macOS interface.

(10.14.*) seem to not list any modes, in

which case the user must just give it a
try.

44.4 - Clipping Indication

The clipped shadow and highlight indicators in the Editor allow you to easily see
which areas of the image are too dark or too bright. Highlighted areas are shaded
according to the much they transgress the thresholds.

The thresholds for these indicators are defined in Preferences > General.

The clipped shadow indicator will highlight areas where all three channels fall at or
below the specified shadow threshold.

The clipped highlight indicator will highlight areas where at least one channel lies at or
above the specified highlight threshold. If you want to see only where all channels are
clipped, then enable the luminosity preview mode in addition to the clipped highlight
indicator.

Clipping is calculated using data which depends on the state of the gamut button
which you can toggle above the main preview in the Editor tab. When the gamut button
is enabled the working profile is used, otherwise the gamma-corrected output profile is
used.

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44.5 - Pan Rate Amplification

Imagine you are viewing a high resolution images while zoomed-in to 100%. In order to
pan the image around the screen you would have to make multiple mouse movements
(or have a very large mouse pad). RawTherapee saves you from this by using "pan rate
amplification" - when set to 5, RawTherapee multiplies every pixel you pan by 5. If you'd
normally move the cursor 500 pixels in one comfortable mouse movement, you will
have panned 2500 pixels with this option set to 5.

The effect is most visible when you are zoomed in, and least visible when zoomed out.

When "Remember zoom  % and pan offset" is enabled, when you open the next image
RawTherapee will try to show the same area at the same zoom level as the current
image. This only works in "Single Editor Tab Mode" and when "Demosaicing method
used for the preview at <100% zoom" is set to "As in PP3".

44.6 - External Editor

RawTherapee can send the processed image directly to an external program, e.g. an
image editor, an image viewer or a script. This is done using the "Edit Current Image
in External Editor" button in the Editor tab under the main preview - see the Saving
article. It is here in Preferences where you can customize which program the processed
image is to be sent to when you click the button.

44.6.1 - Linux

GIMP - This option tries to run the following executables in the following order:
gimp , gimp-remote . They should be accessible using the $PATH environment
variable.

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Custom command line - Write the full path to the executable including the
executable. You may need to enclose the whole line in double quotation marks if
you need to pass arguments, see the example. Variables such as ~ and
environment variables such as $HOME are not supported.

Examples:

"/usr/bin/geeqie --remote"

The above command opens the image in a single instance of Geeqie. Note
that you need to enclose it in double quotation marks because you're
passing the " --remote " option.

/home/bob/programs/luminance hdr/luminance-hdr

The above command opens the image in Luminance HDR. No arguments or

options passed so no quotation marks needed.

44.6.2 - macOS

GIMP - This option tries to run the following in the following order: open -a GIMP ,
open -a GIMP-dev .

Photoshop - This option is hard-coded to " open -a Photoshop ".

Custom command line - Write open -a "External Program" where " External
Program " is the name of the program to be used to open the image. Surround the
name of the program in quotation marks if it contains one or more space
characters.

Examples:

open -a "Adobe Photoshop CS6"

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The above command opens the image in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Note that
you need to enclose it in quotation marks because it contains space
characters.

open -a "Affinity Photo Trial"

The command above opens the trial version of Affinity Photo. It too
needed to be enclosed in quotation marks due to the spaces in the name.

open -a "/My stuff/Programs/Pixel Mixer"

The command above opens a program called "Pixel Mixer" in the "My stuff"
folder. We have reports that it is not necessary to write the full path to the
program even if it does not reside in the standard /Applications/ folder.

44.6.3 - Windows

GIMP - Point RawTherapee to the folder which contains the bin folder which in
turn contains the GIMP executable, gimp-2.*.exe . If you use an unofficial version of
GIMP where the executable does not have that name, you may need to use the
command line option instead. This option tries to run the following files in the
following order: gimp-win-remote , gimp-2.12.exe , gimp-2.11.exe , gimp-2.10.exe ,
..., all the way down to gimp-2.0.exe

Photoshop - Point RawTherapee to the folder which contains the Photoshop

executable, Photoshop.exe .

Custom command line - Write the full path to the executable including the
executable. Don't worry about spaces or about escaping backslashes. Environment
variables such as %ProgramFiles% are not supported.

Examples:

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C:\Program Files\Gimp-2.9\gimp-2.9.exe

C:\Program Files\Digital Light & Color\Picture Window Pro 6.0\pw60.exe

45 - Image Processing Tab

45.1 - Default Processing Profile

Specify which profile RawTherapee is to use when opening a raw or non-raw photo.

The default processing profile for raw photos as of RawTherapee 5.4 is "Auto-
Matched Curve - ISO Low".

The default processing profile for non-raw photos (such as JPEG, TIFF or PNG) is
"Neutral". The "Neutral" profile just loads the photo as it is, without applying any
changes.

To have processing profiles you have made yourself appear in the list, save them to the
"profiles" sub-folder within the "config" folder. You can find out where it is on the file
paths page.

The special entry "Dynamic" activates the support for Dynamic Processing Profiles.

When you right-click on a thumbnail and select "Processing profile operations > Reset
to default" RawTherapee will apply whichever processing profile is selected as default
for that image type. If the default is set to "Dynamic", then RawTherapee will run
through the dynamic profile rules to generate a profile dynamically.

45.2 - Custom Processing Profile Builder

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Executable (or script) file called when a new initial processing profile should be
generated for an image. The path of the communication file (*.ini style, a.k.a. "Keyfile")
is added as a command line parameter. It contains various parameters required for the
executable or script to allow a rules-based processing profile generation.

This feature is very powerful; for example it allows you to set lens correction
parameters or noise reduction based on image properties. It is called just once on the
first edit of the picture, or called manually from the context menu when right-clicking
on a thumbnail in the File Browser or Filmstrip

Note: You are responsible for using double quotes where necessary if you're using
paths containing spaces.

45.3 - Processing Profile Handling

Processing profile saving location

Choose whether you want RawTherapee to store the processing profiles

next to the input file (the default behavior), to a central cache, or both.

It is a good idea to save the processing profiles next to the input files, as
that lets you easily backup and handle your photos and their associated
processing profiles.

Processing profile loading location

RawTherapee will look for processing profiles alongside the images, and in
the central cache. If a profile exists in both places and they are not
identical, this setting allows you to choose which one should have the
deciding say.

45.4 - Directories

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Specify the location of your Dark-Frame, Flat-Field and HaldCLUT Film Simulation
folders.

45.5 - Crop Editing

This section lets you decide which guides are shown when the crop is _not_ being
manipulated. "Original" means the guide type currently selected, so for example if you
would like to see the "Rule of Thirds" guide while dragging a crop, and to have the
guide automatically disappear once you are done dragging the crop, then set this
option to "Frame" or "None".

Once a crop is in place, RawTherapee can automatically zoom the cropped area to fit the
screen if you enable this option.

46 - Dynamic Profile Rules Tab

Here you can define your custom rules for creating Dynamic Processing Profiles.

47 - File Browser Tab

47.1 - Image Directory at Startup

At the top you can define the image directory to use at startup. It could be the
RawTherapee installation directory, the last-visited directory, the home directory, or a
custom directory.

47.2 - File Browser / Thumbnail Options

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These options determine which information is visible in the thumbnails and how it
should be displayed.

47.3 - Context Menu Options

Adjust the grouping of the right-click context menu in the File Browser (and Filmstrip).

47.4 - Parsed Extensions

Choose which files are recognized as images and displayed in the File Browser. All
supported extensions are set by default, except for PNG which is disabled by default.

If a desired extension is missing you can easily add it by clicking the "Add" button.

Some users reported that their Parsed Extensions panel is empty. This could happen
after updating from an unspecified older version of RawTherapee. If your parsed
extensions panel is empty, we recommend you close RawTherapee, then find and delete
the "options" file. The next time you run RawTherapee you will be using the latest
defaults, and your list of parsed extensions will contain all supported formats.

47.5 - Cache Options

To understand this section, first read the Cache article. The typical user should not need
to change these defaults.

The maximum thumbnail height decides how large you can make the thumbnails. Each
thumbnail is stored in RawTherapee's cache folder and requires disk space, so keep this
in mind if you increase the default size.

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The maximum number of cache entries decides how many of these cached files are kept
before the oldest ones are deleted once the limit is reached.

You can manually clear elements of the cache using the "Clear" buttons.

You could "clear all cached files except for cached processing profiles" when updating
RawTherapee to keep your disk clean and benefit from new cache-related
improvements.

48 - Color Management Tab

Use the "Directory containing color profiles" button to point RawTherapee to the folder
which contains color profiles.

Standard locations where color profiles are stored:

Windows
C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color

Linux
/usr/share/color/icc/

macOS
/library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/

48.1 - Monitor
Set the "Default color profile" to the ICC file you generated when calibrating and
profiling your monitor. You can have RawTherapee try to auto-detect the profile by
using the "Use operating system's main monitor color profile" option.

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In Linux, the _ICC_PROFILE [http://www.burtonini.com/computing/x-icc-profiles-spec-latest.

html] X11 atom is used to automatically find the monitor's ICC profile. Since there is
only one such atom, and it is used by the "main" monitor, automatic detection is
also limited to the main monitor, though you can copy multiple ICC profiles into the
standard location and then you will be able to manually select them under the
preview in the Editor.
One very simple way of " installing" a monitor profile in Linux so that the atom gets
set correctly is using DisplayCAL [https://displaycal.net/], via the menu "File > Install
profile".
To see if the X11 atom is set, run this in a console:
xprop -len 8 -root _ICC_PROFILE

If the result is "_ICC_PROFILE: no such atom on any window", then the atom is not
set. If the result is a bunch of numbers, then it is set.

In Windows, right-click an ICC (or ICM, they're identical) file and select "Install
profile" in the context menu, or search for "colour management" in the Start menu.

In macOS, monitor profiles on an application level are not supported. All displayed
colors will be in the sRGB space [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRGB], and then, if
necessary, converted by the native macOS color pipeline to match the screen
calibration, if any. This means that you cannot choose a monitor color profile in
macOS. If you have a wide-gamut screen, RawTherapee's displayed colors will still
be limited to sRGB. This will however not affect output, i.e. you can still produce
images with colors outside the sRGB space. For more information, see:
https://discuss.pixls.us/t/wide-gamut-preview-in-macos/2481

Rendering intents and black point compensation are explained below.

The monitor profile must be of the "device" class in the RGB colorspace.

48.2 - Printer (So -Proofing)

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You can select here the color profile of your own printer or your print service in order
to simulate the rendering of the printed image.

The printer profile must be of the "output" class in either the RGB or CMYK colorspaces.

See below for Black Point Compensation.

48.3 - Rendering Intents

The "Rendering intent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_intent#Rendering_intent]" drop-
down lets you choose how the ICC profiles are used for translation between gamuts or
color spaces. When in the "Monitor" section, the "source" is the color space within
which lies the image data at the end of the pipeline before being put into the monitor
profile's color space, and the "destination" is the selected monitor profile's color space.
When in the "Printer (Soft-Proofing)" section, the "source" is the image data at the end
of the pipeline, and the "destination" is the selected printer profile's color space.

Relative Colorimetric
Colors from the source which lie outside the gamut of the destination
color space will be shown using the nearest in-gamut color without
affecting other in-gamut colors. The white point will be corrected. This is
the default option and works with all profiles.

Perceptual
Colors from the source which lies outside the gamut of the destination
color space will be compressed into the destination's gamut at the
expense of also affecting in-gamut colors. How the compression is
performed is up to the gamut mapping contained within the color profile -
it usually involves desaturation, and sometimes even hue shifts. The
perceptual intent only works with LUT profiles which contain the required
gamut mapping tables - most ICC profiles do not, and in those cases
"relative colorimetric" will be silently used instead (this is standard
behavior across most software).

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Absolute Colorimetric
Similar to relative colorimetric, but the white point will not be corrected.
For this reason, it is used when you want to match paper whiteness to
screen. You might want to use it when proofing, but not otherwise.

48.4 - Black Point Compensation

When enabled, the Black Point level of the input image is moved to the Black Point level
of the output image in a color transformation (e.g. from working profile to display
profile). It means that the luminance channel alone is compressed or expanded to
match the output capabilities. This feature will keep details in the shadows (avoid flat
dark areas) at the expense of less color correctness.

49 - Batch Edit Tab

Batch editing is making adjustments to more than one image at the same time. This is
done through the Batch Edit tab in the File Browser.

The tool panel in the Batch Edit tab looks similar to the tool panel from the Image
Editor tab, but it uses checkboxes to communicate which tool settings are consistent
across the selected images and which are not. These checkboxes have three states:
[ ] Disabled
[✓] Enabled
[-] Values differ across selected images.

Batch editing is done by selecting multiple images in the File Browser (hold the ⇧ Shift
or ^ Ctrl key, then click the images you want to select), then you can edit those images
using the tools in the Batch Edit panel on the right.

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The controls (sliders, spinboxes, etc.) in the Batch Edit panel show the values of the
processing parameters for the selected images. These can be the values of the default
processing profile or the values from your last edit session of those photos.

If an image is currently being edited in the Editor, the editor's values will be reflected in
real time in the Batch Edit panel, and vice versa, so take care what you're doing.

What happens to the tool values as you manipulate them depends on the "Behavior"
setting in this Batch Edit tab.

The "Add" Mode

This mode may also be understood as "relative". Modifying sliders which are
set to the "Add" mode will result in the value of the modification being added
to the existing value. For example, if you select two images by holding the Ctrl
modifier key, one image which has an Exposure#Exposure_Compensation
Exposure Compensation of -0.5 EV and the other which has +1.0 EV, moving the
"Exposure Compensation" slider up to +0.3 will result in setting a value of -0.2
EV for the first image and +1.3 EV for the second one.

Using the "Reset" button will move the slider to its default (zero) position and
will then bring back the initial value of that slider for each selected image.

The "Set" Mode

This mode may also be understood as "absolute". Modifying sliders which are
set to the "Set" mode will result in the value of the modification being set,
irrelevant of what the existing value was. If we use the same example as
before, moving the slider up to +0.3 EV will result in setting a value of +0.3 EV
for both images (one value for all images).

Using the 'Reset' button will move the slider to its default position (different
for each slider), and will then reset this parameter for each image.

50 - Performance Tab

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The "Performance" tab is only for people who know what they're doing. It lets you poke
under the hood and tweak some parameters depend on available RAM and CPU speed.

50.1 - Preview Demosaicing Method

The "Demosaicing method used for the preview at <100% zoom" option sets which
demosaicing method is used for the main preview in the Editor. By default, the same
demosaicing method is used as specified in the Demosaicing section of the Raw tab, but
if you are on a a very slow computer you can save a few hundred milliseconds by using
the "Fast" demosaicing method. The trade-off is that the "Fast" method has the worst
quality, though in most cases the difference is slight.

50.2 - TIFF Read Settings

"Serialize read of TIFF files", enabled by default, can speed up thumbnail generation
when opening for the first time a folder full of uncompressed TIFF files.

50.3 - HaldCLUT Cache

The "Maximum number of cached CLUTs" setting lets you specify how many last-used
HaldCLUT (Film Simulation) images are stored in RAM for faster access when switching
back and forth between them in the Editor.

50.4 - Inspect
Most raw files contain an embedded JPEG preview image. To show that image in the
Inspect tab it needs to be extracted, which takes a fraction of a second. The "Maximum
number of cached images" setting lets you specify how many of the last-viewed

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embedded images are kept in RAM, so that if you view the previous image in the Inspect
tab, RawTherapee will not need to re-extract it, but just access it from RAM.

The "Image to show" option lets you decide whether to use the embedded JPEG image
or to render one based on the real raw data using the "Neutral" processing profile.
Using the embedded image is faster than rendering from the real raw data.

50.5 - Threads
Splitting calculations and running them as concurrent threads [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Thread_(computing)] allows them to complete faster, however doing so requires more RAM.
By default, RawTherapee decides automatically how many threads to use. You can
override this value here.

Most modern CPUs run two threads per physical core. Find out what CPU you have and
how many cores it has, multiply that number by two, and you get the maximum number
of threads it would make sense to run simultaneously. Let's call this number Tmax. You
would not benefit from running more threads than this - in fact you would likely suffer
a small speed penalty.

Setting this parameter to "0" will let your CPU figure out what Tmax is, and use that. If
you experience crashes due to insufficient RAM, then you can calculate Tmax yourself
and use a number lower than that.

51 - Sounds Tab
The "Sounds" tab lets you set an audible notification when a lengthy operation ends. It
is currently only supported on Windows and Linux.

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The "Queue processing done" sound is played after the last Queue image finishes
processing. The "Editor processing done" sound is played after a lengthy in-editor
operation that took longer than the specified number of seconds is complete.

Sounds can be muted either by disabling the "Enabled" checkbox or by setting fields
with sound file references to blank values.

The "Queue" and "Editor processing done" text boxes can either point to wave (.wav)
files, or can specify one of the following values:

Windows

SystemAsterisk

SystemDefault

SystemExclamation

SystemExit

SystemHand

SystemQuestion

SystemStart

SystemWelcome

Linux

bell

camera-shutter

complete

dialog-warning

dialog-information

message

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service-login

service-logout

suspend-error

trash-empty

possibly the name of any file in /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/ without the

path or extension.

RawTherapee relies on libcanberra to produce sounds. In case of issues in Linux, you

can trigger a sound to play from a terminal by invoking the following command (replace
"bell" with any of the above):

canberra-gtk-play -i bell

Negative

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GIMP Plugin

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You can open raw images in GIMP using RawTherapee as a plugin.

52 - Requirements
RawTherapee 5.3

GIMP 2.9.6

The RawTherapee executable must be found from the $PATH environment variable.
This will be the case if you installed RawTherapee system-wide.

53 - Usage
Just open a raw file from GIMP. A RawTherapee editor window should open
automatically, which you can use to tweak your raw file. When you close the window, the
image gets imported into GIMP.

Processing Profiles

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Sidecar Files /
Processing Profiles

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54 - Introduction
Processing profiles (with a PP3 extension for version 3 or PP2 for the older version 2)
are text files which contain all of the tool settings which RawTherapee applies to the
associated photo. If you are familiar with other raw processors, you may know their
equivalent as "presets". They are stored alongside their associated photos, which is why
they are also called sidecar files [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidecar_file].

When you open a folder with photos in RawTherapee's File Browser for the first time,
none of the images will have PP3 sidecar files. The thumbnails shown for images which
have no processing profile assigned (images which have never been opened or edited)
are created from the JPEG image embedded in each raw file. A processing profile is
assigned to the image the moment one of these actions are taken:

You open the photo for editing.

You apply a processing profile manually, by using the right-click context menu in
the File Browser or Filmstrip.

You apply a dynamic processing profile.

When you open an image for editing, or when a processing profile is assigned,
RawTherapee will convert the real raw data into a viewable image. In order to do this,
there are many settings which need to be set to something, and what these specific
values are depends on:

Your default processing profile.

Your dynamic processing profile rules, if any.

Or on the processing profile you selected from the right-click context menu if you
right-clicked on a thumbnail.

55 - Sources

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Processing profiles come from three quite different sources, though they work in
exactly the same way:

"Bundled profiles".

RawTherapee comes with a bundle of profiles. Their purpose is to give you

a good starting point, to demonstrate how the tools can be used together.
They are the ones you see in the Processing Profile Selector drop-down
list's "Bundled profiles" section, in the Image Editor.

"My profiles".

When you make a processing profile which you want to re-use, for example
one which works well with your camera and your style, you can save it so
that it also appears in the Processing Profile Selector drop-down list, in
the "My profiles" section. To have it appear there, save it to the "profiles"
folder within the "config" folder - see the File Paths article to find it.

Automatically generated profiles.

Whenever you edit an image, the tool settings you want applied to that
image are stored in a processing profile that is particular to that image
(ranking information, the history panel contents and snapshots are not
stored in these files yet, see issue #473 [https://code.google.com/p/rawtherapee/issu
es/detail?id=473]).

56 - Saving
As simply viewing the image requires processing, RawTherapee stores the settings it
used to show you the image in a sidecar processing profile. That processing profile also
stores all the tool tweaks you made in the Editor tab.

The processing profile is written to disk:

When you apply a processing profile manually or using a dynamic profile.

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When you close the current image (the Editor tab) if using Multiple Editor Tabs
Mode (METM).

When you close the current image by opening a different image if using Single
Editor Tab Mode (SETM).

When you close the current image by closing RawTherapee.

When you manually save the processing profile using the Processing Profile Selector
panel in the Editor tab.

When you use the "force saving current settings to the processing profile" keyboard
shortcut from the Editor tab.

If a photo has an associated processing profile, a green check mark will appear over its
thumbnail.

If you have a photo opened in an Editor tab and you make changes to it from the File
Browser, the changes are reflected immediately in the Editor tab.

57 - Storage
Where the processing profile is stored can be configured in Preferences > Processing
Profile Handling.

By default, the processing profile for an image is stored alongside the input image (if
you open kitty.raw , a new file kitty.raw.pp3 will be created next to it), but they can
also be stored in a central cache. You can choose whether RawTherapee should use the
cache, write the processing profile alongside the image, or both, from "Preferences >
Image Processing". We suggest you store these files alongside your input image files so
that if you decide to move the images you can move the processing profiles easily along
with them.

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When saving an image you have the option of ticking the "Save processing parameters
with image" checkbox. If it is ticked, and if you are working on kitty.raw and saving to
a JPG file, then the processing profile used to develop that image will be stored in a file
called kitty.jpg.out.pp3 . The ".out" part if there so that conflicts do not occur if you
are working on a non-raw file.

58 - Defaults
The default processing profile used when opening non-raw images is called "Neutral".
This profile has all tool settings at their neutral values, so they have no effect. Since
non-raw images usually have already been processed and are ready for viewing, having
RawTherapee not introduce any tweaks by default is the desirable behavior.

The default profile for raw photos is called "Auto-Matched Curve" (from RawTherapee
5.4 onward). This profile makes your raw image look like the out-of-camera JPEG, which
is usually a desirable starting point.

Furthermore, most tools in the Editor tab have a reset button.

Clicking the reset button resets the tool to its hard-coded neutral value, usually
zero.

Ctrl+clicking the reset button resets the tool to whatever value it had when you
opened the image, i.e. the way it was if you rewind the history stack to the top.

59 - Partial Processing Profiles and Fill Modes

Processing profiles can be copied, pasted, loaded, saved and applied in full or partially.
Clicking the buttons in the Processing Profile Selector handles them in full, while
ctrl+clicking those buttons handles them partially - a windows pops up letting you

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choose which parameters to include. This feature lets you, for example, copy only the
noise reduction parameters from one image to another, or only the white balance, or
only both.

The processing profile fill mode lets you decide what happens when you apply a
processing profile to an image when that profile does not contain information about all
of the tool settings.

"Fill" mode

When in "Fill mode", the missing values will be taken from RawTherapee's
hard-coded default values (typically neutral). For instance if you apply a
partial profile which contains only sharpening settings, all of the
remaining tools (such as Exposure, Tone Mapping, Noise Reduction, Resize,
etc) will pop into their default positions.

"Preserve" mode

When in "Preserve mode", only those values in the profile will be applied,
and the missing ones remain unchanged.

60 - Creating Your Own Processing Profiles

Using certain tools in certain ways may make your processing profile only usable with
that specific image. For example if you set a white balance, cropping and rotation, you
won't get good results if you apply that profile to an image taken under different
lighting with the camera rotated any other way. See the article Creating processing
profiles for general use for advice on how to make processing profiles which can be
used on many images.

61 - Compatibility

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Processing profiles evolve from one version of RawTherapee to the next. We strive to
ensure backward compatibility (e.g. a profile created in 5.3 and opened in 5.4 should
look the same), but this is not always possible.

Processing profiles can gain new parameters or lose ones which became obsolete. Tool
behavior can also evolve, wherein default values change or in extreme cases the
meaning of a value is interpreted differently; an example of this is the noise reduction
tool, where a luminance noise reduction value of 10 in RawTherapee-3.0 would lead to a
different result in RawTherapee-4.0.10 as the whole noise reduction engine has been
greatly improved.

Consolidating processing profiles into a cache allows one to store isolated copies of the
processing profiles per specific version of RawTherapee. In such a case, the cache can
be used to re-process photos in order to get the same output as originally intended
(but e.g. with a new size or output color space) using the same version of RawTherapee
in which the image was originally edited. Whether this is desirable is debatable.
Consider that you want to squeeze as much out of your raw files as possible. If two
years later you want to go back to an old raw file, perhaps getting the same result as
you did two years ago is not the best idea, because RawTherapee's capabilities would
have greatly improved in that time, you may have acquired a better monitor, and your
taste and skill would also have evolved. Nevertheless, by backing up the whole cache
folder, when installing a new version of RawTherapee you retain the option of going
back to an older version of RawTherapee in order to get the exact same result.

The File Paths article describes where you can find the "cache" and "config" folders on
your system.

When releasing a major new version of RawTherapee, it may happen that we use a new
suffix for the "cache" and "config" folders. This means that the new version of
RawTherapee will not see your old configuration or processing profiles. Though this
sounds undesirable, there are good reasons we may (rarely) choose to do that.

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Backward compatibility. There may be changes in behavior between old and new
versions of a specific tool. For instance, the effects of the Auto Levels tool have
changed (for the better) between versions 4.0.11 and 4.0.12, so if your old processing
profiles had it enabled, the results in 4.0.12 will be a little different and may require
tuning your old profiles.

Some users have not checked "Preferences" in a long time, and their program is
tuned for what worked best long ago, not for what works best now. Our defaults are
good defaults, we keep them up to date to make RawTherapee look and function
well out-of-the-box, so sometimes having RawTherapee start with fresh defaults is
a good thing, and it will motivate users to look into "Preferences" again.

Some users have never looked inside "Preferences" in the first place, and are
unaware of some of the features that can be unlocked there. As above, fresh
defaults will activate these things.

Some old cache and config files can cause RawTherapee to crash. While we patch
the specific cases made known to us, it is safe to assume there will always be cases
unknown to us which will still cause instability. Starting with clean cache and config
folders mitigates this problem.

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Creating Processing
Profiles for General Use

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In RawTherapee, we call the sidecar files 'processing profiles'. We supply a bunch of

processing profiles with RT, so that you can start off with an existing look and modify it
to your liking, saving you some time. One example of such a profile is "Pop 1" - it will
make your photo vibrant and lively, lifting the shadows and bringing out detail.

You can see the whole list of processing profiles in the Image Editor tab, if you expand
the Processing Profiles list. You can also see them if you right-click on a thumbnail in
the File Browser tab and move your mouse over to "Processing Profile Operations >
Apply Profile".

Read the short " Processing Profile Selector" article to make sure you understand how
to make full use of the selector, partial profiles and the fill mode toggle button.

62 - Creating Processing Profiles

e context menu in the File Browser (or Filmstrip).

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You can create your own processing

profiles and have them shown in the
Processing Profile Selector drop-down
list.

Open a photo you want to create a Apply a custom-made processing profile using
the drop-down menu in the Processing Profile
good starting point profile for.
Selector in the Image Editor.

You could start off with the

'Neutral' profile, or make changes to any of the other profiles that come bundled
with RawTherapee. Just apply the desired profile to your photo.

Make the changes you like, remembering that the more specific your tweaks, the
fewer photos they will work well with because every photo is different so what
works well for one may not work well for another if they differ significantly. For
example if your camera has a very low-noise sensor and your lens is not very sharp
you could probably enable sharpening, or conversely if your camera has a noisy
sensor you may want to apply a certain level of noise reduction by default. Maybe
you'd like to set your name in the IPTC "Author" field and have RawTherapee copy
your metadata changes to the saved files. You will generally want to leave the white
balance set to "Camera" since your photos will be taken under various lighting.

When you are done tweaking, click the Save Current Profile icon in the
Processing Profiles panel. Enter any name; you don't need to specify the extension -
RawTherapee will add it for you. To have it appear in the drop-down list you need to
save it to the "profiles" sub-folder in the "config" folder - refer to the File Paths
page to find out where this folder is on your system.

Restart RawTherapee, and now your new processing profile will appear in the drop-
down list under "My profiles".

63 - Partial Processing Profiles

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Sometimes, you will want to save only a

subset of the parameters available, e.g. to
avoid storing geometric parameters like
rotate, crop and resize. In this case, hold the
Control key while clicking on the Save button.
When you select the output file name and
click Save, a window will let you choose which
parameters to select. You can then share
these profiles with your friends or in our
forum.
Save Partial Processing Profile window
Remember that in order for a profile to be
universally applicable to all photos of the
same scene and situation (baby portrait photos in this example), you need to think of
all the variations in all of the baby portrait photos you might want to apply it to.
Remember that exposure will vary between shots, even if you shot the baby in a studio,
as the little one is likely to be crawling around, and even more so if you upload your
profile on the internet for other baby photographers with different cameras and
different lighting gear to use, so instead of setting a specific exposure, such as +0.60,
you should rather turn on Auto Levels. This applies to all other settings - remember to
set just the bare minimum number of options to achieve the effect you want. Leave the
rest untouched, as it is very likely that if you had set those other options, they will not
apply well to other photos. If your processing profile is meant to make baby face photos
look soft and cuddly by a clever mixture of highlight recovery, auto exposure, Lab and
RGB tone curves, then don't enable noise reduction (as photos might be shot at
different ISO values), don't set custom white balance (as light may have changed
between shots), don’t rotate the photo, and so forth. All these superfluous parameters
are likely to change between photos and not influence your soft baby look in any way,
so turning them on will just litter your profile. Double-check these things before
sharing your profiles.

64 - Default Raw/Non-raw Processing Profile

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To use your own processing profile as the default for raw or non-raw photos, set it
under "Preferences > Image Processing > Default Processing Profile".

If you want to use a dynamic profile, then set "Default processing profile for (non/)raw"
to "(Dynamic)".

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Dynamic Processing
Profiles

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Sometimes a single, "static" default

processing profile is not enough to cover all
use cases. For example, the amount of noise
reduction to apply varies according to the
camera and ISO setting used. Another
example is the kind and amount of lens
corrections needed, which is obviously
dependent on the lens used. The Dynamic Profile Rules panel in
RawTherapee-5.4.

In order to handle such cases, RawTherapee

provides a feature that allows to create a
default processing profile "dynamically", based on the metadata of the image being
processed (such as camera and lens name, shutter speed, ISO value, and so on).

This is done by defining a set of "dynamic profile rules". Each rule has a (partial)
processing profile attached to it, plus some conditions on the image metadata that
define whether the rule is applicable. When a picture is edited for the first time, the list
of rules is scanned, and all the profiles that match are combined (in the order given, so
later rules can override earlier ones) to build the initial processing profile.

In order to activate the functionality, the default processing profile must be set to "
(Dynamic)". Rules are defined in the Dynamic Profile Rules section of the Preferences
window.

In order to invoke the dynamic processing profile chain in batch, after having
configured the dynamic profile rules and set the default profile for raw/non-raw photos
to "(Dynamic)", select multiple images in the File Browser, right-click any selected image
and select "Processing Profile Operations > Reset to Default" in the popup context
menu.

Dynamic profile rules work on the following image metadata:

Camera

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the camera name (including brand) as shown in the image info overlay of the
Image Editor. If active, by default this entry will cause the rule to apply only to
pictures taken with the exact camera specified here (the name is case-
insensitive). However, if the entry starts with the re: prefix, then the rest of
the string will be interpreted as a regular expression [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R
egular_expression] to use for the matching. For example, a rule with the Camera
value set to re:SONY ILCE-[56].00 will be applied to all Sony Alpha a5xxx and
a6xxx cameras.

Lens
The full lens name. As above, a regular expression can be used by starting with
the re: prefix.

ISO
The range of ISO values.

Aperture
The range of apertures of the lens, measured in f-stops [https://en.wikipedia.org/wik
i/F-number].

Focal length
The range of focal lengths used, in mm.

Shutter
The range of shutter speeds, in seconds. For example, enter 0.03 for a speed of
1/30".

Exposure compensation
The range of exposure compensation values, in stops.

Processing Profile Scripts

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RTProfileSelector

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The RTProfileSelector is a RawTherapee plugin that automatically selects custom

processing profiles (.pp3 files) based on user-defined rules. The rules are sets of Exif
fields and values which are matched against the actual values extracted from the raw
files the first time they are opened in RawTherapee.

A few things you can automate in RawTherapee through RTProfileSelector:

Assign your own custom processing profiles to approximatelly match your camera
settings (such as "monochrome"/"black-and-white", "vivid color", "film modes", etc.)

Set noise reduction parameters in RawTherapee according to camera model and ISO
value

Assign lens correction profiles (LCP) based on the lens and camera model used

RTProfileSelector is written in C++11 and compiles on both Windows and Linux. Source
code and Windows executable can be downloaded from its GitHub repository [https://githu
b.com/marcapelini/RTProfileSelector]. RTProfileSelector uses ExifTool [http://www.sno.phy.queensu.c
a/~phil/exiftool/] for extracting metadata from images.

For installation procedures and online documentation, please go to the project's wiki
section [https://github.com/marcapelini/RTProfileSelector/wiki].

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RTbatch

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RTbatch is a Python [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)] script which

allows you to easily process an input image with all of RawTherapee's built-in
processing profiles and export either full-size pictures or lower resolution previews.
RTbatch can also export markdown [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown] code for
displaying galleries of your images on websites that parse markdown (currently this is
only implemented for Octopress [http://octopress.org/] using the imgcap or img tags).

The script also comes with a command-line utility, RTbatch_cli, with which you can call
it and pass all arguments in a single line from your terminal.

Source: https://github.com/TheChymera/RTbatch

Bundled Processing Profiles

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Unclipped

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65 - Introduction
The "Unclipped" processing profile (introduced in RawTherapee 5.6) allows one to save
an image in a way which preserves data across the whole tonal range, including clipped
shadows and highlights, thus allowing for strong exposure adjustments and dynamic
range compression of the saved file while retaining detail in the shadows and
highlights. This may be desired not only for scientific purposes but also when the saved
image is destined for further manipulation and the final exposure is yet unknown, such
as can be the case when stitching panoramas which require exposure adjustments so
that images seamlessly blend into one another.

Saving Unclipped Images

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This is a raw file of a scene with a very high dynamic

range. Notice that the histogram shows clipped
shadows and highlights.

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The raw file does however contain data across the

whole dynamic range, including those shadows and
highlights which appear clipped. We know this to be the
case because adjusting exposure compensation in
RawTherapee reveals those details. However, there are
situations when one needs to manipulate the image as
little as possible at this point, which precludes
manipulating the exposure compensation or
performing dynamic range compression.

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When saved to an ordinary 16-bit TIFF file, what

appeared clipped before is now really clipped - the
data is lost, one cannot recover the shadows nor the
highlights from this saved TIFF file. Here an exposure
compensation of -2EV was performed in GIMP, and the
results are unusable.

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The solution is to apply this "Unclipped" profile, as

described below in the "Usage" section, and save to a
floating-point 16-bit or 32-bit TIFF file. The resulting
TIFF file contains data across the whole dynamic range,
and even strong exposure adjustments reveal perfectly
intact details.

Not all tools can be used when saving an unclipped image. The following tools or
settings are known to be incompatible with saving unclipped images in RawTherapee
5.6, and so are disabled by this processing profile:

Exposure tone curves,

Vibrance,

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Before/After curves in the Black-and-White tool,

Film Simulation,

RGB Curves in luminosity mode,

DCP look table,

CIECAM02

66 - Usage
. Apply the "Unclipped" profile. This profile disables those tools and settings which
are incompatible with saving unclipped images. Ensure that your output ICC profile
is either v4, or a linear tone response curve v2.

If you want to apply this profile and reset all tools to safe default values, then
set the processing profile fill mode to "Filled" before applying this profile.

If you want to apply this profile while preserving existing adjustments, then set
the processing profile fill mode to "Preserve" before applying this profile.

. Save the image as either a 16-bit floating-point TIFF or a 32-bit floating-point TIFF.

Tool Description

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General Comments
About Some Toolbox
Widgets

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This article will enable you to use RawTherapee more efficiently and to take full
advantage of features which even an experienced user may not know about. Take a few
minutes to read it.

67 - Panels
The Editor tab has three main panels whose visibility can be toggled using the
Show/Hide Panel buttons , making more room for the image preview.

You can use the mouse scrollwheel to safely scroll the panels up/down without
accidentally changing a slider, because RawTherapee requires that you hold the Shift
key while using the mouse scrollwheel if your intention is to manipulate a slider or
cycle through the options in a drop-down menu (called a "combobox").

68 - Tools
There are many tools, vertical screen space is limited and scrolling takes time. You can
right-click a tool's title to expand that tool and collapse all other tools in the same tab.
This allows you to make the most of the available vertical screen space and to reduce
the need for scrolling.

Most tools have a power button to the left of their title which lets you turn that tool on
or off. The power button can also have an " inconsistent" state if you select two or more
photos in the File Browser and a given tool is turned on in some of the selected photos
but off in others. Some tools instead of an on/off button have an "expander" which lets
you expand or collapse the contents of that tool.

Off.

On.

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Inconsistent.

Collapsed.

Expanded.

69 - Sliders
To adjust a slider, hover the mouse over it and hold the ⇧ Shift key while scrolling the
scrollwheel up/down. Using the mouse scrollwheel without the ⇧ Shift key scrolls the
panel up/down.

Each slider has a fine-tuning mode which reduces the effect of the mouse, allowing you
to make very fine adjustments which would otherwise be difficult to make. You will
enter fine-tuning mode if you click-and-hold the slider's adjustment knob for 1 second
without moving it. You can also enter or leave fine-tuning mode if you press the ⇧ Shift
key while holding the knob. This is a standard feature of all programs which use GTK+ 3
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTK+].

Each slider has a "reset" button which behaves as follows:

Click resets the slider to the default value, which is hard-coded to 0 for most
sliders or to some other value when 0 wouldn't be appropriate.

^ Ctrl + click resets the slider to the value it had initially when you opened that
photo.

70 - Curves
RawTherapee has three kinds of curve widgets:

Tone curves

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Equalizer curves

Threshold curves

Three general kinds of curves

The tone curve. The equalizer

curve

The threshold
curve.

The shape of a tone curve and of an equalizer curve is defined based on control points
which you create and position with the mouse. When a curve is linear, that means that
the input matches the output, and so the curve has no effect. When a curve is not linear,
it has an effect on the image.

A curve is plotted based on the control points which you create and position. The same
control points can lead to different curve shapes by changing the underlying math, and
you can control this math by choosing a tone curve type in the drop-down list:

Linear,

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Standard,

Flexible,

Parametric,

Control cage.

You can also click the curve type button to

toggle the visibility of the curve. This allows
you to make the most of the limited vertical
screen space. If a curve is not linear and
the tool within which it lies is enabled, then
that curve has an effect on the image
regardless whether it is visible or not.

Each curve can be reset to the default 1- Curve type.

2- Curve mode.
value. Some curves come in groups, such as
the Lab Adjustments curves. There is one
reset button for the whole group, and it applies to the currently selected curve. Click on
the curve type drop-down button to select that curve.

Some curves have a color picker and a control point in/out value editor .

70.1 - Color Picker

Most curves in RawTherapee have a color picker button . The color picker enables
you to place a control point in a curve at the exact spot which corresponds to the area
you're hovering over on the preview.

Let's say you want to change the hue of a purple flower, to make it more blue. Without
the color picker, you would have to guess the exact spot on the curve which
corresponds hue of the flower, else the affected range of hues would be too wide and
you might end up changing hues you did not want to change. Using the color picker you

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simply click on the flower and a control point

appears on the curve which corresponds to
that exact hue. You can adjust that control
point as needed.

When the color picker button is clicked, the The color picker pinpointed the exact
color picker is activated for the currently spot which corresponds to the hue of the
purple flower, allowing you to easily
selected curve. Now when you hover the
manipulate it.
cursor over the preview you will notice that a
vertical or horizontal line appears in the
selected curve. This line represents the value of the pixel you're hovering over. To place
a control point in the curve for the value you're hovering over, ^ Ctrl + click the preview
- a control point will appear in the curve. You can adjust that control point without
leaving the preview area, just keep holding the left mouse button after you place the
control point, and moving the mouse up and down moves the control point up and
down in the curve. Holding ^ Ctrl while editing a control point decreases your mouse
speed so that you can very finely adjust that point. You will usually not require this
precision, so after adding a new control point via ^ Ctrl + click , let go of ^ Ctrl but keep
holding the left mouse button.

To deactivate the color picker, either right-click anywhere in the preview area or click
on the same color picker button again.

You do not need to deactivate the previous curve's color picker to use it on a new curve,
just activate it as usual, and the old one automatically deactivates.

70.1.1 - Control Point In/Out Values

Each curve has a button which lets you edit the selected control point's in/out values.
You can use this tool, for example, to match a control point's "out" value on a photo of
a color target to a reference value.

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The tool works with control points, and the most likely way you will create these control
points is by using the color picker. For this example, we will start with a curve without
any control points and create some using the color picker. Click the control point in/out
value editor button next to the curve, and also click the color picker button . You
will now see "I" (in) and "O" (out) values displayed under the curve. They correspond to
the point under the mouse cursor if you hover it over the curve or over the preview.
Hover the cursor over the preview. Since you activated the color picker, you can ^
Ctrl + click a spot in the preview to place a control point in the curve which corresponds
to that spot's value (whatever that value may be - for example for the L* curve the value
is the lightness of the pixel under the cursor, for the RGB red curve it's the red value in
the RGB space in the working profile). Do that, ^ Ctrl + click on a spot in the preview. A
control point appears in the curve. To edit the control point's in/out values, right-click
on the control point. It turns red with a red ring around it. Now you can edit the in/out
values and see the control point move in real-time. To go out of control point editing
mode once you are done editing, either right-click anywhere inside the curve area other
than on that control point, or just click the control point value editor button again to
deactivate it.

70.2 - Tone Curves

Tone curves serve to map an input value (on
the horizontal or X axis) to an output value (on
the vertical or Y axis). Though they may seem Linear curve.
intimidating at first, after a little playing you
will quickly develop an intuitive
understanding. Curves can do everything "levels" can do and much more, so the sooner
you grasp how they work the better.

As an example, look at the "Standard curve" (screenshot to the right) in the Exposure
tool. There are grid lines in the background at every 10% interval. The left end of the
horizontal (input) axis represents pure black, then the shadows, then the mid-tones,
then the highlights, and finally the right end represents pure white. Likewise, the

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vertical (output) axis represents pure black at

the bottom, pure white at the top, and the
same graduation between the two. If the curve
is linear, i.e. a diagonal straight line from
bottom-left to top-right, then the curve has no
effect – every point on the curve has an output
value identical to its input value. For the curve
to have an effect, the line must be non-linear
so some point's output value does not match
its input value. The control points you place
on the curve are there just to help you control
the curve, they do not matter in the
Standard curve.
calculations – what matters is the curve's
shape. In the example screenshot, a control
point in the bottom-left part pushes the curve
down: the control point lies at 10% on the
" input" axis, but at only 5% of the output axis
– this causes dark tones to be made even
darker. The next control point lies at 40% on
the input axis and 60% on the output axis -
those mid-tones will be made brighter. Since
only the curve's shape matters, even though
there are no more control points in this
example, the curve at input=60% has
output=95%, which means that the bright
areas will be made very bright, almost white.
Flexible curve.
The curve at input=20% also has output=20%,
so those dark tones won't change between the
input and output.

There are multiple types of curves at your disposal:

Linear

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The default type - a straight line that

results in no change to input values.
The mathematically inclined may
observe that it is a graph of y=x. The
rest of us just set the control to linear
to “turn off” the curve.

Standard

The type most commonly seen in other

software. Click to drop a control point
anywhere on the curve and then drag
the control point to change the curve's
shape. The top-right point represents
the brightest areas in the photo. Drag
that point vertically down to make the
highlights less bright; move it
horizontally to the left to make bright
areas brighter, perhaps at the cost of
some overexposure. The bottom-left Parametric curve.
point represents the darkest areas in
the photo. Move that point horizontally
to the right to make the photo darker, perhaps at the cost of some
underexposure. Move it vertically up to make the darks lighter.

Flexible

A characteristic of the "Standard" cubic spline curve is that editing one node
could have a huge impact on what happens to the curve in relation to the
other nodes. The "Flexible" centripetal Catmull–Rom spline curve allows you to
make adjustments to any part of the curve with little impact on the other
parts.

Parametric

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Allows you to use sliders rather than

dragging the curve directly. For the
Parametric curve type, clicking the right
mouse button over the zone selector (
) will
reset the handles' position to their
default values. (The global reset button
will reset them too.)

Control Cage

At first sight this curve type looks very

much like the Custom curve, but there
Control cage curve.
are some differences. With the Custom
curve, the curve touches all the control
points. This is not the case with the control cage curve – the control points
attract the curve towards them but the curve doesn’t actually go through
them. Another difference is that the control cage allows for a straight section
of the curve, while you can't do this with the custom curve. The cage curve
needs at least three points for that (so five in total). Holding down the Shift
key while dragging a point will help you to easily create a straight line by
snapping the point to the line made by the previous and next point (displayed
in red by the 'snap to' tool). Many users prefer Control Cage type curves to the
alternatives.

70.3 - The Flat Curve

A number of tools in RawTherapee use the flat curve:

Lab Adjustments

LH

CH

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HH

Defringe

Hue

HSV Equalizer

It's very simple to use once you understand

it, so let's use the HSV Equalizer in the The input color green (vertical line) was
changed to the output color blue
Color tab as an example. Click on the drop-
(horizontal line).
down icon next to the H(ue) button and
choose "Minima/Maxima control points" .
You'll see six dots on the horizontal line in the middle and six vertical lines that cross
these dots. Notice that those lines are colored; from left to right: red, yellow, green,
aqua, blue and magenta. Now click on the very left dot (the cursor changes into a little
hand) and move it slightly upward and downward. Result: red colors quickly change to
green, blue and magenta as the cursor is moved up, and to pink, blue and green when
moved down.

Notice that a new horizontal line appears when you start dragging a color point, and see
how its color changes. The vertical axis represents input colors, and the horizontal axis
output colors.

When you click and drag a vertical line (the line, not the point!), the very first movement
will determine the kind of move: vertical or horizontal (so take care with this first
movement if you want to have a predictable result). If you want to move the point in
both directions at the same time, then click and drag the point itself. To move the point
only in one direction (only horizontally or only vertically) you can use the 'snap to'
function by holding down the Shift key while moving the point.

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It's easy to see if a point is on its neutral

value (i.e. on the middle line) because the
color of the point will be green. As soon as
you move a point off its neutral value, it
changes color to black.

A neutral point is green, a modified one

The HSV Equalizer wraps around on the is black.
horizontal axis, so the very right vertical line
equals the very left line. You can see this by
dragging the red line on the left side a bit to the left. Now the left point of the graph is
at the same position as the very right point. Holding the Shift key while dragging a point
prevents it from wrapping around the horizontal axis, which can be useful in preventing
accidental curve steps in hard-to-see places at the edges.

You can delete points by dragging them out of the editor field. You can add points by
clicking somewhere on the curve. When you place the mouse on one of the points, you
see a yellow and blue indicator. Place the mouse on the yellow one and the cursor
changes into a left arrow. Now you can drag this point to the left, to change the slope of
the curve. Ditto for the blue indicator.

To get an idea how this editor works, delete all but two colors (e.g. red and yellow) and
move the graph around, change its slope and see what happens to your photo.

Reset the Hue curve to "Linear" (no changes) by clicking on the reset icon next to the
Value button. To compare the effects of the Hue curve with linear: switch between
"Linear" and "Minima/Maxima control points" in the drop-down menu next to this
button, or use the history list on the left side of your screen.

You can save a curve for later use by clicking on the disk button. Note that only the
actual (shown) H, S or V curve is saved, not all three at once, so don't give your curve a
name like my_hsv because it doesn't describe whether the curve inside it is H, S or V,
but instead name your saved curve files something like my_hue, my_sat and my_val. The
extension will be added automatically, ".rtc".

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70.4 - Threshold Curves

Threshold Curves are the simplest. They are used to tell a RawTherapee tool the tones
(or hues or saturations values) that you want processed (or processed differently).

As an example, consider the Threshold curve editor on the Detail -> Sharpening tool. The
setting shown is telling the Sharpening
tool to phase in sharpening quickly in
the black areas (the steep line up on
SharpeningThreshold
the left), maintain full sharpening
through mid-tones (the plateau area)
and then phase out sharpening slowly in the highlights (the long slope down). Dragging
one of the control points will move the slope leading up or down from the point. To just
move the point, but not the slope as a whole, hold down the shift key while you drag.
On the top right is a reset button that will reset back to default.

Warning: resetting the curve is considered a curve modification, so if you've just

modified the curve and mistakenly pressed the Reset button, there's no way to bring
back your curve. (Ctrl-z will go one step before in the History list, not in the curve's
edition). This comment applies to Tone and Flat Curves as well.

You’ll also find Threshold Curves used in the Contrast by Detail Levels and the Vibrance
tools.

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You may have noticed that Threshold Curves actually consist of a few straight lines
rather than a curve. If this bothers you, you might want to take a break before moving
on to Flat Curves.

71 - The Preview Area

The preview is designed to show you the most realistic result possible, however one
must keep in mind that the larger an image is, the longer it takes to process. For speed
reasons, the preview of the effects of most tools is calculated not on the full-sized
image (which would take exactly as long as saving the image, making using sliders and
curves impossible), but on the preview image which is of the size of your preview area.
Many tools, such as the Exposure tool, can be applied to an image of any size, and their
effects will be identical regardless of the size of the image they are applied to. However
some tools are size-dependent, for example all of the tools in the Detail tab, which
means if you apply one of these tools to a full-sized image and to a smaller version of
that image, and then downscale the full-sized image to the smaller image's size, the two
images won't match. For reasons of speed, RawTherapee must use the small preview
image so that your tool tweaking experience may be fast and fluid, but this means that
the effects of size-dependent tools would not be accurate when applied to a small
zoomed-out preview. We made the decision to either disable the preview effects of
these tools entirely at zoom levels less than 100%, or to keep the preview effects active
but to warn you that what you see at zoom levels less than 100% may be inaccurate
depending on the tool settings (for example Tone Mapping and Wavelet may be accurate
at zoom levels less than 100% or they may be inaccurate, depending on their settings).
You will know which tools these are because they are marked with a "1:1" icon next to
their names. RawPedia explains how accurate the preview is for all affected tools on
each tool's page.

Exposure Tab

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Exposure

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72 - Auto Levels
The Auto Levels tool analyzes the histogram and then adjusts the controls in the
Exposure section to achieve a well-exposed image.

It uses only the "Exposure compensation", "Highlight compression", "Highlight

reconstruction", "Black", "Lightness" and "Contrast" sliders.

Think of the adjustments Auto Levels comes up with as a good starting point. It has
been tuned to work best with "typical shots", so the result should often be aesthetically
pleasing, but as the program doesn't know your taste or expectations this will not
always be the case. For example you might be going for a high-key look (i.e. not typical),
in which case you should adjust the values yourself.

You can reset all of the sliders in the Exposure section by clicking on the Reset button.
The Tone Curves will not be touched.

73 - Clip %
Auto Levels uses the "Clip  %" value to adjust the exposure. This number defines the
percentage of pixels allowed to clip to the white and black points of the raw histogram.
The minimum value is 0.00, the maximum is 0.99. Higher values increase the contrast,
lower decrease it.

As of RawTherapee 5.5, while the Auto Levels tool in the Editor still uses the Clip  %
value, the thumbnails use a fixed value of 0.2% - this was done to reduce the number of
files needed to be stored in the cache.

74 - Highlight Reconstruction

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Use Highlight Reconstruction (HR) to try to restore overexposed highlights in raw files.
It attempts to restore clipped (blown-out) regions in the raw image relying on the fact
that the three channels in a raw file do not clip at the same time and so a missing
(clipped) region in one channel could be guessed from the present data of one of the
other color channels. Using the Color Propagation method, it can also guess clipped
data using nearby data from unclipped channels, if present. Remember, this tool is used
for the reconstruction of clipped highlights, while if you just want to compress
highlights which were not clipped in the first place but became clipped due to the use
of, for example, Exposure Compensation, then use the Highlight Compression slider.
The Auto Levels button will automatically enable Highlight Reconstruction if necessary.

Four different methods of highlight reconstruction are available:

. Luminance Recovery

Recovered details will be neutral gray.

"Highlight Compression" values under 100 are recommended in most

cases.

. Color Propagation

This is the most powerful recovery method. In addition to restoring

luminosity, Color Propagation tries to restore color information by
'bleeding' the surrounding known color into the missing clipped area. This
method works best on small overexposed areas, and can work wonders on
overexposed skin. Its weakness is that it may sometimes 'bleed' the
incorrect colors, depending on the image elements surrounding the blown
highlights, or the colors can bleed into undesirable patterns. It is also
computationally intensive and is therefore slower than the other
methods.

Works well even with very high "Highlight Compression" values (under 500).

. CIELab

Reduces the luminance channel and tries to restore colors afterwards.

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"Highlight Compression" values under 100 are recommended in most

cases.

. Blend

Attempts to guess clipped color channels by filling in their values from the
closest match from unclipped highlight regions nearby.

"Highlight Compression" values under 100 are recommended in most

cases.

75 - Exposure Compensation
The values of the Exposure Compensation slider (EC) are ISO values. This means a value
of +1 equals one stop of overexposure (+1 EV, exposure value; also known as +1 LV, light
value)). If you make two photos, one without correction (EV = 0) and one underexposed
by one stop (EV = -1), you can make both photos match by setting exposure
compensation for the overexposed photo to -1, or for the underexposed photo to +1.

Take a look at the histogram while moving this slider. Moving it to the right shifts the
whole histogram to the right. This means this slider changes the black point (on the
very left of the histogram) and the white point (on the very right).

If you try decreasing the exposure of a photo which contains clipping, you will notice
that the clipped areas turn flat-gray. Enabling "Highlight Reconstruction" will prevent
this flat-gray look to some degree by recovering highlight information from the
remaining non-clipped channels.

If you've used RawTherapee for a while you may notice that you almost always need a
positive Exposure Compensation - as if all your photos are underexposed. Don’t worry -
this is normal. Most cameras deliberately underexpose to preserve highlights (though
some other raw processors disguise it).

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For the user interested in the internals follows a technical description of how EV=0
relates to the raw data: while EV=0 equals 1.0 in gain (that is, no change), there is a
white balance dependent base gain applied before exposure. This base gain is
calculated such that the color channel with the smallest range just can reach the
maximum value. Although all raw channels have the same range in the raw file, white
balance will re-balance them (lower temperatures mean more gain on red, higher more
gain on blue) so they do not clip at the same level. The base gain raises the smallest
channel just enough to make sure that at EV=0 no highlights will be based on clipped
raw data. As white balance changes raw channel gains the base gain will thus change as
a side effect when white balance is changed. For large white balance changes you may
therefore see a slight change of brightness in the image. Note that the base gain relates
to the maximum values channels can represent, that is if there is no highlight clipping
in the raw file no highlight will reach the maximum level at EV=0.

76 - Highlight Compression
The Highlight Compression slider (HC) can be used to recover the highlights in a photo
by compression, useful for 'dimming' (or burning) slightly overexposed areas. While the
Highlight Reconstruction tool lets you try to reconstruct missing data in the raw file
relying on the fact that the three channels in a raw file do not clip at the same time and
so a missing (clipped) region in one channel could be guessed from the present data of
one of the other color channels, this Highlight Compression tool only works on data
which is already there - which has not been irreversibly lost at the time of shooting. If
the original image has no clipping, but due to the action of, for example, exposure
compensation you caused clipping, then you can use HC to compress these clipped
regions back into view. As such, it works not only on raw files but on normal images
too.

To see if your photo contains overexposed areas, click on the clipped highlight
indication icon on the top right of the image window. Overexposed areas will show
up in black.

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By dragging the Highlight Compression slider

to the right, the intensity of the highlights will
decrease. For highlight compression to work
best you must also enable Highlight
Reconstruction. Each of the HR methods has
its strong and weak points, as explained
An overexposed photo. No highlight
above. Color Propagation is the most likely
compression, the clouds are clipped.
method to produce good-looking results
when the HC slider is significantly over 100.
For the other methods you will usually want
to keep the HC slider around or below 100 -
watch the histogram and the preview!

To find out the optimal HC value, you can

make use of the histogram. In the screenshots
The Clipped highlight indicator has been
above, what you see are overexposed clouds turned on to make the clipped areas
above the Teide volcano in Tenerife. When easier to see.

hovering the mouse cursor over the

overexposed area, the pixel values indicator
(in the Navigator panel, under the little
preview) shows that lightness (L) is at 100, and
the histogram shows that all channels are
clipped (see the red, green and blue squares
in the top-right corner of the histogram, they
A correctly compressed photo - the
mean that there are so many pixels of
histogram touches both ends.
maximum value that they are off-scale).
Increase the HC slider until the red, green and
blue channels in the histogram no longer squash up against the right end of the
histogram - you want them to touch it, but not to cram up against it. You can enable the
Clipped highlight indication icon before moving the HC slider up. Once the
indicator's black areas disappear from the white parts you want compressed, which is
also when the lightness of those pixels drops from L=100 to L=99, you stop. Don't

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increase the HC slider any more, because now the hopelessly-lost white areas would
start turning gray. You don't want them to turn gray. That would make the photo look
dull. In this example the indicator's black areas disappeared when I set HC to 125.

As a rule, the histogram of a correctly

developed image should touch both ends -
the black and the white end. Not doing so
means the image was incorrectly developed.
This is true for the vast majority of photos,
the only exceptions being photos of scenes
The histogram of an incorrectly
which lack dynamic range, such as misty processed photo. It should touch both
scenes. If you increase the HC slider too ends instead of having gaps.

much, then whites turn gray as your

histogram no longer touches the maximum end. Examples of photos that have been
over-compressed can be easily found on the internet. They look horrible, don't do that!
Recover what you can, but what's clipped beyond repair should stay white.

RawTherapee offers more ways to deal with blown highlights. The side-effect of all
these methods is that they also take away some of the brilliance of the photos, as they
get more 'flat' or 'dull' as a result. Highlight compression is very useful when used with
moderation, but remember that you cannot recover what is not there to begin with, so
once you notice that the completely clipped white areas become gray you should reduce
the compression amount until these areas become white once more. To create the best
possible output, feed RawTherapee the best possible input - so expose well in the first
place!

77 - Highlight Compression Threshold

The Highlight Compression Threshold slider sets the point where the HC slider starts
implementing compression. A value of 0 means the threshold is zero: data compression
occurs over the whole range of tonalities. 100 sets the threshold at one stop below the

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white point, so all the compressed highlights are squeezed into the top stop. In
practical terms, more highlights are compressed when this slider is set to 0.

78 - Black
Use this to set the black point. See the left side of the histogram move when you touch
the slider. Values greater than 0 will make the image darker, negative values will lighten
up the shadow parts of the photo.

79 - Shadow Compression
The Shadow Compression slider 'dampens' the effect of the Black slider. The maximum
value of 100 gives a less dark image. This slider only has effect when the Black slider is
set to a value other than 0. Practical use of this Shadow Compression slider is to fine-
tune the shadow intensity of the image.

80 - Lightness
This slider applies a hard-coded tone curve to lift or lower the tonalities of the photo,
resulting in a more or less light image. The same tone curve is applied separately to
each R, G and B channel. The black point and the white point keep their positions.

81 - Contrast
This slider increases or reduces the contrast of the photo. It applies a contrast curve
centered at the average luminance level. Tonalities above the average are lifted
(lowered), while tonalities below the average are lowered (lifted). The same contrast
curve is applied separately to each R, G and B channel.

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82 - Saturation
This slider makes the photo more or less saturated. In more technical terms, it adjusts
the saturation of the image by applying a multiplier to the saturation level of pixels in
the HSV color space.

83 - Tone Curves
Here you can construct your own tone curves. They work on all three R, G and B
channels at the same time (so you can't work on the R channel only).

There are two tone curves available, which can be designed with various curve types,
and applied in several different modes all explained below. Clicking on the curve button
hides the curve from the interface - it does not disable the curve.

The histogram displayed as the curve's background shows you the levels of the data as
it flows into the curve at that point in the processing pipeline. You will notice that it
differs from the main histogram which shows you the levels of the final image, at the
very end of the pipeline.

While you are free to use only one tone curve to make your adjustments, you can gain
much finer tonal control if you use two curves at once. The typical use of both curves is
to lower values using the first curve, and to raise values using the second one. It is
similar to creating an S curve in one of them, but you should be able to make finer
adjustments by using both without entering too fast in the "danger zone" where your
colors becomes unrealistic.

You can save a curve to disk. Click on the Save current curve button next to the
graph and give it a name. Use the Load a curve from file button to apply this curve
later to another file. Use the Reset curve to linear button to delete all the points you
created and to reset the curve to neutral/linear. You can also Copy and Paste

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curves to/from RawTherapee's own clipboard, which comes in very useful if you want to
quickly apply an identical curve to a different tool. Saved curves have the .rtc
filename extension.

The curve used in some of RawTherapee's

bundled DCP profiles is the same as the
default curve used by Adobe Camera Raw. You
can get the curve from this file: File:DCP tone
curve.rtc
Set either tone curve in the Exposure tool to
"Standard", set its mode to "Film-Like", and
then use the "Load a curve from file"
button to apply DCP tone curve.rtc

You can use as many control points in a curve

as you like. The tone curve used in some of
RawTherapee's bundled DCPs, DCP tone
curve.rtc
You can define different curves for all curve
types if you like, but only the one that is
selected in the dropdown menu will be applied to the photo.

The curve and histogram is always displayed with sRGB gamma, regardless of working
or output profile. This means that the shadow range is expanded and highlights
compressed to better match human perception.

83.1 - Linear
This represents the unaltered (or linear)
image, so without any tone curve applied. It
disables the curve. Linear curve.

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83.2 - Standard
This is a classic cubic spline curve, seen in
many other programs as well. The left part of
the graph represents the darker tones, the
right part represents the brighter tones of the
photo. Click on the curve to mark a point and
drag it with the mouse to change tonalities.
Dragging the point down makes the image
darker, while pushing it up makes it brighter.
The dotted diagonal line marks the linear or
unaltered state of the photo. Press and hold
the Control key to slow down the movement.
Hold the Shift key to snap the point to key
Standard curve.
elements: maximum value, minimum value,
middle value (i.e. snapped to the diagonal or
horizontal dotted line), same value of the preceding point, same value of the next point,
and for the Control Cage type, the line going through the previous and next points.
Delete a point on the curve by dragging it out of the editor area.

The top-right point represents the brightest areas in the photo. Drag that point
vertically down to make the highlights less bright; move it horizontally to the left to
make bright areas brighter, perhaps at the cost of some overexposure.

The bottom-left point represents the darkest areas in the photo. Move that point
horizontally to the right to make the photo darker, perhaps at the cost of some
underexposure. Move it vertically up to make the darks lighter.

Flip the diagonal line (from bottom-left and top-right to top-left and bottom-right) to
produce a negative image.

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A typical usage of the standard curve is to construct a so-called S-curve. Mark three
points at the 'coordinates' (1,1), (2,2) and (3,3) respectively. Drag the point at (1,1)
somewhat lower and the point at (3,3) a bit higher. Your image will get more 'punch' this
way. If your S-curve is symmetrical, i.e. if you move the point you first placed at 1,1 by
the same amount as the one you placed at 3,3 but in the opposite direction, then the
effect will be identical to manipulating the Contrast slider.

83.3 - Flexible
A characteristic of the "Standard" cubic spline
curve is that editing one node could have a
huge impact on what happens to the curve in
relation to the other nodes. The "Flexible"
centripetal Catmull–Rom spline curve allows
you to make adjustments to any part of the
curve with little impact on the other parts.

83.4 - Parametric
This curve presents four sliders and three
Flexible curve.
control points. The sliders are used to control
highlights, lights, darks and shadows
respectively (shadows mean deep darks here). Move the mouse over the four sliders
and a dark area under the curve tells you which slider alters what part of the curve.
Move the Highlights slider to the left to make highlights less bright, move it to the right
to make them brighter. The Lights slider moves the lights but not the highlights in the
same way as above, as does the Darks slider: moving it to the right lightens the dark
tones, moving it to the left darkens them. The Shadows slider works as the Darks slider,
but only on the darkest parts of the photo. You can again construct the above
mentioned stylized S-curve, although the parametric curve gives you less 'extreme'
control over the form of the curve. This mode, however, has its own benefits, as curves

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can be shaped in a well controlled manner.

Note that using these sliders can have a
profound influence on the overall contrast of
the image.

Use, if needed, the three control points under

the curve. They determine what point of the
curve will be affected when moving the sliders.
Moving the middle control point to the right
makes the image darker (the form of the curve
changes again, as does the dark area around
the curve), moving it to the left makes the
image brighter. Moving the left control point
to the right darkens the dark areas somewhat,
moving it to the left lightens them, again
somewhat. Moving the right control point to
the right makes the highlights brighter,
moving it to the left darkens the highlights.
Parametric curve.
Use the Reset to default buttons next to the
sliders to reset individual sliders, use the
same button at the top of the tone curve section to reset all four sliders and the control
points to linear (zero).

83.5 - Control Cage

At first sight this curve type looks very much like the Standard curve, but there are
some differences though. With the Standard curve, the curve touches all the control
points. This is not the case with the Control Cage curve. To see this, click somewhere on
the line and move the black point to the left or to the right. Now the curve passes
nearby the black point, but doesn't touch it. Another difference is that the Control Cage
allows for a straight section of the curve, while you can't do this with the Standard

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curve. The Control Cage curve needs at least

three points for that (so five in total). Holding
down the Shift key while dragging a point will
help you to easily create a straight line by
snapping the point to the line made by the
previous and next point (displayed in red by
the Snap to tool). Now make a new point
between the two most left ones and move it.
As you can see, only the part on the left side
moves, not the rest of the curve.

Control cage curve.

84 - Curve Mode
Next to each curve type, you'll find a Curve Mode combobox selector. This will let you
choose the algorithm that will be used for the corresponding curve. The curve mode will
have a strong effect on the appearance of colors, especially if you use a contrast-
enhancing curve (S-curve). This can be used for creative effect, but can for some
purposes or styles cause undesired color changes depending which mode you choose.
Choose a mode that suits your specific taste and needs for the photo at hand. By
combining two different curves in tone curve 1 and 2 you can further fine-tune the look.

The choice of working profile has an influence on the effect of the curves in all modes
except for perceptual - in that mode, changing the working profile will not alter the
effect of the curve.

84.1 - Standard

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This is the most basic mode (and the only one available in older versions of
RawTherapee and is found in some shape or form in most image-related software): the
values of each RGB channel are modified by the curve in a basic "correspondence"
method, that is the same curve is applied to all channels.

The drawback of this mode is that e.g. considering an S-curve shape to get more
contrast, an orange color with a high value of red and green and a low value of blue will
tend to shift toward yellow, because the red and green component will be raised, while
the blue one will be lowered.

In general an S-curve will increase separation of the channels and thus increase
saturation, which is a similar behavior to how color film reacts to contrast. This
together with the simplicity of implementation has made the curve type popular in raw
converters in general and is often the only alternative available in less flexible software.

84.2 - Weighted Standard

You can use this method to limit the color shift of the standard curve, even if it won't
suppress it entirely. Keeping the previous example, this method will raise the first
component (red), and will also linearly alter the green and blue component by raising
them too. We end up with 3 values (R, g and b) while we have only processed the red
component.

This process is then done for the green and blue component, so at the end of the
process, we end up with 9 values (R,g,b / r,G,b / r,g,B). Values of the same component
are then mixed together, which will produce the resulting color with a smaller color
shift.

84.3 - Film-Like

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The film-like curve provides a result highly similar to the standard type (that is strong
saturation increase with increased contrast), but the RGB-HSV hue is kept constant -
that is, there are less color-shift problems. This curve type was designed by Adobe as a
part of DNG and is thus the one used by Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom.

84.4 - Saturation and Value Blending

This mode is typically better suited for high-key shots, but can be used for creative
effect in other photos as well. The average value of the three component is computed,
and then the curve is applied to this value, giving a positive or negative gain. The color
is converted to its Hue, Saturation and Value representation, then if the gain is positive,
the pixel is linearly targeting Value = 1 and Saturation = 0, the Hue is preserved. If the
gain is negative, the pixel is linearly targeting Value = 0, Saturation and Hue are
preserved.

The result is highly similar to a luminance curve in Lab space (that is change contrast
without affecting hue or saturation). For contrast-increasing curves the look will
typically be slightly desaturated. This is not really because the curve desaturates the
colors but because that in human vision contrast and saturation is tightly coupled, so
the same image with higher contrast requires higher saturation to appear to have the
same.

84.5 - Luminance
Each component of the pixel is boosted by the same factor so color and saturation is
kept stable, that is the result is very true to the original color. However contrast-
increasing curves can still lead to a slightly desaturated look for the same reason as
described for the Saturation and Value Blending curve mode. If you want to manually
counter-act the desaturation, using the L*a*b* Chromaticity slider is a more neutral way
of compensating for it than using the RGB-based saturation slider.

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Despite showing the R, G and B histogram (merged) in the background of the curve, the
curve operates on luminance values, where Relative Luminance [https://en.wikipedia.org/wik
i/Relative_luminance] Y = R*0.2126729 + G*0.7151521 + B*0.0721750 First the relative
luminance value of a pixel is obtained, then the curve is applied to that value, the
multiplication factor between before and after luminance is calculated, and then this
factor is applied to each R, G and B component. This is in contrast to the other methods
where the curve is applied to each R, G and B component separately.

84.6 - Perceptual
This mode will keep the original color appearance concerning hue and saturation, that
is if you for example apply an S-curve the image will indeed get increased contrast, but
the hues will stay the same and the image doesn't look more or less saturated than the
original. It's specifically useful to establish a pleasing baseline contrast without
distorting the colors provided by a camera profile which doesn't apply a curve itself (if
you use a third-party profile that does apply a curve it's typically already perceptually
mapped with similar techniques as described here).

The choice of working profile has an influence on the effect of the curves in all modes
except for perceptual - in this mode, changing the working profile will not alter the
effect of the curve.

The algorithm works the following way: it analyses the curve to get a contrast value,
which is used as base to scale chroma (saturation) such that more contrast leads to
more saturation and the other way around. As contrast and saturation is tightly coupled
in human vision this scaling is necessary to make saturation appear constant. There are
further fine-tunings such as increase saturation more in the shadows, and less for
colors that are already highly saturated, also this corresponds to human vision
phenomena so the net effect it that the colors appear constant. In the extreme
highlights close to the white point the algorithm blends over to white (like the standard
curves) which is less true to color but more practical for real output as the brightest
color of the output media (screen or paper) is white.

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However do keep in mind that the perceptual model is not perfect and cannot be
perfect. This is only a curve, image content is not analyzed and no localized changes are
made. This means for example that for an S-curve a large flat blue sky (low local
contrast) may appear slightly more saturated than the original. If you want to make A/B
comparisons don't compare side by side as the eye will then be confused by the two
contrast levels viewed simultaneously and then saturation will not appear the same, but
instead swap and let the eye adapt for a few seconds.

If you want to further fine-tune the saturation manually it's generally best to use the
L*a*b* chroma tools.

Due to the many components in the algorithm it's considerably slower than the other
curve modes so refresh rate may suffer.

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Shadows / Highlights

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85 - Introduction
Use this tool to brighten the shadows or darken the highlights of an image.

This tool has received a new engine in RawTherapee 5.5, it now uses an edge-aware fast
guided filter [https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.00996] to prevent halos and operates by default in
RGB space to preserve saturation.

86 - Usage
Use it in moderation to preserve a natural look. If the photographed scene has a high
dynamic range (very deep shadows and very bright highlights) then use the Dynamic
Range Compression tool to compress the dynamic range to a more manageable level,
and then optionally use this Shadows/Highlights tool on top of that.

87 - Interface

87.1 - Color Space

Adjusting shadows and highlights in the RGB space preserves image saturation which
usually looks more natural than working in L*a*b* space which tends to desaturate
affected areas. However, in some cases working in RGB space may oversaturate the
shadows, in which case you should switch to L*a*b* space.

87.2 - Shadows
Allows you to brighten the darkest parts of the image

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87.3 - Highlights
Allows you to darken the brightest parts of the image.

87.4 - Tonal Width

Shadows/Highlights Tonal Width allows you to control how bright an area must be for it
to be affected by the highlights slider, and how dark an area must be for it to be
affected by the shadows slider. Though the underlying math is a bit more complicated,
think of a histogram - the highlights tonal width specifies the range of tones from the
white end of the histogram which the highlights slider will affect, and the shadows tonal
width specifies the range of tones from the black end of the histogram which the
shadows slider will affect. The higher the tonal width value, the more tones are affected.

87.5 - Radius
The value of the Radius slider influences the effective area of the Shadows and
Highlights sliders.

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Tone Mapping

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The effects of this tool are visible at any zoom level. However, due to the nature of the
algorithm, only the 1:1 (or more) preview zoom will match the saved image perfectly. If
you are zoomed out at less than 1:1, you should be aware that the preview can match
the saved image very well or not so well, depending on the "Edge Stopping" and "Scale"
sliders. Read the " Getting the preview to match the saved image" section below. Use a
detail window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of
the image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

The Tone Mapping tool can be used to lift the

dark areas of your photo in a way that
prevents halos from appearing, and it can be
used to bring out or suppress detail, to make
the photo more crisp or more 'dreamy'. Tone
mapping adjusts the global contrast of an
image differently from the local contrast. Tone mapping was used on this high
Specifically, it's very useful for decreasing dynamic range (HDR) 32-bit TIFF image to
make it look aesthetically pleasing and
large scale contrasts while preserving (or viewable on low dynamic range media,
boosting) small scale contrasts. The method such as a computer screen or on paper.
used is taken from Edge-Preserving
Decompositions for Multi-Scale Tone and
Detail Manipulation with some modifications.

Note: tone mapping requires a lot of memory (RAM) and is CPU-intensive.

88 - Getting the preview to match the saved image

Getting the Tone Mapping preview to
The effects of this tool highly depend on
match the saved image
the size of the input image in the engine's
toolchain. To keep the preview fast,
RawTherapee feeds each tool with the
image you see in the preview at the same
resolution as the preview, not the

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original, huge one (however, when you

save an image, it uses the original, huge
one, which is why saving takes longer).
Processing a 900x600 image is much
faster than processing a 7360x4912 one,
for instance. The side-effects of this are
Edge
that the zoomed-out preview may not
Stopping=1.40
match the saved image, depending on the
and Scale=0.10
"Edge Stopping" and "Scale" sliders.
while editing,
but Scale is set
The default values for this tool are Edge
to 1.00 just
Stopping=0.5 and Scale=0.10. These values
before saving.
generally lead to good results and a
preview which quite closely matches the
saved image. If you wish to adjust these
values, you will need to process the full
image every time you change them to
make sure that their effects on the saved
output are what you had in mind. An easy
way to simplify this task is by setting an
image viewer as the "External editor", Using this trick,
then you just hit the keyboard shortcut the preview
Ctrl+e to have RawTherapee fully process matches the
the image and automatically view it in saved image
your image viewer. very well.

Remember that if you zoom the preview

to 100%, it will perfectly match the saved
image regardless of what slider values you use.

89 - Interface Description

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89.1 - Strength
This controls the strength of the overall effect. As of version 4.2.156, as you increase the
strength, shadows are raised and highlights are slightly lowered in a way which aims to
preserve the average luminance of the image thereby preventing the washed-out look.

89.2 - Gamma
Gamma moves the action of tone-mapping to shadows or highlights.

89.3 - Edge Stopping

This parameter affects sensitivity to edges. The greater it is the more likely an
illumination change is to be considered an "edge". If set to zero tone mapping will have
an effect similar to unsharp masking [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking].

89.4 - Scale
This control gives meaning to the difference between "local" and "global" contrast; the
greater it is the larger a detail needs to be in order to be boosted. See the note above
on the influence this setting has on the preview vs the saved image.

89.5 - Reweighting Iterates

In some cases tone mapping may result in a cartoonish appearance, and in some rare
cases soft but wide halos may appear. Increasing the number of reweighting iterates
will help fight some of these problems. When more than zero reweighting iterates are
used, the best results will be had if the edge stopping parameter is set to one (technical

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detail: this results in a 1-norm approximation of the smoothness using iteratively

reweighted least squares). Artifacts in high contrast edges may begin to appear when
this value is set to about 1.8 or higher.

HDR Tone Mapping

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Vignetting Filter

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The vignette filter is intended for adding

artistic vignetting to your image. This
vignetting filter is placed relative to the crop,
if cropping is used.

For correcting vignetting caused by the lens

light fall-off (as opposed to this filter which is
not for correction but for artistic effect), use
the Vignetting Correction filter in the
Transform tab, in the Lens/Geometry tool. Even better, use the Flat Field tool.

90 - Strength
The amount of darkening the filter will apply, in stops. The full strength is reached in
the corners of the image. If you apply a negative amount the corners will be brightened
instead of darkened.

91 - Feather
The feather slider controls the width of the feathering. If at 0 only the corners will be
feathered and the rest of the image will not be affected by the filter. At 50 the feather
reaches halfway to center and the rest is unaffected, and at 100 the feather reaches all
the way into the center.

feather=0 feather=100

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92 - Roundness
The roundness slider controls the geometry of the filter. At 0 the shape is rectangular
(with rounded corners), at 50 it is a fitted ellipse, and at 100 it’s circular. Note that if
your image is square the fitted ellipse will of course be a circle, so the shape will then
not change in the range 50 to 100.

roundness=0 roundness=100

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Graduated Filter

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The graduated filter tool simulates a real

neutral density graduated filter. These can be
used used in for example landscape
photography to limit the brightness of the
sky. It applies an exposure adjustment in the
form of a gradient.

93 - Strength
The strength of the filter, in stops.

94 - Angle
The angle slider allows to rotate the direction in which gradient is applied.

angle=45

95 - Feather
The feather slider controls the width of the filter’s feather (gradient). At 0 there is no
feathering, just a sharp edge which can be useful as a temporary setting when choosing
position and angle of the filter. The slider value (0 - 100) specifies the width of the

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feather as percent of the image diagonal.

feather=10 feather=50

96 - Center X and Center Y

The Center X and Center Y adjustments moves the center of the filter’s feather (ie the
rotation anchor point) horizontally and vertically respectively.

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L*a*b* Adjustments

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Lab [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space]

(also called CIELAB or L*a*b) is a three

dimensional color space designed to
approximate human vision, as opposed to the
RGB color space which models the output of
physical devices rather than human visual
perception. It keeps the tone (also called
lightness or value) separate from the color, so
that you can adjust one without changing the
other.

The L component closely matches human

perception of lightness.

The a component defines how

green/magenta the color is.

The b component defines how

yellow/blue the color is.

97 - Lightness
When using the Lightness slider in the Lab
section, a tone curve is applied to the L-
channel of the Lab color space. As with the
brightness slider in the Exposure section
above, the black point and the white point do
not move.

98 - Contrast The Lab color space.

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The contrast slider in Lab increases or decreases the contrast of the photo, again
applied to the L-channel. In developer's terms: this slider applies a contrast curve
centered at the average lightness level. Tonalities above the average are lifted (lowered),
while tonalities below the average are lowered (lifted).

99 - Chromaticity
The Lab Chromaticity slider increases or decreases the chromaticity of the image, by
applying a contrast curve to the a- and b-channels of Lab space. Setting this slider to
-100 removes all color, making the image black and white. The best way to convert an
image to black-and-white is by using the dedicated and powerful Black-and-White tool
in the Color tab.

100 - B&W Toning

The "B&W toning" checkbox is deprecated from version 4.0.12 and is replaced by the
Black-and-White tool located in the Color tab. For backwards compatibility, when
opening processing profiles where "B&W toning" was used, the Chromaticity slider will
get automatically set to -100, providing the same effect.

101 - Avoid Color Shi

Fits the colors of the image into the gamut of the working color space and applies
Munsell correction [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system] to retain color purity.

102 - Restrict LC to Red and Skin Tones

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When enabled, it restricts the effects of the Lightness According to Chromaticity (LC)
curve, so that you can make skin fairer (by increasing the lightness of the skin) without
affecting the model's clothing or background.

103 - Red and Skin Tones Protection

When enabled, the effects of the Chromaticity slider and the CC curve will not be
applied to skin colors, so that you can increase the chromaticity of your photo without
causing skin to appear oversaturated.

104 - Curves
Lab Adjustments provides a wealth of curves to alter the look of the image. Below are
illustrated explanations of each curve.

104.1 - L Curve
The L curve allows to control output lightness
based on the input lightness, L=f(L). The histogram
on the L curve reflects lightness after the Lab
adjustments. This curve allows you to control the
lightness without affecting color.

An S-shaped curve applied to the L channel

The L curve was used to improved the
lightness without causing any changes to
increases image contrast. At the same time this
the color. leads to a perceptually desaturated look.
Chromaticity adjustments can be used to
compensate for this effect.

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104.2 - "a" and "b" Curves

The "a" and "b" curves allow to control output "a" and "b" channels based on the input
"a" and "b" channels respectively, a=f(a) and b=f(b).

As indicated by the color bars, the "a" curve allows one to shift colors between green
and magenta, and the "b" curve to shift between blue and yellow. This can be used to
apply color toning effects.

104.2.1 - Black-and-White Color Toning

Color-toning a black-and-white image can be done using one of two methods: the
recommended and most intuitive method is by using the Color Toning tool along with
the Black-and-White tool. The other, less powerful method is using the a* and b* curves
of the L*a*b* Adjustments tool once the image is desaturated. The reason we still
describe how to do it without using the Black-and-White and Color Toning tools is that
these tools are relatively new additions to RawTherapee, and maybe you're stuck using
an older version which lacks these tools, or you're just curious what your options are.

Read about color-toning a black-and-white image the recommended way on the Color
Toning tool's page; this section describes how to do it by using the a* and b* curves.

First you need to make the image black-and-white. Do this using any of the available
methods: either using the Black-and-White tool, or by decreasing saturation in the
Exposure tool, or by decreasing chromaticity in the L*a*b* Adjustments tool. Each tool
will lead to a different effect since they work in different ways and in different color-
spaces. It's just a matter of taste. Once the image is reduced to grayscale you can give
the image a tone by using the a* and b* curves. To copy just color toning from one
image to another, copy the current processing profile to clipboard , then partial-
paste it either by right-clicking on a photo in the File Browser and selecting
"Processing Profile Operations > Paste - partial", or from the Image Editor tab by
Ctrl+clicking on "Paste profile from clipboard" to paste only the L*a*b* Adjustments
section of the profile. Note that other adjustments in the L*a*b* Adjustments sections

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will be pasted as well. Alternatively, the a* and b* curves can be copied and pasted
individually. This is another reason for using the recommended method, because it's
easier, more precise, to copy and paste the Color Toning and Black-and-White tools.

104.3 - LH Curve
The LH curve (lightness according to hue) allows to
modify the lightness based on hue. To lighten the
colors of the particular hue, move the desired
point on the LH curve up, and to darken - down.

The LH curve was used to change the

lightness of the chosen colors.

104.4 - CH Curve
The CH curve (chromaticity according to hue)
allows to control output chromaticity based on the
input hue, C=f(H). Using it you can very easily boost
or mute only a selected range of colors.

The CH curve was used to desaturate all

colors except shades of red.

104.5 - HH Curve
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The HH curve (hue according to hue) allows to alter

the hue for a specified hue. For example, one could
shift reds to be more orange by moving the red
point up until the thick horizontal line that appears
as the point is being dragged becomes the color
you desire. RawTherapee has two HH curves, one in
the Lab tools in the Exposure tab, and one in the
The HH curve was used to change the hue HSV tool in the Colors tab. The HH curve in the Lab
of shades or red into shades of purple. tools has a more restricted range compared to the
HH curve in the HSV equalizer, to allow finer
adjustments. The range is between the previous and next color, e.g. green could be
changed within the range of yellow and blue (as you can see in the curve on the
screenshot above). This is useful, for example, for fine-tuning skin tone appearance,
removing a greenish pale look by shifting reds and yellows a little towards magenta.

104.6 - CC Curve
The CC curve (chromaticity according to chromaticity) allows to control output
chromaticity based on the input chromaticity, C=f(C). The histogram on the CC curve
reflects chromaticity before the adjustment. This allows you to separately adjust the
chromaticity of pixels of low and high saturation, so you can boost saturation where
needed without causing already saturated zones to clip.

CC curve effect examples

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Boost low Mute low

chromaticity, chromaticity.
mute high
chromaticity.

Mute low
chromaticity.

You can use the Show/Hide chromaticity histogram button besides the histogram to
help you see the effects of your CC curve tweaks on the histogram, and to help you find
the maximum value before you start clipping colors.

Chromaticity histogram

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Smooth
chromaticity
histogram with
neutral CC
curve.

Spiked
chromaticity
histogram with
too strong CC
curve.

The screenshots show what the chromaticity histogram looks like for the untouched
image, and then what happens when you increase chromaticity too much (you can do
this using the Chromaticity slider, or, as in the screenshot, by sliding the top-right point
of the CC curve to the left. Holding the Shift key while you slide the point will help you
keep the point at the top).

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To find the maximum chromaticity boost you can apply without causing nasty spikes,
which will appear as sudden flat regions of color in the image, similar to posterization,
all you need to do is click Show/Hide chromaticity histogram if you haven’t done so
already, and then slowly boost chromaticity until you notice the histogram begins to
spike. The curve does not have to be linear of course.

104.7 - LC Curve
The LC curve (lightness according to chromaticity) allows to control the output lightness
based on the input chromaticity, L=f(C). You can use it on portraits to lighten skin

LC curve effect examples

Lighten low-
chromaticity
zones.

Lighten skin
tones.

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The LC curve's action is modulated by the Restrict LC to red and skin tones checkbox.
Thus the LC curve provides a complex image control, altering lightness based on image
chromaticity and also targeting a specified range of hues. With this option enabled, the
lightness of only red and skin tones is affected, for example allowing you to make skin
fairer and conceal wrinkles and blemishes while preserving the color of the model's
clothes and background. When it is disabled, the LC curve acts on other colors as well.

The coloring of the bar on the horizontal LC curve axis changes to reflect which colors
the curve applies to, as chosen by the state of the Restrict LC to red and skin tones
checkbox.

104.8 - CL Curve
The CL curve (chromaticity according to lightness) allows to control the output
chromaticity based on the input lightness, C=f(L). It allows you to separately control the
chromaticity of regions of the image based on their lightness, so you can for example
decrease the chromaticity of shadows if they are noisy or for artistic purposes, or
increase the chromaticity of dark and mid-tones without affecting the bright sky.

CL curve effect examples

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Increase
chromaticity of
light areas
without
saturating
shadows.

Chromaticity of
dark and mid-
tones increased
without
saturating the
sky.

Detail Tab

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Sharpening

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

Comparison of sharpening tools

Unsharp Mask. RL Edges. Microcontrast.

Deconvolution.

Edges and Contrast by

Microcontrast. Detail Levels.

This article describes the tool called "Sharpening", however RawTherapee contains other
tools which can be used to perform various types of sharpening - see Edges and
Microcontrast and the Wavelets tools.

The Sharpening tool is applied to the full image, before the Resize tool. If you would
like to apply sharpening after resizing, use the Post-Resize Sharpening tool which you
will find inside the Resize tool.

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105 - Unsharp Mask

Unsharp masking [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_mask] (USM) is a technique used to
increase the apparent acutance [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acutance] (edge contrast) of an
image, making it appear clearer, even though it technically does not really sharpen the
image. It makes use of several phenomena of the human visual system in order to
accomplish this effect, such as the Cornsweet illusion [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornsweet_
illusion] and Mach bands [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_bands]. Though unsharp masking
in other software is easily prone to causing halos [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haloing],
RawTherapee has a unique threshold slider which allows you to achieve a superb
sharpening effect with a minimal risk of halos.

105.1 - Radius
The Radius determines the size of the details being amplified and, consequently, relates
to the width of the sharpening halo. In general the quality of sharpening is best if the
sharpening radius is smaller. For low ISO images that are in focus and without motion
blur a value of 0.5-0.7 is satisfactory.

105.2 - Amount
The Amount parameter controls the strength of the sharpening.

105.3 - Threshold
The Threshold tool helps to suppress noise
amplification and haloing and to confine sharpening to a desired tonal range. The
Threshold tool allows one to create a curve via which the sharpening is applied. The
vertical axis corresponds to opacity: 0% at the bottom (transparent, sharpening not

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visible), 100% at the top (opaque, sharpening visible). The horizontal axis corresponds
to luminosity: select the tonal range that will get sharpened - the darkest tones are on
the left, progressing to white tones on the right. As mentioned in the tooltip, to move
each of the points in the threshold tool individually, hold the Shift key before clicking
on a point with your mouse. Holding the Ctrl key while moving a point with the mouse
allows for very fine movements.

When moving the right pair of sliders to the left side, sharpening is reduced in the
highlights. When moving the left pair of sliders to the right side, sharpening is reduced
in the shadows and minimizes amplification of dark noise.

The default threshold values will protect from over-sharpening and haloing in most
cases and limit the sharpening effect to mid-tones. In the example screenshot, the
blackest tones have no USM applied, then USM is applied to a broad range of tones
from dark to light, and the strength of USM gradually drops off from maximal at the
mid-tones to none at the whitest tones, so as to prevent noise amplification and
haloing.

105.4 - Sharpen Only Edges

If you activate "Sharpen only edges" then uniform areas will not be sharpened. This is
useful when sharpening noisy photos.

Two new sliders appear as well:

105.4.1 - Radius

The Radius is used for noise detection. If the noise is low, a lower radius can be used,
and vice-versa. A higher radius slows down the image processing.

105.4.2 - Edge Tolerance

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Edge Tolerance determines how much a pixel has to differ from its neighbor to be
considered as an edge and not as noise. It is very similar to the USM Threshold
parameter and has a high impact on the visual quality. For low ISO (low noise) images
use 1000 or less, for high ISO images use 2500-3000 or even more.

105.5 - Halo Control

Halo Control is used to avoid halo effects around light objects when sharpening too
aggressively. When activated, a new slider appears:

105.5.1 - Amount

At 100 it works at maximum, reducing the visual impact of the USM filter.

106 - RL Deconvolution
RL deconvolution [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson%E2%80%93Lucy_deconvolution] is named
after the makers of this algorithm, Richardson and Lucy. It uses the point spread
function [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_spread_function] (PSF) to deconvolve (reverse) the
effects of Gaussian-like blur. In reality, the blur produced by the lens and by motion
may differ from Gaussian blur significantly, therefore some artifacts, such as halos, may
appear when the radius diverges too far from the type of blur in the actual image, and
when then effect is too strong.

106.1 - Radius
The radius defines the standard deviation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation]
(sigma) of the Gaussian blur [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_blur] in the image. Find the
right value through trial and error.

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106.2 - Amount
Controls the blend factor between the unsharpened image and the sharpened one.

106.3 - Damping
Damping reduces the effect of the deconvolution at each iteration. It has the effect of
preventing sharpening of the finest details. Use it if the sharpened image has too much
"bite" at the finest level.

106.4 - Iterations
RL Deconvolution is an iterative algorithm; it requires being repeated in order to
achieve the intended results. Each repetition of the process is called an " iteration", and
the result of one iteration is used as the starting point of the next iteration. While each
iteration removes blur, it also increases processing time and the likelihood that halo
artifacts will appear, so you need to find the perfect balance through trial and error -
the default value should be fine for most cases.

Local Contrast

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Edges and
Microcontrast

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

Comparison of sharpening tools

Unsharp Mask. RL Edges. Microcontrast.

Deconvolution.

Edges and Contrast by

Microcontrast. Detail Levels.

Unlike Unsharp Mask, Edges is a true sharpening algorithm. It does not introduce halos,
it can be used to some degree on noisy images, and it works in the Lab space. Edges
sharpens just the edges, and it can be complimented by Microcontrast to enhance
texture.

107 - Edges

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Iterations
How many passes the algorithm makes. Higher numbers produce a more
posterized effect.

Quantity
How many adjacent pixels will be searched for an edge. Larger values lead to
sharper edges.

Luminance only
Sharpens the L* channel only; a* and b* channels are untouched.

More information here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110625093654/http://www.rawness.es/sharpening/?
lang=en

108 - Microcontrast
Quantity
Uniformity

A 3x3 matrix is better suitable for noisier images.

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Impulse Noise
Reduction

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

Suppresses salt-and-pepper noise - sudden white and black pixels, which remind one of
salt and pepper sprinkled over a photo. This is done after demosaicing.

Whereas salt-and-pepper noise is typically just white or black, hot pixels can be of a
pure, saturated color, while dead pixels are black. Hot and dead pixels occur for a very
different reason than salt-and-pepper noise and should be handled using the Hot/Dead
Pixel Filter, which works before demosaicing.

The slider adjusts the threshold which must be exceeded for the suppression to be
applied.

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Noise Reduction

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

109 - Introduction

Before and after noise reduction.

Photography is based on recording light which falls on a medium during an exposure.

The medium is typically film or a digital sensor. The light signal recorded on the
medium is not an ideal representation of the signal which fell upon that medium -
these differences constitute noise. Film and digital photographs alike are susceptible to
noise (called "grain" in film), however there are various types of noise from various
sources specific to each medium.

In order to effectively deal with mitigating noise it is useful to understand what types of
noise exist and where they come from. The topic of noise is well explained in this paper
by one of RawTherapee's developers and physics professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute,

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Emil J. Martinec: Noise, Dynamic Range and Bit Depth in Digital SLRs [http://theory.uchicago.
edu/%7Eejm/pix/20d/tests/noise/index.html]

Light consists of packets of energy called photons. A digital sensor [https://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Image_sensor] comprises of millions of light-sensitive elements called photosites
(also known as sensels - sensor elements). Each photosite is capable of recording a
signal from a certain range of photons - too few and the photosite will not register
anything; too many, and the photosite will "clip" to pure white (completely
overexposed). Think of it as a bucket collecting water - despite there being moisture in
the air, if it doesn't rain then the bucket is empty, but if it rains too much then it
overflows.

Note that the idea of "pixel" does not exist at this point yet - information from several
photosites will later be combined into one pixel during a process called demosaicing.
Also note that some sources do write "pixels" when they mean "photosites".

The physical sensitivity of the sensor is constant, however the photographer can amplify
the recorded signal by modifying a setting you know as ISO (see the Film Speed [https://e
n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_speed] article on Wikipedia). Since the signals recorded by the
sensor are not perfect, using a higher ISO amplifies not only the desired signal, but also
the noise. Sensors are susceptible to noise at every ISO level, however the higher the
ISO the more apparent the noise.

There are different tools for dealing with different types of noise:

The Noise Reduction tool is best at dealing with photon shot noise (Gaussian [https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_noise] and Poisson [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_noise]

noise) and film grain, and some sensor read noise.

Sensor read noise and thermal noise are best handled by the Dark-Frame tool.

Salt and pepper noise (sudden white or black pixels) is best handled by the Impulse
Noise Reduction tool.

Hot and dead pixels are best dealt with using the Hot/Dead Pixel Filter.

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Pattern noise (periodic, anisotropic) is best handled by the Line Noise Filter. You
can also fix pattern noise (de-screen) after RawTherapee in GIMP, using the Fourier
transform in G'MIC.

Regardless the source, noise will manifest itself as blotches of deviating color -
"chrominance noise", and deviating brightness - "luminance noise".

. Chrominance noise is endemic to digital images, it is generally unattractive and

something you will always want to remove.

. Luminance noise, on the other hand, looks like film grain and can be attractive, so
it's not uncommon to want to remove chrominance noise but keep luminance
noise.

Examining Noise

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A noisy test photo taken at ISO 6400.

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AMaZE demosaicing leads to small maze-like patterns.

LMMSE demosaicing avoids maze-like patterns while preserving detail.

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This is what chrominance noise looks like. Luminance detail was

obliterated to make the chrominance noise more clear. Notice the color
blotches in what should be a smooth wall.

Enabling chrominance noise reduction eliminates the colored blotches.

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This is what luminance noise looks like. Chrominance noise was removed
to make the luminance noise more clear.

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Both chrominance and luminance noise were removed.

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Tiny pixel-sized artifacts are left-over from noise reduction.

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These artifacts can be removed using the median filter.

Not everyone's requirement for good noise reduction is the same. Some like a
completely clean, smooth result, while others prefer to have some grain left over to give
the photo a more film-like quality. RawTherapee's powerful Noise Reduction tool caters
to all your needs - it lets you eliminate noise while retaining detail. It uses wavelets [htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelet], a Fourier transform [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transfor
m] and a median filter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_filter] to work its magic. Read on to
learn how to use it efficiently.

110 - Usage
This section details the order of operations for removing noise.

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. Start by ensuring you're using the optimal demosaicing algorithm. AMaZE is

recommended for general RawTherapee use, however, when working with very
noisy, high-ISO images, it is recommended to use the LMMSE or IGV demosaicing
methods instead. AMaZE can lead to tiny maze-like artifacts appearing in very noisy
images, whereas LMMSE and IGV are designed to prevent that from happening.

. Check the sharpening tools to make sure that you're not sharpening any fine detail,
because your noisy photo has no fine detail! If you're using Contrast by Detail
Levels or Wavelets, make sure that the first one or two fine-detail contrast sliders
are at 0 to prevent these tools from amplifying noise.

. Zoom into the photo to 100% or more and find an area that has both sharp, in-
focus parts as well as large, plain or out-of-focus ones, so that you have a good
overview of the effects of the tool.

. Enable the Hot/Dead Pixel Filter if you notice salt-and-pepper noise (black and/or
white pixels).

. Enable the Noise Reduction tool. Chrominance noise is automatically removed and
usually does not require any tweaking. At this point the remaining noise looks
more like film grain. If you are happy with keeping it then you are done, else keep
reading.

. To remove luminance noise, set the Detail recovery slider to 0, and increase the
Luminance slider until the noise has been smoothed-away.

. Increase the Detail recovery slider until you regain a satisfactory level of detail.

. You may notice some small artifacts remain from the noise reduction process. Use
the Median filter to remove them.

. While it is generally not recommended to combine sharpening with noise

reduction, RawTherapee-5.5 has a "contrast threshold" adjuster in the Sharpening
tool, thanks to which you can sharpen details while preserving the smoothness of
uniform, flat areas.

Noise Reduction Step by Step

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The noisy image.

Changing the demosaicing method to LMMSE eliminates the small maze-

like patterns and makes the salt-and-pepper noise more clear.

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Enabling the Hot/Dead Pixel Filter eliminates the salt-and-pepper noise.

Enabling automatic chromaticity noise reduction renders a pleasantly-

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g y p y
grainy image.

Luminance noise was smoothed-away using the Luminance slider.

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Detail was restored using the Detail recovery slider.

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The median filter was used to eliminate left-over artifacts.

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Sharpness was restored using an unsharp-mask with a contrast threshold

to prevent sharpening areas which should be smooth.

111 - Interface

111.1 - General
Closely examine large areas of strong saturation with fine detail - such as the pattern
on a colored shirt or the petal of a flower - as you switch between the RGB and L*a*b*
spaces.

The following images demonstrate the effects of various types of noise reduction,
exaggerated for clarity. While the source image does not contain any very-low-frequency
noise, it was chosen because it does display the effects (and side-effects) very well.

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Comparison of Noise Reduction - Color Spaces

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The noisy image. Detail recovery will be intentionally left at 0, and

chromaticity strength will be intentionally set very high, to emphasize
effect.

Luminance noise reduction in L*a*b* space, conservative.

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Luminance noise reduction in L*a*b* space, aggressive.

Luminance noise reduction in RGB space, conservative.

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Luminance noise reduction in RGB space, aggressive.

Chrominance noise reduction in L*a*b* space, conservative.

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Chrominance noise reduction in L*a*b* space, aggressive. Notice how

colors bleed one into another in areas where one hue meets the other -
navy blue bleeds into cyan, green bleeds into dull-red, dull-red bleeds
into crimson-red, etc.

Chrominance noise reduction in RGB space, conservative.

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Chrominance noise reduction in RGB space, aggressive. Low-frequency

detail is lost.

111.1.1 - Color Space

Noise reduction can be performed in the L*a*b* and RGB color spaces.

When working in the L*a*b* space, the L* channel is used for luminance and the a* and
b* channels are used for chromaticity.

When working in the RGB space, the Y from the CIE XYZ color space is used for
luminance and (X-Y) and (Y-Z) are used for chromaticity.

111.1.2 - Mode

There are two general noise reduction modes which control whether only high
frequency or also low frequency noise is removed. Low frequency noise is noise whose
blotches cover a large area; conversely, high frequency noise has smaller blotches
which cover fewer pixels.

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. Conservative - removes all except very low-frequency noise, so color detail is better
preserved at the expense of not removing very large blotches. Use in most cases.

. Aggressive - removes also very low-frequency noise at the expense of being more
aggressive with higher frequency noise. Use only on extremely noisy photos.

111.1.3 - Gamma

Gamma varies noise reduction strength across the range of tones. Smaller gamma
values let noise reduction affect all tones emphasizing the action on shadows, while
higher gamma values limit the effect to brighter tones only.

111.2 - Luminance

The Luminance Curve in RawTherapee-4.1 was used to completely remove noise in

dark areas while fully retaining structure of lighter areas.

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"Luminance control" lets you choose whether you want to manipulate the luminance
noise reduction via sliders or a curve.

Adjusting the "Luminance" slider is equivalent to manipulating the amplitude of the

luminance curve - both affect how strong the noise reduction effect is. The curve has
the additional advantage of letting you control noise reduction strength as a function of
the pixels' luminance - e.g. it allows you to have strong luminance noise reduction in
the shadows and none in the highlights.

The "Detail recovery" slider allows you to recover structure while not reintroducing
noise, unless you set this value too high.

111.3 - Chrominance
Method

Chrominance noise reduction can be performed using one of three methods:

Manual

Automatic global

Preview

Preview noise

The "Preview noise" indicator gives the estimated chromatic noise values after
"Chrominance" processing:

Mean: estimates the average noise value across all channels.

High: estimate the highest noise value across all channels.

111.3.1 - Manual

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The three sliders and the curve act on the full image. You control the settings manually.

Master

Controls the strength of chrominance noise reduction. Functions as an offset

independently to the red-green and blue-yellow values. For example if master=50, red-
green=-50 and blue-yellow=-50, the end result is 0; no effect.

Red-Green

Reduce/boost noise reduction in the red-green channel (a* in L*a*b*).

Blue-Yellow

Reduce/boost noise reduction in the blue-yellow channel (b* in L*a*b*).

Chrominance curve

The chrominance curve lets you control chrominance noise as a function of the pixels'
chrominance - e.g. it allows you to have strong chrominance noise reduction in areas of
low saturation and weak noise reduction in areas of high saturation. This curve
modulates the "Master", "Red-Green" and "Blue-Yellow" sliders' action by multiplying
their values by the curve ordinate. For example, if the master slider is set to 30 and the
curve is at mid-height, the equivalent result will be about 45. It can be useful to boost
noise reduction in grey or drab areas, as we distinguish noise more easily in areas of
low saturation than we do in areas of high saturation. When using the "automatic
global" noise reduction method, the automatically-calculated parameters are an
average for the whole image, and they might be insufficient to remove noise in these
low-saturation areas - the chrominance curve can help.

111.3.2 - Automatic Global

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The algorithm splits the image into multiple cells. For each cell the following are
calculated:

An average noise level for the red-green channel and the blue-yellow channel.

A maximum noise level for the same channels.

111.3.3 - Preview

This method is only operational when zoomed to 100% or more. It analyzes the areas
currently visible in the preview (if you are zoomed to 100% or more) and calculates:

An average noise level for the red-green channel and the blue-yellow channel.

A maximum noise level for the same channels.

The three sliders - Master, Red-Green and Blue-Yellow - as well as the "Preview noise"
values, are updated accordingly.

If you would like to keep the currently calculated values then you should switch back to
"manual" method, else the values will be re-calculated when you pan or when you copy
the profile to other images.

111.4 - Median
Use this filter to remove tiny, sharp-looking artifacts left-over from noise reduction.

Median Type

The median filter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_filter] replaces each pixel with the

median value of its neighboring pixels. The contiguous group of pixels being sampled is
called the "windows". This window slides pixel by pixel over the entire image. You can
choose the size of this window using the "Median type" drop-down. The larger the size,
the longer it takes.

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The Median filter in RawTherapee-4.1 was used to eliminate artifacts which fit in a 3x3
window left over from the noise reduction process.

Available window sizes:

3x3 soft: treats 5 pixels in a 3x3 pixel window.

○●○

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3x3: treats 9 pixels in a 3x3 pixel window.

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5x5 soft: treats 13 pixels in a 5x5 pixel window.

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Comparison of noise reduction without and with median filtering, zoomed to 200%.
While the filtered image on the right may appear less sharp, notice that the unfiltered
image on the left does not really contain any more detail - the noise gives the illusion
of sharpness. At the same time, the filtered image when saved to JPEG/92/standard
was almost 40% smaller than the unfiltered one (350kB vs 215kB). RawTherapee-4.1.

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5x5: treats 25 pixels in a 5x5 pixel window.

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7x7: treats 49 pixels in a 7x7 pixel window.

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9x9: treats 81 pixels in a 9x9 pixel window.

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Sometimes it is possible to achieve higher quality running several iterations with a

small window size than one iteration with a large window size.

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Median Method

You have five methods at your disposal:

Luminance only: works in the L*a*b* space, but only affects the L* channel.

Chroma only: works in the L*a*b* space, but only affects the a* and b* channels.

Weighted L* (little) + a*b* (normal): affects all channels in the L*a*b* space, but acts
more weakly on the L* channel.

L*a*b*: affects all channels equally.

RGB: works in the RGB space, and the window size choice is limited to 3x3 soft, 3x3
and 5x5.

When using the "Luminance only" and "L*a*b*" methods, median filtering will be
performed just after the wavelet step in the noise reduction pipeline. When using the
RGB color space, it will be performed at the very end of the noise reduction pipeline.

You may wonder what other uses median filtering has apart from the elimination of
pixels which strongly differ from their surrounding neighbors for aesthetic reasons.
One of these benefits is a reduction in file size when saving to compressed formats such
as JPEG and PNG. Median filtering removes variations which you will lose anyway if you
downscale the image. You are also likely not to see these variations if you print the
image. Removing them using median filtering can reduce the file size by even 40%
(tested using JPEG compression strength 92 with "balanced quality" chroma
subsampling [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling]), so give it a try if output file
size is a factor.

Finally, the "chroma only" median filter method can be used as a complement to
automatic chrominance noise reduction calculation - by reducing sharp outliers it can
soften the calculated values, thereby avoiding fading out color detail too much.

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Defringe

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

Purple fringes are a form of axial (or

longitudinal) chromatic aberration, and
appear along dark edges adjacent to bright
areas due to incorrect focus, lens
imperfections, or simply (but more
technically) due to the nature of lenses not
Defringe removed purple fringing.
focusing all colors on the same plane. As
lenses are optimized to focus visible light of
longer wavelengths on the same plane, those
shorter wavelengths farther away from the
ones the lens was optimized for (i.e. purple,
violet - wavelengths on the shorter side of the
visible spectrum) can visibly tint dark regions
when the bright areas are of sufficient
intensity. This tool should be able to
effectively remove most of them.

Defringing is applied either in the Lab or the

CIECAM02 space (if CIECAM02 is enabled).
Consequently, enabling CIECAM02 may lead to
slightly different defringing results, especially
when using the Hue curve.

112 - Interface Description

Defringe Hue curve to target only purple
fringing.

112.1 - Radius

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Strong chromatic edge fringes are suppressed by averaging over a neighborhood of the
specified radius.

112.2 - Threshold
Sets a threshold for the application of defringing.

112.3 - Hue
You can use the Hue flat curve to specify which colors Defringe should target. The
horizontal axis represents the range of colors, and the vertical axis the strength of
fringe removal. This allows you to limit the action to a specific range of colors without
affecting colors of other hues.

If you place a purple dot at the top and keep the rest of the colors at the bottom,
purple fringes will be removed with a maximal strength while other colors will not be
affected.

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Contrast by Detail
Levels

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

Comparison of sharpening tools

Unsharp Mask. RL Edges. Microcontrast.

Deconvolution.

Edges and Contrast by

Microcontrast. Detail Levels.

Contrast by Detail Levels uses wavelet decomposition to decompose the image into six
levels, each adjusted by a slider. Slider 0 (Finest) has a pixel radius of 1, sliders 1 to 5
have a pixel radius of approximately 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 pixels. Giving a slider a value less
than 1.0 decreases local contrast at that level, while giving it a higher value increases it.
Thus you can use it to increase perceived sharpness of an image, to increase local
contrast, or to mitigate certain levels of detail.

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You should remember that resizing an image has a direct impact on perceived
sharpness, as does viewing distance. In practical terms this means that you should use
this tool while zoomed more or less to a level representative of your intended final
image size and viewing distance, so if you intend to print the high resolution image on a
90x60cm canvas and admire it from 30cm away then it makes sense to zoom in to 100%
and tweak the "0 (Finest)" slider. However, in real life such large prints usually hang on
the wall and are appreciated from the couch a few meters away - from there the finest
detail level setting will have no effect whatsoever - your eyes cannot make out the
detail from that distance. The same goes for images you intend to resize (downscale)
for use on the internet or email to friends or clients - not only do you lower the
resolution by downscaling, but they will also be viewed on low resolution devices,
probably not even fullscreen, e.g. on a laptop, tablet or phone. In this case too playing
with the "0 (Finest)" detail level will make no difference to the end result. Most of the
time only sliders "3" and "4" will have a practically useful effect.

For example, in order to remove skin blemishes while retaining skin texture on this 10
megapixel photo, where your intention is to view it at its full size and from up close
(e.g. art gallery), zoom to 100% and start by setting the sliders as follows, then fine-tune
to taste:

0 (Finest)  : 1.4
1  : 1.4
2  : 0.4

3  : 0.4
4 (Coarsest): 1.2
Skin Tones Targetting/Protection: -75

If you want to downscale the photo to use it on the web, you should zoom out to about
25% which is more or less the size at which the image will be viewed. Using the settings
above we can still see that the skin is smoothed, but if you reset the first three sliders
to "1.0", you will see doing so made no difference! The reason is that at this smaller
resolution, changes to those levels are lost in the downscaling process. The result
would be identical if you saved the full-sized image and then downscaled it to 25%

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Detail Levels removed skin blemishes and enhanced skin texture.

afterwards in some other program, so don't think this is RawTherapee's shortcoming -

this is simply how sharpness (resolution and acutance
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acutance]) work. Knowing this, if you only intend to share the
downscaled version of your photo, you can save yourself time by simply ignoring the
first three sliders.

Furthermore, you may find when you zoom out that the sliders had effects which were
not immediately apparent at 100% zoom. For example you may find that using the "4
(Coarsest)" slider can pleasantly mitigate large, harsh shadows, so set it to 0.5 and fine-
tune to taste.

113 - Process Locate Before/A er Black-and-White

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the first three sliders are lost by the downscaling process.

This combo-box lets you decide when in the pipeline the CbDL tool will run. This tool
had been added to RawTherapee long ago, and more recently the Black-and-White tool
was added, placed before CbDL in the pipeline. An unforeseen result was that if you
enabled the B&W tool then you could not use CbDL's Skin Targetting/Protection because
a black-and-white image has no skin color information. This combo-box was added to
remedy the situation. Running the CbDL tool before the B&W tool lets you target skin
tones before conversion to black-and-white. We recommend you stay with the default
option, "Before Black-and-White".

114 - Contrast +/- and Neutral

Use the "Contrast-" button to move all five sliders by preset amounts to the left (noise

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was not clear at 100% zoom, that the harsh shadows can further be softened using the "4 (Coarsest)"

reduction). Use the "Contrast+" button to move all five sliders by preset amounts to the
right (sharpening). Use the "Neutral" button to reset all sliders to 0.

Feel free to move individual sliders as well, and inspect the results in the detail window;
you may want to zoom in to 200% or more to see better what this filter does.

For high ISO shots (1600+), try for example clicking on the "Contrast-" button twice and
using Sharpening > Unsharp Mask with an amount of 80.

115 - Threshold

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The "Threshold" parameter is used to prevent the sharpening of noise: if a pixel's

luminance differs only a bit from its neighbors (the difference is less than the
threshold), then it is not sharpened. You can set the threshold also to 0 but then
everything will be sharpened (even the noise).

Color Tab

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White Balance

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116 - Introduction
Digital images generally consist of a mixture of the three primary colors: red, green and
blue. For various reasons which you can read about in-depth elsewhere, the red, green
and blue values which serve as the starting point in any raw photo development
program need to be corrected in various ways before they resemble the photographed
scene. One of these corrections is performed by adjusting the white balance - ensuring
that neutral-colored (white) objects in the photographed scene still appear neutral on
the photograph. Adjusting the white balance affects all colors, though it is easiest to
discern whether the white balance is correct if an object you know to be of a neutral
(white, gray) color looks non-neutral.

White balancing works by multiplying each of the primary colors by a different amount,
until a satisfactory result is reached. In order to make this operation more human-
friendly, instead of operating on the three multipliers directly, the user is presented
with an abstraction in the form of a temperature slider which adjusts colors along a
blue-yellow axis, and a tint slider which adjusts them along the magenta-green axis.

A neutral color is one whose red, green and blue values are equal. For example,
R=G=B=65% and R=G=B=90% are both neutral, the former being darker than the latter.
You can tell whether the white balance of a spot which should be neutral is correct by
checking whether that spot's RGB values match, or whether the a* and b* values in the
L*a*b* color space match, or whether the RGB indicator bars under the main histogram
are directly over each other. You can do this even if you have a very miscalibrated
monitor. Your perception of color changes depending on the color of the surroundings
and of the illumination in your room, so don't always trust your eyes - verify using the
method described above.

Having an incorrect white balance results in the image having a color tint, typically
warmer (orange) or colder (blue). Some people use this for creative effect, however
there are various tools and operations which rely on the assumption that the white
balance of the image is correct (for example highlight recovery in the Exposure tool,
skin targeting in the Contrast by Detail Levels tool, sky targeting in the Wavelets tool,

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the CIECAM02 tool), so you should not misuse the white balance tool to create a color
cast for artistic effect but rather use it to ensure that neutral areas remain neutral, and
then use Color Toning or any of the other tools to render a creative color tint.

The white balance tool can be turned on/off. When off, the multipliers are set to R=1 G=1
B=1 when working with raw files. This can be useful for diagnostic purposes or when
working with UniWB images.

117 - Interface Description

117.1 - Method
White balance can be set in different ways: Camera, Auto, Custom, or a host of presets
for different light sources.

Camera

Takes the white balance used by the camera. If you shoot only in raw (so no
raw+JPG), put the white balance settings of your camera on Auto. This should
generally give good results.

Auto

Automatically corrects the white balance, by assuming that the average color
of the scene is neutral gray. Works well for a wide range of scenes, and can be
a good starting point for manual adjustments.

Custom

Set your own color temperature and green tint by moving the two sliders
and/or using the Spot WB tool.

Light source presets

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Daylight (Sunny)

Cloudy

Shade

Underwater

Tungsten

Fluorescent

Lamp

LED

Flash

117.2 - Pick
When you click on the Pick button
(shortcut: w), the cursor changes into a
pipette when it's over the preview. Click on a
neutral area to set the correct white balance
for the whole image based on the clicked
area.
This tank wagon was the whitest object in
the scene. We can tell that the white
Pick a spot which should have a neutral tone - balance is wrong because the RGB levels
gray or white. This spot should not be clipped are not equal, and the RGB indicator bars
directly under the histogram are spread
in any of the three channels, as clipping
apart.
means that information from the clipped
channel is missing. As far as white balancing
is concerned, "white" does not mean R=100% G=100% B=100% as that would be clipped,
but instead means a shade of gray - even a very light one, but still one without any
clipping. The picked spot should also not be black, as black means that insufficient data
was captured for that area, and so a correct white balance calculation cannot be
performed.

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You can use the picker multiple times on

different places in the photo until you find an
ideal spot. Use the Size drop-down box to
change the size of the pipette.

This tool can be used as well inside a detail

Picking the white balance off the side of
window. Right-click to cancel the tool and to
this tanker, which we know to have been
get the regular cursor back. the whitest object in the scene, adjusts
the colors across the whole image such
that the RGB levels in that spot are now
equal.
117.3 - Temperature and Tint
The temperature slider adjusts colors along the blue-yellow axis. Moving it to the left
makes the image cooler (bluish); moving it to the right makes it warmer (yellowish).

The tint slider adjusts colors along the magenta-green axis. Moving it to the left makes
the image more magenta; moving it to the right - more green.

117.4 - Blue/Red Equalizer

The red/blue equalizer allows to deviate from the normal behavior of "white balance",
via increase or decrease of the ratio between red and blue. This can be useful when
shooting conditions are far from the standard illuminant, e.g. underwater, or are far
from conditions where calibrations were performed, for which the color matrices in the
input profile are unsuitable.

117.5 - AWB Temperature Bias

The auto white balance temperature bias slider allows you to specify how much the
automatically-calculated temperature should deviate. Use this if you would like the
automatically-calculated white balance to be cooler or warmer.

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118 - White Balance Connection to Exposure

The white balance is described in temperature and tint, but will for raw images be
translated into weights of the red, green and blue channels. The weights will be
adjusted so that the channel with the smallest weight reaches clipping in the working
space (usually ProPhoto RGB) when the raw channel is clipped. In other words, with
exposure set to 0.0 and no highlight recovery enabled the full visible range is fully
defined by the raw backing. As white balancing changes the weights you may see a slight
exposure change if you make drastic changes.

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Vibrance

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Vibrance is an intelligent saturation adjustment tuned to correlate with the color

sensitivity of human vision. The vibrance effect is applied with higher accuracy on a
correctly white balanced image when the RGB Saturation and Lab Chromaticity sliders
are set to 0. You can separately control the vibrance of pastel tones (tones of low
saturation) and saturated tones (as the name implies, tones of high saturation).

119 - Interface Description

119.1 - Pastel/Saturated Tones

These Pastel Tones and Saturated Tones sliders let you individually control saturation
of saturated and pastel tones.

119.2 - Pastel/Saturated Tones Threshold

The threshold adjuster lets you differentiate between pastel and saturated tones - the
threshold between what is considered a pastel tone and what is considered to be
saturated.

119.3 - Protect Skin Tones

When enabled, colors closely resembling natural skin tones are not affected by the
vibrance adjustments.

119.4 - Avoid Color Shi

When enabled, exercises extra control to avoid hue shifting.

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119.5 - Link Pastel and Saturated Tones

When enabled, the vibrance level is adjusted with a single slider equally controlling
saturation of both pastel and saturated colors.

119.6 - Skin Tones - Hue According to Hue

This H=f(H) curve lets you change the hue of
skin tones. It behaves just like the tone curve
you know from any image editing program,
but instead of working on a whole color
channel it just works on a range of common
skin tones. The x axis represents the input
hue, and the y axis the output hue. Decide on
the specific skin tone hue you want to change Using the HH curve, a pinkish skin hue
was changed to a tanned-brown one.
(the one your subject has in the photo), find it
on the x axis, and then change the curve to
map it to a nicer tone on the y axis. In practical terms, you can use this tool to map a
British-pink suntan skin color to a nice Maldives-brown one.

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Channel Mixer

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The Channel Mixer is used for special effects, for color and black-and-white alike. The
Channel Mixer is divided into three sections: Red, Green and Blue. Those sections
represent the three available color output channels in a RGB image. All values shown
here are percentages. The mixer makes a new R channel from the specified percentages
of the existing R, G, and B channels; similarly for the other channels.

The Channel Mixer can be used to adjust the white balance of the photo, if the proper
White Balance tool does not suffice. For the sliders that have a starting value of 100,
enter values other than 100 and you are in effect changing the white balance (i.e. only
changing the R slider on the R channel, only the G slider on the G channel, and only the
B slider on the B channel). Get the image into the right ballpark, then use the
Temperature/Tint sliders of the usual White Balance tool to fine tune. In principle this
allows an arbitrary range for White Balance.

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Black-and-White

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image processed with the Black-and-White tool.

The Black-and-White tool gives you great control over the process of converting a color
image into a black-and-white one.

For black-and-white color toning, see the Black and White Color Toning section
described in the Lab Adjustments chapter, Exposure tab.

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Black-and-White addon

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120 - The different methods

120.1 - General remarks

The Black-and-White tool is organized in three methods, each producing a different
black and white result.

. Desaturation;

. Luminance Equalizer

. Channel Mixer

Please note that Rawtherapee can produce black-and-white images without the use of
this tool:

. by setting the Saturation slider in the Exposure tool of the Exposure tab to -100;

. by setting the Chromaticity slider in the Lab Adjustments tab to -100;

. by enabling Film Simulation in black and white (films Ilford, Kodak, Fuji...)

Nevertheless only the methods in the current tool gives you the maximum of
possibilities for a black-and-white conversion.

For a perfect gray tone, except in the case of Color Toning, as "Ajustements Lab" are
treated at the end of the pipeline, the values of “a” and “b” in the Lab Adjustments of
the "Exposure" tab are set to zero.

Note also the interaction with the Color Toning tool, see Color Toning section below.

120.2 - Desaturation

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This method works in such a way that for each pixel (R=G=B) is given an equivalent
luminance value of L=0.299*r + 0.587*g + 0.114*b. This ensures a totally neutral gray
image.

Note: the other 2 methods of desaturation in Rawtherapee (quoted above) give other
results due to different algorithms. In "Exposure" it is channel “S” from HSV that is set
to 0. in "Lab Adjustments" it is chromacity C=sqrt(a*a+b*b) that is set to 0.

120.3 - Luminance Equalizer

This method use a flat curve, that allows to modify the luminance based on hue.

The algorithm uses a conversion rgb==>LCH [modifying L based on H]==>rgb with gamut
control.

Unlike some other commercial software that act only on a limited number of colors
with sliders, you can interact on the whole color palette with Rawtherapee.

Finally, the R, G, B values are set at the same level to ensure a perfect gray tone.

There is a gamut control, but it doesn't prevent you to obtain very good special effects
by pushing the curve to extreme values.

Here, the pipette is very useful. For example, choose with the pipette a tone area you
want to darken. This adds a control point on the curve. Move this control point
downwards to darken (or upwards to lighten) this tone.

120.4 - Channel Mixer

At first sight this method seems to be very complex !

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There is however a simple explanation: this method uses a channel mixer in order to
carefully manage the balance between the different color components of the image, to
reconcile the distribution of the lights, mid-tones and shadows. It amounts to take a
percentage of each channel (R,G,B) and put them together !

The sensible reader with a mathematical mind will notice that the sum of the 3 channels
should be 100% to avoid clipped highlights. The same reader will look only for positive
values (because they are logical) and no negative values.

But don't let this stop your creativity, open your mind to :
a) values over 100%;
b) negative values.
With these two possibilities that you have to experiment with, you can create special
effects and color filters such as infrared, but also some common settings such as
landscapes, portrait, contrast, etc.

120.4.1 - Components of the channel mixer

120.4.1.1 - Presets
It allows to choose between:

predefined settings (Normal contrast, High contrast, Luminance, Portrait,

Landscape, High and Low Sensitivity, Panchromatic, Hyper Panchromatic,
Orthochromatic, Infrared);

settings at user disposal based on four criteria:

. Absolute RGB: it offers to the user to mix the three channels R, G and B without any
control for the limits. You can enter positive or negative values with a sum that is
lower, equal to or higher than 100%.

. Relative RGB: it offers to the user to mix the three channels R, G and B, but with
control for the limits. You can enter positive or negative values, but the sum will
always been forced to 100%. E.g. if you set R=10%, G=10%, B=30%, this is translated
to R=20%, G=20%, B=60%. This mode is the default one for all the predefined

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settings as "Landscape": R=66% G=24% B=10%. Relative RGB is the most intuitive
and simple setting, especially if one doesn't set negative values.

. Absolute ROYGCBPM: (for Red Orange Yellow Green Cyan Blue Purple Magenta). This
“special” mixer offers 2 interesting options:

Tweak the complementary colors: in this case, if one acts on a "OYCPM" slider, a
correction is automatically made on the basic colors (R,G,B);

algorithm OYCPM: if set to “Linear”, it has a strict proportional response to the

wanted strength and acts directly and proportionally on the 2 basic colors, e.g.
Orange acts on Red and Green; If set to “Special effects”, it introduces a funny
effect in the conversion of Orange to red and Green (non-linear response, and
possibly also on Blue depending on the values of the sliders).

This is the least intuitive setting but with maximal creativity possibilities

. Relative ROYGCBPM:as above, but with a limit control to 100% for the 3 basic
channels R,G,B

120.4.1.2 - Color Filter

The color filter simulates shootings with a colored filter placed in front of the lens.
These filters reduce the transmission of a specific color and have therefore an impact
on the luminance. E.g. a red filter darkens a blue sky and lightens the reds. This filter
works as a multiplicator for the settings made with “presets”.

120.4.1.3 - Auto
This button activates an algorithm that calculates on the entire image and strictly
balance the 3 basic channels R, G, B to give them the same relative weights.

120.4.2 - Warnings
You will notice the incidence of the final tuning of the channel mixer after you have
made all tunings in Presets (including "Adjust complementary color" and
""Algorithm OYCPM"). The line under Presets displays 4 numbers, e.g.: R=37,2%
G=-82,3% B=126,6% Total=155%. In this case, the global image lightness will exceeds

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the original one of 55%, and each pixel will have its own values multiplicated –
before mixing – by the 3 previous data.

For the positive values in relative mode, the result is predictable... It's the usual
mode for this channel mixer. You can find on the web values for black-and-white
film simulating, e.g. “Ilford Delta 100 : 21,42,37”, etc.

On the contrary, in the absolute mode, negative values, the use of the sliders
“OYCPM” and the algorithm “Special effects” can lead to unexpected results: black
screen, artefacts, ...

121 - Gamma Correction

One can change the rendering of the tones for each channel (R, G, B) using the gamma
sliders. This command roughly simulates the rendering of the paper under the enlarger
(hard, normal, soft). Pushing the sliders to the left (negative values) darkens the image
and gives more contrast, pushing to the right (positive values) softens the image.
Notice: there isn't a bug in the Blue channel: when using Prophoto as working space, the
blue channel is less active. Use the sRGB working space to see the effect.

122 - 'Before' curve and 'A er' curve

These curves are used the same way and have the same final result as those described
in the Tone Curves section of the Exposure tool. They allow customizing the Black-and-
White tool, making it independent of the tunings made elsewhere. Notice: the “After
curve” has only one mode, as the image is then in black-and-white!

123 - Color Toning

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You can use Color Toning with the Black-and-White tool for special effects. You can
also use Color Toning with black-and-white film simulations, but provided the
black-and-white tool is enabled.

The architecture (the various tools order in the processing pipeline), the algorithms
“Color toning” and “Black-and-White” have been adapted to give you the maximum
of the joined effects.

You can act simultaneously on all the possibilities in “Color toning”, nevertheless,
Color Balance Shadows/Midtones/Highlights gives the most possibilities.

Try switching between Color Balance Shadows/Midtones/Highlights and e.g. L*a*b*

blending, try the gamma sliders and the curves in the "Black-and-White" tool.

Of course you have to walk through a number of trials and errors iterations if you
are looking for special effects.

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HSV Equalizer

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The HSV Equalizer (Hue, Saturation and Value)

works in the HSV color space [https://en.wikipedi
a.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV]. Use it to selectively
change colors, e.g. make the sky more
dramatic by making it somewhat darker or
more saturated without touching other colors.
It can be very useful for correcting skin tones
as well. 'Incorrect' use may produce effects
resembling the analogue cross-processing
The HSV color space.
technique. When used for black-and-white, be
sure that the raw is desaturated by setting the
Chromaticity slider in the Lab Adjustments tool to -100, or by enabling the Black-and-
White tool. The HSV Equalizer does not work when the raw file is desaturated by setting
Saturation in the Exposure tool to -100.

There is a description of how the flat curve type works in the General Comments About
Some Toolbox Widgets chapter.

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Film Simulation

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n change the look of a photo to match a film stock with a single click.

The Film Simulation tool allows you to match the colors of a photo to a reference
image with a single click. This tool requires the use of reference images in the HaldCLUT
pattern, in either PNG or TIFF format. Each HaldCLUT image corresponds to one "look".
Though the look can be based on anything, most of the reference images we ship are
based on classic film stock, ergo the tool's name.

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RawTherapee needs to be able to access these HaldCLUT images in order that you can
use the tool. You can download our collection, called the RawTherapee Film Simulation
Collection, or you can design your own - more on that later on. The first time you run
this tool you will see a message informing you that you need to point RawTherapee to a
folder which contains the reference images. Once you have them ready in a folder, go to
"Preferences > Image Processing > Directories" and set "HaldCLUT directory" to the
appropriate folder.

124 - Startup time

RawTherapee will scan the designated HaldCLUT folder every time you start the
program, that's why it is important that you create a folder which you will use only for
storing these HaldCLUT images and nothing else, so that RawTherapee does not waste
time scanning unrelated files. As a safety measure, you will be warned if scanning the
folder on startup takes more than 10 seconds. Should that happen, just click the button
in the popup to stop the scan, then go to "Preferences > Image Processing >
Directories" to see which folder is being used, and either point RawTherapee to a folder
which contains only HaldCLUT images and nothing else, or to an empty folder if you
don't want to use the Film Simulation tool.

To give you an idea of how the startup time is affected, the difference between having 0
images in the HaldCLUT folder and having 500 images in it (that's more than in our
collection) results in a 100ms startup time difference - that's nothing. If, however, you
were to accidentally tell RawTherapee that the HaldCLUT folder is C:\Program Files
(x86) , then the startup time could even take several minutes, as that folder contains
hundreds of thousands of files. As you can see, there is no reason to worry when using
HaldCLUTs as long as you use a dedicated folder as suggested, keeping only HaldCLUT
images in it.

125 - How It Works

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The Film Simulation tool uses specially prepared images in

what is called a HaldCLUT pattern. "CLUT" means "Color
Look-Up Table", while what "Hald" means is anyone's guess.
A HaldCLUT image contains a set of gradients of various
hues arranged in a matrix. The neutral, unaltered state is
called an " identity HaldCLUT image". Applying an identity
HaldCLUT to a photo will result in no change at all. To
create a "look", the identity image is opened in an image The level 12
editing program - any image editing program - and the Hald_CLUT_Identity.tif
image.
colors are modified in some global way, for example using
levels, curves, adjusting hue and saturation, etc. Only global
adjustments such as the ones listed should be applied - local adjustments are
incompatible with how this works; for example you cannot make a HaldCLUT image give
a tone-mapped look, it cannot denoise, it cannot sharpen, but it can make skin tones
look more tan, and foliage more vibrant.

Though the HaldCLUT image looks like a set of gradients, what it really is, is a graphic
representation of a matrix of numbers. These numbers are the "out" or "result" values.
The " in" or "source" values are known to all programs which support HaldCLUT images.
These programs known that a pixel at position x=143 y=0, for example, should be pure
red, RGB=(100%, 0%, 0%). If you edit the identity image and change that pixel to be less
red, say more orange, then save this modified identity image as a new HaldCLUT file,
then whenever you use that file RawTherapee will make the same change to all pure red
pixels. This means that if you want to make a certain shade of red more orange you
don't need to edit boring numbers to accomplish it - you just open the HaldCLUT
identity image in an image editor such as RawTherapee or GIMP, adjust that shade of
red (or, more realistically, perform some global adjustment which affects all colors or
all shades of red, such as though manipulating RGB curves), save the HaldCLUT image,
and then use it in RawTherapee on any photo to repeat that same adjustment.

It should not make a difference what color profile is assigned to a HaldCLUT image.
What matters are pixel values, because, remember, a HaldCLUT image is just a matrix of
"out" numbers. "Assigning" a color profile does not alter stored pixel values, but

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"applying" or "converting" does alter stored pixel values, so don't do that. Having said
that, the assigned color profile could have an influence, because an image editing
program might change the working space depending on the assigned color profile.

Color transformation precision depends on the number of levels (columns) in the

HaldCLUT image, and on the bit depth used to store the HaldCLUT image. If working on
a 32-bit image (or an any-bit image in 32-bit space) using a 12-level HaldCLUT stored in
an 8-bit file, for example, the HaldCLUT stores color values with less precision than your
image (or your working space) can store. This should not be a problem though, as
unknown colors are interpolated from known values, so posterization should not occur.
The bit depth of the image format you use to store the HaldCLUT depends on your
needs, and is not strictly related to the number of levels the HaldCLUT contains.
Photographers will be fine using 8-level HaldCLUTs stored in 8-bit images even when
processing higher bit-depth photographs.

For more information, refer to Eskil Steenberg's page on HaldCLUT:

http://www.quelsolaar.com/technology/clut.html

To generate an identity 12-level 16-bit HaldCLUT image using ImageMagick, run this
command in a console:

convert hald:12 -depth 16 -colorspace sRGB hald12_16bit.tif

126 - Caveat
If you need to generate your own identity HaldCLUT, do not use the program for
generating HaldCLUT images from www.quelsolaar.com as it has a bug which causes
issues with highlights. Use ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick instead. You can of course
use the identity file we provide here - it is bug-free.

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127 - Make Your Own

This section explains how to put the HaldCLUT identity file to use so that it reproduces a
specific rendering of color and lightness.

. Open a photo in RawTherapee or some other image editing program and tweak it
to your liking. Remember that the Film Simulation tool can only reproduce global
tonal changes, so make no local changes - no local contrast, no tone-mapping, etc.;
make no changes which move pixels - no distortion correction; use no sharpening
or noise reduction; make only global tonal adjustments - color and saturation
changes, curves, levels, L*a*b* adjustments. Save the sidecar file or write down the
changes you made so that you can reproduce the changes in the next step.

. Open the identity HaldCLUT image in the same program and apply the same sidecar
file or re-do the same tweaks as you did in the step above.

. Save this image as an 8-bit sRGB TIFF or PNG in the HaldCLUT folder you pointed
RawTherapee to. It's now ready for use. Restart RawTherapee so that your new
HaldCLUT appears in the list.

Even if your HaldCLUT image contains colors in only 8-bit precision, missing values will
be interpolated so that posterization will not occur in your photo. As such, since there
is no visual loss of quality, we recommend using the level 12 identity file, or even an 8-
level one, and storing your self-made HaldCLUT images in an 8-bit per channel PNG or
TIFF file.

The color profile assigned to the saved HaldCLUT image does not matter. What matters
are the pixel values of that image. You may be familiar with the terms "assign color
profile" vs "convert to color profile" from GIMP or Photoshop - which color profile is
assigned does not matter because it does not alter pixel values, but converting matters
because then the pixel values change. When editing the HaldCLUT image in
RawTherapee, the choice of output color profile matters because it alters pixel values of

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the saved image. As the identity image provided by us or generated according to our
recipe uses the sRGB primary chromaticities, so you should use RTv2_sRGB or
RTv4_sRGB when saving it in order to preserve the colors.

If you apply this HaldCLUT to a photo in RawTherapee and the photo unexpectedly and
unintentionally becomes considerably darker or lighter than it should have, then it's
likely that the program which you ran it through did something with the gamma. To
remedy, you have to undo what that program did. Try generating your own 12-level
HaldCLUT but instead of using the "sRGB" colorspace use just "RGB".

127.1 - Advanced - Identity DNG

This is experimental, it may or may not work.

Some programs might not let you open a TIFF image. If the program supports DNG files,
and demosaiced ones at that (what Adobe DNG Converter refers to as "Linear
(Demosaiced)"), then you can use this trick. Using ImageMagick, ExifTool and the
commands below, making use of the fact that DNG is just a form of TIFF, you can
generate an identity HaldCLUT in DNG format:

convert hald:12 -depth 16 -colorspace RGB -gravity NorthWest -splice 4x4 -gravity
SouthEast -splice 4x4 foo.tif

exiftool -DNGVersion=1.4.0.0 -PhotometricInterpretation='Linear Raw' foo.tif

mv -v foo.tif Hald_CLUT_Identity_12.dng

Raw editing programs will discard a certain number of pixel rows and columns from the
image edges for technical reasons to do with demosaicing. How many rows and
columns get discarded depends entirely on the program. You need to figure this out. A
12-level identity HaldCLUT will have precisely 1728x1728 pixels. When you process that
CLUT in a program whose color effects you're trying to emulate, the saved image must
have precisely 1728x1728 pixels. Since you're fooling the program into thinking it's
working on a raw file, and since it will probably discard some pixels around the edges,

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you need to figure out exactly how many rows and columns of padding are needed and
add them around the image. RawTherapee cuts off 4 pixels all around when reading
demosaiced DNG files, so the command above first adds a 4 pixel row and column to
the bottom and right edges, then another 4 pixel row and column to the top and left
edges. When you open this image in the target program, zoom into each side's edge and
figure out whether you need to add more (or remove some), then modify the command
accordingly.

Once you have the borders figured out, merely open this DNG in the target program and
follow the steps above in the "Make your own" section.

128 - Browsing in RawTherapee

There are many HaldCLUTs in our collection, and you will probably want to try them all
out. You don't need to click on each one with the mouse! There is an easy way of
checking them all out, one by one, which requires no mouse work. Assuming you had
already set RawTherapee up to point to the HaldCLUT folder and you have a photo open
and the Film Simulation tool is ready for use, just select any HaldCLUT image using the
combobox, and use the "up" and "down" keys on your keyboard to apply the previous
and next one. Using this trick, you can even jump across sub-folders - for example from
Black-and-White to Color if using our collection.

If you would like to compare the effects of several specific HaldCLUTs, and they are not
consecutive in the combobox, an easy way to switch between them is by taking a
snapshot after applying each, and then just clicking on the snapshots.

129 - RawTherapee Film Simulation Collection

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This archive contains a collection of film simulation HaldCLUTs which you can apply to
your photos to instantly match their colors to the film stocks the HaldCLUTs are based
on. Unless otherwise noted in the filename, they are all in the sRGB color space, 8-bit
per channel, in the PNG image format. Most of them are designed to mimic the results
of various film stocks, pushed and pulled in various ways or faded over time.

The suffixes +, ++, +++, -, --, --- refer to the strength the film was pushed or pulled [http
s://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_processing] during development (non-linear), and "generic"
refers to the film type usually sold for rebranding.

Download [http://rawtherapee.com/shared/HaldCLUT.zip] (402MB!)

Changelog
2015-09-20
Added the "CreativePack-1" color collection.

Converted all TIFFs to PNG (except for the identity image).

2015-03-25
The identity CLUT had a bug causing cyan colors in the highlights, it has been
replaced with a fixed one.

Numbered the files so they are sorted in the correct order when pushed or
pulled (--, -, normal, +, ++).

2014-08-25
The first public release.

Re-organized into Color and Black-and-White, sub-folders sorted by brand.

2014-08-15
Expanded README.txt and added disclaimer.

2014-07-05
The first internal release.

All images re-compressed with maximum lossless compression.

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Learn more about HaldCLUTs here:

http://www.quelsolaar.com/technology/clut.html

http://blog.patdavid.net/2013/08/film-emulation-presets-in-gmic-gimp.html

http://blog.patdavid.net/2013/09/film-emulation-presets-in-gmic-gimp.html

Credits:

Pat David - https://discuss.pixls.us/u/patdavid

Pavlov Dmitry

Michael Ezra - https://discuss.pixls.us/u/michaelezra

Disclaimer:

The trademarked names which may appear in the filenames of the HaldCLUT
images are there for informational purposes only. They serve only to inform
the user which film stock the given HaldCLUT image is designed to
approximate. As there is no way to convey this information other than by
using the trademarked name, we believe this constitutes fair use. Neither the
publisher nor the authors are affiliated with or endorsed by the companies
that own the trademarks.

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Color Curves

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RGB curves allow to apply a curve adjustment individually to each of the RGB channels.
This provides a fine control over image color balance when curves applied to each of
the RGB channels are different. Using RGB curves one could make warmer highlights or
colder shadows, simulate film cross-processing effect, etc.

130 - Luminosity Mode

The purpose of Luminosity Mode in the RGB Curves tool is to alter image luminosity by
changing the contribution of the RGB channels to it, while keeping image color the
same.

The effect is somewhat similar to V changes in the HSV Equalizer, but is smoother and
broader across hues, not as selective. When working on black-and-white images, similar
adjustments could be made via the Channel Mixer, but RGB Curves allow a finer control.

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Color Toning

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131 - Introduction
The first question that arises is: What is the
definition of, or what do you hear by, "Color
Toning" or "Split Toning"? Indeed, when
consulting the Web, we generally find out
something like: "Color Toning consist in
coloring a black & white image in a different
way according to the brightness, e.g. coloring
"Color Correction Regions" method with
highlights in yellow and shadows in blue. the mask visible.

Extending the concept, we can put under the

same definition:

the toning of a color image that allows to

add a dominant color to the image. It will
be possible to tweak this dominant color
in the image highlights and/or shadows.

to extend the toning to the whole "Color Correction Regions" method with
the mask disabled, an extreme example
luminance spectrum, and not only, in a demonstrating color-toning a sky.
restrictive way, to the highlights and
shadows.

In RawTherapee, two types of algorithms try to meet the principles defined above:

Blending from target colors: in this case, a chromatic value is weighted according to
a formula like: "output hue" = " input hue" + ("target hue" - " input hue") * balance
where balance is a coefficient between 0 and 1. We can easily find on the internet
references to this kind of lagorithm.

Addition and reduction of RGB channels: in this case, according to the luminance
(shadows/midtones/highlights), each channel is amplified at the same time the two
others are reduced. e.g. an action on the red channel for a given luminance range,
will increase the "R" channel by X%, and at the same time, "G" and "B" channels will

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be reduced by X%. Note it is not a "Channels Mixer". I did not find any references to
this kind of algorithm, but studying the Photoshop "Color Balance" module
behaviour, I think I figured out an algorithm that gives similar results.

From experience, the first algorithm type will give good color toning results for color
images but is not easily predictable, and it is not as good for black and white images,
even if, of course, it gives satisfactory results. This algorithm is embedded in two
different ways - no one is better than the other - that give various results:

RGB mode: each R, G, and B channel has the algorithm explained in (i) applied.

Lab mode: each color component "a" (red/green channel) and "b" (blue/yellow
channel) have the algorithm explained in (i) applied. This mode allows, according to
the suggested choices (menus), a normal predictability or an important creativity.

The second algorithm type can have three usages based on the "Strength" slider:

Using low values, the user can simulate a "color balance" and accurately tweak the
tone color.

Using high values, the user will be able to, in "color" mode, get similar results as
the "blend" algorithm, but with less creativity.

Using high values, the user will be able to, in black and white mode, get strongly
specials effects.

132 - Methods

132.1 - Blending Methods

The blending methods are divided into L*a*b* blending which uses both lab chromatic
components "a" and "b", and RGB - Sliders and RGB - Curves which use the same RGB
algorithm but differ in the user interface.

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The Lab method isolates the color component from the luminance, whereas the two
RGB methods indirectly act on the luminance. This difference partly explain the
behavior gap between these methods.

Even if the interface is different (sliders or curves), the two RGB methods use only one
type of opacity (the color blending management), whereas the lab mode offers four of
them. The first one "Standard chroma " is similar to the one used in "RGB-curves". The
other three allow special effects.

The used curves are special flat curves.

. the color curve displays luminance in abscissa and target hues in ordinate. the two
vertical lines delimit the main resulting areas. by moving:

the vertical lines positions;

the curve shape;

the target hues choices;

you will obtain different results

. The Opacity curve (L*a*b* blending > Standard chroma or RGB curves) displays
luminance in abscissa and opacity in ordinate (also called Balance) that translate
the way the original hue (image) and the target hue are assemblied, in this case,the
opacity value varies from 0 to 1. The highest the curve will be, the more the
blending near the target hue. When setting the opacity curve to 0, the image stay
unchanged.

The saturation setting (the effects maximum intensity) can be adjusted:

. Manually, in this case the box "Automatic" is not checked. You can move the two
sliders "Threshold" and "Strength".

. Automatically, in this case the box "Automatic" is checked. An algorithm takes into
account the color space (sRGB, Adobe, Prophoto...) and the image pixels saturation
to determine the best values for "Threshold" and "Strength".

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This settings are obviously without any effect for images converted into
black and white.

132.1.1 - "L*a*b* blending" particularities

132.1.1.1 - Special chroma

Here, the flat curve is replaced by a diagonal curve. The two chroma components "a"
and "b" (Lab) are modified with the same amplitude. If you move the curve under the
diagonal, you introduce negative opacity values, which will bring special effects often
unpredictable.

132.1.1.2 - Special a* and b*

Here, the flat curve is replaced by two diagonal curves. The two chroma components "a"
and "b" (Lab) are individually modified by two different curves. The first one only acts
on the "a" component (Lab), i.e. the red-green dimension. the second one only acts on
the "b" component (Lab), i.e. the blue-yellow dimension. If you move the curve(s) under
the diagonal, you introduce negative opacity values, which will bring special effects
often unpredictable.

132.1.1.3 - Special chroma '2 colors'

Here, like in "Special chroma", the flat curve is replaced by a diagonal curve. The two
chroma components "a" and "b" (Lab) are modified with the same amplitude. If you
move the curve under the diagonal, you introduce negative opacity values, which will
bring special effects often unpredictable.

The difference with "Special chroma" lies in using the color curve. In "Special chroma",
the whole curve hue=f(Luminance) is used, in the "Special chroma '2 colors'" case, only
the two hues focused by the vertical lines are used.

132.1.2 - RGB-sliders particularities

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The searched ergonomic aims to be closed to the Lightroom one (like by the way
"Saturation 2 colors")

You have two sliders with two levels at your disposal, the first one for highlights, the
second one for shadows. For each of both sliders you can set the wished hue and
strength: When set to 0, the two strength sliders doesn't change anything to the image.

The "Balance" slider allows to set the equilibrium between high and low lights. By
moving it to the left (negative values) the action on highlights is increased, whereas to
the right (positive values) the on action shadows is increased.

132.2 - Addition Methods

132.2.1 - Color Balance Shadows/Midtones/Highlights

This method is very close to the Photoshop module "Color Balance", both in its
operating mode and its rendering.

You can act differently on the shadows, midtones and highlights.

Each slider acts on a color and its complementary color: Red and Cyan, Green and
Magenta, Blue and Yellow

The "Strength" slider allows to set the system sensitivity:

. with low values - less than 50 - you can use this tool to tweak the image color
balance, thus modifying the whole blending to give a generalised chromatic
correction,

. with medium values, you can use this tool as a color toning,

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. with high values, you can use this tool as a black and white toning, interacting with
the Black and White tool (internal algorithm parameters are different for a color or
a black and white action)

Select "Preserve Luminance" to prevent any change of the lightness values in the image
when modifying the color. This option allows to preserve tone balance in the image.

132.2.2 - Saturation 2 Colors

This method is close to ACR and Lightroom, both in its operating mode and its
rendering.

It is mostly intended to color toning, even if it may be used in interaction with the Black
and White tool.

Two sliders with two levels are at your disposal, the first one for highlights and the
second one for shadows. For each of the both sliders, you can tweak the desired hue
and strength: if set to zero, a strength sliders prevent any change to the image.

The "Balance" slider allows to balance the action between high and low lightness.
Moving it to the left (negative values) increase the action on highlights, to the right
(positive values) increase the action on shadows.

The "Strength" slider allows to set the system whole sensitivity.

Select "Preserve Luminance" to prevent any change of the lightness values in the image
when modifying the color. This option allows to preserve tone balance in the image.

132.3 - L*a*b* Color Correction Grid

Tone the shadows and highlights by adjusting the corresponding black and white nodes
on a color grid.

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Double-click a node to reset it back to the neutral position.

132.4 - Color Correction Regions

A powerful tool which lets you not only color-tone based on any number of masks, but
also supports functions from the American Society of Cinematographers Color Decision
List (ASC CDL) [https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/55239].

133 - Interaction With Other Tools

133.1 - Black and White

It is thanks to going to and from from the Black and White tool - particularly Luminance
Equalizer- to the "Color Toning" tool - particularly Color Balance
Shadows/Midtones/Highlights - that you will get the most pronounced (black and
white) special effects.

133.2 - Film Simulation

In the case of color film simulation, all the "Color Toning" tools are directly
available.

In the case of black and white film simulation, it is mandatory to enable the the
"Black and White" tool. The desaturation method is almost neutral and allows a
direct use of the black and white simulations in all the "Color Toning" tools", but
without being able to use the special effects of the "Black and White" tool.

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Color Management

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134 - Input Profile

A raw file contains a dump of light values captured and quantized by the sensor and
related electronics. The input profile's role is to accurately map these values into a
known color space to ensure that all colors in the captured scene are faithfully
reproduced. The input profile is applied to the image data at the beginning of
RawTherapee's processing pipeline, and most tools process data downstream in the
pipeline.

For detailed information, see:

https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~torger/dcamprof.html

https://ninedegreesbelow.com/photography/articles.html#profile-digital-camera

How to create DCP color profiles

134.1 - No Profile
No input color profile will be applied. The color matrix will use "1" along the diagonal
and "0" everywhere else.

Raw files will show the camera's native RGB color. They will only be demosaiced and
white-balanced.

Non-raw files will be displayed without any embedded input profile applied,
including no gamma correction, which means they will look bright.

This feature is generally only useful for didactic and scientific purposes. For example if
the camera has recorded colors far outside of the conventional gamuts, using no input
profile ensures that no color clipping occurs.

134.2 - Camera Standard

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RawTherapee looks for the color matrix in three places:

In the dcraw code which is embedded inside RawTherapee,

In the raw file itself,

In a text file on your system which is installed with RawTherapee called

camconst.json

Information is gathered from all three places, and values from camconst.json are
prioritized above those from other sources. There is an exception for the input color
matrix, in that if the raw file is in the DNG format and the Software Exif tag ( 0x0131 )
does not begin with the string "Adobe DNG Converter" and the file does contain a
ColorMatrix2 tag, then the value from this tag is prioritized.

A color matrix is a matrix of 3x3 constant values which is multiplied with the camera's
native RGB colors to convert them to colors which are as faithful as possible. A color
matrix works best (i.e. provides most accurate colors) when the white balance is close
to what the matrix was calibrated for. The "camera standard" matrix is calibrated for
D65 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminant_D65], i.e. 6500K. Do not worry if the white balance
is quite far off from that, as colors will be reasonably accurate anyway.

For applications where the most accurate and fine-tuned color is not of highest
importance, such as landscape photography, the color matrix will provide good colors.
An advantage of color matrix processing, as opposed to lookup table-based DCP and
ICC conversions, is that it's purely linear, i.e. dark and bright colors of the same hue and
saturation are translated the same way. This makes it robust and may be the best
choice if you will be exporting images for processing in an HDR application or other
application where a predictable linear color response is required.

134.3 - Auto-Matched Camera Profile

Uses a DCP or ICC input profile. DCP profiles are prioritized. These profiles can provide
more accurate colors than the standard matrix.

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These profiles are meticulously created by us, using photos of color targets submitted
by users. If you have access to a color target and we do not yet have a dual-illuminant
DCP profile for your camera (see [1] [https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/tree/dev/rtdata/d
cpprofiles]), then submit the required photographs so that we may improve color
accuracy for your camera model. You will find instructions in the article titled "How to
create DCP color profiles".

If neither a DCP nor an ICC profile is available for your camera model, RawTherapee will
revert to the camera standard color matrix.

Camera profiles work in the normal range, from black up to clipping. If you enable
highlight reconstruction, new data is added above the clipping level and if you bring it
into visible space (by negative exposure for example), that range will not be naturally
covered by the profile. However, RawTherapee will linearly extend the profile to cover
this range too - colors there will get the same correction as the brightest colors of the
same hue and saturation in the normal range.

134.4 - Custom
Specify a custom DCP or ICC camera input profile.

If RawTherapee does not have a DCP profile for your camera model and you do not have
access to a color target, one place where you can get a profile from is Adobe DNG
Converter. See the article "How to get LCP and DCP profiles" to learn how to get them.

DCP is a format specially designed for camera profiles and RawTherapee should support
the most recent DNG standard (which defines DCP), so you can for example use DCPs
provided by Adobe's DNG converter. ICC profiles, on the other hand, are more tricky. ICC
profiles can be used for a multitude of purposes (printers, displays, etc.) and since
they're not designed specifically for camera profiling, different vendors have chosen
different approaches for their ICC profiles. In practice this means that the input image
must be pre-processed in some specific way for the profile to work. The profile itself

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lacks information on how to do this, which means that if you are using a third-party
profile RawTherapee may not necessarily do the expected pre-processing - results may
vary.

134.5 - DCP

134.5.1 - DCP Illuminant

Some of RawTherapee's profiles are single-illuminant (Daylight/D50), while others are

double-illuminant (Daylight/D50 and Tungsten/StdA). If a dual-illuminant profile is
loaded the "DCP Illuminant" setting will be enabled and you can choose which
illuminant to use. The actual DCP standard (part of the DNG standard) does not provide
this choice, but instead an interpolation between the two illuminants is calculated
based on the chosen white balance (there will only be an interpolation if the white
balance is in-between both illuminants, otherwise the closest is picked). This
" interpolated" mode is the default setting of "DCP Illuminant" and for any normal use
you do not need to change this.

You can however choose to base the color rendering on one of the specific illuminants.
In some cases this might produce more pleasing color. It can also be interesting for
diagnostic purposes to see how large (or small) a difference there is in color rendering
between the illuminants, but, as said, for general use this setting should be untouched.

134.5.2 - DCP Tone Curve

Some DCPs contain a tone curve which may be used to add contrast and brightness to
provide a film-like look. This is mainly used for profiles simulating camera maker
settings. The tone curve checkbox will be disabled for profiles which do not contain a
tone curve.

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The curve mode used by the DCP tone curve is the same as the Exposure tool's "film-
like" mode, meaning you can reproduce the effect using the Exposure tool's tone curves
in film-like mode. When contrast is applied with a film-like curve the appearance of the
colors will change and overall saturation is increased, except for bright colors which
instead are de-saturated. Some profiles which have curves embedded are pre-corrected
for this color appearance change and will thus not provide the intended look without
the curve applied. Most will however work well without the tone curve applied especially
if you add a similar curve yourself using the Exposure tool's curves, but if you want to
see exactly how the profile designer intended the colors to look you should enable the
tone curve.

While the input color profile is applied at the first stages of the toolchain pipeline, the
DCP tone curve is applied later in the pipeline at some point after the Exposure tool.

The curve used in some of RawTherapee's

bundled DCP profiles is the same as the
default curve used by Adobe Camera Raw. You
can get the curve from this file: File:DCP tone
curve.rtc
Set either tone curve in the Exposure tool to
"Standard", set its mode to "Film-Like", and
then use the "Load a curve from file"
button to apply DCP tone curve.rtc

If the DCP profile has a copyright tag with the

value "Adobe Systems", regardless whether it The tone curve used in some of
RawTherapee's bundled DCPs, DCP tone
contains a tone curve or not, RawTherapee curve.rtc
will automatically create a tone curve shaped
identically to the Adobe Camera Raw curve.
The reason for this is so that using the DCP in RawTherapee can match the results of
using that DCP in Lightroom. This is why the "Tone curve" checkbox will not be grayed-
out when using a DCP profile which has no embedded tone curve, as long as it has the
copyright tag set as described.

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134.5.3 - DCP Base Table

This enables the DCP "HueSatMap" lookup table which is used to add non-linear
corrections on top of the basic matrix. This is an advanced user setting and unless you
want only the pure matrix result should leave it on. It's grayed out if the loaded profile
lacks a HueSatMap table.

134.5.4 - DCP Look Table

This enables the DCP "LookTable" lookup table which is intended to add a subjective
look on top generally together with an embedded tone curve. That is if you disable the
DCP curve and looktable you may get a neutral "colorimetric" profile, if the DCP was
designed that way which is not always the case (if the DCP has both a look table and a
base table it's likely that it is, but if it only has a look table it will probably not work
well with it disabled). Disabling individual DCP elements are considered advanced user
settings, normally you would leave this on.

134.5.5 - DCP Baseline Exposure

The DCP may indicate an exposure offset that corresponds to an offset of the exposure
slider. The purpose of this is typically to make the brightness of the image match the
brightness of the camera's own JPEGs, which can be useful if you're shooting with auto-
exposure. Currently this offset is applied "under the surface" so you don't see it on the
exposure slider.

Note that if you are using Adobe's proprietary profiles those are expecting that the
DNG's "baseline exposure" tag is applied too (the profile's offset is added on top).
Currently there is no support for the DNG tag so you need to find that out on your own
(using exiftool for example) and then set that offset using the exposure slider if you
want to get the exact same brightness as in Adobe Camera Raw.

134.6 - Implementation Notes

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134.6.1 - Third-Party DCP Support

The DNG Camera Profile, DCP, is the preferred camera input profile format for
RawTherapee. All elements of the 1.4 DNG specification are supported, with the
exception of the black render tag (see below). A DCP can be a pure matrix profile, it can
have a LUT (typically 2.5D) to improve the colorimetric accuracy, and then it can have an
embedded curve and a separate "look table" on top. It may also add an exposure offset.
All these elements can be toggled on/off via checkboxes. However, you should be aware
that a profile will produce the most accurate colors when all the elements it was
designed to include are enabled. For example, using a tone curve changes the color
appearance, so if you disable an embedded tone curve to get a linear profile you can't
count on the colors being absolutely accurate. Nonetheless, most photographers rely on
an aesthetically-pleasing appearance, and not on absolute accuracy, so this should not
be a concern unless absolute accuracy is crucial. Typically, third-party profiles would
come from Adobe Camera Raw/Lightroom/DNG Converter, and RawTherapee supports
them. Many of Adobe's profiles lack a tone curve, but in Adobe's world that does not
mean that no tone curve should be applied, but that Adobe's default curve should be
applied. RawTherapee will therefore identify Adobe profiles (from the copyright string)
and add the default curve to those (which you can toggle with the tone curve checkbox).

Adobe DNG Converter may add a "baseline exposure" to the DNG file. Some of Adobe's
DCPs are designed to work with that baseline exposure and then produce a default
output which is about the same brightness and contrast as the out-of-camera JPEG.
RawTherapee can honor this baseline exposure if the DCP contains one.

The DCP format also has a black render tag. This indicates if the raw converter should
do "automatic" black subtraction or not. RawTherapee ignores this tag - you can
perform manual black subtraction with the Raw Black Points tool or with the black
slider in the Exposure tool. As many of Adobe's profiles indicate auto black subtraction
and Adobe Camera Raw/Lightroom does it, in those cases RawTherapee will render
slightly lower contrast and brighter shadows.

134.6.2 - Third-Party ICC Support

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RawTherapee has specific support for ICC profiles bundled with Capture One and Nikon
NX2, so those should work well. Older ICC profiles are not likely to work well though
(typically the image becomes extremely dark with unsupported ICC profiles).

Some ICC profiles apply a tone-curve and desaturate bright highlights for a more film-
like look. Those profiles may not work well together with Highlight Reconstruction. If
you see a radical change in contrast when you apply your ICC profile, it has applied a
tone-curve and then you should not use it together with Highlight Reconstruction.

Unlike DCP profiles, ICC profile processing may cause clipping of extremely saturated
colors during conversion. In practice this is rarely a problem, but still DCP should be
considered the primary choice if available.

Note on using Capture One ICC profiles: RawTherapee applies the ICC before exposure
adjustments, as the intention is that input profiles should only be used to make the
colors more accurate, and not to apply a look - you design the look using the tools
instead. Phase One's ICC profiles contain a subjective look though, which means that
they typically contain "hue twists", for example saturation in the shadows is increased.
This means that if you have an underexposed file and push it a few stops, those hue
twists have been applied to the dark image before the exposure adjustment and will
thus be in the wrong place after adjustment; that is you don't get the same look as in
Phase One's Capture One. Therefore it is recommended to have the right exposure out
of the camera when using Phase One ICC profiles. You should also apply a suitable RGB
film-like curve, as those ICC profiles are designed to be used together with that.

We are aware that LUT ICCs should typically be applied after exposure (just as DCP
LookTables are applied), and that would support for example Capture One profiles
better. This may be fixed in a future version.

134.7 - Save Reference Image

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Clicking the "Save Reference Image" button saves a linear TIFF image before the input
profile is applied. This file can then be used for profiling, i.e. creating a camera input
profile. You can use the open-source ArgyllCMS program to create ICC profiles, and
DCamProf to create ICC or DCP profiles.

Cropping, resizing and transformations (rotation) will be applied, allowing you to make
the output image more manageable by the receiving software. ArgyllCMS is very picky
for instance, and requires that only the test target is visible in the image.

You can also choose if you want to export with white balance applied or not. For ICC
profiles you should export with white balance applied, but if you intend to make a DNG
profile or a dcraw-style color matrix you should export without applying white balance.

135 - Working Profile

The default working profile is ProPhoto and should not be changed for normal use.

The working profile specifies the working color space, which is the color space used for
internal calculations, for instance for calculating saturation, RGB brightness/contrast
and tone curve adjustments, chrominance, etc.

When RawTherapee was based on integer math it was wise to not use working space
larger than absolutely needed to get the best precision in the calculations. However,
RawTherapee had switched to floating-point processing in 2011, and since version 4.0.12
the default working profile is ProPhoto, which has a very large gamut.

The choice of working profile has an influence on the effect of the curves in all modes
except for perceptual - in that mode, changing the working profile will not alter the
effect of the curve. If you have trouble fitting colors within the output gamut you can
experiment with changing the working profile when using curves in any mode but
perceptual.

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Note that the working profile will only specify the red, green and blue primaries, gamma
will not change as RawTherapee's processing pipeline is floating point with no gamma
encoding (that is gamma = 1.0). Some tools (like curves and histograms) will still display
with a gamma (usually sRGB gamma) which is hard-coded for the tool and stays the
same regardless of working profile.

135.1 - Adding Custom Working Profiles

RawTherapee 5.5 allows you to specify custom working profiles through a JSON [https://e
n.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON] file. The file should be named workingspaces.json and it can
reside in:

the ICC profile folder as set in Preferences > Color Management > Directory
containing color profiles,

or in RawTherapee's own ICC profile folder:

Windows: <rt-install-folder>\iccprofiles

Linux:

When installed using your package manager or self-compiled with

BUILD_BUNDLE=OFF : /usr/share/rawtherapee/iccprofiles

When self-compiled with BUILD_BUNDLE=ON : <rt-install-

folder>/iccprofiles

macOS: /library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays

The format of workingspaces.json is as follows:

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{"working_spaces": [

{
"name" : "ACES",
"file" : "/path/to/ACES.icc"
},
{

"name" : "ACEScg",
"matrix" : [0.7184354, 0.16578523, 0.09882643, 0.29728935, 0.66958117,
0.03571544, -0.00647622, 0.01469771, 0.66732561]
}

]}

If "matrix" is present, "file" is ignored. If only "file" is present, the matrix is extracted
from the ICC profile. For this, RawTherapee looks only at the R, G, and B matrix columns
and the white point set in the profile. Bradford adaptation is used to convert the matrix
to D50. Anything else in the profile (LUT, TRC, etc.) is ignored.

It is the user's responsibility to ensure that the profile is suitable to be used as a

working space.

136 - Output Profile

Specify the output color profile; the saved image will be transformed into this color
space and the profile will be embedded in the metadata. The effects the output profile
has on the image cannot be seen in the preview.

RawTherapee lets you specify " input" (e.g. you're camera's profile), "display" and
"output" (i.e. printer) device class profiles with an RGB color space, because
RawTherapee saves only RGB images. Profiles listed in this combobox are those which
come bundled with RawTherapee and those located in the folder set in Preferences >
Color Management.

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The soft-proofing feature is dedicated to simulating printer rendering. It lets you

preview what your image will look like when printed, assuming you use a printer profile
which correctly simulates your printer and paper combination. For best printout quality,
after you have tweaked your photo using soft-proofing, you should select your printer
profile as the output profile and save the image using it. This ensures that the image is
encoded using your printer's color space directly from RawTherapee's internal high
quality floating-point representation, instead of being saved to an 8-bit image in sRGB
for example and then having to be subsequently converted to the printer profile, which
would be quite lossy.

The main histogram, navigator and clipping indicators will use either the working or the
output profile, depending on your setting in Preference > General.

RawTherapee comes bundled with a number of custom-made high quality output

profiles:

RT_sRGB
Similar to sRGB

Gamma close to sRGB: g=2.40, slope=12.92

RT_sRGB_gBT709
Similar to sRGB

Gamma BT709: g=2.22, slope=4.5

RT_sRGB_g10
Similar to sRGB

Linear gamma g=1.0, slope=0

RT_Medium_gsRGB
Similar to AdobeRGB1998

Gamma close to sRGB: g=2.40, slope=12.92

RT_Large_gsRGB

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Similar to ProPhoto

Gamma close to sRGB g=2.40, slope=12.92 (close to "Melissa" used by

Lightroom)

RT_Large_gBT709
Similar to ProPhoto

Gamma BT709: g=2.22, slop=4.5

RT_Large_g10
Similar to ProPhoto

Linear gamma g=1.0, slope=0

Rec2020
Wide gamut, larger than AdobeRGB but smaller than ProPhoto

Gamma BT709: g=2.22, slope=4.5

The recommended output profile when you're saving to an 8-bit format and/or
publishing to the web is RT_sRGB. If no profile is selected, none will be embedded,
which means that "sRGB" is implied, though it is safer to embed RT_sRGB in terms of
getting your image displayed properly in various applications.

RT_sRGB is a higher quality version of the standard sRGB profile, which surprisingly is
inconsistent between implementations. RT_sRGB was custom-made for RawTherapee by
Jacques Desmis and has 4096 LUT points, as opposed to the lower quality 1024 point
sRGB profiles. Applications that aren't color managed and won't take advantage of
RT_sRGB will fall back on sRGB.

Wide-gamut output profiles such as RT_Large_gsRGB are generally used if you export to
a 16-bit or higher bit-depth format for further editing in another application. If you will
be sending your image for printing, a wide-gamut output profile is also recommended,
since some printers may have wide gamuts (at least in certain colors).

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You should have a wide-gamut monitor if you want to work with wide-gamut profiles,
otherwise you're flying in the dark.

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Color Management
Addon

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137 - Colorimetry concepts

This document aims at several objectives about colorimetry:
1. To summarize the raw file processing pipeline from a colorimetry point of view and to
highlight key points and gaps
2. To explain the main steps principles in order to allow the user to be able to weight
what is at stake.
3. To explain the use of some functions that may look obscure to newcomers.

Note: This document only deals with RawTherapee 4 and computing with real numbers,
and not RawTherapee 3. More over it does not take into account possible
malfunctioning (bugs) still unsolved !

137.1 - Warning
This document doesn't aim to deal with the whole colorimetry aspects that aren't
specific to RawTherapee, like for instance:

the printing,

screens calibration.

However, it is recommended to calibrate the screens with one of the many products
in the market: colorimetric probe plud software. The created profile is for the
monitor only and must never, in any case, be used either as input profile or output
profile.

Under Windows, MacOS or Linux, a software like DispalGUI from Argyll, combined
with a probe of quality, even old (e.g. the DTP94 probe I own, and for which it
doesn't exist any more [??] drivers for Windows) give very good results  ; the
processing time is quite long (about an hour).

RawTherapee automatically detects the system profile, however you can enter the
screen icc filename in « Preference/ Color Management / Monitor Profile »

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The reader shall preferably have minimal knowledges about color management  :
matrix triplet, RGB, XYZ, Lab, color space, primaries and colorimetric profile... wise
readers can read the B. Lindbloom's website [2] [http://www.brucelindbloom.com]

The histogram display as well as the browser can be configured: by default, the
displayed values take into account the "Output profile". You can change this
behaviour going into "Preferences" and checking "Use working profile for main
histogram and navigator"

Of course, this document is far to be exhaustive, the subject is complex.

137.2 - Initial raw processing before RGB conversion

137.2.1 - Read the raw file and use its data

Le first step that is essentially carried out on a Dcraw basis (thanks to D.Coffin)
consists in reading all types of raw files, with their proprietary coding: data depth,
12 or 14 bits, sensor saturation, white balance, ... and of course rggb or rgbg data;

the default white balance is the one chosen by the user on his/her camera for the
shooting!

the interpolation (AMaZE, AHD, DCB...) takes place after by rgb data modifying (the
image can be visually evaluated on a screen): the interpolation shouldn't modify the
colorimetry (or a very few) and that is the case for all the existing interpolations in
RawTherapee (deltaE94 due to interpolation is approximatively 1, so negligible), in
the other hand, at the limits (upper highlights ...) artefacts may appear for some of
them.

in order to give them a more realistic look, these rgb data are modified by either a
color matrix (from Adobe), or a DCP profile (from Adobe or RawTherapee), or an ICC
input profile, we will below come back about these ICC profiles, their elaboration
and use;

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rgb values are without any color space - this point is essential (the choice sRGB or
AdobeRGB for example suggested by the camera is for JPG files sonly)

the color management is processed: a) partially with LCMS2, that made great
improvements, and can now work using floating point avoiding colors cliping; b)
directly by computing (conversion of XYZ, Lab, RGB, gamma, etc.)

137.2.2 - ICC input profiles : elaboration, use, gaps

these profiles apply either like external profiles after RGB conversion (as does
Capture NX2) to the rgb data, so theoretically without rendering intent [https://en.wikip
edia.org/wiki/Color_management#Rendering_intent] (relative, absolute, perceptual,
saturation). They modify Lab values but not rgb ones - histograms remain the same,
or like internal profiles as does RawTherapee (theoretically without rendering intent
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_management#Rendering_intent]);

they try to reduce the gap between their original values (the sensor ones) and a
target value, theoretically perfect;

they are theoretically matching: a given illuminant (D50, C, shadow,...), test pattern
shooting conditions, lens shooting...

nevertheless, we can without any problem, use them as long as we stay

approximatively in the same environment, e.g. flash instead of daylight, D55 instead
of de D50...

elaboration :

. shoot a test pattern in ideal conditions matching the planned use (outside, studio,
...);

. the wider the test pattern gamut is, the better the result is, e.g. the ColorChecker24
is close to sRGB, even if it gives good results in usual cases, how could it efficiently
evaluate real colors that are out sRGB range (flowers, artificial colors ...)?

. the higher is the test pattern cells number, better the result is (better profile
guiding)

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. The 468 colors test pattern, designed with

a colleague "Rouli", is over WideGamut
for some colors, and owns low luminance
values.

. for your information, about my D200,

deltaE94 results gotten from my 468
colors test pattern shoot (NEF) on which I
apply the input profile or matrix: a)
original color matrix (Dcraw) – (or results
obtained with Camera Raw 6.6 and DCP)
profile): average=4.37, standard
deviation=1.82, maximum=13.75  ; b) ICC
profile, stored in the "Iccprofile" folder,
elaborated from the ColorChecker24
close to sRGB: average==3.66, standard
Test pattern 468 colors, for calibration
deviation=2.08, maximum=11.28; c) ICC
profile, elaborated by myself from the
468 colors test pattern with very wide gamut, close to WideGamutRGB:
average==2.05, standard deviation=1.44, maximum=8.8; d) of course, most of the
time, the profile made with a ColorChecker24 (ICC or DCP) wil be enough!

. shoot the test pattern at about 12 o'clock in direct sunlight (a), or in cloudy weather
(b), or in the shadow (c), or with tungsten light (d), or with a Solux studio light (e)
that has a spectre very close to the daylight, or (f ) another light that match your
needs:

. set the camera in manual mode (exposure...);

. set the white balance on a) 5000K (or similar to "sunlight"); b) 6000K; c) 8000K;
d) tungsten 2850K; e) Sun 4700K; f )... ;

. ensure there is no reflect;

. take several photos each 1/3 EV;

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. ensure the most perfect possible exposure equality between the test pattern
centre and four sides.

. save the raw files in a folder called RawTherapee

. open the raw with the "neutral" pp3 profile et choose "Prophoto" as "working
profile", in "Input Profile", choose "No profile"

. evaluate the exposure from one of the test pattern grey cell which luminance lie
between L=40 et L=60 and study the exposure difference between the test pattern
dark sides; choose the shoot with the best compromise; do the shoot again if
necessary.

. set the exposure with "raw white-black point" - "white point: linear corr.factor"
ensuring that "White point HL preserving corr(EV)" is set to zero, in such a manner
that the L value of the grey reference cell being the closest possible of the
reference.

. tweak the white balance with SpotWB, choosing a grey cell (20 < L < 80) of which the
"a" and "b" values are the closest to zero (for this operation the "a" and "b" values
must be inferior to 0,5; otherwise, if the cell has "a" and "b" values close to 1, tweak
with the "temperature" and "hue" sliders (see below the notes about white balance)
in such a manner to arrive to the reference cell Lab values.

. then click on "Save reference image for profiling"

. use your "profiler" which will use, according to the maker, either the spectral
values or the Lab or XYZ values: generate a reproduction type profile for the
illuminant matching the shooting (D50, D65, Solux, etc.).

. of course, some « profilers » (Profilemaker5, etc.) allows to elaborate profiles that

are not « reproduction » profiles that minimise the deltaE94, but profiles that will
give a specific rendering (portrait, landscape, etc.) by acting on the contrast curve
and on the differentiated chromaticity between pastel and saturated tones. These
profiles are working, but in my point of view, are out of RawTherapee's mind by
introducing from the processes beginning, hue and contrasts gaps that can't be
corrected any more by the various algorithms. Nevertheless, this choice is possible.

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137.2.3 - White balance

137.2.3.1 - White balance gaps

The white balance is really operational only with the use of "SpotWB" on a perfect
grey ("a" and "b" Lab values set to zero), but as it is quasi impossible to put a grey
chart on each shot (otherwise to do it like Alfred Hitchcock), if you want to tweak
the camera white balance, you have generally to use the "Temperature" and "Tint"
sliders;

But the sliders have a range from 1500K to 25000K, and the used computing basis
matching the D illuminant (Daylight) is not valid under 4000K (computing is only an
extrapolation)

Moreover, data become false if the illuminant is different from the day light (D), for
example the illuminant "Blackbody" or "Fluorescent"

Then, show caution, great caution, when you are out of the D illuminant (daylight)
and for temperatures under 4000K

137.2.3.2 - Principles
Shooting: When shooting, two basis options
are available to the user: a) To work in raw
mode, in this case, mistakes are authorized
and a retouches are possible with a raw
processing software, for example
RawTherapee; b) to work in JPEG mode, in this This graphic (B.Lindbloom) displays
case, if the white balance choice on the spectral data for 4 illuminants I chose
arbitrarily: D50 (5000K), D40 (4000K), A
camera is different that the real light
(tungsten - 2850K) and F11 (fluorescent).
conditions, the retouch is more difficult. We It shows the obvious difficulty to
will give more importance to the raw mode extrapolate the D illuminant...

study.

However a camera owns (essential for JPEG, useful for raw) several white balance
settings. Of course theses functionalities vary from a model and maker to one another,
but we often find:

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An "auto" mode: the camera electronic decide which value is right from home-made
algorithms. This mode generally works pretty well, except when there is strong
dominant colors.

A "manual" mode where the user, for some brands, enters a temperature value, e.g.
7000K. This choice is made by a confirmed user, on his/her experience basis.

A "pre-set" mode where the user can choose amongst several situations
predetermined in "the factory": "sun", "shadow", "cloudy", «  flash  »,
« incandescent », « fluorescent »,...

Note: each brand and model has its own specificities, e.g. for the fluorescent mode:
a) Canon equips its cameras with only one mode; b)Fuji gives 3; c) Pentax gives 3 ;d)
Nikon gives up to 7 (D3S, D300,...); e) etc.

Note also: the "flash" value differs from one brand to another one, e.g. for: a) Nikon
D300, the flash illuminant matches roughly 6400K; b) Leica R9, the flash illuminant
matches roughly 5500K; c) Sony A900, the flash illuminant matches roughly "shade",
that means about 7000K...

of course in most of the cases, the choice of pre-set is pretty obvious, but in some
other cases the user won't know what to chose... Indeed, during an exhibition, a visit
to the museum, etc. what is the lighting in use ?

All these settings act on the channels multipliers;

At the end, during a raw processing, this choice will be displayed in RawTherapee as
"Camera".

137.2.3.3 - Raw processing

RawTherapee allows 5 possibilities:

« Camera » : the software uses - when existing - the shooting EXIF data

«  Auto  »  : the software values the white balance at the "average" data on a
theoretical neutral grey basis;

« pre-set settings »: like Shade, Daylight, Fluorescent, etc.

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«  Custom  »: the user can choose Temperature and Tint (see the section White
balance gaps)

« Spot WB »: the user choose a neutral-grey area as a reference. This almost means
a neutral-grey chart must be present when shooting.

137.2.3.4 - Colored object – illuminant – observer

Simplifying, colorimetry can be synthesised in three kinds of data:

Colored object: characterized by its pigments (red, blue,...) whatever the lighting
source is. It can be evaluated with a spectrometer, that will give an unique
representation of it

Illuminant or Lighting source: this data characterize the nature of the illumination
source (sun at noon, shade, flash, tungsten, fluorescent...). It is valued by two data:
its spectral power distribution and its correlated temperature; caution! two lighting
sources that have the same temperature are not identical because their spectral
data are different.

Observer: Do the following test, observe the color of a painted wall, then the one of
the sample that was used to make the choice, you will notice that the color feeling
is different. CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Éclairage) defined two "observers",
2° and 10°, characterized by the angle under which the color is observed.

To compute the values observed from a colored object, under the X illuminant, it is
necessary to take into account in the computing the object, illuminant and observer
spectral data. These values XYZ are specific to the illuminant temperature (e.g. 6500K);
at a software level, (Photoshop, RawTherapee...) the standard is D50. So, it is imperative
to proceed to a chromatic adaptation from the XYZ values (illuminant) to the XYZ (D50).
For that, several methods exist from the less to the most efficient: Von Kries, Bradford,
CIECAM02.

137.2.3.5 - The Daylight illuminant

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This illuminant has been object of many studies by Judd, MacAdam and Wyszecki, from
several hundreds of examples. In short, the "D" illuminant is the sum of three parts:
S(lamda)=S0(lamda) + M1*S1(lamda)+M2*S2(lamda)

. one "fix" part, So that is the average of all the tested examples;

. one first "variable" part, S1 that matches the "blue/yellow" variations due to the
presence or not of clouds or to the position and the intensity of the direct sun;

. one second "variable" part, S2 that matches the "pink/green" variations due to the
presence of humidity in the form of vapour or fog ...;

. in practical terms, that can be written in a "simple" formula that determines two
values x_D and y_D on a temperature and an illuminant basis

x_D=0.244063 + 0.0991*103/T+2.9678*106/T2 -4.6070*109/T3 for 4000K < T < 7000K

x_D=0.237040 + 0.24748*103/T + 1.9018*106/T2 -2.0064*109/T3 for 7000K < T < 25000K

y_D = -3.0*x_D2 + 2.87*x_D-0.275

these formulas are used to calculate the parameters M1(x_D,y_D) and M2(x_D,y_D) of
S(lamda)=S0(lamda) + M1*S1(lamda)+M2*S2(lamda) – it was not the case so far in
RawTherapee. Previously, in RawTherapee, the xD and yD values were directly used
to calculate the channels multipliers, now, these values are used to determine the
illuminant spectral values at the T temperature. It is only later on that second
values are calculated that allow to determine the multipliers.

Two things can be immediately noticed:

it does not exist any "Daylight" reference under 4000K, the previous formula used in
RawTherapee (from 1200K to 4000K) has been " invented" for Ufraw;

nothing prevents to modify RawTherapee to switch the maximum value from 12000K
to 25000K (done since 2013)

137.2.3.6 - "Blackbody" illuminant and "A: tungsten"

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The A illuminant from CIE is used to represent the typical light of a domestic bulb
tungsten filament. Its relative spectral power distribution is the one of a Planck radiator
at an approximative temperature of 2856K. The A illuminant from CIE can be used in any
colorimetry application involving the use of an incandescent light, unless there is
specific reasons to use another illuminant.

The "Blackbody" illuminant can be caculated with the Planck formula that is the
generalisation of the illuminant on a T basis:

S(lamda)= c1 * pow(wavelength, -5.0)) / (exp(c2 / (wavelength * blackbody_Temp)) –

1.0);

where the 2 values c1 and c2 match to: a) c1=2*Pi*h*c2 h=Planck constant c=light
velocity ; b) c2=h*c/k k=Boltzmann constant

This illuminant correctly joins up at roughly 4000K with the " Daylight" illuminant with
minimal gaps. I accordingly chose for RawTherapee to use the "Blackbody" illuminant
under 4000K and up to 1500K (it seems that "ACR" did the same choice).

137.2.3.7 - The Fluorescent illuminants

Standardisation has foreseen 12 illuminants of his type, matching the lighting tubes
sold in the shops:

F1 : Fluorescent daylight – 6430K

F2 : White fluorescent cold – 4230K

F3 : White fluorescent – 3450K

F4 : White fluorescent warm – 2940K

F5 : Fluorescent daylight – 6350K

F6 : White luminous fluorescent – 4150K

F7 : D65 simulator – 6500K

F8 : D50 simulator – 5000K

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F9 : White cold deluxe – 4150K

F10 : Philips T85 – 5000K

F11 : Philips T84 – 4000K

F12 : Philips T83 – 3000K

These illuminants (see white balance gaps) have a very different spectral power
distribution between them and between the "daylight" and "blackbody" illuminants. So
it is not advised to replace - when a lighting is fluorescent - the illuminant in question
(e.g. F11 4000K) by an equivalent "Daylight 4000K".

Actually, the white balance calculates on the

spectral data basis, two coefficients xD, yD
that modify the channels multipliers: this
calculation acts as an averaged integral
calculus. Indeed, the "average" white balance
will be exact, but the spectral data peaks or
gaps, compared with a theoretical ideal On this graphic, we can see that for a
(blackbody or daylight) will locally bring, for same temperature, the Daylight 4000
illuminant (continuous spectre) is very
some colors, hue gaps more or less
different from Fluorescent F11 (4000K).,
important. so, it will give a different colors
rendering.

It exists a concept called "CRI = Color

Rendering Index" that translates the lighting source quality. This "CRI" is a number
equal to 100 for a perfect source. We consider that values over 90 give good results. e.g.:

Fluo F4 "warm white": CRI=51

Clear Mercury Vapor: CRI=17

several LED with "CRI" between 50 and 96

Solux 4700: CRI=92

etc.

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This concept is embedded (not used yet) in RawTherapee with the following choices:

20 reference colors of which, 8 "standard" from the Colorchecker24, 4 skin hues, 4

greys (white-black), 3 blues

use of CIECAM02 for the chromatic adaptation

use of CIE Lab for deltaE calculation

To remedy it (partially) it is enough to create an input profile with the desired lighting
source and the matching spectral data.

137.2.3.8 - Other illuminants

Other illuminants exist, stemmed from the A illuminant and close to "Daylight"

B and C that I did not embedded in RawTherapee, but it is possible to do it

an illuminant with equal energy: "E"

The studio bulbs illuminants (movies, stage lighting, museums, photo studio, etc.)
that are named HMI, GTI, Solux 4700K , JudgeIII, Solix4100K, Solux3500K, etc., they are
embedded in RawTherapee.

The LED illuminant, these lamps often have large gaps in the blues. Some of them
own very satisfactory features

"Proprietary" flashes illuminants (Canon , Nikon, Pentax...) and studio flashes

illuminants, they are generally very close to daylight, but each one at different
temperatures. I did several grouping at 5500K, 6000K et 6500K, about studio flashes,
it should be useful to have their features: a) theoretically it should be useful to
have the spectral data for each flash (I don't have them), moreover, these data vary
depending on the flash power ...; b) so, I preferred to use the equivalent "daylight".

As we can see, the situation is not simple and pose many problems to the raw
processing software, of which RawTherapee.

137.2.3.9 - Illuminants Diagrams and Color Rendering Index (CRI)

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Illuminant D50 Illuminant A Illuminant D150 Illuminant Fluo

(CRI=100 2856K (CRI=100 -15000K (CRI=100 F1 "daylight"
Sigma=0) Sigma=0) Sigma=0) 6430K (CRI=77
Sigma=10)

Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo

F2 F3 "white" 3450K F4 "warm white" F5 "daylight"
"coolwite"4230K (CRI=60 2940K (CRI=54 6350K (CRI=74
(CRI=64 Sigma=12) Sigma=11) Sigma=12)
Sigma=12)

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Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo

F6 "Lite white" F7 "D65 F8 "D50 sylvania F9 "Cool white
4150K (CRI=61 simulator" F40" 5000K delux" 4150K -
Sigma=13) 6500K (CRI=90 (CRI=94 4330K (CRI=89
Sigma=2) Sigma=1.4) Sigma=2)

Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Fluo Illuminant Lamp

F10 "Philips F11 "Philips F12 "Philips HMI 4800K
TL85" 5000K TL84" 4150K - TL853" 3000K (CRI=97 Sigma=1)
(CRI=72 4000K (CRI=77 (CRI=72
Sigma=11) Sigma=9) Sigma=8)

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Illuminant Lamp Illuminant Lamp Illuminant Lamp Illuminant Lamp

GTI 5000K Judge III 5000K Solux 3500K Solux 4100K
(CRI=90 (CRI=92 (CRI=95 (CRI=92
Sigma=2) Sigma=2) Sigma=2) Sigma=2)

Illuminant Lamp Illuminant Lamp Illuminant Lamp

SoluxNG 4700K - LED LSI Lumelex LED CRS SP12
4480K (CRI=97 2040 - WWMR16 -
Sigma=1) 3000K(CRI=90 3050K(CRI=94
Sigma=2) Sigma=3)

137.2.3.10 - Algorithm
I use the basic algorithm "Daylight": a) calculation of the x_D and y_D values that are
given as parameters to M1 and M2 (S(lamda) = S0(lamda) + M1*S1(lamda) +M2*S2(lamda)
from which we differentiate Xi,Yi,Zi by matrix calculation [XiYiZi]=[observ2°xyz]
[S(lambda)], then we calculate the channels modifiers modifications by a simple matrix
calculation [mulrgb]=[sRGBd65_xyz]*[XiYiZi] (lebarhon: no b)!)

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I used works of John Walker (public domain), and B.Lindbloom - increasing the
accuracy and the spectral range - mostly the "Spectrum_to_xyz" function, as known
as "CIE_color_match" that converts spectral data (350 – 830nm) of a color or an
illuminant into xBar, yBar, zBar values (via the Observer 2° data). We get the output
values x and y.

About the blackbody, I use the Planck formula: the seem between the two formulas is
very good with a very slight gap of the xD and yD values at 4000K (that we can make out
with the histogram between 3995K and 40005K): a) daylight 4000K: xD=0.382 yD=0.383
(for your information for 4500K  : xD=0.362 yD=0.370, for 7000K xD=0.30 yD=0.32, for
25000K xD=0.25 yD=0.25); b) blackbody 4000K: xD=0.381 yD=0.377;

For the other illuminants, the works I previously did on the calibration (test pattern 468
colors) led me to search for (and find out) the illuminants spectral data I selected
(tungsten, fluorescents, HMI, GTI, Solux, etc.)

137.3 - rgb ==> RGB conversion - Working space

"Working Profile"
This "conversion" converts rgb data (without color space) into the working space
chosen by the user.

These working spaces are 8 of them (which sounds more than enough, or even too
much...): sRGB, AdobeRGB, Prophoto, Widegamut, BruceRGB, BetaRGB, BestRGB, Rec2020.
amongst these 8 profiles, 5 have a wide gamut: BetaRGB (origin B.Lindbllom), BestRGB,
Rec2020, WideGamut and Prophoto.

During this conversion, an internal gamma is set by RawTherapee that always is "gamma
sRGB" i.e. "gamma=2.4 and slope=12.92" (like Lightroom, see later on)

Note that other software made other choices:

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Adobe with ACR suggests 4 choices (AdobeRGB, ColorMatch, Prophoto and SRGB)

Adobe with Lightroom: no choice, but a modified Prophoto space with a sRGB
gamma (Melissa)

DxO: no choice, but a Adobe space

NX2: choice in the available output spaces

Which one to choose ? Wide ranging debate where small spaces supporters conflict with
wide spaces ones... between data lost and false or imaginary data. Indeed, the widest
space (Prophoto) houses, by construction, invisible or even imaginary colors. Moreover,
in the blues area, it may under some circumstances, generate artefacts.

A good color space would have a shape taking into account the gamut that minimize the
waste of space... which means the space should be chosen depending on each image, a
too wide space could be generating unsaturated colors in extremes cases (in the
working profile, but which will be reproduced during the output conversion ...).
Nevertheless, theoretically, the color management must make this choice tranparent.

My answer is pragmatic, choose the space that match the best! but, on what basis ?

Do you make essentially prints with a printer that use a CMYK driver? In this case it
is not really useful to choose a wide gamut profile.

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Do you make prints with a high quality ink-jet printer? In this case, it is better to
choose Prophoto (this kind of printers have a gamut, that for some colors, is wider
than WidegamutRGB), as working profile, but also as output profile, and of course
to choose the right printer profile... on this graphic, we can see the gamut of a) 3
usual color spaces (sRGB in blue, AdobeRGB in pink, WideGamut in yellow), b) the
ICC profile ffor my D200 in grey, c) the Epson printer profile and its
"3800MOABKOKOPELI_2431_V4" wide gamut paper.

Do you have a very high quality monitor which has a gamut close to AdobeRGB or
WideGamutRGB, in this case take a wide gamut profile.

A pretty simple way to evaluate the minimum profile is to use the statistics given by
"vibrance" in debug mode (with verbose=true). In the RawTherapee.exe window you will
see a message:

Gamut : G1negat=x iter - G165535= y iter - G2negat= z iter - G265535= w iter

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if a value (x or y) over 0 appears for one of the two G1, that means the initial image
(with the controls made before: contrast, exposure,...) exceed the chosen space
gamut in the working profile.

if a value (z or w) over 0 appears for one of the two G2, that means the saturation
set by "vibrance" exceeded the gamut.

It is up to you to choose if you want to keep these values (see above) or to put
them into the gamut (vibrance do it for you, as well as "avoid color cliping" +
"enable saturation limiter"), but you 'lose' colors!

the conversion rgb==>RGB allows when working in "float" to preserve the essential
negatives and over 65535 values.

137.4 - Work in the color space chosen by the user

(working space "Working Profile")
RawTherapee made the good choice to work in Lab mode (or its flavours Luv or Lch) or
in CIECAM02 mode and with real numbers. This allows to preserve the best colors and
gamut.

Functions available in "Exposure" does not modify the hue, except "Saturation" that
make it by dysfunction of the Lab mode (see about that the Munsell correction section

Same thing for "Lab adjustments", for the "Saturation" slider, along with the "a" and "b"
curves and all the curves that control the chromaticity.

"Channel Mixer" and "HSV equalizer" modify strongly the colorimetry, to be used with
all the knowledge of the consequences on the colorimetry. The functions: contrast,
brigthness, tone curve,..may quite strongly modify the gamut (see above the control
with the statistics given by "Vibrance")

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137.5 - What happens when we are in a "Working

Profile" or when we change of "Working Profile" or the
settings?
When we are in a narrow profile like sRGB, it may seem obvious that the colors will be
limited to this profile limits! So, if an initial color (the sensor one, slightly modified by
interpolation) is inside sRGB, what happens when we tweak sliders and curves?:

in RGB mode (Exposure), if saturation or lightness or contrast is/are modified, we

work in rgb mode or its linear derived "hsv". This means that the resulting effects
will depend on the working space ((sRGB, AdobeRGB, Prophoto), the results will be
different when we move from "sRGB" to "Prophoto", even if we stay inside the
gamut limits.

in Lab mode, if lightness, chromaticity, contrast or curves are modified, we modify

directly the L, a, b, (or C,h) values. This means that if we stay inside the gamut
limits, the image will be the same (within the limits of the color management)

When exceeding the gamut - that is, the original image - either acting the sliders or the
curves, what happens?

let's take an example, an original color is L=27 a=2 b=-75; this color is in the
Prophoto space and is worth R=42 G=52 B=158, and in sRGB R=-85 G=69 B=184
(negative R means out of gamut). If we change the working profile, it is obvious this
color can't be restored; the XYZ conversion will give L=32 a=21 b=-67 and R=0 G=69
B=184. The color will have a different aspect because it is completely impossible to
reproduce it in a smaller color space.

second example, a color inside sRGB : L=40 a=42 b=-44, that is in RGB (sRGB) R=133
G=66 B=166, and in RGB(Prophoto) R=102 G=64 B=140: a) if we apply saturation (+30)
in exposure, the values become - Prophoto - L=36 a=49 b=-49 and sRGB L=38 a=47
b=-47, because we act on the RGB values; b) if we apply chromaticity in Lab
adjustments; Lab values become L=40 a=55 b=-58 as well in sRGB than Prophoto,
because we stay inside the sRGB gamut; c) if we choose a color, close enough to the

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sRGB gamut limits, but inside the gamut: L=40 a=63 b=37 and we apply chromaticity
+30, Lab values become - Prophoto L=40 a=81 b=49 - we can notice that the hue is
preserved (arctg(b,a)), and in sRGB L=44 a=69 b=50 – the hue isn't preserved.

137.6 - What does "Avoid color shi "?

If we apply to c) above, "Avoid color shift", the system will try to preserve the hue, by
applying a relative colorimetry Lab values become L=40 a=65 b=38 (which leads to the
RGB channel G=0).

"Avoid color shift" realises two things:

try to put in the working profile gamut data out of this gamut, giving priority to a
relative colorimetry. RGB negatives values are detected and the chromaticity (and
luminance as well) are modified to reach the value 0.

apply a "Munsell" correction.

137.7 - The "Munsell" correction

Goal: to give the user possibility to automatically correct the colors that are sometimes
false in Lab mode when modifying the saturation, mostly in the blues-crimsons, reds-
yellows and the greens (Munsell type correction)

This goal requires the creation of 160 look-up tables with floating-point precision
(LUTf ):

These LUTf give to each color (in Munsell sense), each luminance, hue values on a
chromaticity basis: 2, 3 or 4 points are set for chromaticities [0..180] from 5, 45, 85,
125 or even 139 when possible. Intermediate values are linearly interpolated. These
LUT cause a minimal memory occupation: each one has between 45 and 140 entries,
that means about 16000 entries at the total...

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The LUTf are realised for four critical areas, where the drift compared with the Lab
mode is important (blue-crimson, red-yellow, green, red-crimson), for the other
areas the gaps are low, in any cases very much under the matrix and ICC profiles
possibilities.

These LUTf have the C illuminant as basis (slightly different of D50 or D65), but due
to the fact that we work on a gap basis and not on absolute values, the calculation
error is very low (less than 1% of the correction, in any cases very much under the
matrix and ICC profiles possibilities).

Theses corrections are quick, nevertheless they are increasing the "vibrance" or
"Lab adjustments" processing time of about 10%.

If "verbose" option is enabled, we can see appear for each correction type, the
concerned number of pixels and a rough idea of the correction size (in radians). For
correction values in radians, the color gap in deltaE94 is the following:

. correction=0.4 rad deltaE94=12 for blue-crimson

. correction=0.2 rad deltaE94=8 for red-yellow

. correction=0,1 rad deltaE94=3,7 for green

. correction=0.05 rad deltaE94=2 for red-crimson

. the maximum common values of the drift can reach about from 0.05 radian to 0.15
radian for average modifications of saturation, values from 0.2 to 0.25 radian are
not exceptionnal.

. for information, a deltaE94 less than 1 is negligible, it is noticeable around 2 or 3

and very important at 8 or 11.

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Colors drifts Colors drifts Colors drifts

representation representation representation
for L=20 for L=40 for L=70

137.8 - Output space "Output Profile"

137.8.1 - Space choice

The first thing to examine is: what are the output profiles that are installed on your
computer? This depends of: a) the operating system (on the face of it, Linux does not
install any profile); b) the other graphical software that are installed (Capture NX2,
PhotoShop CS, DxO, etc.), each one install proprietary profiles, for example NX2 installs
some NKsRGB.icm NkAdobe.icm, etc. that are copyrighted...; c) profiles that you can have
downloaded on the web, for example on the Adobe or B.Lindbloom websites.

On principle I would recommend to check the installation or to install the output

profiles matching the working profiles - that are *.icm or *.icc files physically present on
your computer and that have nothing to do with the calculation matrix of
" iccmatrices.h". If these files are missing, TIFF or JPEG output cannot be done towards
these profiles, but will be by default (if the RT_sRGB.icm file is present) done towards
the SRGB output space.

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These profiles have the following names (we can find others that have the same
features or close features), they are generally copyrighted and consequently cannot be
shipped with an Open Source software without authorization. They are available on the
Web: ProPhoto.icm; SRB Color Space profile.icm  ; AdobeRGB1998.icc; BestRGB.icm  ;
BetaRGB.icc; Bruce.icm; WideGamutRGB.icc. Of course you can install some others like
CIE.icc ; Colormatch.icc; etc.

They must be installed in the RawTherapee "Iccprofiles/output" folder or in

\windows\system32\spool\drivers\color for Windows and /usr/share/color/icc for the
other systems.

When you choose an output profile, e.g. AdobeRGB1998 and the working profile
Prophoto, LCMS2 will convert with a Colorimetric intent (chosen by default in the
RawTherapee options: relative, perceptual, ...) the RGB data from the working space to
the output space.

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Gamut for a Gamut for a Gamut for a Gamut for a

luminance L=5 luminance L=25 luminance L=75 luminance L=95

Of courses, remarks about the choice of the output color space are similar to the ones
about the working space (print, screen,...).

It you want to print with a high quality ink-jet printer (remind: RawTherapee has no
print module so far), you have to use a third party software (Photoshop...), in this case I
strongly recommend an output profile of Prophoto or WideGamut type.

Take care however, JPG outputs, therefore 8 bits, are almost incompatible - important
risk of posterization - with wide gamut spaces (Prophoto, WideGamut...).

137.8.2 - Shipped files

Because of the copyrights, I shipped specific files with more detailed LUT that should
bring less posterization in the shadows. These files are a by-product of Output Gamma
(see below)

RT_sRGB.icm: similar (primary) to sRGB.icm standard with internal gamma close to

sRGB: g=2.40 slope=12.92

RT_sRGB_gBT709.icm: similar (primary) to sRGB.icm standard with internal gamma

BT709: g=2.22 slope=4.5

RT_sRGB_g10.icm: similar (primary) to sRGB.icm standard with internal gamma

linear: g=1.0 slope=0

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RT_Middle_gsRGB.icc: similar (primary) to AdobeRGB1998.icc standard with internal

gamma close to sRGB: g=2.40 slope=12.92

RT_Large_gsRGB.icc: similar (primary) to ProPhoto.icm standard with internal

gamma close to sRGB: g=2.40 slope=12.92 (close to "Melissa" used by Lightroom)

RT_Large_gBT709.icc: similar (primary) to ProPhoto.icm standard with internal

gamma BT709: g=2.22 slope=4.5

RT_Large_g10.icc: similar (primary) to ProPhoto.icm standard with internal gamma

linear: g=1.0 slope=0

Rec2020.icm: new primaries - large gamut - with internal gamma BT709: g=2.22
slope=4.5

137.8.3 - RawTherapee gaps

The user can easily note that the output is slightly different from preview. This is not an
output default but is due to the curves elaboration that badly take TRC notion into
account (ICC profiles embedding to modify from the interior the tone rendering).

It is one of the reasons that led me to give possibility of "adjustable" outputs:

. either by choosing an output profile with another gamma;

. either with an adjustable gamma (gamma and slope);

. either possibly to realise a linear output and adjust it in Photoshop...

. (see further the histograms sketches)

137.8.4 - Output Gamma

From my point of view, Output Gamma is one of the key points of a successful TIFF or
JPEG output, for several reasons: since the adding of icc/icm profiles above - that are
directly derived and elaborate by Output gamma - this option shows a less important
interest because the use of these "new" pseudo-profiles Prophoto and SRGB brings

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similar advantages to Output gamma when selecting the pseudo sRGB and Prophoto  !
(see above). This option allows to partially compensate the RawTherapee gap
(difference between output/preview)

The ideal would have been to put Output gamma in first process, before the Exposure,
Highlights reconstructions, Shadows/highlights, etc. tabs; but, and it is what I thing is a
RawTherapee gap, this modification turned out to be impossible without bringing
important artefacts: the different RawTherapee pipelines are overlapping and
colorimetry in the processing initial part, looks more like do it yourself than
professional processing...

I accordingly chose to implant this process in final stage, what is not totally
incongruous (even if I think it would be better in initial stage) Output Gamma is going
to allow:

an image evaluation for software without color management

an image modification if youy print in CMYK (with of course a third party software).

[Lebarhon: this section is indeed not clear, the writer says firstly "Output gamma is a
key point for several reasons", and then "this option shows a less important interest"
and where are the several reasons ?]

137.8.5 - Some thoughts

The gamma acts in a pretty similar way of a combination between "Exposure curves" +
"black point" + "tone curves" present in RawTherapee, but modify in a more radically
way the contrast, the histogram repartition, mostly between shades and highlights, by
modifying at the same time (what previous functions can't do), the TRC curves of the file
headers similar to an input ICC profile. A friend of mine, photographer told me recently:
"At the beginning, I thought we could simulate gamma with contrasts and tonal curves...
but the result is different".

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Why indeed has Adobe, with Lightroom, designed "Melissa" that is a Prophoto color
space with a sRGB gamma, i.e. a linear part until r=12.92 and then a gamma of 2,4?

Why has D.Coffin embedded in Dcraw for a long time ago, a linear gamma and a varying
gamma as well?

Theoretically, if the color management is perfect, whatever the output gamma is

(standard, varying...) the image should be identical, because the color management use
Lab (or XYZ) data and what we call PCS (Profil Connexion Space in D50); in practice, the
image seems identical, but is we watch in the shades, we can see there are gaps,
admittedly pretty low but enough for RawTherapee users could have said: the output
image is different from "preview".

In the other hand, for software that does not manage colors like many web browsers
(Chrome,...) the output image will depend on gamma; it is then important RawTherapee
allow to view what the output file will be (softproofing). Today, several factors must be
taken into account:

working space ("working profile") conversion towards output space (Output profile):
it may seem obvious that if the image has colors out of the gamut for one or two of
the both spaces, if the spaces range is different, then the image rendering will be
different;

color management existing or not: in the case of RawTherapee or of an editor that

manage colors, the gaps (with identical output spaces) will be low but nevertheless
significant; in the case of software that do not manage colors, gamma impact will
be very important.

possibility to configure in the softproofing, the intent and the black point.

Later on, it must be quite easy possible to simulate a print by converting the output
towards the printer profile; note that in this case, a view of the printable colors
should be an important plus.

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When RawTherapee will have a function similar to Photoshop CS one "proof format-
proof colors", the viewing issue of Output gamma will be solved! this function allows
the "soft proofing", e.g. to simulate the look a file is going to have in a website or on a
CMYK printer.

137.8.6 - Various Output Gamma

In the drop down list you have 7 pre-defined gamma:

BT709: slope=4.5 gamma=2.2

sRGB: slope=12.92 gamma=2.4

linear: gamma=1.0

standard:slope=0 gamma=1.8

standard: slope=0 gamma=2.2

High: slope=3.35 gamma=1.3

Low: slope=6.9 gamma=2.6

BT709 " is better to process shades (they will be less grey) than sRGB and all the more
so, 2.2 or 1.8

"Low" will increase the contrast of the quite poor images, and allow a better post
processing for over exposed images

"High" at the opposite will decrease the contrast...

Linear: allows a process in Photoshop of very high dynamic images by adjusting RGB
curves in Photoshop (difficult exercice...)

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Moreover, you have possibility to use "free gamma" that allows to connect any slope
and gamma values to a given output profile, so, you can if desired go out of the new
outputs connected to the new added profiles icc/icm:

sRGB with standard gamma 1.8

WideGamut with gamma BT709

sRGB with gamma: 2.2 and slope 6.5

As examples here is with the same NEF file various histograms with various gamma and
as a reference the RawTherapee histogram (preview) with the same settings (working
spacece Prophoto, profile "neutral", output profile = Prophoto and its varying gamma).

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The more the histogram is shifted to the left the more the image appears dark...

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Moreover, it is not because the histograms are strictly identical that the images
rendering will be identical. Indeed, the "TRC" notion take place as well for the preview
as for the output file. This "TRC" acts on the file headers (ICC profile) and modify the
tone data. If the "TRC" value of the output file is known for certain, because it is
determined by the output file features (Prophoto.icm, RT_srgb.icc,...), I think that it is
not the same thing about "preview"... (see further notes about sRGB output).

Some people could be worried, is "RT_SRGB" identical to "sRGB_Color_Space_Profile"

and different from the preview. Moreover, what are the effects of another gamma?

Preview en SRGB Output RT_sRGB Output Output sRGB

sRGB_Color_spa gamma BT709
ce_Profile

Output sRGB
gamma=2.3
slope=8

137.8.7 - How to use it ?

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To satisfy a desire for simplicity, the Output profile will be a derivative of the Working
profile, the box Output profile appear in grey. That means Output profile = Working
profile.

For instance, you select Working profile = Prophoto and Free gamma = 2.1 and slope
=4.0.

Then you validate a TIF output or towards the editor and you generate an output TIF file,
with Prophoto profile and gamma 2.1 / 4.0. To open the file in an external editor (e.g.
Photoshop CS), it will appear "Prefer the embedded profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (RTH
gamma BT709 similar to HP sRGB)" that match to the RT_sRGB_gBT709 profile but with a
modification that we will examine further.

Other example, you select Working profile = sRGB and Free gamma=2.3 and slope=10.0,
you are going to generate a TIFF with sRGB and gamma 2.3 and slope=10 output. To open
the file in an external editor (e.g. Photoshop CS), it will appear "Prefer the embedded
profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (RTH gamma BT709 similar to HP sRGB)" that match to the
RT_sRGB_gBT709 profile but with a modification that we will examine further.

If you enable the option (Photoshop CS): "Delete the embedded profile", the TIFF file will
appear with the new RGB values due to the new gamma and slope values, but the image
look will be different (file headers missing).

The algorithm uses the LCMS function "CMSToneCurve":

the output spaces are computed from their primary (red, green, blue), e.g. for
Prophoto : p1=0.7347; p2=0.2653; p3=0.1596; p4=0.8404; p5=0.0366; p6=0.0001;

the gamma parameters are computed with the "calcgamma" function that will,
accordingly with the gamma and the slope, determine 5 parameters to give to the
LCMS2 right function.

So, we create a pseudo-profile, kind of RGB "Prophoto" and with a gamma matching the
selected one.

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But we find here, a LCMS2 gap, which creating this profile, does not write the matching
profile in the file header, because it works with RGB values and not with LUT / Lab.
Theoretically, it should need as much profiles with an adapted gamma and not only one.
In practice, I brought a large modification to Output Gamma and worked around the
LCMS2 gap, by applying - after the RGB conversion, a profile *.icc that has the same
features that the *.icc or *.icm profiles used by Output Gamma but where the rTRC, gTRC,
bTRC tags are computed with "calcgamma".

To improve the understanding of the TIF processing in linear mode, you can read the
Dcraw tutorial from Guillermo Luijk
http://www.guillermoluijk.com/tutorial/dcraw/index_en.htm

From which the necessity to have in the "Iccdirectory" folder, the "*.icc" and "*.icm" files:
BestRGB.icm  ; BetaRGB.icc; Bruce.icm; WideGamutRGB.icc, (and thus the icc/icm files
added for the pseudo-Prophoto , Adobe, SRGB in "Iccprofile/output").

137.8.8 - RawTherapee profiles quality

The user can ask himself with reason what is the RawTherapee profiles validity
(RT_sRGB, RT_Large,...)?

These profiles have the same features that the "original" ones (AdobeRGB1998,
Prophoto, SrGB Color Space Profile), there is only small differences at the primaries
and/or white point level. They do not have any incidence on output quality and level.

In the other hand, TRC have more detailed LUT going from 1024 points to 4096 points.
This has for consequence - in the sRGB case that is the more frequent output - a
histogram with much less fish bones that may bring posterization in the shades. Here is
for comparison with the same image, a 16 bits histogram enlargement in low lights,
between sRGB Color Space profile and RT_sRGB

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partial 16 bits partial 16 bits

histogram histogram
sRGB_color_spac RT_sRGB
e_profile

Template:Languages

Advanced Tab

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Retinex

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Note: This translation of the "Retinex" French page is a working document.

138 - Generalities
While the eyes are able to see correctly the colors through a poor lighting, a colored
surrounding or a veil of fog, cameras badly manage in theses conditions. It is by
copying the eyes biological mechanisms to adapt itself to these conditions that the MSR
algorithm (MultiScale Retinex) has been created. In addition to the digital photography,
the Retinex algorithm (Retinex is the contraction for Retina + Cortex) is used in
astronomy to show up information laying in the astronomical photographs, in medicine
to detect not much visible structures in radiography and tomodensitometry. Numerous
theories and algorithms have been working out for more than 20 years. The first
experimentation has been proposed by Rahman in 1996. The approach follows the
human visual perception and the Edwin Land's retinal function. In a way, this approach
is pretty similar to CIECAM. This function and more particularly its general form is
similar to a DOG (Difference Of Gaussian). The idea consists of characterizing the
luminous information of a point from its intensity and the intensity of its neighbours.
This said, this approach has no scientific basis and is only lying on experience and
various empirical constants. Over the years many improvements have been added, but
from my own point of view, no one is fully satisfactory. I relied on two documents :

"Automatic Image Haze Removal Based on Luminance Component" (Fan Guo, Zixing
Cai, Bin Xie, Jin Tang"[3] [http://www.mcs.csueastbay.edu/~grewe/pubs/DistSensorNetworkBook20
11/Atmosphere/HazeREmoval_SingleImage_Luminance.pdf]

"Retinex Algorithm on Changing Scales for Haze Removal with Depth Map" (Weixing
Wang, Lian Xu)"[4] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=13539545875418694074&hl=en&as_sd
t=0,5]

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and from some programming tricks inspired from "2003 Fabien Pelisson"

The use of Retinex might be beneficial to images processing:

that are hazy, misty or having a veil of fog

with important luminance gaps

where the user looks for special effects (tone mapping …)

138.1 - Retinex at the beginning of the processing

It is the algorithm described in this page, with its limitations, advantages and
drawbacks.

138.2 - Retinex in "Wavelets"

I installed 2 possibilities to enable Retinex in the Wavelet process: Wavelet levels/fr.
Some of the quoted limitations are no more there !

Quick comparison between the both versions " Retinex in Wavelets" and " Retinex at the
beginning of the processing":
Wavelet_levels/fr#Avantages_.28.2B.29_et_inconv.C3.A9nients_.28-.29_de_Retinex.2Ffr_par_

139 - Imposed limitations by RawTherapee

The basic algorithm impose a reference to the whole image, and not to a crop or a
reduction like in the RawTherapee processing. This limitation imposed by the gaussian
function causes several consequences:

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The processing has been shifted from its dedicated place, that should have been
close to "Lab Adjustments" - near the beginning of the RawTherapee processing –
that is necessarily (except if somebody has an idea to do differently) a raw process.
As a consequence, non raw files (TIFF, JPG, …) can't be processed with this
algorithm? This problem should be solved soon (November 2015 ??).

The second consequence of this position is that the characteristics of the raw data
situated just after demosaicing are very different that the ones situated
downstream: no gamma, no gamut limitation, no white balance, no RGB
conversion… so we must expect artefacts and poor luminance and color rendering.

The third consequence is the system response time which imposes to re-actualize
the whole process after each change in the settings.

The fourth, sometimes, will need a white point modification, in order to avoid
colors distortions (for example: a magenta sky).

But advantage, this process being situated before "Denoise", the noise reduction
will be here fully effective.

Nevertheless, despite these handicaps, as we will see it further, results are more than
satisfactory as well about processing time that in contrast and colors rendering,
particularly by joining Retinex and Wavelets actions.

140 - Algorithm principle

For more information, see the "pdf" documents given in the "Generalities" section.

140.1 - To elaborate a "Transmission Map" file obtained

by

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making the difference, for luminance only, between each pixel logarithm of the
input image and the neighbouring pixels logarithm of the matching gaussian image.
The standard deviation (gaussian function) used here is very high - usually in
RawTherapee sigma values from 0.5 to 5 are common – here the values range from
10 to 280 (Single Scale Retinex), it is up to the user to choose.

modifying the input image luminance distribution by

applying a gamma before the "Transmission Map" file creation

applying an inverse gamma to restore the input image characteristics

This modification of the distribution allows:

to change the image tonality

to modify the "Transmission Map" file to take into account for example the
under or over exposed areas.

applying several time (Scale) – 3 times, not modifiable by the user – this algorithm
with an addition using empirical coefficients (Multi Scale Retinex). (Low scale values
increase the apparent contrast, but give a perspective look to the image, high scale
values make the image more natural but they have a tendency to increase the
noise).

a variation of MSR by the user according to the desired effect (Uniform, Low, High,
Highlight)

Uniform: Strive to process low and high intensities in an equilibrated way.

Low: Improve low intensities areas

High: Improve the rendering of the more exposed areas

Highlight: Improve the rendering of the highlight areas that may become
magenta, but can bring strong artefacts.

choosing the colorspace

logarithmic L*a*b*

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logarithmic HSL

linear HSL – this version doesn't comply with Retinex algorithm but in some
cases it allows a more suitable image processing.

So, we get a logarithmic distribution "Transmission Map" – except in linear mode! - that
we will be able to "subtract" to the input image, either to get an image theoretically free
from mist and from veil fog or to get special effects. This distribution owns
approximatively a gaussian distribution with a minima (minT) about, according to the
images – higher for images with veil – from -10 to -40, an average close to from -1 to +2,
a standard deviation often about 2 to 6 and a maxima (maxT) about 10 to 40. The
negative values mean low intensity and positive values mean high intensity. Caution,
these values are logarithmic coefficients that stand for very high values (log 1000 = 6.9)
(exp 10 # 22000)...(exp 20) # 500.000.000. In theory we should use high "Scale" and
gaussian values in the areas closest to the lens (where the veil effect is low) and low
values in the distance (where the veil effect is important).

140.2 - To process the mask resulting from the gaussian

process
The "Transmission Map" file correspond to a recursive process of:

The source image – Input image which went through various modifications by the
histogram equalizer and the gamma.

The "mask" files directly resulting from the gaussian process (scale, radius, method
low.. high…)

140.3 - "Mask" display type

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"Mask" files processing (the idea came to me by studying the Rusell Cottrell's plugin)
will allow to decrease flares and artefacts. I added a combo-box to choose the display
type. This is both an educational system and also an aid to find the "right" settings.

Process:

Standard: it is the default setting

Mask: display the mask obtained by the Retinex algorithm resulted from the
gaussian process. We will see here the impacts:

of the various settings upstream: method (low, uniform, high and

highlight), radius, gamma, histogram equalizer. In the other hand, the other
settings downstream have no effect on this display: contrast, gain,
brightness, threshold and the curve "Transmission Map".

of the various settings of the "Mask equalizer".

you can export these settings (TIFF/JPG) to use this mask in external
software (Gimp, Photoshop).

Unsharp mask: you can use this option to subtract the mask to the input image.
In this case, an action on "strength" will allow to equilibrate between the input
image and the mask. So we get the possibility to have images with very high
radius values.

Transmission: display an " image" of the "Transmission Map" file.

this " image" doesn't match the reality that matches to a logarithmic scale
which values are mostly situated between -30 and +30.

(fixed) in order to make this values "visible", I applied two arbitrary

coefficients – I avoided the automatic computing in order to allow
comparisons – which shift and increase the basic values.

(auto) I used here the values displayed in the Preview (TM Min Max Mean
Sigma) to elaborate a file with values ranged from 0 to 32700. Of course
these data become visible with the maximum range but don't match the
reality. This configuration can be, depending on the images, preferable to

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"fixed".

the displayed image takes into account each Retinex processing, except: a)
"median filter"; b) "Gain"; c) "Brightness" (offset); d) and of course
"Strength".

you can act on the different settings, particularly on the "Mask equalizer"
ones, and also the "Transmission Map" curve, and then see directly the
actions on the haze, the artefacts annd contrasts.

140.4 - Action methods on the masks

I set 3 methods:

a diagonal curve which acts directly on the recursive contrast of the "mask" files –
take care, this curve is very sensitive and can lead to important artefacts. In the
other hand, it hasn't, or a few, impact on the processing time. You can use this
curve alone or combined with the other methods.

a gaussian process is applied to the masks. You can act on the shadows, the
highlights and the radius. The increase of the processing time is moderate.

a "wavelet" process (Sharp mask) is applied to the masks. You can act on the
shadows and the highlights. The increase of the processing time is important or
very important according to the selected method (partial or total).

140.5 - "Transmission Map" file processing

The main basis processing consist of to apply, using the "Transmission Map" average
and standard-deviation, a transformation of the type:

newT = (oldT – mini) / maxi-mini.

with mini = average – k * standard-deviation

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with maxi = average + k * standard-deviation

The choice of k - contrast (variance): modifiable by the

user – is decisive in the image rendering: low values will
increase the seeming contrast, hight values will make the
image more natural with less artefacts and hazes. Distribution Transmission
Map
I added three components to this basis processing:

a threshold - modifiable by the user – that will allow to reduce the maximum
(maxT) and minimum (minT) values by integrating the clipped values to the new
distribution.

Example: if the chosen threshold is 10, all the values lower than -10 will became -10, all
the values over +10 will become +10. This action is going to increase the contrasts, but
can lead to artefacts.

a curve (flatcurve) - modifiable by the user – to directly act on the distribution, by

replacing theory by practical… It is by acting on the distribution that the user will
be able for example to reduce the negative values and increase the positive ones
(or the opposite) to improve the rendering in real time.

a median 3x3 - modifiable by the user – that acts on the distribution irregularities,
in order to reduce the artefacts.

140.6 - Elaborating the "Image Haze-free" file

This file is obtained by "difference" between the input image and the "Transmission
Map" file.

We are going to use here 2 extra parameters, Gain and Brightness (Offset): These two
parameters allow to include the "Transmission Map" file to an exploitable image.
Indeed, without precautions, the restored image could be totally out of the luminance
usual limits that are between 0 and 32768.

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"Gain" will act on the total amplitude by increasing or

decreasing it and for example reduce the numbe of
totally black pixels.

"Brightness" (Offset) will allow to reset the luminance

after "Gain" acted.
Image Haze Free

In order to give some help to the user, I added a display

for the "haze-free" image minimum values to the GUI. We can act on "Gain" and
"Brightness" (Offset), but also on each other parameters, particularly "contrast"
(variance) and the "Transmission Map" curve. The ideal is to set Min values the closest
possible to 0 and the Max values the closest possible to 32768. For example, an
"original" image with min=-44230 and max=76000 could become min=32, max=32500. Of
course no other values are forbidden, but in all cases these values will be clipped and
brought back to 0 – 32768, the "Transmission Map" file wealth is lost !!

Keys for acronyms and labels used in the GUI to ease the use:

Restored haze-free Min=-5681 Max=34568  : display image maximum and minimum

values "without veil" before clipping.

TM Min=-3.8 Max=4.1 Mean=0.1 Sigma=3.3 : Tansmission Map -- Min and Max match to
the following computing Min=Mean - Sigma * Variance / 100 ; Max=Mean + Sigma *
Variance / 100 *TM Tm=-6.5 TM=11.8 : Transmission Map -- Tm minimum value of the
distribution; TM maximum value of the distribution.

It is obvious that that a display in the GUI:

of the "Transmission Map" distribution and also

the "Haze-free" image data

should make easier both the system understanding and ergonomics… but this is still to
be fixed ???

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140.7 - Retinex versus Tone-mapping

There is several ways (according to specialized sources in this field) to adapt the Retinex
algotithm to a "Tone-mapping" rendering. The study of the existing code, my
understanding of the problem… led me to the following solution:

Proceed to several "Retinex" specific code iterations. I name specific code the part
excluding

the RGB==>L*a*b* or RGB==>HSL conversions (and vice versa).

the histogram equalizer.

the differential gamma (low, middle, high, free).

in the same way, aren't concerned the choices done with the "Low", "Uniform",
"High", "Highlight" method

These iterations obviously increase the time processing, up to 2.5 times for 5
iterations.

You can choose between several ways to carry on the iterations by acting on 3 factors I
called "Gradient":

"Gaussian gradient" that act on: a) the gaussien blur sigma (Radius or Neighboring
pixels); b) the "scale" factor (set by default to 3).

"Transmission gradient" that act on: a) the contrast (variance); b) the threshold that
limits the "Transmission Map" file.

"Strength gradient" that act on "Strength", that means the combination of the
"Haze-free" image with the original one.

If you set these 3 gradients to 0, all the iterations will be identical to the basis
processes.

Impact of each gradient:

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"Gaussian gradient" : according to the " it" iteration, the Radius value ("Neighboring
pixels") is divided by "grad" and "scale" value become:

Gg 1 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=1.25;it=3 grad=1.5;it=4 grad=1.75;it=5 grad=2

it=1 scal=4; it=2 scal=3; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=3; it=5 scal=2

Gg 2 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=1.50;it=3 grad=2.0;it=4 grad=2.50;it=5 grad=3

it=1 scal=5; it=2 scal=4; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=2; it=5 sca=2

Gg 3 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=1.66;it=3 grad=2.3;it=4 grad=3.00;it=5 grad=3.6

it=1 scal=5; it=2 scal=4; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=2; it=5 scal=2

Gg 4 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=1.80;it=3 grad=2.6;it=4 grad=3.40;it=5 grad=4.2

it=1 scal=5; it=2 scal=4; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=2; it=5 scal=2

Gg 5 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=3.50;it=3 grad=6.0;it=4 grad=8.5;it=5 grad=11.0

it=1 scal=5; it=2 scal=4; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=2; it=5 scal=2

Gg 6 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=6.00;it=3 grad=11.0;it=4 grad=16.0;it=5 grad=21.0

it=1 scal=5; it=2 scal=4; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=2; it=5 scal=2

Gg-1 :

it=1 grad=1; it=2 grad=0.875;it=3 grad=0.75;it=4 grad=0.50;it=5 grad=0.37

it=1 scal=3; it=2 scal=3; it=3 scal=3; it=4 scal=3; it=5 scal=3

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For Gg 5 and Gg 6, the selected method is taken into account, if it is "highlight", 'grad'
values are boosted according to "Highlight Threshold"

"Transmission gradient" : according to the " it" iteration, the contrast (variance) and
threshold are multiplicated by "var":

Tg 1: it=1 var=1; it=2 var=0.875; it=3 var=0.75; it=4 var=0.625; it=5 var=0.5

Tg 2: it=1 var=1; it=2 var=0.800; it=3 var=0.60; it=4 var=0.400; it=5 var=0.2

Tg-1: it=1 var=1; it=2 var=1.125; it=3 var=1.25; it=4 var=1.375; it=5 var=1.5

Tg-2: it=1 var=1; it=2 var=1.400; it=3 var=1.80; it=4 var=2.200; it=5 var=2.6

"Strength gradient"  : according to the " it" iteration, "strength" is multiplicated by

"s":

Sg 1 : it=1 s=1.30; it=2 s=1; it=3 s=0.70; it=4 s=0.5; it=5 s=0.5

Sg 2 : it=1 s=1.60; it=2 s=1; it=3 s=0.40; it=4 s=0.3; it=5 s=0.3

Sg-1 : it=1 s=0.80; it=2 s=1; it=3 s=1.20; it=4 s=1.2; it=5 s=1.2

Sg-2 : it=1 s=0.60; it=2 s=1; it=3 s=1.40; it=4 s=1.5; it=5 s=1.5

Note : "Hue equalizer" and "Transmission median filter" are applied only once, whatever
the number of iterations is.

141 - The various adjustments

141.1 - Adjustments always accessible

There are 5 adjustments at your disposal:

Retinex method : with "Low" "Uniform" "High" "Highlight"

Low: improve low intensity areas

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Uniform: Strive to process low and high intensities in an equilibrated way.

High: Improve the rendering of the more exposed areas

Highlight: Improve the rendering of the highlight areas that may become
magenta, but can bring strong artefacts.

These 4 methods act directly on the "Transmission Map" file.

Space

L*a*b*

HSL Log

HSL Lin

The choice between these 3 spaces depends on the image… The 2 firsts "meet" the
Retinex algorithms.

Strength: Combine "Haze-free" image with the original image. Strength=0 brings no
Retinex processing to the image. Strength=100 brings a total processing, "Haze-free"
image only is displayed. Values under 50 are recommended.

Chroma (patch): act on the color component, using the Retinex algorithm, in
percentage of the "strength" value relative to the luminance. The slider runs a
Retinex process dedicated to the color component by "simplifying" the process,
luminance specific components - gamma, luminance, gaussian mask, ...- aren't
executed. Caution, processing times are doubled and the extra memory calls
important.

Radius (Neigboring pixels): take into account the neighbouring pixels using the
"Difference gaussian" algorithm, higher are the values, more affected is the
foreground. Lower are the values, more affected are the distant areas, act directly
on the "Transmission Map" file.

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Highlight threshold: only accessible with the " Highlight" method; set the
"Highlight" method threshold, a value of 1 will give about the same effects that the
"High" method, high values should allow to reduce the magenta colors in the
overexposed areas. Be careful, it will probably be needed to:

change some adjustments, in particular "Radius" (Neigboring pixels)

increase the "Raw white point" value in case of magenta hues in the
overexposed areas

use "Hue equalizer" in case of magenta hues in the overexposed areas

act on "Gamma Retinex"

Contrast (Variance): This coefficient equilibrates "Transmission Map" average and

standard-deviation. It is a key factor for the image rendering. It acts on the low and
high contrast thresholds of the "Transmission Map" file, the lower are the values
the more contrasted is the image, the higher are the values the more natural is the
image and the artefacts reduced. This Contrast (Variance) doesn't act on the
"Transmission Map" file but allow the Haze-free image computing.

141.2 - Adjustments accessible with "Setting"

Gamma Retinex: with 4 choices "Low", "Middle", "High" and "Free", it allows to
choose the gamma and the slope for a gamma applied before the Retinex algorithm
and for an inverse gamma applied immediately after rebuilding the image. High
gamma values associated with low slope values can lead to artefacts. The using
depends on images, La*b* or HSL space, used settings… and the wished effects.

Histogram Equalizer: This curve is a lesser evil… because it aims alone to restore
gamma, RGB conversion, icc input profile, white balance … which gap is due to the
Retinex position in the processing, that is placed in Raw in order to work on the
whole image. Without this curve, "Transmission Map" data are generally bad and
bring important artefacts. To be noticed that the interface has 2 different curves for
L*a*b* and HSL. This curve is without action by default, but in L*a*b* mode it is quite

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mandatory to reduce the first quarter action (to be adjusted by the user) and to
reduce the high values in order to reduce artefacts and haze. It is experience that
will guide the user.

Hue equalizer: This curve will allow:

to adjust Retinex action according to the hue, for example to weaken a sky, to
boost leaves …

to reduce the action in the overexposed areas of magenta hue

it should be noted that when the "highlight" method is selected, this curve also
acts on the final image chroma.

These 3 adjustments (Gamma Retinex, Histogram Equalizer,Hue equalizer), don't act

directly on the "Transmission Map" file, but modify its original value.

Gain and Brightness (Offset): used together, they allow to correctly locate the "haze-
free" image. You can find help in the information given in the GUI, and place Min
close to 0 and Max close to 32768. Gain and offset act on the "haze-free" image and
have no action on the "Transmission Map" file.

Threshold: this coefficient act on the "Transmission Map" maximum and minimum
values.

Transmission Map: this curve is interactive with the "Transmission Map" file, the X
axis of the curve represents the "Transmission Map" distribution basis (MinT, mean,
MaxT). To drag down the left part will reduce the minimum values (the ones relative
to the foreground) and in the same way, to drag down the right part will reduce the
maximum values (the ones relative to the background). This curve is a key point for
controling the image seeming quality.

Transmission median filter: reduce the artefacts due to the too strong local
variations of "Transmission Map".

I added a "combobox" that allow to select the display type. It is both a pedagogic
system and also an help to find the "right" settings.

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Process

standard: the default setting

mask: display the mask obtained by the Retinex algorithm, resulting from the
gaussian processing. We will se here the results of:

the different adjustments placed upstream: method (low, uniform, high and
highlight), radius, gamma, histogram equalizer. In the other hand, the other
adjustments placed downstream have no impact on the display: contrast,
gain, brightness, threshold and the "Transmission map" curve.

the variouos "mask equalizer" adjustments.

you can export these adjustments (TIFF/JPG) to use this mask in external
software (Gimp, Photoshop)

Unsharp mask: you can use this option in order to subtract the mask to the
original image. In this case, the action on "Strength" will alloww to equilibrate
the combination between the original image and the mask. Doing so give the
possibility to have image with very high radus values.

Transmission: display an " image" of the "Transmission Map" file

this " image" doesn't match the reality, that one corresponding to a
logarithmic scale which values are generally ranging between -30 to +30.

(fixed): in order to make these values "visible", I applied 2 arbitrary

coefficients – I avoided automatic computing to allow comparisons – that
shift and boost the basis values.

(auto): I use here the values displayed in the Preview (TM Min Max Mean
Sigma) to elaborate a file which values are ranging between 0 and 32700. Of
course these data become visible with the maximum range but doesn't
match the reality. This configuration may, according to the image, be
preferable to "(fixed)".

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the displayed image take into account the totality of the Ratinex
processings, except a) the "median filter"; b) the "Gain"; c) "Brightness"
(offset); d) and of course "Strength".

you can act on the various adjustments mostly the "Mask Equalizer" ones
and also the "Transmission Map" curve and thus directly see actions on the
haze, the artefacts and the contrast.

141.3 - Practical synthesis of the various adjustments

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Synthesis of the effects of the main adjustments on the contrast

Complementary feature -
Adjustments Main feature
comments

Combine the action of the Retinex No impact on the

Strength
image with the original one. Retinex processing

Method : Differentiate the action according Higher are the values,

Low,Uniforme, to the luminance intensity (low = more impacted is the
High, low intensity, highlight = may foreground (high
highlight reduce colored artefacts) favours the foreground)

High values for the foreground, low High values may create
Radius
values for the background artefacts

Low values increase the global

High values reduce
Contrast contrast, favour the foreground,
artefacts
create artefacts

Low values increase the global

Low values reduce
Threshold contrast, increase transition
background artefacts
artefacts

Moving the median

Transmission- Left part acts on foreground, right
point acts on contrast
map curve part acts on background
and artefacts

Locate Retinex according to the May give illusion to act

Gain and
source image (see Settings - on contrast and
Brightness
restored haze-free) lightness

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Other adjustments synthesis

Adjustments Main feature Complementary feature - comments

Gaussian- Reduce the artefacts

High values reduce Retinex
mask and resulting from too high local
action
Sharp-mask contrasts

Method Change the luminance initial

L*a*b* seems more adapted for
L*a*b* - HSL repartition, allow to reduce
images with high expositions
-... artefacts

Gamma and Change the luminance initial Gamma is compensated by its

Histogram repartition to reduce inverse at the end of Retinex
equalizer artefacts processing

142 - Use in combination with wavelets and Lab

Adjustments
In case of atmospheric veil, the contrast restoration with Retinex algorithm:

is sometimes not good enough or leads to artefacts if "Strength" too high,

leads to a chroma and sharpness insufficiency

Several solutions can be tried, particularly:

to increase the chroma using L*a*b* adjustments (Chroma slider or C/C curve or * =
f(a*) and b* = f(b*) curves;

to adjust the global contrast using La*b* adjustments (L curve)

to increase the chroma using the residual image of wavelet,

it is of course possible to use other RawTherapee controls, particularly in the

"Exposure" tab.

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But I think that to give priority to the wavelet tool is a good choice, mostly for images
with an atmospheric veil. We will be, in addition to the adjustments given above, to:

increase the residual image contrast,

use the "contrast" compression method by sliding down "compression strength"

and adjusting "gamma",

lightly increase "Edge sharpness" with "edge detection"

use "Final touchup", in particular: "Final local contrast", "Final contrast curve" and if
necessary ("Tone-Mapping" effect) , "Contrast balance method".

143 - A possible example – Dehaze – some

recommendations
In order to better explain the processing using Retinex, I will take the example of a
difficult image, very hazy and tainted with an atmospheric veil Madeira [http://rawtherapee.
com/shared/test_images/madeira.dng]

Be careful, this processing is for pedagogic goal only and has no claim to obtain a
perfect image! (by the way, what does it mean, it is subjective). The user has total
freedom to proceed to changes, modifications, to get the rendering he wishes.

143.1 - First Retinex adjustments

At the start [ following not understandable]

Enable "Retinex" and that's all

To get a synthesis of the different adjustments see # Practical synthesis of the various
adjustments

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With this kind of image, where the veil is present both in the foreground and in the
background and having an uniform histogram, I choose the options:

Method: Uniform

L*a*b*: because it is the most efficient of the 3 (Lab, HSL - Log and HSL Lin)

Then I choose, for "Radius", "Contrast" and "Strength", the adjustments by default, that
means respectively 80, 200 and 20.

143.1.1 - Transmission map adjustment – Iterations with Radius,

contrast, scale

The next step consist to study in the tool

"settings" the indicator that give partial
information about Retinex optimization, the
"Transmission-map" file, I quoted "Restore
haze-free". You can also, iif you want, view the
"Transmission-map" file, (set Process to the
"Transmission fixed" option).

Distribution Transmission Map

We can see the values: Min=-5799 Max=14069.,
and also other values: TM min =-9.8, Max=7.7
Mean=8.8 Sigma=4.4 Tm=-13.1 TM=20.7

Let's have a look to the both values Min=-5799 and Max=14069. That means that the
image corresponding to these values and which will be subtracted to the original image,
doesn't correspond at all to the usual luminance values that, as a reminder, are
between 0 and 32768 in RawTherapee using L*a*b*. The first thing to do is to use the
"Transmission-map" curve to get more relevant values. Be careful, the goal isn't to get
Min = 0 and Max = 32768, but more reasonable values. For example, it is possible to
lower a little bit the left part of the curve and to lift a little bit the central part. We end
up for example to the following adjustments: :Media:madeira-first.pp3

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143.1.1.1 - The Haze-free image

Just now I don't modify the values that could
have an influence on "Transmission-map" like
"radius", "contrast".

Then, in an iterative way between "Gain

transmission" + "offset" and "radius",
"contrast" and "scale", I will try:

to act on the "Transmission-map" curve Image Haze Free

and "offset" in order to get Min and Max
values close to 0 and 32768, but -400 and
+39000 may be a good choice too.

and then to act on "radius", "contrast", "scale" to obtain a looking fine image,
contrasted enough, but without too much effect of depth… it is a matter of taste.

work by iterations

I arbitrary took the following values given in the pp3 Media:madeira-second.pp3

143.1.2 - To apply a Gaussian mask and a gamma

These two tools allow to modify the distribution of the action between high and low
lights.

choose "Mask Method" = Gaussian mask and increase hihlight = 23 to lighten the
sky, you can use the "mask" option to view the changes

put "Gamma" in "settings" on "Low"

Again, all is matter of taste.

We end up, for example to the following adjustments: Media:madeira-third.pp3

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143.2 - Act on the chroma

Two cases:

In the version "Retinex at the beginning of the processing" there is no Retinex

action on the chroma. You can use the "Lab adjustments" tool and act either on the
"Chromacity" slider or on the two curves a*=f(a*) and b*=f(b*), or on the curve C=f©
more intuitive.

In the version "Retinex in Wavelets", act on the Chroma slider in Wavelet.

We end up to the following adjustments: Media:madeira-four.pp3

143.3 - To boost the contrast and to reduce the

atmospheric veil even more – Wavelet
Slightly increase the contrast with "contrast levels"

In Residual image" increase contrast and chroma (contrast = 25, chroma = 22), then
choose "Compression method" = "Tone mapping" and reduce compression strength
= -0.29

In "Final Touchup", choose "Contrast balance" select "slider" and adjust "Contrast
balance d/v-h" to 19

Enable "chroma balance"

You end up to the following adjustments: Media:madeira-five.pp3

143.4 - Final adjustment

You can, if necessary :

Adjust "Strength" in Retinex

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Act on "Final contrast" and/or "after contrast curve" in wavelet

And also on all the other usual adjustments.

You end up to the following adjustments: Media:madeira-six.pp3

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CIE Color Appearance

Model 2002

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By J.Desmis

144 - About CIECAM02

144.1 - Introduction - history

Since many years now, men tries to model colors, its perception by peoples. Lots of
work has been done through out the years since the Middle-Age, but it's only starting
from the 19th century, then in the 20th one that has been made the main discoveries.

I'm not a specialist of the physiology of the human visual system, neither a researcher
in the complex domain of colorimetry. I've I took some minimum information that seem
essential to understanding, up to the interested reader to expand it thanks to the Web
and the elements I’ve joined.

Commonly in photography, we use (more than) 50 years old models  : RGB and its
derivative (HSV, HSL, CMYK,...), XYZ, and Lab and its derivative (Luv, Lch). I won't
comeback on the RGB model, known by everyone, it is dependent of the peripheral and
doesn't take into account any CAM (color appearance model). The CIE's definition of XYZ
(1931)  was the first step of the «  Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage  » (CIE -
International Commission on Illumination) towards a human description of the colors
faithful to the human vision. To summarize, a color can be characterized by its 3 X, Y
and Z values, obtained by a combination of «  tristrimulus values  », «  CIE standard
observer  » and the base color's «  spectral power distribution  ». This model has been
taken up in RawTherapee, particularly in terms of white balance... This model doesn't
take into account any CAM, but it's an extraordinary leap forward, because we now can
model a color in cognitive terms.

The Lab model has been designed in 1976 by the CIE by derivating it from the XYZ model,
it characterize a color with an intensity parameter corresponding to the luminance and
two chrominance parameters that describe the color. It has been specifically studied so

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that the computed distance between colors correspond to the differences perceived by
the human eye. The Lab model is well established in RawTherapee, it is used as a basis
for most of the tools  : sharpening, denoising, tone mapping, Lab adjustments, etc.. It
integrate some characteristics of a CAM, but the benefits are sketchy. The CIECAM02
model, derived from CIECAM97 and using G.Hunt's work, is the first commonly usable
model in photography, because it is invertible... and relatively «  simple  », it can take
into account other than purely cognitive aspects and is based on the work of many
researchers on the basis of sample of persons who evaluate different parameters, like :

. simultaneous contrast : variation of the colored appearance of an object depending

on the colorimetric characteristics of its close environment. For example, the same
color will be perceived differently on a white or dark background. The darker the
background will be, the more we'll have to boost colors...

. the Hunt's effect  : increased seen coloration (colorfulness) with luminance. An

object appears more vivid and contrasty in full light than in shade.

. the Stevens' effect  : augmentation of the perceived contrast with the luminance.
When the luminance increases, the dark colors looks like even darker and the
luminous colors appears even more luminous.

. Helmholtz-Kohlrausch's effect  : dependence of the brightness in relation to the

luminance and chromaticity. Colored objects appear lighter than the achromatic
objects with the same luminance. The most saturated colors appear brighter.

. Chromatic adaptation  : adjustment by the human vision system of some color

stimuli. The chromatic adaptation let us interpret a color depending on its
spatiotemporal environment. It's an essential effect to be taken care of by a CAM.

The chromatic adaptation is the human visual system's ability to adjust to changing
illuminant conditions. In other words, we adapt to the color of the light source to better
preserve the color of objects. For example, under incandescent light, a white paper
appears yellow. However, we have the ability to automatically model the yellowish light
so we see as white paper. The world around us would be very complicated if the objects
changed color whenever the light source changes even slightly. Since the dawn of time,
we must be able to know whether a fruit is ripe, would it be the morning, afternoon or

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evening. The chromatic adaptation makes it possible. But it can also be the source of
many optical illusions. I think the majority of RT users know, at least by name, the
previous model of chromatic adaptation, called “Bradford”. etc.

Note  : there will be no question here of "Munsell Correction" because CIECAM02 is, by
principle, built around Munsell's tables... so this correction is taken into account, even if
the model has shortcomings!

My first thoughts about CIECAM02 dates back to 2007, and the development of a
spreadsheet, for best results in the development of ICC “ input profiles”. Early 2012, I
addressed a request from users: "can we have reference colors - color palette - (skin,
sky, ..) which would allow a better white balance through a comparison/iteration
process". I also worked on the concept of CRI (Color rendering index) which reflects the
difference of illuminants compared to a base illuminant... The lower the CRI is, worse
the rendering will be with an identical color temperature see : Color_Management/fr)

Based on CIECAM02, the patch contains the necessary basic elements to work these two
points, but it lacks an essential element, not easy to develop  : a pipette. I have long
considered CIECAM02, not as a gimmick, but as something difficult to implement... and
with a quite small bonus compared to Lab. The request of Michael Ezra who surprised
me at first, led me to re-open the file; the plug-in for Photoshop was a discovery for me
by the example, of CIECAM02. I am now convinced that even if the model is not perfect
(for some pictures, its use is almost impossible!), it is today the most undeniable
(effective) in terms of color management. The module I am proposing is an " initiation".
From the data of CIECAM02, it is possible to develop a series of features similar to those
already developed in RT (Lab adjustments with various curves, tone-mapping, etc.).
Probably with significant advancements in terms of quality.

The lack of effective documentation adds to the complexity... Some points of view are
personal (can be tainted by errors?). If a specialist reads these lines, I'll be happy to
change my text and my algorithms!

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144.2 - Some definitions

. Brightness [brilliance] (CIECAM02) :

The amount of perceived light from a stimulus = indicator that a stimulus

appears as more or less bright, light.

. Lightness [luminance] (Lab, CIECAM02) :

The clarity of a stimulus relative to the brightness of a stimulus that

appears white under similar viewing conditions.

Note that in RT, the“brightness” term applies to “Lightness” ! You will need
to make a patch to rename “brightness” to “lightness” in the “exposure”,
“Lab adjustments”, etc... modules.

. Hue and hue angle (partly in Lab, CIECAM02) :

The degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to a color

described as red, green, blue and yellow.

. Colorfulness (CIECAM02) :

The perceived amount of color relative to gray = indicator that a stimulus

appears to be more or less colored.

. Chroma (Lab, CIECAM02) :

The “coloration” of a stimulus relative to the brightness of a stimulus that

appears white under identical conditions.

. Saturation (CIECAM02) :

Coloration of a stimulus relative to its own brightness.

To summarize :

. Chroma = (Colorfulness) / (Brightness of White)

. Saturation= (Colorfulness) / (Brightness)

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. Lightness= (Brightness) / (Brightness of White)

. Saturation= (Chroma) / (Lightness)

= [(Colorfulness) / (Brightness of White)] x [(Brightness of White) /

(Brightness)]

= (Colorfulness) / (Brightness)

CIECAM02 develops and uses several types of correlated variables that allow the use of
these concepts :

J : lightness or clarity, close to L (Lab)

C : Chroma, close to C (Lab)

h : hue angle, close to H (Lab)

H  : hue. A color can be described by the composition of 2 base colors between 4 (red,
yellow, green, blue), e.g. 30B70G or 40R60Y.

Q : brightness

M : colorfulness

ac, bc : close to a and b (Lab)

Why the saturation in addition to other close variables? Here is a quote from a text by
Robert Hunt (2001) :

“Of the three basic color perceptions, hue, brightness and colorfulness, hue
has no relative version, but brightness has lightness, and colorfulness has
chroma and saturation. Correlates of chroma are widely used in color
difference formulae, but saturation currently plays little part in color
science and technology. This is perhaps because in many industries, flat

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samples are viewed in uniform lighting for the evaluation of color

differences, and in this case chroma is the appropriate contributor for
samples of small angular subtense. For samples of large angular subtense,
however, a correlate of saturation may be more appropriate to use. In the
real world, it is common for solid objects to be seen in directional lighting;
in these circumstances, saturation is a more useful percept than chroma
because saturation remains constant in shadows. In imaging, artists and
computer-graphics operators make extensive use of series of colors of
constant saturation. In optical imaging, saturation can be an important
percept in large dark areas. Recent experimental work has provided a
much improved correlate of saturation.“

145 - The 3 processes

Three processes allow the use of CIECAM, their names depends on each designer. I've
made a synthesis (reminder: this document is not a course, or a thesis on CIECAM... but
an aid to its understanding and use).

145.1 - Process 1
Names like “origin”, “forward”, “ input”, “source” are generally used... I finally chose
“source”, which corresponds to shooting conditions and how to bring back the
conditions and data to a “normal” area. By “normal”, i mean medium or standard
conditions and data, i.e. without taking into account CIECAM corrections, e.g.
“surround = average”, D50 white balance !

145.2 - Process 2

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It corresponds to the treatment of correlated variables (J C h H Q M s a b) for various

purposes : action on lightness (J), brightness (Q), chroma (C), saturation (s), color level
(colorfullness M), the hue angle h, as well as ac et bc. It is quite possible to build an
images editing software around those variables...

In the case of this patch for RT, I arbitrarily selected 4 groups of algorithms :

. JC by adding an contrast function ;

. Js, as above

. QM

. All: all parameters including h.

These modules are simple, more for pedagogical purpose than trying to solve the
problems of colorimetry, even if the results are in my opinion excellent.

I completed this process by :

. double “curves”, acting on contrasts J (lightness) or Q (brightness), whose principle

is similar to the double curves of “exposure” ;

. a choice for color curves between chroma, saturation and color level (colorfulness).

We could add other algorithms based on the Fourier transform, or

replacing equivalent functions of RT...

145.3 - Process 3
Names like “ inverse”, “reverse”, “output” or “viewing conditions” are generally used. I've
chose “viewing conditions”, which reflects the media on which the final image will be
viewed (monitor, TV, projector, ...), as well as its environment. This process will take the
data from the process 2 and “bring them” to the support so that the viewing conditions
and environment are taken into account.

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Note: we find here the explanation of the rendering difference between a printed photo
and a picture viewed on a monitor - even if the printer is a high-end and well calibrated
one: the viewing (observation) conditions! A printed photo will often viewed in an
album, often on a black background, in low light... and often tungsten lighting. The
original will be seen on a monitor with a light background, and a D50 illuminant... There
is no question of changing the “print” output, but to adapt the “monitor, TV...” output.

That is to say, but here stops the comparison, that we realize something like soft-
proofing, but it's not the case because it's the purpose of CIECAM. We takes into account
the settings specified in “Preferences” (white point of the output device  [screen TV,
projector...] and its average luminance  [% gray]. We also takes into account the
luminance of the room in which the observation is made, as well as the relative
luminance of the visualization device's environment (more or less black).

Simplified synthesis of what RT allows with the current patch :

. general case of the user who uses RT to see his development... that should
represent 95% of the cases. In this case, “viewing conditions” corresponds to the RT
work environment, e.g.:

monitor's white point set to 6000K

calibrated monitor, so Yb=18

but according to :

the selected “theme” in “Preferences / General” (almost black or gray), you

have to change “surround”

the monitor's location (on a neutral or dark background), you have to

change “surround”

lighting of the room, that will change with time, you'll have to change
“adaptation luminosity viewing La”  : e.g. at night without lighting up, “La”
will be close to 0 or 1, and on the contrary by day in a bright room, “La” will
be close to 1000

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. less common case, but possible, because I've already done it, I use RT and the
family TV to show pictures as well as RT's possibilities. The “viewing conditions”
will be different and to be adapted to each case ; you'll have to review each of the
points above with possibly different settings: TV's white point, TV's Yb (empirical?),
a different “surround” because we generally look at the TV with a dull background,
and with a reduced room's illumination.

. you want to prepare a series of photographs for an exhibition: in this case, in a

professional manner, we will "see" viewing conditions on site and ask for data like
the projector's white point, calibration (?), the room's brightness on the day of the
exposition, etc... In RT, the user will set "viewing conditions" to suit the exposition's
conditions, and produce X corresponding jpeg (or TIFF)

. etc.

. that's why I put most of the settings for the process # 3 (Output Device) in
"Preference" is not an error, but appears similar setting as the monitor profile that
depends on the monitor...

146 - Data
Which data are taken into account and which simplifications I (arbitrarily?) made? How
to adjust them? :

Yb  : Yb is the relative luminance of the background  ! With that, we're much
advanced  ! Specifically it is expressed in  % of gray. A 18% gray corresponds to a
background luminance expressed in CIE L of 50%.

for process #3, if your monitor is calibrated, you can easily have a value of Yb
close to 18 or 20. If your TV or projector, that seems difficult to calibrate, seems
dark or light, you can adjust this value empirically. It depends on the
visualization support and can be considered as constant for a set of photos and
in a condition of observation. If you want to change this value, go to
“Preferences / Color Management / Yb luminance output device (%)”

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for process #1, it's much more complex because:

an image has rarely a constant exposure and small luminance variations

I placed the CIECAM module at the end of the Lab process, just before the
RGB conversion and the sends to the output device, so we can assume that
the user has used various tools of RT to make the image have an "average"
histogram

So I arbitrarily made Yb inaccessible by calculating it from the average

luminance of the image. Of course, if in the future RT integrates pipettes to
separate the image areas (dark, normal, bright...) then it would be possible
to enter several Yb values. For example on an image we could see three
areas :

standard, which corresponds to the average luminance of the image with a

Yb set to 20%;

underexposed (approximate contours delineated by the pipette...), where

the luminance would be calculated and would e.g. give as a result Yb=5%;

overexposed, where Yb would be as high as 70%..

La  : La is the adaptation field's absolute luminance  ! Again, we're much

advanced now !

In process #1, it corresponds to the luminance when shooting. E.g. if you make a
photo in the shade, “La” will be close to 2000cd/m2; if you make interior shots,
“La” will vary depending on the lighting from 20 to 300cd/m2... In reproduction,
these values may be even lower

”Scene luminosity” and the “Auto” checkbox (process #1):

If Checkbox enabled, La is calculated with Exif data (shutter speed, ISO

speed, F number, Camera Exposure comprensation) and also Raw White
Point and Exposure compensation slider

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In process #3, it corresponds to the luminance of the place in which is made the
observation. When you calibrate your monitor, you are asked for this value... or
you are offered the choice of using a probe. Orders of magnitude from 15 to 100
should resolve most cases. But e.g. for a theatrical projection in the dark, it can
lead to lower values (1-10)

These 2 values of “La” are adjustable in RT, in the “CIE Color Appearance Model
2002” tool

Surround

Again, I have made simplifications...

for process #1, this data reflects some shooting conditions, such as photos in a
museum with a dark background, or portrait shooting on a black background.
Usually RT's user will have corrected the deviations from its perception thanks
to its numerous tools. However, I've added a checkbox “Surround (scene) dark”,
which can be activated if necessary. Its use will lighten the image (recall: this
process bring the data “back to normal”)

this data reflects the surroundings of the image when viewing. The darker the
surrounding will be, the more you'll have to increase the contrast of the image.
The “surround” variable is not acting as a D-lighting or tone curve, it also
changes the colors in the red-green and blue-yellow axis. If the environment's
luminance is greater than 20%, choose “average”, otherwise adapt to your
conditions, e.g. RT's settings (Preferences / General / Select theme) will affect
the final rendering. This setting is accessible by “Surround (viewing)”. The
darker the surrounding will be, the higher will be the image's simultaneous
contrast.

White-points model

“WB RT + output” : here we trust RT's white balance for the process #1; CIECAM
uses D50 as a reference: RT's white balance bring back the conditions to a D50
equivalent, while for process #3, it will be necessary - as needed - to set the
white point of the output device. Go to "Preferences / Color Management /

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Settings white output device (monitor, TV, projector)" and select an illuminant
in the list (is it sufficient? I have no idea about the characteristics of projectors,
light, temperature...)

WB RT+CAT02 + output”  : for process #3, we are in the same situation than
above; for process #1, a mix is made between RT's white balance and CAT02 that
is using its settings, which makes a solution where the two effects (RT and
CAT02) are combined. You can modulate the action of CAT02 by acting on the
“CAT02 adaptation” slider. You'll probably have to change RT's white balance
settings to benefit from the “mix” advantages, otherwise the effects does add
themselves.

CAT02 is a chromatic adaptation, it converts the XYZ values of an image whose

white points is Xw0, Yw0, Zw0, in new XYZ values whose white point becomes
XW1, Yw1, ZW1  ; the algorithm used is similar to the one from Von Kries,
therefore different from RT's correction that takes into account the channels
multipliers !

”CAT02 adaptation” and the “Auto” checkbox

see above for the usage of “WB CAT02 + output”

however, even when “white point model” is set to “equal”, this slider can be
useful. Usually, the “auto” checkbox must be checked and CIECAM calculates
itself an internal “D” coefficient that is used for other purpose than the
chromatic adaptation. The result is a value greater than 0.65 (65%); you can
uncheck the box that will alter process #1, the effects can be unexpected...

147 - Algorithm
You can choose between JC, JS, QM (of course there are other possible combinations!),
or “All” which lists all the possible settings (I arbitrarily excluded “h” as well as “ac” and
“bc” from the 3 algorithms JC, JS, QM). The most common use (if one can use that term

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for CIECAM) is JC, then act on the sliders to get the desired rendering... which I recall
depends on the display device, its environment, its settings and the brightness of the
room.

“JC” algorithm

J simulates the lightness – close to L (Lab) – and C simulates the chroma, near
the c (Lch) chromaticity. But, important difference, J and C take into account the
“effects” (simultaneous contrast, Hunt, Stevens, etc...) which is not the case of
Lab and even less RGB.

J varies in the [  0-100  ] range and corresponds to a relative value of the

brightness (likewise L, or Value...) and theoretically C in the [  0-180  ] range (it
can be higher)

The two cursors using J and C may vary from -100 to +100 with actions similar to
the “Brightness” (to be renamed “Lightness”) and “Chromaticity” of “Lab
adjustments” sliders.

with the “JC” algorithm, a skin tones control is possible, the action is similar to
the similar cursor from “Lab adjustments”

The "contrast" cursor modulates the action of "J" with an "S" curve, which takes
into account the histogram 's average brightness "J".

“Js” algorithm

It is similar to JC, but :

the chroma is replaced by the saturation (CIECAM). But for which purpose? I'm
quoting again an excerpt of the text from G.Hunt For samples of large angular
subtense, however, a correlate of saturation may be more appropriate to use. In
the real world, it is common for solid objects to be seen in directional lighting;
in these circumstances saturation is a more useful percept than chroma
because saturation remains constant in shadows. In imaging, artists and
computer-graphics operators make extensive use of series of colors of constant

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saturation. In optical imaging, saturation can be an important percept in large

dark areas. Recent experimental work has provided a much improved correlate
of saturation.

Skin tones control is less "fine" than with "JC", globally wider in the reds

“QM” algorithm

here we use 2 variables Q (“brightness”) and M (“Colorfulness”) that are not

relative data, but absolute. We takes into account the white's brightness. It is
easy to realize that the same white "J=100" will appear brighter in the sun than
in a dark room...

the white's brightness takes into account the following parameters (scene)  :
“adaptation luminosity La”, “CAT02 adaptation” and “Yb” (currently not
adjustable)

in common use, the control is more difficult than with "JC", however it provides
opportunities for high contrast images and opens the door for HDR processing

Skin tones control is less "fine" than with "JC", globally wider in the reds

The “contrast” obviously acts different, since it takes into account Q differently
than J.

“All” algorithm

you can control all the CIECAM variables: J, Q, C chroma, saturation s, M color
level, J contrast, Q contrast, hue angle h, skin tones protection (acts on C only)

148 - Tone curves and color

148.1 - Curves

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you have – likewise in the “exposure” module – a set of 2 tone curves, which acts on
the “J” lightness and “Q” brightness. You can use one curve only or both, by
eventually mixing “lightness” and “brightness”. Beware, “brightness” curves can
easily lead to out of bounds results! "Brightness" is an absolute scale, while
“Lightness” is a relative scale, the same “J” white will appear whiter directly
illuminated by the sun than in the shade, which is taken into account by
"brightness" (Q). Thus shadows and highlights will be rendered differently by the
“lightness” and “brightness” curves.

you also have a set of “chroma” curve with 3 choices: chroma (the most common),
saturation and colorfulness. These 3 curves are used to adjust the chosen
parameter according to itself, e.g. modulate the saturation to avoid that the already
saturated colors goes out of gamut. For these 3 curves, the “red and skin tones
protection” cursor is operational, it is more suitable for skin tones in the “chroma”
mode. I recommend using the “parametric” mode that allow to differentiates
according to the colors's saturation level. Note: All “chroma curves” combinations
(chroma, saturation, colorfulness) and sliders (chroma, saturation, colorfulness) are
not possible without overly complicating the code, that's why in few cases some
sliders are grayed out.

148.2 - Histograms in Tone Curves

The tone curve histograms in the CIE Color Appearance Model 2002 tool can show
values before or after CIECAM02 is applied. To view the values after CIECAM02
adjustments, enable the "Show CIECAM02 output histograms in curves" option. If
disabled, the histograms show values before CIECAM02.

148.3 - Histograms in the Color Curve

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The histogram in the Color curve shows the distribution of chroma

(saturation/colorfulness) according to the intensity of the chroma
(saturation/colorfulness) or chromaticity in Lab mode. The more the histogram is
shifted to the right, the more saturated colors are close to the limits of the gamut. The
more the histogram is shifted to the left, the more the colors are dull.

The abscissa represents the value of the chroma (saturation/colorfulness) or

chromaticity (in Lab mode). The abscissa scale is "open".

As usual, the ordinate represents the number of pixels involved.

149 - Gamut control (Lab + CIECAM)

this checkbox will constrain the data into the workspace. I could perform this action
in CIECAM mode (process #3), but it would have considerably slowed down the
system

The used algorithm is the same than in "Lab adjustements", it works in relative
colorimetry. I think that differences with what could be produced in CIECAM mode
are minimal.

Some adjustments of the CIECAM code are made when “Gamut control” is enabled..

150 - Code, calculation accuracy and processing time

The code for processes #1 and #3 is strictly the one of CIECAM02 (M.Fairchild, Billy Biggs,
...) that I've adapted and optimized to RT, as well as improvements to the gamut
correction by Changjun Li, Esther Perales, M Ronnier Luo and Francisco Martínez-Verdú.

The processes #1 and #3 are symmetrical and stacks many floating point calculations.
The use of “double” is mandatory, hence important processing time of about 1 second
per Mpix. After extensive testing, we have insights that using float instead of double

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racing acceleration allowed for processing without sacrificing image quality You can
change this setting in "Preferences / Color Management"

In terms of accuracy, I wanted to make some checks by comparing a series of data

before and after CIECAM  ; the differences are very small, e.g. an XYZ input value of
6432.456 has an output value of 6432.388, which is correct.

151 - Limitations of CIECAM02

This model is not perfect, and the following limitations are identified. They can lead for
certain images to process them correctly :

we have already seen this for the Yb settings ;

CIECAM02 is not a workspace as sRGB or Prophoto, or even Lab. So it is difficult to

control the gamut. CIECAM is even known for its problems of narrow gamut, that's
why unexpected results may occur to the limits if you're pushing up too much the
sliders (J, C, s …)  ; this may lead in critical situations (highlights, ...) to black or
white spots in these areas. Do not hesitate to use RT's tools (highlight recovery,
highlight reconstruction, impulse noise reduction, ...), or burned or black areas (raw
white and black points, avoid color shift, ...)

large workspaces (widegamut, Prophoto, ...) can lead, in some cases, to black areas
while they won't appear in sRGB (narrowness of CIECAM's gamut).

The noisy images will influence CIECAM, which will think that the colored dots are
realities; that's why I placed CIECAM after “denoise”

the CIECAM model favors "cones" and takes sparsely into account the "sticks", which
means that peripheral vision is sparsely taken into account.

So, with CIECAM, do not expect to find a cure for "difficult" pictures (overexposure,
sensor's saturation, etc...). But for "normal" images (which is the majority),
advances that seem more than significant.

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Etc...

Maybe we'll see one day CIECAMxx appearing that could overcome the lacks of
CIECAM02 ?

152 - The 12 principles of CAM by R.Hunt

. The model should be as comprehensive as possible, so that it can be used in a
variety of applications; but at this stage, only static states of adaptation should be
included, because of the great complexity of dynamic effects.

. The model should cover a wide range of stimulus intensities, from very dark object
colors to very bright self-luminous color. This means that the dynamic response
function must have a maximum, and cannot be a simple logarithmic or power
function.

. The model should cover a wide range of adapting intensities, from very low
scotopic levels, such as occur in starlight, to very high photopic levels, such as
occur in sunlight. This means that rod vision should be included in the model; but
because many applications will be such that rod vision is negligible, the model
should be usable in a mode that does not include rod vision.

. The model should cover a wide range of viewing conditions, including backgrounds
of different luminance factors, and dark, dim, and average surrounds. It is
necessary to cover the different surrounds because of their widespread use in
projected and self-luminous displays.

. For ease of use, the spectral sensitivities of the cones should be a linear
transformation of the CIE x , y , z or x 10 , y 10 , z 10 functions, and the V’() function
should be used for the spectral sensitivity of the rods. Because scotopic
photometric data is often unknown, methods of providing approximate scotopic
values should be provided.

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. The model should be able to provide for any degree of adaptation between
complete and none, for cognitive factors, and for the Helson- Judd effect, as
options.

. The model should give predictions of hue (both as hue-angle, and as hue-
quadrature), brightness, lightness, saturation, chroma, and colorfulness.

. The model should be capable of being operated in a reverse mode.

. The model should be no more complicated than is necessary to meet the above
requirements.

. Any simplified version of the model, intended for particular applications, should
give the same predictions as the complete model for some specified set of
conditions.

. The model should give predictions of color appearance that are not appreciably
worse than those given by the model that is best in each application.

. A version of the model should be available for application to unrelated colors

(those seen in dark surrounds in isolation from other colors).

153 - Some links

CIECAM02 Wikipedia [5] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIECAM02]

Color Appearance Model - Fairchild [6] [http://www.cis.rit.edu/fairchild/PDFs/AppearanceLec.pdf]

Mémoire Laborie ENS Louis Lumière [7] [http://www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr/fileadmin/recherche/Lab

orie-photo-2007-mem.pdf]

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Wavelets

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The effects of this tool are visible at any zoom level. However, due to the nature of the
algorithm, only the 1:1 (or more) preview zoom will match the saved image perfectly. The
size of the image has a direct impact on the perceived sharpness. In practice, this
means that you should use this tool at a zoom level similar to that of the desired final
size of the image in terms of viewing distance, screen or paper size, etc. So if you intend
to print a high resolution image on a 90x60cm canvas and view it from a distance of
30cm, then it is reasonable to zoom in to 100% and adjust the "0 (Finest)" contrast
slider. However, in reality such large prints when hung on the wall are observed from a
good distance off - say, from a couch some meters away - and at this distance
adjustments to the finest detail level cannot be distinguished; the eyes cannot perceive
such fine details at this distance. The same applies if your image will subsequently be
resized, e.g. for email attachments to friends or customers, for image sharing websites,
for social platforms, etc. Not only will the image resolutions be lowered but the images
may be viewed on devices with a lower resolution, not even fullscreen, on laptops,
tablets or smartphones. Keep this in mind, so you do not waste time adjusting detail
levels which will be lost anyhow. Usually only Contrast sliders 2 and above provide a
useful effect.

The wavelet tool is close to being finished (today being 2015-02-11). The information
contained herein should be mostly accurate for the wavelet tool as available in version
4.2.217. Some information still needs to be written or updated.

154 - What is a Wavelet?

A wavelet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelet], or more specifically a wavelet transform [htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelet_transform], is a mathematical function very useful in image
processing as it enables one to split the signal into various levels of detail so that you
may work on the levels which are of interest to you. The English term "wavelet" was
introduced in the early 1980s by French physicists Jean Morlet and Alex Grossman. They
used the French word "ondelette", which means "small wave". Afterwards, this word was
transferred to English by translating "onde" into "wave" giving "wavelet". The wavelet

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transform is fairly similar to a Fourier transform, the general difference being that
wavelets are localized in both time and frequency whereas the standard Fourier
transform is only localized in frequency.

Decomposition in RawTherapee currently uses the L*a*b* space. This decomposition

produces two kinds of fundamentally different products:

. Several levels of detail. Choosing the number of levels depends on your needs. The
first level corresponds to an area of 2x2 pixels, the tenth level corresponds to a
region of 1024x1024 pixels. The more levels, the more processing time and memory
is required. Each level contains only the "variations" (positive or negative, for
example the contrast that gives data type 0+D1, 0-D2). If a picture is absolutely
uniform in luminance and color, each level will contain no information. Thus, one
can act separately on each of the levels, but with specific algorithms that take this
feature into account. The "quality" of information present in each level is a
function of the mother wavelet used: either it is simple as is the case with the
"Mexican hat wavelet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_hat_wavelet]" as used in dcraw
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dcraw] and GIMP [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP], or it is more
complex and powerful as is the case with the "Daubechies wavelet [http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Daubechies_wavelet]" as used in RawTherapee.

. A residual image. This image corresponds to the difference between the source
image and the combined details of all level scales. The residual image has the
same characteristics - in terms of its treatment - as the source image, and lacks
the details which are present in the other levels. Modifying the characteristics
(contrast, chroma, etc.) of a level has no effect on the residual image, and vice
versa.

Depending on our needs, we will need to look either at an individual level of detail, at
several levels of detail, at the residual image, or at all of these at once. RawTherapee
makes this so easy it's ridiculous.

After decomposition it is possible to use wavelets for different purposes:

Image compression,

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Noise processing,

Secret watermarking [http://www.intechopen.com/books/discrete-wavelet-transforms-algorithms-

and-applications/application-of-discrete-wavelet-transform-in-watermarking],

Specific treatment for astronomy, separating the background (residual image) from
the planets and stars, or separating stars from dust clouds.

etc.

Wavelet decomposition is used to separate each luminance level (contrast), the

chromaticity of each of the a* and b* channels, and the residual image. This action
enables you to apply different treatments to the luminance detail levels, the
chrominance detail levels, and the residual image which depends to the selected
number of luminance detail levels. It is possible (for software developers) to extend the
existing processes to others. For example, each level corresponds in fact to the
equivalent of a layer; by having suitable GUI tools, it is possible to edit the details
(stains, spots, etc.) only in the levels they appear in, and therefore preserve better
image quality. Similarly, it is theoretically possible to apply treatments available in
other RawTherapee tools to the residual image (L*a*b* Adjustments, Color Toning, etc.).
Their implementation may require increased memory requirements and processing
time.

You can change the type of mother wavelet used by going to Preferences > Performance
& Quality:

Check the option "Use Wavelet Daubechies D6 instead of D4" to increase the number
of coefficients of the wavelet.

This action has no or little effect on the residual image or high levels (5..10)

((can't make sense of this)) On the other hand it (it what? it=D4 or it=D6?) can
reduce unnecessary stress effects ((what is this?)) for low detail levels (0..1) under
undesirable areas that D6 is more discriminating than D4 (skies, high values of
initial contrast, etc.), for example when using high values of "Edge Sharpness".

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There is virtually no difference in processing time or memory requirements

between D4 and D6.

Once the "treatments" have been applied (to the levels and residual image), the image
is re-composed.

RawTherapee has a tool called Contrast by Detail Levels - it "looks" like this Wavelet
Levels tool but has several differences:

CbDL has fewer levels,

((did I get this right?))CbDL lets you only work on the levels' luminance, while
Wavelet Levels lets you also modify the chromaticity,

CbDL has no residual layer.

Having said that, there is nothing preventing you from using both Contrast by Detail
Levels and Wavelet Levels together. CbDL is located upstream in the toolchain pipeline,
((what does this mean?))and can interfere on levels 0-5.

155 - Utilities

155.1 - Total Levels

This slider allows you to select the number of detail levels the image should be
decomposed to. The greater the number, the more processing time and memory will be
required.

Choosing a low number of levels, 5 for example, will limit the system to details of a
scale of 32 pixels. The residual image will contain all the detail the image has except for
that contained in levels 0-5.

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Choosing a high number of levels, 9 for example (the 10th level is called "Extra"), will
allow you to change the details of a scale of 512 pixels (level 8) or 1024 pixels (level
"extra", whose effects are only visible if your preview size is large enough). The residual
image will differ significantly from the original image as levels 0-10 contain all of the
details, so what is left in the residual image is a blurry mask.

The residual image is what is left after all the detail levels have been removed, as many
as you have chosen to use via the Max Levels slider. For example if you decompose the
image into 7 detail levels (set Max Levels to 7), but you only use the contrast slider on
the first three levels (on levels 0-2), the residual image is still whatever is left after the
details of levels 0-6 have been removed from it, not just levels 0-2.

Important! RawTherapee uses as many levels as it can unless the size of the level is
larger than the size of the image. That is to say, if you are working on a photo larger
than 1024x1024px, then changes made even to the 1024px level will be visible in the
saved image. If the photo is smaller than that, then the 1024px level will be skipped. This
is important to keep in mind, as the same principle applies to the preview: if the photo
is larger than 1024x1024px but the preview area is smaller than 1024x1024px, then the
1024px level will be skipped in the preview, though it will be used when saving the full
image. This may lead to significant differences between the preview and saved image, so
it is worth committing this caveat to memory. You may expand the size of the preview
area by shrinking or hiding the left and right panels (shortcut "m") and you gain a few
more pixels by making the RawTherapee window fullscreen (shortcut "F11"). The
interface informs you how many levels are used in the preview under the contrast
sliders, "Preview maximum possible levels=9" for instance.

155.2 - Full Image vs Tiles

A selection box allows you to choose between:

Full image,

Big tiles,

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Little tiles.

It is always preferable to use "full image" as it avoids quality issues in the transition
zones between tiles. If you do not have enough RAM or/because you are processing
huge images then tiles may need to be used.

155.2.1 - Memory requirements

Memory requirements, in bytes, for "full image" mode, assuming 9 levels are used, with
examples given for two cameras:

. Pentax K10D (10.2MP) 3888 x 2608

. Nikon D810 (36.3MP) 7360 × 4912

Baseline
Minimal requirement for opening an image in RawTherapee, when all tools are
off/neutral

width*height*12

K10D: 116MiB

D810: 414MiB

When using level contrast, chromaticity or hue targetting/protection

levels*width*height*3 + width*height*7

K10D: 329MiB

D810: 1172MiB

Additionally when using Avoid Color Shift

width*height*4

K10D: 39MiB

D810: 138MiB

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Total
K10D: 483MiB

D810: 1724MiB

156 - Show wavelet levels

This panel has three combobox menus which allow you to refine what you see in the
main preview. It serves to teach you, to help you understand how to work with the
wavelet system. Changes made to this panel affect only the main preview, not the
processed image.

The first combobox lets you choose to preview:

. One wavelet level,

. Below or equal to the level,

. Above the level + residual,

. All levels & directions.

The second combobox lets you specify the reference level for the above options, from
"level 0" to "level 8".

The third combobox lets you choose to see the following wavelet directions for the first
three preview options:

. Vertical,

. Horizontal,

. Diagonal,

. All.

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For example you can choose 'one wavelet level' mode to find the wavelet which contains
the scale of details you want to work on (e.g. the level containing the scale of skin
blemishes but not skin texture) and to see the effects of your adjustments on that level.

Another example, you could choose to preview "above the level + residual" with "level 8"
selected to see the residual image and the influence upon it of the tweaks you make in
the "Residual image" panel, explained further on.

157 - Contrast

157.1 - Contrast Levels

By default, seven levels appear in this menu (starting from level 0). You can reduce or
increase this number by changing the Total Levels slider.

Reminder that the fewer levels you use, the less RAM and processing time is required,
and the more the residual image matches the source image because fewer detail levels
are removed from it.

The "Contrast -" and "Contrast +" buttons provide an easy way of tapering off the level
values in a gentle slop. Of course, these buttons aid in adjustments where small levels
are most significant, but often one may want to adjust the high levels too, for instance
so that the small levels increase contrast while the large levels decrease it.

Each level corresponds to a scale of details. Action on a given level is only possible if
that level contains contrasting areas to begin with. If a level is uniform in contrast, the
slider will have no effect.

Levels:

. Level 0: 2x2 pixels

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. Level 1: 4x4 pixels

. Level 2: 8x8 pixels

. Level 3: 16x16 pixels

. Level 4: 32x32 pixels

. Level 5: 64x64 pixels

. Level 6: 128x128 pixels

. Level 7: 256x256 pixels

. Level 8: 512x512 pixels

. Extra: 1024x1024 pixels

Remember what you read in the "Total levels" section above: the preview area must be
at least as big as the level in order for it to be visible in the preview.

The residual image is not listed above because it is not a level - it is whatever is left
over from the original image after the detail levels are taken away from it.

Changes to a level can be applied in a straightforward manner, or only to highlights and

shadows. The same is true for changes to chromaticity. Read on.

157.2 - Apply to
This module allows you to focus the sliders' action on a luminance range, for example
increasing the contrast of fine details for high luminance, and reducing the contrast of
coarse details for low luminance.

157.2.1 - All Luminance

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If you select "All Luminance", each slider has the same action regardless of the
luminance of the area.

157.2.2 - Shadows/Highlights

If you select "Shadows/Highlights" more controls appear in order to customize the

action:

A luminance range for shadows,

A slider which allows you to select how many levels should only have a darkening
effect, always starting from "level 8", even when you use less levels than that.

A luminance range for highlights,

A slider which allows you to select how many levels should only have a lightening
effect, always starting from "level 0".

For example if you only use 7 levels, which makes the highest level be "level 6" (the
count starts from 0), and you want "level 6" to only have a darkening effect and levels 0
and 1 to have a lightening effect, then set the Shadow Levels slider to 3 and the
Highlight Levels slider to 2.

Changes to levels which are not targetted by these two adjusters apply evenly to their
whole luminance range.

158 - Chromaticity
The construction of this module is similar to that of the contrast module. You have the
following choices:

. All chroma: in this case, the whole chromaticity range is affected by each level's
change, independent of contrast levels.

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. Pastel/Saturated: here you can choose two limiting ranges for pastels and
saturated colors, independent of contrast levels.

. Link contrast levels: here chromaticity changes are directly related to those of
contrast.

158.1 - All Chroma

If you select "All Chroma", the whole chromaticity range of each affected wavelet level is
modified, regardless of how saturated it is.

Chromaticity = sqrt(a*a + b*b) is a wide open, but I limited it to 0..140, which should
satisfy almost all cases.

The chromaticity curve:

The x-axis represents the wavelet levels, from the finest on the left end to the
coarsest on the right end. Its effect is therefore not continuous, but discrete: the
vertical values are sampled in 9 points equally spaced out along the x-axis, starting
at the very left edge of the curve, and ending at the very right edge. If you use less
than 9 wavelet levels, say 7 points, the rightmost 2 sampled points would be
ignored.

The y-axis represents the force of the action for each level. If the curve is above the
equator, chromaticity for the affected wavelet levels is increased. If below -
decreased.

The same remark applies here as that for the contrast levels: action on a given level is
only possible if that level contains varying chromaticity to begin with. If a level's
chromaticity is uniform (does not vary), the curve will have no effect for that level.

158.2 - Pastel/Saturated

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You can treat the chromaticity in three ways:

. All chroma - Evenly apply the change in chromaticity (y-axis) regardless of what
chromaticity the levels already have.

. Pastel/Saturated - Apply the change in chromaticity with respect to the

pastel/saturated threshold value, default at 5, so the limiting range of saturated
tones will be effective for the first 5 levels and the limited range of pastel tones for
the remaining levels.

. Link contrast levels - Here the action on the chromaticity - insofar as it varies in
the original image - will be directly proportional to the slider settings for contrast
levels. This proportionality is achieved using the "chroma link" slider: 0 has no
effect on the chromaticity, 100 has maximum effect.

159 - Split Toning

This "partial color shift" (toning) is perhaps not the best name, but it must do...

We can not act directly on the color (hue) in the levels because the a* and b* channels
are decomposed and it is near impossible to chart an accurate mathematical
relationship between the chosen hue and such decomposed channels.

Nevertheless, we propose two curves built on the same principle as the chromaticity
curve, where the x-axis represents the (discrete) number of levels (0-8), and the y-axis
the force of the action with a positive effect above the equator and a negative one
below it:

The a* curve, which acts on the red-green tones,

The b* curve, which act on the blue-yellow tones.

Note: if you apply identical adjustments to both a* ad b* curves, the end result will be
identical to that which you would get had you used the chromaticity curve.

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160 - Edge Sharpness

This control is an addition to RawTherapee's existing arsenal of sharpening tools,
including Unsharp Mask, RL Deconvolution, Edges, etc. Its principle is naturally based on
the use of the wavelet decomposition. From a distance it vaguely resembles the
Unsharp Mask to the extent that the wavelet decomposition creates a residual image
which can be likened to a mask. But there the comparison ends. The wavelet
decomposition of levels using the "Daubechies" method is a kind of direct recognition
of contours as it scans each level of detail. The first level, level 0, uses every second
pixel to act on details of a "radius" of about 2 pixels; the second details of a "radius" of
4 pixels, etc.

If the algorithm is interested only in the smallest details ((??? we can select the radius
in the UI, so this "smallest details" doesnt really make sense)), and if a value is placed
in reference((???)) (I called "Radius") and compare it to the current level, we are able to
adjust the increase in contrast only for these levels, with a significantly higher increase
values to those obtainable with the 10 sliders "Contrast".((this whole paragraph needs
rewriting, I can't make interesting/useful sense of it))

There are 3 sliders:((this section is a direct copy, i did not rewrite it because its meaning
is unclear to me))

. Radius may need to call it otherwise?((why?)) Its size will allow to increase the
effect of perspective((perspective?)). The increase is not linear. Its action is not
zero if the cursor is at zero. Discriminant action is maximum (for low wavelet
levels), for low radius values, without being able to predict the level of action.
((???))

. Value controls the strength((then why dont we call it strength?)). Setting it to 0

effectively turns sharpening off.

. Threshold (Threshold) allows different breakdown levels higher (distribution) for

low levels (0, 1..2) when moving the cursor to the right.((???))

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The edge sharpness tool is very sensitive to Maximum Levels setting because in
principle it is interested only in the smallest levels, which are always decomposed.

161 - Gamut - Controls

161.1 - Reduce Artifacts in Blue Sky

Digital images often have some mottle noise in the blue sky. The wavelet process,
because it increases local contrast, can generate or amplify small artifacts. This
checkbox introduces a median filter to reduce these artifacts.

Do not forget to use the Noise Reduction tool which is called upstream in the toolchain
pipeline.

161.2 - Hue Targetting/Protection

This control is linked to the Contrast and Chromaticity wavelet controls. Toning is not
affected. Moving the slider to the left will target the effects of these linked tools at the
selected hue range. Moving it to the right will target the effects at all hues other than
the chosen range.

The threshold selector widget below the slider lets you specify which hues to target (or
protect). By default, a range of skin hues is selected. The selection is in the L*a*b* space:
100*PI, + 100*PI.

161.3 - Avoid Color Shi

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Applies an action on the chrominance and luminance of the recomposed image in order
to take into account the working colorspace and deliver the data via a relative intent
within the gamut of the working space.

162 - Residual Image

As a reminder:

The residual image uses the same data format as the original image (source) before
decomposition.((what does this mean really, of what use to the user is this?))

It corresponds to the difference between the original image and the sum of the
decomposed levels (the action on each level has no effect on the residual image).

The more levels are used, the more the residual image deviates from the original
image.

Modifying the residual image is one of the key points of the wavelet processing. It
allows one to:

. Work on the shadows and highlights independently of details,

. Reduce contrast (and chroma) overall, to better perceive micro-contrast,

. Change chrominance to reduce artifacts which result from excessive action of the
levels (e.g. to the skies),

. etc.

162.1 - Shadows/Highlights
Moving the Shadows and Highlights sliders to the right increases luminance in these
areas; to the left - decreases. This action is comparable to that of the
Shadows/Highlights tool in the Exposure tab. Beware though that it does not invoke the

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principle of highlight reconstruction.

The action of these sliders is influenced by the two threshold sliders:

. Shadows Threshold, it is set to 30 by default (on the 0-100 L* scale), which means
that only luminance values around 30 and below will be influenced by the Shadows
slider.

. Highlights Threshold, it is set to 70 by default (on the 0-100 L* scale), which means
that only luminance values around 70 and above will be influenced by the
Highlights slider.

Read the L* value from the Navigator panel to help you decide the correct threshold
values.

You could use the Shadows/Highlights adjusters to:

. add bloom to bright objects,

. prevent highlights from clipping,

. lift shadows,

. etc.

162.2 - Contrast
This is one of the key points of the treatment made possible by wavelets. It allows you
to change the contrast of the featureless residual image (remember, the residual image
has no details, as those are handled by the contrast sliders) while letting you adjust the
contrast of the detail levels using the contrast sliders above. For example by moderately
reducing the contrast of the residual image, this leaves more room to accentuate that
of each level, and thus increase the perception of depth and relief.

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162.3 - Chromaticity
The same principle as for contrast slider above applies to the use of the chromaticity
slider, but in addition you can act selectively on colors by use of the Hue slider in
conjunction with the Hue Targetting/Protection slider. By default a typical blue sky-
colored hue range is selected, but of course you can change it to anything you like, for
example to match the colors of a flower, or skin. The Hue Targetting/Protection slider
lets you choose how you want the chromaticity change to affect the selected hue range:

. By moving it to the left, only the chosen hues will be affected by your chromaticity
change, e.g. select green grass hues, increase the Chromaticity slider, and move this
Hue Targetting/Protection slider to the left to increase the chromaticity of only
grass-colored in the residual image.

. By moving it to the right, your chromaticity change will apply too all hues except
those chosen by the Hue selector. So in the example in the previous point, if you
were to move the slider to the right, the chromaticity of all hues except the grass-
colored ones would increase.

This control is very useful in the prevention of over-saturation of human skin, a carrot
look which our eyes are used to noticing.

Transform Tab

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Crop

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Cropping in RawTherapee does not discard the cropped-off area, it just hides it by
drawing a crop frame and zooming in to fit the frame to the available screen space. You
can still see the cropped-off area in the preview if you zoom out and set the
background color of the preview to "theme-based". The cropped-off area will of course
not appear in the saved image.

When you set the background color of the preview to anything other than "theme-
based" then the cropped-off area will be completely hidden from the preview, but if you
set it to "theme-based" then by default the cropped-off area will be covered by a dark
but semi-transparent mask. You can define the color and transparency of this mask in
"Preferences > General > Crop mask color/transparency".

Activate crop-placing mode by clicking the "Select Crop" button in the tool panel, the
button in the Editor's top toolbar, or the appropriate keyboard shortcut, then create
the crop by clicking and dragging over the preview with your mouse. Use the Shift key to
move (pan) the crop over the image. Resize a crop by placing the mouse on one of the
sides or corners. To clear the crop, activate crop-placing mode again (via the keyboard
shortcut or either of the buttons mentioned above), and click anywhere in the preview
without dragging. To see only the cropped area, use the "Fit cropped area to screen"
keyboard shortcut.

Use Guide Type to select popular guides to help you in composition while cropping, and
a horizontal (landscape) or vertical (portrait) orientation. By default, as of version
4.2.214, RawTherapee automatically detects and uses the same crop orientation as the
orientation of your image - the "As Image" option.

The PPI value (pixels per inch) does not change any physical property of the image, it
only serves to help you see what physical size the current crop would print at using that
PPI value.

163 - Aspect Ratios

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163.1 - Custom crop ratio

You can make a custom crop ratio as of
RawTherapee 5.1.

. Disable "Lock ratio",

. Make a crop, use "Width" and "Height"

values to define the ratio, e.g. to make a
crop using a 5:4 ratio set width=5 Common camera sensor sizes.
height=4, or width=1280 height=1024.

. To resize the crop while maintaining the

custom ratio, hold the Shift key while
dragging the edge or corner of the crop
frame with the mouse.

163.2 - Fixed crop ratio

Use "Lock ratio" to set the crop to a fixed
ratio.

3:2
Classic negatives have this ratio, as do
APS-C [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APS-C]

DSLR [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_singl
e-lens_reflex_camera] cameras. Common camera sensor sizes.

4:3
The Four Thirds System [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Thirds_system].

16:9

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The 1080p [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080

p] and 720p [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720
p] high-definition [https://en.wikipedia.org/wi
ki/High-definition_video] video format, and
due to this the most common
computer monitor aspect ratio since
2010.

16:10
The most popular computer monitor Video standards.
aspect ratio between 2005-2009. Still
popular in tablets.

24:65 XPan
Hasselblad's medium-format cameras.

1.414 DIN EN ISO 216

1.414 DIN EN ISO 216 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216] is the standard paper size
ratio such as A4, B5, etc.

8.5:11
The US Letter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_(paper_size)] size.

11:17 - Tabloid
A common tabloid newspaper format [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabloid_(newspaper_
format)].

45:35 - ePassport
Guides to help you crop a portrait for a biometric passport [https://en.wikipedia.or
g/wiki/Biometric_passport]. Official measurements do not specify exact ratios, just
min/max measurements within which the eyes and chin-crown distance must
lie. The guides represent the averages of those distances. The first horizontal
guide is for the crown, the second is roughly for the nostrils, the third is for
the chin. "On the photo, the face must be between 29mm and 34mm from the

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bottom of the chin to the crown (the top of the head, not the top of the
hair)." [8] [http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/agencies-public-bodies/ips/passports/information-pho
tographers/].

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Resize

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164 - Resize
Resizing is one of the last things to
happen when saving an image - this tool
runs after most other tools and
transformations. As downscaling an
image involves a certain loss of detail,
this tool includes a "Post-Resize
Sharpening" component which you can
use to make the downscaled image crisp.

The effects of the Resize tool will not be

shown in the preview. The saved image
will of course be resized.

Size limits:

The downscaling limit is 32x32px. Screenshot of the whole Resize tool in

RawTherapee 5.4-789-ga7b7f20b8.
The upscaling limit is 16-times the
image's size as of RawTherapee
version 5.5. In versions prior to and including 5.4, it was 4-times the image's size.

164.1 - Method
Resizing can be performed using various algorithms, each with its own strengths and
weaknesses. We narrowed the choice down to the two most significant:

Nearest

The "nearest neighbor" method of interpolation is meant to be used when you

want to upscale an image in order to make some detail larger without
introducing smooth blending between pixels. It preserves the pixels as they
are. It is usually used when upscaling by squares of 2: 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, etc.. The

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result will be
very sharp, but
also very
blocky. This
method is not
meant to be
used for
everyday
photography.

Lanczos

Lanczos is the
default
method. It is
meant to be
used for
everyday
photography
and in all cases Demonstration of the effects of the resizing methods "nearest
neighbor" vs "Lanczos".
except for the
one described
above. It results in a smooth yet sharp and high quality image. Use it to resize
by any amount.

164.2 - Specify, Width and Height

You can specify what dimensions to scale to or by:

Scale

Use this if you want to resize the image by a specific amount.

e.g. to make it a quarter of its current size, set scale to 0.25,

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or it make it 4x larger, set scale to 4.

Width

Use this to specify the desired width in pixels, and have the height adapt
while keeping proportions.

Height

Use this to specify the desired height in pixels, and have the width adapt
while keeping proportions.

Bounding Box

Use this if you want the image to fit inside a certain width and height.

e.g. if you want the longest dimension of your image to be 1000px regardless
whether the image is landscape or portrait, set a bounding box of
1000x1000px.

e.g. if your image has dimensions 3000x2000 and you want it to fit on a

1080p/Full HD [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p] screen, set the bounding box to
1920x1080 and your image will be resized proportionally in such a way that the
width will not exceed 1920 and the height will not exceed 1080.

164.3 - Applies To
You will typically want the width and height to apply to the cropped area, however you
can also have it apply to the full image, though even then of course only the cropped
area gets saved.

164.4 - Allow Upscaling

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This setting controls whether the resize tool will also upscale your images, or only
downscale. If it is disabled and the combination of image dimensions, crop dimensions
and resize dimensions is such that the image would need to be upscaled to meet your
target, this setting will prevent it from being upscaled - it will remain at its current size.

This setting was introduced in RawTherapee 5.5. If in RawTherapee 5.5 you use a sidecar
file from an older version of RawTherapee, this setting will automatically be disabled.

165 - Post-Resize Sharpening

Resizing an image often leads to a loss of sharpness, so it is common practice to
sharpen the image again after having resized it. With the Post-Resize Sharpening tool
you can save crystal-clear images straight away with no further hassle. Because this tool
works on the image after it is resized, you cannot use the preview to see what it will do,
though this is not a problem because the procedure for finding the right values is
straightforward.

The default values work great, but if you want to change them, here's how to preview
what the image will look like:

. Tweak your image as you usually would and enable the Resize tool, e.g. downscale
using the Lanczos method to a 900x900px bounding box.

. Save the image to a lossless format such as TIFF.

. Open that saved TIFF in RawTherapee, apply the Neutral processing profile if that
wasn't done automatically, and enable the Sharpening tool in the Detail tab.

. Zoom to 100% (1:1) and tweak the Sharpening tool's parameters until you get a
result that satisfies you. These are the values you should use in the Post-Resize
Sharpening tool.

. Go back to the raw image, enable the Post-Resize Sharpening tool and set it up
with the values from the previous step.

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The Post-Resize Sharpening tool is only available when you use the "Lanczos" resizing
method.

As the Post-Resize Sharpening tool works identically to the standard Sharpening tool
(except that it takes place right at the end of processing), refer to the Sharpening article
to learn more about how the sharpening tools work.

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Lens/Geometry

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To keep the preview fast, RawTherapee uses the preview image of the current zoom
level when applying these transformations. Because of this, the preview image can
become soft. Lets assume you are editing a Nikon D700 image: 4256×2832px (that's 12.1
megapixels), and the preview image's size is 600x400px. Rotating it 5° will not be the
same as rotating the full 12.1Mp image and then scaling it down to 600x400px. The
former will be softer than the latter, though rotating the former will take less time than
rotating the latter, which is why RawTherapee does that. But don't worry, when saving
the image RawTherapee uses the full resolution image, so it will be sharp. If you zoom
the preview in, then RawTherapee will use this higher resolution preview image when
calculating the transformation, so to see what the saved file will look like, just zoom in
to 100% .

166 - Lens Hood

Do not confuse vignetting with a blurry lens hood being visible in the corners of your
image. Some cameras, typically small ones - compacts, bridge-type and even mirrorless
- will capture parts of the lens hood or lens mechanism in the corners of the frame.
Typically the same cameras have lenses which suffer from strong distortion. The way
these cameras deal with these two problems is by correcting the distortion, as a result
of which the corners of the image get "pushed out" beyond the frame, thereby hiding
the corners darkened by the lens or lens hood. When you view a JPEG image from these
cameras the distortion has already been corrected in-camera, so owners are often
unaware that the problem existed in the first place and are surprised to find that the
raw image shows these dark corners.

It is not possible to fix the dark corner issue by using vignetting correction - there is no
information about the scene in those corners, the scene is occluded by the lens
mechanism/lens hood. Do as the camera does: correct the distortion, and the dark
corners disappear

167 - Auto-Fill

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Barrel distortion correction leaves black empty space in image periphery.

This option will upscale or downscale the photo to the extent that the whole image fits
within the image boundaries with no black borders visible.

When correcting images that suffer from barrel distortion [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distor

tion_(optics)], "Auto-fill" will perform downscaling to fit as much of the re-projected image
as possible into the image boundaries, so that you don't unnecessarily lose any parts of
the image. Conversely if the image suffers from pincushion distortion, "Auto-Fill" will
upscale the corrected image to fill the frame without black borders around the
periphery.

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"Auto-fill" enlarges the image to fill in the empty space.

168 - Auto-Crop
" Auto-Crop" is available when "Auto-fill" is disabled. When activated, it will not cause
image interpolation, but instead will crop away the empty space left by the distortion
correction or image rotation.

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"Auto-Crop" applied after distortion correction.

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"Auto-Crop" applied after image rotation.

169 - Rotate
Rotate the image between -45° and +45°. Use the " Select Straight Line" button to set
either a vertical or a horizontal image alignment. Use the mouse to draw this line - click
and hold mouse to start, move to draw a new vertical or horizontal axis and release to
engage image rotation.

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170 - Perspective
Horizontal
When your picture was taken while you were slightly off-center of the object,
you can correct this (within certain limits) with the horizontal slider.

Vertical
Very useful to correct 'falling lines', e.g. when photographing architecture.
Higher values for both sliders produce heavy distortion, so use with care. Or
don't care at all and have fun!

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pective correction.

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tive correction.

171 - Profiled Lens Correction

As of RawTherapee 5.3, lens distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration can be
corrected using one of two systems: Lensfun or Adobe LCP. Both rely on a profile which
contains the parameters for correcting lens distortion, vignetting and chromatic
aberration.

171.1 - Lensfun
Lensfun is an open-source project. A database of lens parameters is maintained by the
developers. You can find more information in the Lensfun FAQ [https://lensfun.github.io/faq/].

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The options "Auto-matched correction parameters" and "Manual correction

parameters" both use the Lensfun system. Both the "Camera" and "Lens" comboboxes
will contain long lists of cameras and lenses (if they do not, your RawTherapee build is
buggy - please report that). A profile matching your camera and lens will be auto-
detected if your photo contains metadata which matches an entry in the Lensfun
database.

Common causes of failure to auto-detect a profile include:

A profile for your camera/lens combination does not exist in your version of the
Lensfun database.

A profile for your camera/lens combination does exist, but it uses names and
parameters which differ enough to confuse the matching algorithm, for example
"Pentax" vs "Ricoh Pentax", or "F4.0" vs "f/4".

In both cases you could try to find and run the executable lensfun-update-data [https://l
ensfun.github.io/manual/v0.3.2/lensfun-update-data.html] to download the latest version of the
Lensfun database. If that does not help, you could copy and paste the relevant section
from the Lensfun database (which could be taken from one of the files in
/usr/share/lensfun/ ) into a new file $HOME/.local/share/lensfun/myLensfun and modify
the relevant parameter to match the metadata from your photos. You can find the
camera and lens name and parameters contained in your photos by viewing the Exif
quick info panel in RawTherapee, shortcut key " i" in the Editor tab. If parameters for
your camera and lens simply don't exist, view the Lensfun documentation [https://lensfun.g
ithub.io/calibration/] to find out how to measure them and contribute them for everyone's
benefit.

Note that while editing the Lensfun database in /usr/share/lensfun/ directly may be
possible, this is not recommended because you could lose your changes during an
update.

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Should you need to use a Lensfun database in a custom location, you can point
RawTherapee to it by editing the options file and setting the DBDirectory key's value
to the absolute path of the custom Lensfun database file.

171.2 - LCP
Adobe provides and offers tools to create and share what are called Lens Correction
Profiles. These are text files which describe the distortion, vignetting and chromatic
aberrations (CA) of a lens, so that simply loading this file in LCP-capable software such
as RawTherapee will correct these issues. Select an Adobe LCP [http://www.adobe.com/produc
ts/photoshop/extend.displayTab2.html#resources] file (read the guide on how to get LCP profiles)
to automatically correct geometric distortion, vignetting and lateral chromatic
aberrations.

The Lens Correction Profile tool's distortion correction feature can be used together
with the manual Distortion Correction tool, and the vignetting correction feature can be
used together with the manual Vignetting Correction tool. This lets you use the manual
controls in addition to the LCP profile for artistic reasons or if the LCP fails to
sufficiently correct a parameter (which happens on some extreme distortion occasions,
like with some heavily distorting compact cameras). Be careful that you don't overdo
the distortion and vignetting correction by forgetting to turn the manual tools off if you
use the LCP equivalents. The vignetting correction feature however is linked to the Flat
Field tool, so that when you select a flat-field image then the LCP's vignetting correction
will have no effect.

The following restrictions apply:

Distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration correction are all supported in raw
files, but only distortion correction is supported in non-raw files.

While distortion correction is visible in the full image preview, chromatic aberration
and distortion correction are not reflected in the detail crop windows, only in the
fully processed result image. Auto-filling is also not supported.

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Chromatic aberration correction is only supported if the Exif information contains

the focus distance (e.g. in DNGs from Nikon files).

Auto-Fill is disabled when an LCP with distortion correction is enabled, otherwise

the preview may become distorted - see bug 1791 [https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherap
ee/issues/1791].

To keep the preview fast and responsive, the main preview image is used to show
the effects of the LCP. As this image is small (exactly the size you see), fixing the
distortions will make it appear a little blurry. This has no effect on your saved
image, which will be sharp, and so will the zoomed-to-100% preview. Only the
zoomed-out preview that will look soft. See feature request 2186 [https://code.google.co
m/p/rawtherapee/issues/detail?id=2186].

As with any other tool, you can apply an LCP to multiple images either by including it in
the processing profile (see Creating processing profiles for general use), or by selecting
multiple images where the same lens was used (you can use the Metadata Filter in the
File Browser tab to make this easier) and applying the LCP from the File Browser tab.

172 - Distortion Correction

Corrects lens distortion. A negative number
corrects barrel distortion, a positive value will
correct pincushion distortion. You can place a
grid over the image by activating Crop
(without cropping) and using "Guide Type >
Grid". This may serve as a guide to correct This button has been renamed to
"Automatic" in RawTherapee 5.
lens distortion.

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The "Automatic" button only works if your camera corrected the distortion of the JPEG
image embedded in the raw file (most cameras embed a JPEG image in every raw file,
and some cameras correct the distortion of that image too). What this feature does is it
looks at the JPEG image and, if it was corrected, tries to fix distortion in the raw image
by making it match the JPEG image. There are two limitations:

If the JPEG image was not distortion-corrected by your camera, this button will have
no effect.

If the JPEG image is insufficiently corrected or over-corrected, so will the results be,
but as the computed correction will be shown on the Amount slider, you can further
refine it manually.

173 - Chromatic Aberration Correction

This "Chromatic Aberration Correction" tool in the Transform tab works on the image
after demosaicing. The Chromatic Aberration tool in the Raw tab works on the image
before demosaicing.

Chromatic aberration can be corrected by using the "Red" and "Blue" sliders. Normally
you won't see any chromatic aberration in the fit-to-screen preview, therefore it is
highly recommended to open a detail window or to zoom the main preview in to
100% or more when you attempt this kind of correction. As in other software tools,
this algorithm eliminates moderate chromatic aberration quite well. Do not expect
miracles with images having extremely high chromatic aberration - garbage in, garbage
out.

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orrection of CA.

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t 100% corrected.

174 - Vignetting Correction

Vignetting means light fall-off around the periphery of an image as compared to the
center. One of the differences between a cheap lens and an expensive one is that the
former is likely to produce stronger vignetting than the latter. The "Vignetting

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Correction" tool is meant to correct vignetting caused by the lens. This tool is not
intended for artistic vignetting; use the Vignetting Filter tool for that.

Amount
Setting the "Amount" slider to a positive value brightens the four edges of the
images to correct the classical vignetting. Setting it to a negative value
darkens them.

Radius
Influences how much of the image beginning from the edges will be
brightened or darkened. Lower values: area of darkening is bigger; higher
values: area of darkening is smaller.

Strength
Amplifies the settings of the "Amount" and "Radius" sliders. Set "Amount" to
-100, "Radius" to 50 and move "Strength" from 1 to 100 to see how this works.

Raw Tab

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Demosaicing

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The effects of this tool are only visible at a preview scale of 1:1 or more. Use a detail
window (click on the icon under the main preview panel) to inspect a part of the
image, or zoom the main preview to 100% (also called 1:1) .

175 - Introduction
Most digital cameras use a sensor which
contains millions of homogeneous light-
sensitive elements, called sensels or
photosites. In order to capture color, a color
filter array [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_filter_
array] (CFA) is placed over the sensor, so that Cutaway illustration of a camera showing
specific photosites register specific the light sensor with a Bayer filter.

wavelengths of light. The "Bayer filter [https://e

n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter]" is the most
common - it uses a repetitive 2x2 matrix of
green, blue, red and green patches. It is used
by most camera manufacturers. There is also
a filter arrangement called "X-Trans [https://en.w
ikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm_X-Trans_sensor]", used by
some Fujifilm cameras, with a repetitive 6x6
matrix of patches. As each photosite is Bayer pattern on sensor.
responsible for capturing only a specific band
of light, there are three main problems that
need to be dealt with:

. There is no concept of color yet, as each photosite registers only a single electric
charge induced by the photons which pass through the filter and strike it,

. There are twice as many green photosites as either red or blue,

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. and thus half (green) or three-fourths

(red, blue) of each color channel consist
of a lack of data (black, unexposed
photosites, since there is for example
only one red-filtered photosite out of
every four).

Displaying an image from a camera with a

Profile/cross-section of sensor.
Bayer or X-Trans sensor is therefore not
straight-forward - the mosaic of discrete data
points need to be converted into a cogent color image. This process is called
demosaicing.

RawTherapee offers several demosaicing algorithms, each with its own characteristics.
The differences between them can be subtle - one might need to zoom in to 100% or
more to discern them. However, as the demosaiced image constitutes the foundation
upon which all other tools work, the choice of demosaicing algorithm can have a
visually significant effect on the end result, particularly when viewed up close. The most
visible effects of the choice of demosaicing algorithm include the rendering quality of
fine detail and the visibility of artifacts in the form of maze-like patterns.

Concerning Bayer cameras, AMaZE is generally the best method for lower-ISO images,
while LMMSE or IGV are better for higher-ISO ones. Concerning X-Trans cameras, 3-pass
(Markesteijn) is generally the best method.

On a side note, the Foveon X3 sensor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foveon_X3_sensor] does not

use a color filter array and so images coming from camera with such a sensor do not
need to be demosaiced. They are, however, unsupported by RawTherapee.

Comparison of RawTherapee's demosaicing algorithms

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AMaZE IGV LMMSE EAHD

HPHD VNG4 DCB AHD

Fast None

176 - Demosaicing Methods

Common methods:

Fast
Very fast but simple and low quality demosaicing method, not
recommended.

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Mono
Only useful for users of monochrome cameras, or cameras with the color
filter array removed.

None
No demosaicing is performed. This can be useful for diagnostics, but you
would not use it for photography.

Bayer methods:

AMaZE
AMaZE (Aliasing Minimization and Zipper Elimination) is the default
demosaicing method, as it yields the best results in most cases. In
RawTherapee versions 2.4 and older VNG4 used to be the preferred
algorithm for Olympus cameras, as AMaZE didn't exist yet and VNG4
eliminated certain maze pattern artifacts that might have been created by
the other methods, but with the introduction of the AMaZE method in
RawTherapee 3.0, Olympus users might prefer that instead.

RCD
RCD (Ratio Corrected Demosaicing [https://github.com/LuisSR/RCD-Demosaicing])
does an excellent job for round edges, for example stars in
astrophotography, while preserving almost the same level of detail as
AMaZE.

DCB
DCB [https://discuss.pixls.us/t/diagonal-interpolation-correction-artifacts-with-amaze-demos
aicing/3338/45?u=morgan_hardwood] produces similar results to AMaZE. AMaZE can
often be slightly superior in recovering details, while DCB can be better at
avoiding false colors especially in images from cameras without anti-
aliasing filters.

LMMSE and IGV

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These are recommended when working with very noisy, high ISO images, in
conjunction with the Noise Reduction tool. They will prevent false maze
patterns from appearing, and prevent the image from looking washed-out
due to heavy noise reduction. IGV is also quite effective at mitigating moiré
patterns.

AHD, EAHD and HPHD

AHD (Adaptive Homogeneity-Directed), EAHD (Horvath's AHD) and HPHD
(Heterogeneity-Projection Hard-Decision) are old methods which are
generally slow and inferior to the other methods.

VNG4
If you use a medium format technical camera with near-symmetrical wide
angle lenses such as the Schneider Digitar 28mm or 35mm it's likely that
the image captured by your sensor will contain some crosstalk between
photosites, especially if the lens is shifted (due to the low angle of
incoming light from these lenses some light leaks over to the next pixel on
the sensor), and in this case you can get mazing artifacts with AMaZE and
DCB because of the green channel separation caused by the crosstalk. If
you combine a mirrorless camera using an adapter with a wide angle lens
designed for film, you may also get crosstalk. It can then be better to use
the VNG4 algorithm (Variable Number of Gradients), which handles this
situation well, at the cost of some fine detail. An alternative is to enable
green equilibration to even-out the green channel differences.

Pixel Shift
Some Pentax and Sony cameras support shooting in Pixel Shift mode,
which shoots four frames with the sensor offset one pixel at a time in a
circular direction, and then stores all four frames in one large raw file.
RawTherapee can combine all frames into one image while automatically
masking-out moving objects, thereby reducing the level of noise and
increasing the image sharpness.

Fujifilm X-Trans methods:

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3-Pass
For Fujifilm cameras with X-Trans sensors. It runs three passes over the
image which leads to sharper results though you can only see this on low
ISO photos. It is slower than 1-Pass.

1-Pass
For Fujifilm cameras with X-Trans sensors. It is faster than the 3-pass
method but slightly inferior in quality, though this difference is only visible
in low ISO shots. If speed is an issue, you can use this method on high ISO
shots with no visual difference in quality.

177 - How to Find the Best Demosaicing Method

Zoom in to at least 100% (1:1) and try all the
demosaicing algorithms, see which works best
for you. Try them on sharp photos with fine
detail and tiny patterns, such as the wavy and
repetitive fabric of a sweater (watch for maze
A good image to test the demosaicing
pattern artifacts), a distant brick wall, a algorithms on. Zoomed in to 800%, you
distant round road sign (watch for aliasing can clearly see that VNG4 is not a good
choice for this Pentax K10D raw file, as
along the round edges), and test with both
there are dots where there should be
low and high ISO shots. Use photos from your none, and the detail of the wall’s
own camera; what's best for Nikon raw brickwork (the orange part on the right)
is all washed out.
images may not be what's best for Olympus
ones.

178 - Monochrome Cameras

A monochrome camera has a homogeneous filter in front of the sensor - you get a
black-and-white image, and no demosaicing is required. Some of these cameras have
no infrared filter and are thus sensitive to infrared light, which can be used for creative

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black and white photography.

RawTherapee supports monochrome cameras, but the user interface is not specifically
adapted for it, so when you load a monochrome file all color tools will still be available.

There are a few additional factors to consider when working with monochrome files:
some monochrome cameras report that they have only a single monochrome channel
and a neutral color matrix (such as the Leica M Monochrom), while others report RGB
channels in a Bayer configuration (such as the Phase One IQ260 Achromatic, or IR-
modified cameras). If the camera reports only one channel, RawTherapee recognizes
this and won't perform any demosaicing (the demosaicer selection is still enabled but
does not do anything), and everything works normally. However, if the camera identifies
as an RGB Bayer camera, demosaicing will be performed and a color matrix will be
applied. To disable this, you should select the "Mono" demosaicing method, and select
"No profile" as input profile in the Color Management panel.

179 - Interface
The demosaicing methods and their associated settings are separated into two main
tools, "Sensor with Bayer Matrix" and "Sensor with X-Trans Matrix", each of which is
visible when editing a raw file which originates from a camera which uses the given
filter matrix. The settings in one tool have no influence over the settings in the other - if
you open a raw image from a Bayer-type sensor, only the settings from the "Sensor with
Bayer Matrix" tool will be used, the settings from the "Sensor with X-Trans Matrix" tool
will be ignored, and vice versa.

179.1 - Method
The following demosaicing algorithms are available for raw files from Bayer sensors:

AMaZE

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AMaZE+VNG4

RCD

RCD+VNG4

DCB

DCB+VNG4

LMMSE

IGV

AHD

EAHD

HPHD

VNG4

Fast

Mono

Pixel Shift

None

The following demosaicing algorithms are available for raw files from X-Trans sensors:

3-pass+fast

3-pass (Markesteijn)

1-Pass+fast

1-Pass (Markesteijn)

Fast

Mono

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None

179.1.1 - Dual Demosaic

The dual-demosaic methods, such as AMaZE+VNG4, allow you to demosaic areas of high
contrast (i.e. detail) using one method and areas of low contrast (i.e. no detail, plain
areas such as sky) using the other algorithm. As some algorithms are better at
rendering fine detail while others are better at rendering smooth, plain areas, these
dual-demosaic options allow you to combine the best of both worlds, this providing a
better starting point for the other tools and mitigating the need for sharpening or noise
reduction. The downside is that the image needs to be demosaiced twice, thus taking
longer than using a single demosaicing method.

The threshold for adjusting the level of detail at which one demosaicing algorithms
should be used over the other is controlled using the "contrast threshold" slider. The
slider includes a checkbox which computes an optimal level automatically.

179.2 - Border
Demosaicing may rely on sampling the pixels which surround a given pixel. When
demosaicing a pixel which lies at the top edge of the raw image, there are no pixels
above it, thus it cannot be demosaiced in the same way and at the same quality as
those pixels which are surrounded by a sufficiently large number of pixels. Most raw
converters thus crop off a few rows and columns from around the image periphery, as
does RawTherapee by default. However, you can override this cropping by manipulating
the "border" value. Setting it to "0" means no cropping occurs, and RawTherapee will do
what it can to demosaic the border pixels, though artifacts may appear!

You should generally leave this setting at its default value, and change it to 0 only when
absolutely needed, for example when processing 1080p
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p]raw DNG frames where you need to preserve the
1920x1080 pixel count.

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179.3 - Sub-Image
Some raw files contain more than one image. When editing such an image, the sub-
image option appears, and allows you to edit a specific sub-image, or to combine the
sub-images in one way or another.

Some Fujifilm EXR cameras support "SN mode" at capture time, which stands for "Signal
to Noise priority". When editing such an image, the sub-image combobox allows you to
select "SN mode", which blends pixels from both sub-images using a mean average,
leading to less noise.

179.4 - False Color Suppression Steps

Sets the number of median filter passes applied to suppress demosaicing artifacts when
applying the demosaicing algorithm. False colors (speckles) could be introduced during
the demosaicing phase where very fine detail is resolved. False color suppression is
similar to color smoothing. The luminance channel is not affected by this suppression.

False colors are generally more apparent in images from cameras without anti-aliasing
filters. Note that it is foremost the selected demosaicing algorithm which is the
deciding factor in how prominent will be the false color problem with which you will
have to deal. In some situations it may be better to change the demosaicing algorithm
than to enable false color suppression, as the latter reduces color resolution.

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Preprocessing

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There are several preprocessing settings and they are split into two parts in the user
interface, both in the "Raw" tab: one part appears as the main "Preprocessing" tool, and
the other part appears within the "Sensor with Bayer Matrix" tool. The preprocessing
settings in the main "Preprocessing" group affect raw files of all types, while the ones in
the "Sensor with Bayer Matrix" tool affect only raw files from cameras which use a bayer
filter.

180 - PDAF Lines Filter

AF pixels visible on the left, and fixed on the right.

Cameras with Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) are susceptible to producing line
striping artifacts when photographing backlit scenes with visible flare. Some mirrorless
interchangeable lens cameras from Sony are known to suffer from this.

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Enable the PDAF lines filter to fix these PDAF line striping artifacts.

RawTherapee 5.5 can fix PDAF line artifacts for the following cameras:

Sony DSC-RX1RM2

Sony ILCE-6000

Sony ILCE-6300

Sony ILCE-6500

Sony ILCE-7M3

Sony ILCE-7RM2

Sony ILCE-7RM3

Sony ILCE-9

181 - Line Noise Filter

Line noise appears as horizontal or vertical banding most visible in noisy images. It is
caused by noise in the sensor electronics which read the value of each photosite row by
row or column by column.

You can see examples of what line noise looks like at this MagicLantern forum post:
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=10111.msg105001#msg105001

181.1 - Nikon PDAF Banding

Several mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras from Nikon use Phase Detection Auto
Focus (PDAF), and they perform in-camera filtering to mitigate the PDAF striping
artifacts. However, the filtering performed seems excessive and leads to "PDAF banding"
- darker lines in shadow areas.

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too-aggressive in-cameras PDAF filtering visible on the left, and fixed on the right.

Use the line noise filter to fix PDAF banding artifacts with the direction set to
"Horizontal only on PDAF rows".

RawTherapee 5.5 can fix Nikon PDAF banding artifacts for the following cameras:

Nikon Z 6

Nikon Z 7

The "PDAF lines filter" has no effect on Nikon PDAF banding.

182 - Green Equilibration

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imbalance of the two green channels.

Some cameras (for example Olympus, Panasonic, Canon 7D, and some medium format
cameras) use slightly different green filters in the two green channels of the color filter
array [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_filter_array] on the camera sensor. This is generally not
a designed feature of the sensor, but rather a result of limitations in the manufacturing
process when the color filters are applied to the sensor surface. One green filter may
get a small pollution from the red filter and the other from the blue for example. Green
equilibration suppresses interpolation artifacts that can result from using demosaic
algorithms which assume identical response of the two green channels. The threshold
sets the percentage difference below which neighboring green values are equilibrated.

Set the value high enough for the mazing to disappear but no higher. The DCB
demosaicing algorithm is very sensitive to green split so it is good to use while trying to
find the best value.

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Green equiliberation can also be used to equalize green split caused by crosstalk. If you,
for example via an adapter, use an analog ultra-wide angle lens with your digital camera
the incoming light may arrive at such a low angle that some light passes through one
color filter and gets registered in a neighboring pixel belonging to a different color
channel - this is crosstalk. As one green channel has blue neighbors and the other red,
the first will get crosstalk from blue and the other from red, hence they will separate
which can cause mazing. Also red and blue channels will in such a situation suffer from
crosstalk, but as they only receive from green there's no separation in those channels.
Mild crosstalk will not have any visible effect if green is equalized, while heavy crosstalk
will show as desaturated dull colors (as the color channels have been mixed). Note that
crosstalk generally doesn't occur before heavy color cast, so in this case you will be
using flatfield correction too.

183 - Hot/Dead Pixel Filter

This tool suppresses hot and dead pixels [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defective_pixel] by
replacing them by a neighborhood average.

"Hot pixels" appear as bright and saturated tiny dots. Each one is the result of a
photosite on the sensor outputting a higher current than it should. Whether a single
photosite on the sensor corresponds to a single pixel in the processed photo depends
on the chosen demosaicing method (and other tools); most methods, such as the
default AMaZE, do not have a direct photosite:pixel relationship, and so hot pixels may
appear not only as single-pixel dots but also as tiny 3x3 pixel crosses or slightly larger
blobs. Hot pixels are a completely normal phenomenon present in all cameras, however
in typical daylight photography you will not encounter them. The longer the exposure,
the higher the chance of hot pixels appearing and the larger their number, with
exposures longer than two seconds generally being regarded as prone to this problem.
Heat is also a factor, hot sensors being more prone.

"Dead pixels" on the other hand appear as black dots (or crosses or blobs). They are the
result of dead photosites on the sensor, and as such, exposure time does not have any

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one to suffer from hot pixels, but RawTherapee can easily fix that.

influence on whether they appear or not - if a photosite is dead, every photo will have
the dead pixel in the same spot. Because their position is static and always present
when using the same camera body, you can fix them not only using the automatic "Dead
pixel filter" but also by adding their coordinates to a .badpixels file; see Bad Pixels.

It is impossible to detect hot and dead pixels with absolute certainty by analyzing only

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o-aggressive hot/dead pixel automatic detection threshold value. Increasing the threshold value from
facts.

one photo (as opposed to analyzing a whole series of photos), and as such one must
find the balance between adequate removal and false positives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
False_positives_and_false_negatives]. The threshold slider allows you to set the sensitivity of
the automatic detection of hot and dead pixels. Lower values make hot/dead pixel
detection more aggressive, but false positives may lead to artifacts. If you notice any
artifacts appearing when enabling the Hot/Dead Pixel Filters, gradually increase the
threshold value until they disappear.

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Chromatic Aberration

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orrection of CA.

This "Chromatic Aberration" tool works on the image before demosaicing, that's why it's
located in the Raw tab. The Chromatic Aberration Correction tool in the Transform tab
works on the image after demosaicing.

Chromatic aberration correction on the raw level is currently only supported for raw
files from cameras with a Bayer filter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter]. If you need to
remove chromatic aberration from raw photos from X-Trans sensor cameras (Fuji), then
use the Chromatic Aberration Correction tool in the Transform tab.

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t 100% corrected.

Chromatic aberration can be corrected by using the "Red" and "Blue" sliders. Normally
you won't see any chromatic aberration in the fit-to-screen preview, therefore it is
highly recommended to open a detail window or to zoom the main preview in to
100% or more when you attempt this kind of correction.

This tools corrects bluish-green and magenta fringes due to lens lateral chromatic
aberration that show mainly in the borders of the image. This correction is performed
before demosaicing and can sometimes improve the quality of demosaicing.

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184 - Auto-Correction
If "Auto-correction" is checked, the "Red"/"Blue" sliders are disabled and an automated
detection and correction of chromatic aberration is performed. Where manual
correction applies a constant value across the image, auto-correction divides the image
into many blocks and tailors the values required to eliminate chromatic aberration to
each block. For this reason auto-correction usually performs better than manual
correction, and the auto-correction values cannot be displayed in the sliders.

185 - Iterations
This setting is available if "Auto-Correct" is checked. Auto-Correction is conservative,
means it often does not correct all Chromatic Abberation. To correct the remaining
Chromatic Aberration, from RT 5.5 on you can use up to 5 iterations of automatic
Chromatic Aberration correction. Each iteration will reduce the remaing Chromatic
Aberration from the last iteration at the cost of additional processing time.

186 - Red/Blue
If the "Red"/"Blue" sliders are non-zero the given values are used to correct chromatic
aberration. They cannot be used at the same time as "Auto-correction".

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Raw Black Points

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It is unlikely you will ever need to use the Raw Black Points tool other than for
diagnostic purposes.

These sliders allow you to add offsets to the raw channel values in case the values used
in the program are incorrect. You would know that they are incorrect if the colors of
your image were severely wrong, for example you would see dark green instead of
black, or the whole image would have a very strong magenta color cast. Cameras with a
Bayer filter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter] have two green channels, that is why
there are two green sliders which are linked by default. Sometimes the two green
channels are of different sensitivity, so you can unlink the two green sliders and adjust
them individually.

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Raw White Points

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It is unlikely you will ever need to use the Raw White Points tool other than for
diagnostic purposes.

The white-point correction adjuster scales the current white level for all channels. It
scales the raw samples linearly after black-level subtraction and can be used to
simulate a new white level. This can be necessary if RawTherapee's raw decoder has an
incorrect white level, which can happen for new or rare cameras. Flat Field correction
may also, in some cases, as a side-effect, scale down raw samples such that blown
highlights become discolored (usually magenta/pink); in this case this setting can be
used to scale up the raw data so it hits the white level again.

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Dark-Frame

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Dark-frame subtraction [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-frame_subtraction] is a method of

dealing with thermal, dark-current and fixed-pattern noise. It is not effective against
high ISO noise because of its different random nature. In long exposure shots (more
than 1 sec) the non-homogeneous thermal noise becomes evident, mainly due to
unevenness of the sensor and surrounding electronics. A method to mitigate this effect
is to subtract one (or more) shots taken in the same conditions, but with the lens cap
on. Only raw images for the same camera model can be used as dark-frames, preferably
taken around the same time as the photo they are being subtracted from. As taking a
dark-frame shot is simply a matter of putting the lens cap on and pressing the shutter
without changing any settings, this is not a problem.

In the "Dark-Frame" panel, you can specify a single shot to subtract from the image, or
check "Auto-Selection" and let RT choose the best match from the directory specified in
"Preferences > Image Processing > Dark-Frame". Under the widget, RT shows how many
shots are found and how many groups of shots are found and averaged into a template.
From now on, put your dark-frame shots there if not already done. You could also move
a shot from the "File Browser" tab into the dark-frames directory by right-clicking on it
and selecting "Dark-Frame > Move to dark-frames directory". RT chooses the best match
looking for the same camera model with minimal difference in ISO, exposure duration
and date. If more than one shot with exactly the same properties is found, then an
average of them is used: this produces by far less noise, so it's better to have 4-6
frames taken in the same conditions of the actual photo.

When selecting a dark-frame (or with "Auto-Selection"), RawTherapee extracts from it

all the positions of hot pixels and then always corrects them in the final image. This
correction is better than applying only the "Hot/dead pixel filter", but works only for hot
(=white) pixels not for dead (black) ones.

187 - Auto-Matching Logic

Key for dark frames (dfInfo::key):

camera manufacturer

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camera model

ISO

shutter speed

The search for the best match is two-fold:

if perfect matches by key are found, then the list is scanned for lesser distance in
time,

otherwise if no match is found, the whole list is searched for lesser difference in
ISO and shutter.

188 - Bad Pixels

RawTherapee can correct a list of bad pixels [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defective_pixel]
(pixels that are always black or white or stuck at one color) for your particular camera
model. To do this, you need to write a text file with the absolute raw coordinates of
these pixels: each line specifies a pixel with x<space>y<return> positions.

Important: RawTherapee cuts some pixels from the top and left edges of the raw
image's border (because they can't be interpolated correctly). If you look at the pixel
coordinates in RawTherapee, beware of the offset introduced by this cutting. To each
coordinate you must add 4 for Bayer Sensors and 7 for X-Trans Sensors! Alternatively
you can specify the offset (4 for Bayer, 7 for X-Trans) in the first line of the .badpixels
file.

The file has to be located in your dark-frames directory. Set it by going to "Preferences
> Image Processing > Dark-Frame". The file has to be named exactly as your
camera's make and model: "make model.badpixels". Get the make and model as
RawTherapee expects them by opening a raw image you want corrected in the Image

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Editor tab and looking at the displayed name and model in the "Quick info " overlay,
shortcut "i", e.g.: " Pentax K200D.badpixels "
Remember that these .badpixels files must be saved to the dark-frames directory!

If you've done the steps correctly and it still doesn't work, you can verify that your
badpixels file is being read by closing RawTherapee, editing the "options" file in a text
editor and changing "Verbose=false" to "Verbose=true", then starting RawTherapee
from a console, opening the photo you want fixed, and looking at the text output in the
console. If you see a message like "Pentax K10D.badpixels not found" then you know
what to rename your badpixels file to. Once you get it working, remember to set
"Verbose" back to "false".

Pixels in the bad-pixels list will always be corrected in processed photos as long as the
camera make and model matches the badpixels filename.

189 - Bad pixel detection so ware

Programs exist to aid in the detection of bad pixels:

Dead Pixel Test

http://www.starzen.com/imaging/deadpixeltest.htm (dead)

Mirror:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140725130003/http://www.starzen.com/imaging

Mirror: http://rawtherapee.com/mirror/deadpixeltest.zip

This file is free from viruses [https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/11e7a0db897fd3ad9f3e2

4c97c73b178cfe9f9d246e3dadfe57113318e2def06/analysis/1421736881/].

Pixel Fixer
http://www.pixelfixer.org/

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Remember to fix the 4px or 7px cutting offset if your version of RawTherapee needs
that.

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Flat-Field

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Flat-field correction [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F

lat-field_correction] is used to compensate for
the non-uniformity characteristics of the
camera and lens combination. A well known
Example of flat-field correction. From the
example of such non-uniformity is vignetting left: before correction, after correction,
- a peripheral darkening of the image, more and the flat-field image used. Notice the
correction of both luminosity and color
pronounced in the corner areas. Another
non-uniformities.
example, more familiar to users of digital
medium format cameras, is the lens cast
effect - both color and luminance non-uniformity of the image field. Both of these
examples of non-uniform image capture can be further complicated by a possible
misalignment of the lens mount or by the usage of a tilt-shift lens. Another set of
examples of capture non-uniformity is due to light leakage in the camera, thermal non-
uniformity of the sensor or defects/irregularities in the sensor readout electronics. An
alternate name for this type of function used by some other raw converters is "LCC
correction", ie "lens color cast correction" or just "lens cast correction", but flat-field
correction is the better name as it can as decribed correct for many sorts of non-
uniformity not just lens cast.

Manual correction of these effects in post-production is quite difficult, especially when

needed to be reproduced on a series of images captured under various conditions, and
would rarely be perfect.

The "Flat-Field" correction tool in RawTherapee allows both automated and user-guided
modes. Flat-field correction is performed only on linear raw data in the beginning of
the imaging pipeline and does not introduce gamma-induced shifts. Thus in
RawTherapee flat-field correction can be applied to raw files only.

Due to performance considerations, thumbnail images do not reflect flat-field

corrections. At present only the main preview in the Editor tab and the output image
can be flat-field corrected.

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Accuracy of the flat-field correction is largely based on use of the appropriate flat-field
image which should fulfill the requirements of the sort of correction you desire - either
lens/camera non-uniformity, or the same including the removal of dust spots. The
creation of flat-field images for both purposes is described in the next section.

To illustrate flat-field correction, a flat-field

image has been applied unto itself. There is a
noticeable light falloff asymmetry shown in the
"before" image at the top, as well as a green
color-cast. Flat-field correction removes both
color and luminance non-uniformities and
results in a perfectly uniform image. The
histogram of the bottom "after" image indicates
that the corrected image does not have any
variation in the tones - exactly what one would
expect from a uniform (flat) field. The same
level of correction is applied to the "real" image
when it is flat-field corrected. Demonstration of the effects of flat-field
All parameters in the "Flat-Field" panel are removal from the flat-field photo itself.

saved to the processing profile. These settings

can be copied and pasted to other images just as any other setting. This includes the
flat-field "Auto-selection" option. Pasting it to different images will result in
independent auto-selection of the appropriate flat-field for each of them.

190 - Creating and Using Flat-Field Images for the

Correction of Camera/Lens Aberrations
It is sufficient to shoot a single flat field image using the same camera body and lens
setup as the images you want to apply it to - you do not need several flat-field images
with identical settings, unlike dark-frame shots where in order to get higher quality you
do need to take several shots with identical settings and merge them. You do not need
to merge flat-field shots since merging serves to increase the signal:noise ratio, and this
is unnecessary as the flat-field image gets blurred and should have a low ISO. Shoot it

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at ISO-100 if possible. The white balance setting is irrelevant. The focus setting of the
lens while taking the flat-field shot for camera/lens aberration correction does not
need to match that of the image you want to apply it to (this is not true if you take flat-
field shots for dust removal, as explained in that section). Keep the lens de-focused
while taking the flat-field shot. Your flat-field image should be a de-focused photograph
of a uniformly lit, uniformly colored and toned subject.

The most optimal method of shooting such a flat-field image is to use a uniform piece
of milky, semi-opaque Poly(methyl methacrylate) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_met
hacrylate)] (PMMA, also sold under the names Acrylite, Lucite, Perspex and Plexiglas). It
should be plain, colorless, smooth, with no symbols or writing etched or embossed [http
s://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_embossing] into it. You can find sheets at hardware and art
stores, or you may have luck finding an empty container made of such material -
Nordsjö Vävlim [http://www.nordsjoidedesign.se/se/PRODUKTER/Ovrigt/Tapettillbehor-1261.html]

containers work well. Cut out a shape the size of your lens barrel. If you use a lens with
an extremely wide angle of view, such as Samyang 8mm fisheye lens, then the size will
need to be several times larger than the lens barrel - at least 20x20cm. The thickness of
the PMMA sheet should be at least 1mm, preferably 3mm or more, to sufficiently blur
and distribute the light shining through it. If it is glossy, use fine sandpaper to make the
surface matte. This is now your flat-field filter.

Hold your flat-field filter in front of the lens (at full contact with the lens/filter barrel),
click the auto-exposure button, and photograph it against a uniform illumination (e.g.
point the camera towards a clear sky). The idea is to provide a uniform entrance
illumination into the lens. As a result, all non-uniformities of the lens/camera
combination can be recognized in the captured raw image as deviations from the ideal
spatially uniform (flat-field) response. Take one shot for every major aperture value
(f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, etc.). Remember to press the auto-exposure button
each time to keep the histogram centered without clipping.

If you are using a zoom lens instead of a prime, you may need to check whether you
need to take a series of shots at major zoom intervals. For example if you have an 18-
55mm lens, you may need to take one series of shots at 18mm, one at 36mm and one at

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55mm. Test this for yourself with your own gear, as maybe the 36mm shot will be almost
identical to the 55mm one and so you could skip the 55mm series of shots.

If you use an electronic lens then the filename is irrelevant as RawTherapee can
automatically find the correct flat-field image, however if you use an old manual lens
which does not record the aperture or focal length, then name your files as follows:

ff_<lens>_<YYYYMMDD>_<focallength>_<aperture>.<raw>

for example:

ff_20141009_pentax18-55mm_36mm_f11.dng

This will make finding them manually easy.

Apply the flat-field images to your photos, matching the aperture values of the flat-field
images with those of your photos, and keep the "Blur Radius" slider at 32 or above.

If you haven't yet found a PMMA sheet and you need a flat-field image ASAP, you can
take a completely de-focused photo of a plain blank wall or a large sheet of matte
paper. The difficulty here will be getting the light uniform - remember that the inverse
square law [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law] is playing against you. The light
source should be far away and diffused, as you will not get a good flat-field image using
a room light or a diffused strobe. Do not replace the PMMA sheet for a piece of paper,
as the paper is far too irregular, and all the variations in thickness and density will
show up as lighter/darker regions which will get subtracted from the photo you apply it
to. If you want to use paper then get a large blank sheet, place it in an evenly
illuminated place such as on a wall opposite a large window or outdoors on the ground
under the sky. Zoom into it, de-focused, and take the shots the same way as described
above.

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191 - Creating and Using Flat-Field Images for Dust

Spot Removal
Carefully follow the instructions from above, with the changes and additions described
here.

If you intend to use the Flat Field tool for dust spot removal, it is advisable that you
take a flat field shot not too long before or after you take the actual photos you want to
apply it to, because as time goes by new dust spots on your sensor and lens can appear
and old ones can shift or disappear, and if that happens perfect dust spot removal
becomes impossible.

The main difference between using a flat-field image for the correction of camera/lens
aberrations and for dust removal is that the image will not get blurred inside
RawTherapee, and this requires a few changes. Using the flat-field filter described above
will make taking these shots significantly easier, faster and more accurate. In addition
to shooting one flat-field image at every aperture value, you will also need to take into
account the focus setting of the lens. Trying to apply a flat-field image for dust removal
taken with the focus setting at 0.5m to a photo taken with the focus at infinity will most
likely fail because changing focus zooms the image slightly, even on prime lenses.
Luckily, the zoom displacement is very small, so if for every aperture you take one shot
at the closes focus (e.g. 0.5m), one at about 2m and one at infinity, this will surely
suffice.

The same requirements for zoom lenses apply as described above, as does the file-
naming procedure. Additionally, you will want to include the focus setting in your
filename:

ff_<lens>_<YYYYMMDD>_<focallength>_<aperture>_<focusdistance>.<raw>

for example:

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ff_20141009_pentax18-55mm_36mm_f11_2m.dng

Now you see why having a small PMMA flat-field filter is so useful - instead of shooting
whole series of shots at home, you can just take the needed shot without changing any
camera settings right after you take your actual photo, standing on the mountain top at
sunrise or crouching shooting fungus in the woods.

When taking certain kinds of shots, for example macro photos, I tend to stick to f/11, as
for my lens this is the optimal trade-off between depth of field and sharpness. If I make
the aperture any smaller, diffraction [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number#Effects_on_image_sh
arpness] will have a negative effect on the perceived sharpness. Sticking to f/11 for my
macros also means that I only need to take one series of flat-field shots. The series
would consist of three shots: one at f/11 with the focus at minimum, one with the focus
mid-way, and one at infinity. Having a handy flat-field filter makes that very easy.

192 - When to Take Flat-Field Shots

As described above, make a library containing all the required series of shots for your
lens(es). You will want to update this library when you get a new lens or a new camera
body. Additionally, if you use flat-field shots for dust spot removal, you will want to take
new shots after you clean your camera sensor, and when the dust and spot layout
changes, i.e. new dust spots appear or old ones disappear.

193 - Algorithm Specifics & Concise Summary

The user or auto-selected raw flat-field image need not have the same white balance as
the image to which it is applied. The flat-field is blurred according to any of several
user-selectable blur types and choice of blur radius. The blurred flat-field serves as a
template for vignetting, lens cast, etc. and be used to correct the corresponding issues
in the image file. "Area" blur uses a box blur [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_blur] of the

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flat-field file and is the normal use of the

correction. Use a large blur radius to smooth
the flat-field image in order to mitigate any
imperfections such as flat-field image noise,
dust spots, etc. Use of a small radius will
leave these effects in the flat-field image, and
will leave their imprint on the corrected
The Flat Field tool can be used to
image file. This can be used to advantage; for completely and automatically eliminate
instance if the flat-field has the same dust dust spots from hundreds of photos with
spots as the image file, use of a blur radius of a single click.

0-1 pixels will subtract the darkening caused

by the dust, therefore eliminating dust spots from the image. Use the "vertical",
"horizontal" or "vertical+horizontal" blur options if the camera generates repeatable
line pattern noise, such as repeatable vertical lines.

194 - Organising Flat-Fields

Non-uniformity of the captured field depends
on the following parameters:

Camera (camera & sensor combination in

case when a digital back [https://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Digital_back] is used),
Thumbnails of sample flat-fields
Lens,
displayed in RawTherapee's File Browser.

Focal distance,

Aperture,

Lens tilt/shift

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It is recommended to assemble a library of flat-fields for camera/lens combinations,

taken at various aperture settings (ones which you use in your real photography). It is
advisable to name flat-fields descriptively, so that files can be recognized easier by the
user, preferably incorporating all parameters listed above. During the flat-field
correction process these parameters are read from the Exif data only and the filename
is irrelevant from this perspective. The flat-fields should be stored in a dedicated
directory. RawTherapee allows to point to it via "Preferences > Image Processing > Flat
Field > Flat-fields directory". Setting that directory initiates an analysis of its content,
and a count of qualifying files and templates is reported in the UI once the scan is
complete (this could take a short while depending on the number of flat-field images
you have).

195 - Flat-Field File Browser Context Menu Options

You can apply and manage flat-field images
from within the File Browser tab, by right-
clicking on a thumbnail and selecting the
"Flat-field" option. You will be presented with
three sub-options:

"Select flat-field" brings up the file

selection dialog to select a flat-field file to Flat-field actions in the File Browser tab.
be applied to the selected images.

"Auto flat-field" allows to run the "Auto-select" option on the currently selected
images.

"Move to flat-fields directory" moves the selected image into the directory specified
in Preferences.

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196 - Auto Selection

Flat-field auto-selection capability can be engaged
simply by checking the "Auto-selection" checkbox.
RawTherapee will search through the files in the
"Flat-fields directory" specified in preferences and
select the exact or, if not available, the closest
match to the image being corrected based on
camera make, model, lens, focal length, aperture
and date of the flat-field file. If a match is found, the filename of the selected flat-field
image will be displayed along with its aperture setting. If a match is not found, flat-field
correction will not be applied and a message will be displayed to the user. If more than
one exactly matching flat-fields are found, their data will be averaged and then used for
flat-field correction.

Auto-selection does not account for the tilt-shift settings used on the lens, therefore
such flat-fields should not be stored in the main flat-fields directory, but rather in a
descriptively named sub-directory. Such unusual flat-field files should be applied
manually.

197 - Auto matching logic

Key for flat-fields (ffInfo::key):

camera manufacturer

camera model

lens

focal length

aperture

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The search for the best match is twofold:

if perfect matches by key are found, then the list is scanned for lesser distance in
time,

otherwise if no match is found, the whole list is searched for lesser distance in lens
and aperture.

198 - Blur Type

Area
The default and generally most useful setting to apply blur action equally in all
directions. Works well for correcting vignetting and lens cast.

Vertical
Blurs the flat-field vertically to compensate for vertical non-uniformities. This
is useful if the vertical sensor readout has variation between columns.

Horizontal
Blurs the flat-field horizontally to compensate for horizontal non-uniformities.
This is useful if the horizontal sensor readout has variation between rows.

Vertical + Horizontal
Blurs the flat-field sequentially horizontally and then vertically to compensate
for both vertical and horizontal non-uniformities.

Note that the concept of vertical and horizontal is related to how the sensor is oriented
in the raw file, which is always the same regardless if the camera was held horizontally
or vertically when shooting. It varies between camera models if the sensor data is
stored in landscape or portrait format so if you want to use Vertical or Horizontal
modes you need to test which direction that is right for your model.

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199 - Blur Radius

The "Blur Radius" slider controls the degree of blurring of the flat-field data. The
default value of 32 is usually sufficient to get rid of localized variations of raw data due
to noise. Setting the blur radius to 0 skips the blurring process and allows to correct for
dust and other debris on the sensor (as long as their position in the flat-field image is
the same as in the photo the flat-field is applied to) at the expense of carrying noise
from the flat-field file into the corrected image. If such correction is desired, it is
advisable to create flat-field files with minimum amount of noise at the lowest ISO
setting and optimal light exposure.

200 - Clip Control

Applying a flat-field image can cause nearly-overexposed areas in the image to become
overexposed due to the correction. Activating the Clip Control option will keep the flat-
field image from clipping the actual image. Areas in the actual image which were
already clipped before the application of the flat-field image may acquire a color cast,
therefore as a rule of thumb, if your photo contains overexposed areas it is better to
not use Clip Control.

To understand exactly how Clip Control works we need to get a bit technical. The Flat-
Field tool works by adjusting the exposure of areas of the actual image whose
corresponding areas in the flat-field image are different to the measured exposure of
the center of the flat-field image. The factor by which the exposure of an area of the
actual image is increased is proportional to how much darker the corresponding area in
the flat-field image is relative to the measured exposure of the center of the flat-field
image. When Clip Control is disabled or at 0, pixels of the actual image can have their
exposure increased beyond the raw white level. Clip Control works by calculating the
factor against the raw white level, so that no corrected pixel will exceed the value of the
white level.

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For instance, if the required exposure increase of a pixel in the actual image would be
1.25 that of the raw white level (1), then the limiting factor would be 1 / 1.25 = 0.8. This
factor would then be used in the final calculation to prevent any pixel's value from
exceeding the white level. The formula for the slider is clipControlGui = (1 -

limitFactor) * 100
Therefore with a limiting factor of 0.8, the value of the slider would be 20.

Metadata Tab

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EXIF Tab

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The "Metadata" tab lets you control which Exif [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif] metadata
will be contained in the saved (developed) image file. The Exif metadata is usually
created by the camera itself and implemented into the raw image file. Basic Exif
information is directly visible. Extended Exif information and so-called makernote data
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format#MakerNote_data] is organized into a
tree. Click on the arrow at the very left of the desired sub-tree and you'll see its
contents.

You can "Remove", "Keep", or "Add/Edit" Exif metadata. Manipulating metadata does not
change the source file in any way! If you want to restore a value you have changed or
removed by accident, simply press "Reset". "Reset All" works similarly but is used for
trees and works recursively, which means that all values changed/removed in this sub-
tree are restored.

You can "Add/Edit" the following Exif information:

Artist

Copyright

ImageDescription

Exif.UserComment

Only the English names of the Exif fields are displayed for easy reference. They are not
translated when you choose a different GUI language.

201 - Technical Details

Reading Exif.UserComment :

ASCII values are read without problems.

For Unicode values, RT detects if the string has an odd length.

If so, it's assumed to be a UTF-8 string.

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If not, it tries to detect if a UCS-2 byte order mark (BOM) is set.

If no BOM is provided, and the string is a valid UTF-8 string, it tries to auto-
detect the byte order based on the "zeros" count.

If it is not a UTF-8 string, it is assumed to be a UCS-2 string with the platform's

byte order.

For undefined values, RT tries to convert the string from the local charset to UTF-8.

Saving Exif.UserComment :

If the string is pure ASCII, it is saved as ASCII.

Otherwise the string is converted to UTF-16 and saved without a byte order mark,
using the metadata's byte order.

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IPTC Tab

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IPTC [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTC_Information_Interchange_Model] values are metadata, as

they are stored in the image files but do not affect the actual image. Basically the
metadata summarized as IPTC contains additional information about your image. As
this information is saved within the image file it cannot get lost. This eases the
workflow a lot as you don't have to care about other files when backing up or sorting
your images.

IPTC is usually used to describe the image in detail. There are a lot image database
software that use the (IPTC) information saved in images to e.g. fill their descriptive
fields. For example you can also use IPTC fields when you try to sell your images. Most
online image-selling companies support IPTC tags and read them when you upload your
images to their databases, thus you have less work. Adding keywords to your images on
your home computer once while developing the photo is much more comfortable and
efficient than doing so through the web browser every time you share an image.
Multiple "Keywords" and "Suppl. Categories" (Supplemental Categories) can be
added/removed using the plus and minus signs next to them.

There are three buttons:

" Reset" resets the IPTC values to those saved in your current processing profile.

" " copies your current IPTC setting to the clipboard. This is especially useful
when you you want to apply the same IPTC values to multiple images.

" " pastes the formerly copied IPTC settings from the clipboard to your current
image.

202 - Technical Details

IPTC strings are handled by libiptcdata . When saving strings, RT sets
IPTC_TAG_CHARACTER_SET to UTF-8.

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This page was last edited on 14 March 2020, at 12:54.

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike unless otherwise noted.

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