Quick question for those way smarter than me... :biggrin:

I've read the PP2012 Reference Guide on the subject and understand it's used to control overly bright areas in an image, producing less blown out renderings with better contrast when using HDR.

Manipulating the effect with the Exponential and/or HSV settings and accompanying Exposure control is where I would like some practical information from people who use it.

I've experimented with it and, well either I'm not doing it right (likely) or don't really understand it (even more likely) because don't see much gain from it.

So, is there a practical use for it? I realize the setup probably changes based on the HDR used, but some basic guidelines would be much appreciated.

And while we're at it, what are some guidelines for the Post Filter type? Experimented with this as well and don't see much gain except for render times.

Thanks,

Sam

Here we have, from top left and working right and down:

No GC, no TM

No GC, TM HSV Exp 1.6

No GC, TM Exp 1.6

GC on (2.2), no TM

GC on, TM Exp 2.4

GC on, TM HSV Exp 3.6

(Sorry about the render artifacts, render settings are designed for speed).

The only time I use Tone Mapping in conjunction with GC is for this type of scene, where I want to lift the overall light levels without increasing light intensity, which could blow out highlight details near each light. In this scene all lights have their falloff set to inverse square, and I've made no adjustments to light settings whatsoever between renders.

As for filtering, I'd use Sinc=2 for this scene; when I'm doing close-ups on figures I normally choose Gaussian = 3 as the results aren't as harsh.

Perfect!!! Thank you so very much!

Sam