What does the Clarity tool actually do?

[robgo2]

I love the Clarity tool in Capture One 5 Pro.  It does more to bring an image to life than any other single tool that I have every used.  But I am very curious as to what it actually does.  To my eyes, it increases contrast, but in a very different fashion than Clarity in Lightroom/ACR, which can really get ugly if you aren't careful.  Clarity also seems to sharpen, but not in the same way as the Sharpening tool.  What it looks like to me is deconvolution, as in Smart Sharpen, Focus Magic and DxO Optics Pro, but I have no idea if this is actually the case.

Does anyone outside of Phase One understand the Clarity tool?

Rob

[Schewe]

Does anyone outside of Phase One understand the Clarity tool?

Hum, define "outside of Phase One"...

:~)

Clarity is a local area contrast enhancement tool...see: Understanding Local Contrast Enhancement


It's pretty easy to accomplish in Photoshop, pretty cool that it's a parametric edit in C1 and ACR/LR.

[edt]

Hum, define "outside of Phase One"...

:~)

Clarity is a local area contrast enhancement tool...see: Understanding Local Contrast Enhancement


It's pretty easy to accomplish in Photoshop, pretty cool that it's a parametric edit in C1 and ACR/LR.

Now that "zero" is in the middle and it can be adjusted into the negative numbers it seems to smooth skin pretty nicely too.

[sergio]

In positive values it works as using hi radius value low amount in UnSharp mask in PS, and in negative values some weird Median-like filter seems to be in play. It would be nice to know exactly how to replicate this in PS.

It would also be very nice to replicate the grain effect of LR3 in PS at least as easily. I find this tool to be a great addition now that I am starting to develop skin rashes for extra smooth ultrasharp ultralow noise zero artifact brutally clean images from the digital domain. Sometimes too perfect looks a little too much imperfect. I put low amounts of grain into some images and they become more organic, less surgical.

[Nill Toulme]

Interesting parallel to the uncanny valley effect.

Nill

[EsbenHR]

It would also be very nice to replicate the grain effect of LR3 in PS at least as easily. I find this tool to be a great addition now that I am starting to develop skin rashes for extra smooth ultrasharp ultralow noise zero artifact brutally clean images from the digital domain. Sometimes too perfect looks a little too much imperfect. I put low amounts of grain into some images and they become more organic, less surgical.

Apparently the so-called "general public" likes that look, judging from the settings for flat TV's you see in the stores (at least in Denmark).

Invariably, the standard sale settings are as follows:

• Noise reduction: ensure everything looks like plastic
• Contrast: ensure thick halos are clearly visible
• Saturation: compete with rooms decorated for small children...  just in case the parents brought one

Too bad my 10 year old CRT died recently :-( Even though decent settings gives much better results, it still does not come close to an old-style cheap CRT.

[Jack Flesher]

Apparently the so-called "general public" likes that look, judging from the settings for flat TV's you see in the stores (at least in Denmark).

Invariably, the standard sale settings are as follows:

• Noise reduction: ensure everything looks like plastic
• Contrast: ensure thick halos are clearly visible
• Saturation: compete with rooms decorated for small children...  just in case the parents brought one

      Unfortunately, too true...

[Dick Roadnight]

Hasselblad/Phocus 2 also have a clarity tool, which enhances local contrast on the raw file.