PainShop Pro Scripting - of Photo Scripts and Washing Whiter

Author

of Photo Scripts and Washing Whiter

Tadjio

2007-10-21, 6:19 pm

Some two and a half years ago, with PSP9, I did some work on a script to improve photos.
The intention was not to tackle difficult lighting etc., but rather 'run-of-the-mill' images.
My work was based on Kris Zalika's One-Step Photo Fix script and
scripts written by others including Simon Q Walden' CleanUpAct and Eleanor T Culling's AutoFix.

With the advent of PSPX, I tidied up my script and 'published' it as "TPS - Tadjio's Photo Script for PSPX".
The main essentials of this script are:-
Automatic Contrast Enhancement (ACE)
Clarify
Edge Preserving Smooth
High Pass Sharpen (HPS)

Two steps I excluded from OneStepPhotoFix are:
Automatic Colour Balance
and
Automatic Saturation Enhancement
as I feel these are unnecessary with most dSLR photos.
(My aim was not to 'over-do' any of the included or omitted steps).

Since that time, prompted by others,especially Spandex,
I have moved away from the use of ACE and I now use Levels, Curves or Histogram.
Likewise I have learnt more about HPS and aim to use it after Resizing.
In addition I have been 'put off' the use of Clarify,
especially as it is more 'violent' than in PSP9.

I was surprised and pleased to be asked recently, in this newsgroup,
whether my TPS Script runs under PSPP X2.
As I hadn't used the script with X2, I tested and verified it was ok.

This then prompted me to write a script incorporating the Levels tool instead of ACE.
I created such a script called "Tadjio's Levels Script for PSPP X2".
One snag with this script is that it still requires user intervention,
as I cannot automate the selection of the correct Shadows and Highlights clipping
using the "Automatic Contrast" button.

So, why have I spelt out all this?
Partly to give some background and explanation.
Secondly, to explain that when I was preparing this new script,
I omitted the Clarify step in my examples, giving a false impression.

When I said the new script "washes whiter",
I was really trying to say that using the Levels tool in X2
is a better way of achieving Contrast than the older ACE tool.

Does anyone know if it is possible to automate the Automatic Contrast in the Levels tool?
--
Tadjio

Spandex Rutabaga

2007-10-21, 6:19 pm

Tadjio wrote:

> My work was based on Kris Zalika's One-Step Photo Fix script

I think that's Kris Zaklika.

> With the advent of PSPX, I tidied up my script and 'published' it as "TPS - Tadjio's Photo Script for PSPX".
> The main essentials of this script are:-
> Automatic Contrast Enhancement (ACE)
> Clarify
> Edge Preserving Smooth
> High Pass Sharpen (HPS)

Clarify and HPS (as you use it) do similar things. Only one is
really necessary and even that may not be needed for some
images, though this is hard to know without understanding the
image content and the artistic intent of the person working on
the image.

> Two steps I excluded from OneStepPhotoFix are:
> Automatic Colour Balance

I think there are a lot of reasons for doing that. One of them
is to avoid desaturating yellows.

> and
> Automatic Saturation Enhancement
> as I feel these are unnecessary with most dSLR photos.

Mostly Auto Saturation doesn't do much unless the image has
undergone a very large change in brightness distribution in
ACE, in which case it can be helpful. There is still a tendency
for Levels to over-saturate an image which has been brightened
significantly so perhaps you shouldn't be too quick to
eliminate Auto Saturation from consideration. As far as I
know, Corel hasn't adapted any of the old filters to work
with 16 bits per channel or with different color spaces so
some care is needed when using those filters.

> When I said the new script "washes whiter",
> I was really trying to say that using the Levels tool in X2
> is a better way of achieving Contrast than the older ACE tool.

I'm afraid you still have to demonstrate the truth of this. Earlier
I showed you that the result for one example image you processed
with different versions of your script was a "wash" between ACE
and Levels (where "wash" means "no significant difference").
That's a statistical sample of one at present. Maybe the situation
will change when more and varied enough images are examined.

> Does anyone know if it is possible to automate the Automatic Contrast in the Levels tool?

You can use a Windows macro recorder to simulate clicking on
things and pushing keys such as Alt (or whichever is the magic
key invoking "auto" mode). I may be wrong but it seems that all
of the things based on the "auto fix" stuff common to several
PSPP XI and X2 filters isn't properly scriptable. At least this
appears to be the report from people who tried it. Maybe Suz
has some real insight into this.

Tadjio

2007-10-21, 10:17 pm

underprocessable