Local adjustments; output does not match preview when using 'colour & light' on full image

@photoalex

I have been absent and unavailable for medical treatment quite a distance from my home. This image is interesting, because it poses a textbook case.

I applied the pp3, to a series of images that I own and the differences between the TIF (seen in Photoshop) and the Preview are minimal (to verify), if any, as it is difficult to make comparisons (preview / TIF).

But in this case there is:

let's look at the picture. First of all it is generally overexposed (see histogram), but after all it is a matter of taste.
the image lacks contrast (even in the preview) it looks like the shadows are washed out
the DR Dynamic range is quite weak about 8Ev

I'm looking for why, and I don't think the "LA" full-image algorithm has anything to do with it (at least at first sight) On the other hand it must be taken into account, and here I think it is important, the preview is managed in Lab 8 bits and the output one in Lab 32 bits, hence a significant difference in the gradients.... With an HDR monitor and a color management that would allow it (it's not implemented in RT), maybe you would see a difference?

I kept your pp3 settings.

I think it's a good image to show the interest of "Abstract profile" (in Color Management)

for example try to change "Slope" from 12.92 to 6 or 8, and Gamma from 2.4 to 2 or less
try to change "Destination primaries" from Prophoto to sRGB or Adobe or Rec2020... (color balance are in theory preserved) This image will therefore be completely transformed and from my point of view more to my liking and the preview / TiF differences seem reduced to me.

You can also play with the Log encoding and Sigmoid functions of LA - it's very fashionable now, we don't talk about that anymore but it's not a panacea :)

log encoding
color appearance (Cam16 & JzczHz) in particular by adjusting according to taste : BlakcEv and WhiteEv (to adjust and keep the DR), mean luminance, threshold (gray point). But it seems complicated...

You can also play with LA : Tone-equalizer...or Tone-mapping or Wavelets , these last 2 to give more local contrast to the image, but again everything is subjective

Another suggestion (which in my settings are still applied) :in LA settings "specific cases", check the 2 options "Avoid color shift" and "Munsell correction only". In this case "Munsell correction is applied and fixes lab anomalies in hues and saturation : In particular Red/oranged (here the bark and flowers), blue/purple (perhaps heather), and green. Try with and without by enable / disable "Avoir color shift"

Jacques

Beep6581 / RawTherapee

Local adjustments; output does not match preview when using 'colour & light' on full image #6662