New batch processing options for image export

Image export options, and a corresponding image export dialog, have been implemented in PhotoFlow quite some time ago:

However, until now those options were not yet implemented in the batch processor. While introducing the image export options, I also had to partly change the way command-line parameters are passed to the batch processor.

As usual, up-to-date packages for Linux, MacOS and Windows 64 bits are available from here.

PhotoFlow - EXIF data info panel

I have just introduced a little but useful enhancement in the PhotoFlow gui: a panel showing the EXIF data of the image being edited. Here is an example:

The up-to-date pre-compiled packages are available as usual from GitHub: https://github.com/aferrero2707/PhotoFlow/releases/tag/continuous (you will have to select those created on 2018/10/10 or newer).

Enjoy!

The new "editing mode" for interactive tools

It has been a while since I posted last time... meanwhile I have been silently working on PhotoFlow, adding new tools and improving the usability.

In this post I will explain how interactive tools (those who require mouse interaction in the preview area in order to set their parameters, like the crop tool) are working in the latest development versions.

PhotoFlow v0.2.8 has been released

I am happy to announce that version 0.2.8 of PhotoFlow is now available from the GitHub repository.

Pre-compiled packages are available for Linux (in AppImage format), OSX and Windows.

The full changelog as well as installation instructions can be found in the GitHub release page.

PhotoFlow keyboard shortcuts

The latest versions of PhotoFlow comes with few handy keyboard shortcuts. The list of implemented shortcuts is still rather small and, more importantly, the shortcuts cannot (yet) be customized, however this is a first step toward a better usability of the program.

The currently available shortcuts are all related to operations with layers:

• Ctrl+Shift+N: add a new layer
• Ctrl+Shift+G: add a new layer group
• Ctrl+Shift+D: delete the selected layer(s)
• Ctrl+Shift+C: copy the selected layer(s) to the photoflow clipboard
• Ctrl+Shift+X: cut the selected layer(s) to the photoflow  clipboard
• Ctrl+Shift+V: paste the layer(s) from the photoflow  clipboard
• Ctrl+Shift+O: open an existing preset (will be inserted above the selected layer)
• Ctrl+Shift+S: save the selected layers as a preset
• Ctrl+Shift+M: switch the current layer to "mask view mode"
• Ctrl+Shift+L: switch the current layer to "layer view mode"

Under OSX, the Ctrl modifier key must be replaced with Cmd.

The complete and up-to-date documentation of keyboard shortcuts can be found at any time in the PhotoFlow wiki.

How to run the PhotoFlow GIMP plug-in under Linux using the AppImage packages

Yesterday I have briefly described the new PhotoFlow GIMP plug-in. In this follow-up, I will show how to run GIMP and the PhF plug-in under Linux using the AppImage packages.

The latest GIMP and PhotoFlow AppImages can be downloaded respectively from here and here (you need to grab the most recent version). In the following I will assume that the AppImages have been downloaded into the $HOME/Applications folder, but any other folder on your filesystem is equally good...

In order to start the GIMP AppImage and let it find and use PhotoFlow for opening the RAW files and/or run as a filter on the existing layer data, open a terminal and type the following:

    export PHOTOFLOW_PATH=$HOME/Applications/photoflow.AppImage
    $HOME/Applications/gimp.AppImage

Of course you need to replace the paths of the photoflow and gimp AppImages with their actual paths and full names on your system...

The first line with the environment variable assignment is used to tell GIMP where to look for the PhotoFlow executable. The second line starts GIMP from the AppImage. You can also pass a file name as parameter to the GIMP AppImage, just like with the standard GIMP. The PhF plug-in also allows to directly open .PFI files with GIMP, in case you need to do so...

The new PhotoFlow GIMP plug-in interface

Recently I have been working on a complete re-write of the PhotoFlow GIMP plug-in interface.

The new plug-in code is a simple wrapper that saves and loads the image data into temporary floating point TIFF files, and then invokes the standard photoflow executable with those TIFF files as parameters.  It also saves and retrieves the accompanying PFI files with the processing parameters that get stored in the GIMP layer meta-data.

PhotoFlow version 0.2.6 released

A new PhotoFlow version 0.2.6 is out!

This new version comes with lots of new or improved features and an updated GUI, including a better layout of the filters controls and an handy lateral toolbox that provides shortcuts for some of the most commonly used filters:

The image in the preview area is courtesy of Andrea Katifes

New PhotoFlow version 0.2.5

A new PhotoFlow version 0.2.5 is out!

This version bring two new cool features that will make the creation of local masks even easier:

• A path selection tool that creates a closed region by connecting user-defined control points with a spline curve. It also provides an optional smooth falloff edge for feathering the selection. The path selection tool is similar to the path mask in Darktable, and most of the source code is actually derived from Darktable.
  This tool is particularly useful to generate smooth layer opacity masks for local editing.
• A smoothing option for the brush of freehand drawing tool, with an adjustable smoothness:

New PhotoFlow version 0.2.4 released

The next PhotoFlow version 0.2.4 is out!
This is a maintenance release, only providing bug fixes and no new features.
The complete changelog for version 0.2.4 can be found here.

New PhotoFlow version 0.2.3 released

The next PhotoFlow version 0.2.3 is out!
The source code, as well as OSX and Windows installers, are available from the github repository.
For Ubuntu users, the updated packages are available from the Highly Explosive PPA.
Updated archives for Arch Linux are also available from the github repository.

This new version includes several new features and improvements:

The list of available RAW demosaicing methods now includes the LMMSE algorithm, ported from RawTherapee. LMMSE is in many cases the optimal choice for noisy and/or high-ISO images.

Added new impulse noise reduction tool, based on the equivalent tool from RawTherapee

Added new perspective correction tool, based on the "keystone perspective correction" from Darktable.

A reset button is now available to restore the tools parameters to their default values

The complete changelog for version 0.2.3 can be found here.

New PhotoFlow version 0.2.2 released

The next PhotoFlow version 0.2.2 is out!
The source code, as well as OSX and Windows installers, are available from the github repository.
For Ubuntu users, an updated package will most likely be available in the next few days.

This new version includes few major improvements:

RGB histogram visualization
An RGB histogram has appeared above the layer list, on the top-left part of the application window. The histogram shows the RGB values of either the merged output or the sticky layer, depending which one is activated in the GUI.

Interactive editing of gradients shape
It is now possible to modify the shape of an horizontal or vertical gradient by means of control points that are added and modified directly in the preview area. This new feature is accessible when the editing mode of the gradient tool is activated, as shown in the screenshot below.

New PhotoFlow version 0.2.1 released

The next PhotoFlow version 0.2.1 is out!
The source code is available from the github repository, while OSX and Windows installers will be provided very soon through the same link.
For Ubuntu users, an updated package will most likely be available in the next few days as well.

PhotoFlow version 0.2.1 fixes a quite large number of issues related with the new GUI layout.
However, a new release would be rather boring without new features! So there is a bunch of cool new things and improvements that have been added in this release.

Mouse-assisted image rotation

In the upcoming PhotoFlow version 0.2.1 the scale/rotate tool will acquire a cool new feature: the ability to control the rotation angle with the mouse.

It will now be possible to draw a guide segment on the image, and let photoflow adjust the rotation angle such that the line will become horizontal or vertical (whatever is closer).

New PhotoFlow version 0.1.6 released

I'm pleased to announce that a new version of PhotoFlow has just been released on GitHub. This version brings a few nice new features and includes several improvements suggested here and there...

Here are the main improvements:

• EXIF data is now copied from input images to the exported TIFF and Jpeg files. The EXIF data is handled through the GEXIV2 library (the same used by GIMP), therefore GExiv2 is needed from now on to compile PhotoFlow.
• The preview image is now processed by multiple threads (one for each available CPU core), I expect some significant improvement on multi-core machines
• A new "HSL mask" tool has been added: it allows to create a layer mask based on Hue, Saturation and Luminance curves
• The icons associated to the layer masks now reflect the actual mask status (empty, enabled, disabled)
• The G'MIC code has been patched to avoid crashes under OSX. Now most of the G'MIC filters work in a stable way on OSX as well

The OSX installer is available from here, while Ubuntu packages should soon be available from Dariusz Duma PPA. A windows installer will also follow in a short time and will be available from the same link os the OSX one.

For the next version, I plan to focus on finalizing the new controls interface, that will be hopefully more user-friendly than the present dialog-based one (see here for a preview)...

Any feedback will be highly appreciated!

----------------
Here is the full changelog:

• Improved selection of curve points
• The curve points for the generation of the mask for the the B/C/S/H (Brightness/Contrast/Saturation/Hue) tool can now be added by ctrl-clicking on the preview area.
• Added feathering of B/C/S/H mask
• Added H/S/L mask tool. The generated grayscale image is equivalent to the mask of the B/C/S/H tool, however the advantage is that it can be used as a generic layer mask to be associated to other tools (like curves, blurs, etc...)
• Improved gaussian blur filter:
• added memory caching at the filter input (improves performance significantly)
• blur method is now the same for preview and rendering, and can be choosen from configuration dialog
• blur method is fixed to "accurate" for radii below 5 pixels
• blur method defaults to "fast" (sii) for radii larger than 5 pixels
• Modified sinkscreen_pf.c to allow for parallel processing of dirty tiles (one thread for each available CPU core). This improves the responsiveness of the preview area on multi-core machines.
• Input EXIF/XMP/IPTC metadata are now saved to the exported TIFF and JPG images, using GExiv2. Starting from this version, GExiv2 is therefore needed to compile PhotoFlow
• Added default layer names for several tools (instead of the generic "New Layer")
• Icons for the layer masks now represent the actual status of the mask:
• white if mask is empty
• a gradient if the mask contains one or more layers
• a crossed gradient if the mask is not empty, but disabled
• Updated French transaltions

G'MIC-related changes:

• Added optional in-memory tile caching for G'MIC operations (one cache for each iteration)
• Improved G'MIC bilateral smoothing (or "surface blur" filter):
• added padding parameter based on spatial variance (scaled to actual zoom level)
• "value variance" is now independent of zoom level (was incorrectly scaled together with the spatial variance)
• enabled tile caching
• Fixed multi-threaded processing of G'MIC filters under OSX (by protecting all sscanf calls with a global mutex)
• The film processing presets have been moved from the "G'MIC" to the "color" category

Version 0.1.5 released

Yet another PhotoFlow version is out!

The new 0.1.5 release brings two brand new tools:

- the Volume tool, which allows to apply some local contrast enhancement and modulate the strength of the effect separately in the shadows, mid-tones and highlights. This is a realization of the idea discussed by +Patrick David on his blog: http://blog.patdavid.net/2014/08/clarity-in-gimp-local-contrast-mid-tones.html

 

- the Brightness/Contrast/Saturation/Hue Adjustment tool, which includes three curves that allow to modulate the effects according to the hue, the saturation and/or the lightness of the input pixels. By default the curves are disabled and all adjustments are applied globally. This tool allows to do things like "boost the saturation and the contrast of dull green colors in the mid-tones". The screenshot gives an example of an hue adjustment that selectively turns the red colors into green, using the  curve shown in the image.

 

The image used in the screenshot above is by +andrew mcmillan: https://plus.google.com/+andrewmcmillan/posts/2qN4AwheFgt

Here is the complete changelog:

- Added new "Brightness/Contrast/Saturation/Hue Adjustment" tool, which replaces the previous "Hue/Saturation Adjustment"
- Added "Volume" tool (similar to "Clarity", i.e. local contrast targeting the mid-tones), inspired by http://blog.patdavid.net/2014/08/clarity-in-gimp-local-contrast-mid-tones.html
- LibRAW is now compiled as a separate library (like in darktable)
- Updated G'MIC code to version 1.6.5.0

Updated Windows and OSX installers are available from the usual downloads page.

Version 0.1.4 released

Version 0.1.4 of PhotoFlow is out!

This is another bugfix release that corrects an issue preventing the proper rendering of "clone" layers in certain situations. The problem has been introduced by the changes in the layer visibility logic in 0.1.3.

Updated Windows and OSX installers are available from the usual downloads page.

Experimental "Volume" tool

I've been recently working on a new tool, inspired by this post in Pat David's blog: Clarity in GIMP.

The post describes a method to imitate the "Clarity" effect in Lightroom, by applying a UnSharp Mask (USM) filter at high radius restricted to the mid-tones of the image.

So I took this idea and tried to implement it in a flexible way in PhotoFlow. In order not to re-use the same terminology as Lightroom, the filter is called "Volume" (as it is intended to give some "volume" to your image...).

In the current version, a local contrast enhancement filter (USM for the moment) is strength-modulated with a smooth curve applied to the luminosity channel of the input pixel data. The screenshot below shows the graphical interface of the filter with the default parameter values. The five vertical sliders in the bottom allow to control the strength of the effect in various luminosity ranges. The example below corresponds to a possible selection of the mid-tones.

More specifically, the 5 sliders correspond to input values of 0% (blacks), 25% (shadows), 50% (mid-tones), 75% (highlights) and 100% (whites). For example, the default configuration show above is equivalent to this smooth tone curve:

The filter is still in an experimental form, but works already without issues and therefore it will most likely be included in the next release for user testing and feedback.

In future, a simple extension (which is already foreseen in the code and GUI) will be to add other local contrast enhancement filters, in addition to large-radius USM. Here are some possible choices:

• Surface blur (or "bilateral smoothing")
• G'MIC Local Normalization
• G'MIC Local Variance Normalization

Version 0.1.3 released

Version 0.1.3 of PhotoFlow is out!

This is a bugfix release that brings improvements in the program stability, in particular  in the handling of cloned layers. It also fixes some issues with the visualization of RAW files at zoom levels below 100%.

Here is the complete changelog:

Version 0.1.3

• Fixed opacity blending of "Color" mode in RGB and Lab colorspaces 
• Fixed opacity blending of "Luminosity" mode in Lab colorspace
• Fixed filling of layer list of clone tool: for clone layers inserted in layer masks, the parent layer was incorrectly included in the list, leading to a possible unresolvable circular dependency between the clone layer and its source. Now the parent layer is not included anymore in the list of possible clone sources.
• Original "visible" flag of layers renamed to "enabled", and added a new "visible" flag to indicate if a given layer is either directly hidden or indirectly hidden because some of its parents are hidden. The "enabled" flag now indicates if the layer is directly hidden.
• Removed fatal assertion on the validity of the output image from layer extra inputs. Now if the image is invalid a NULL pointer is simply added to the list of extra inputs, without causing a program crash. Nevertheless, a notification mechanism should be introduced to inform the user of the abnormal situation.
• Fixed corruption of RAW image metadata at zoom levels below 100%
• Fixed bug in the image preview at program startup
• Fixed several clang compilation warnings

Version 0.1.2

• Added "invert" parameter to gradient tool (to reverse the direction of the gradient
• Fixed bug that prevented correct loading of presets with multiple layers into a layer mask
• Fixed locale support (only tested with french translations under Linux)
• pfconv: output file is now overwritten in place by exiftool

Updated Windows and OSX installers are available from the usual downloads page.

New interface and new tutorial coming soon...

So I've been recently working on a new layout of the layers list and the tools controls, with the hope to make the interface more intuitive and improve the overall usability.

This new interface puts the controls of the various filters (sliders, curves, etc...) directly in the main window, instead of using separate dialogs. The idea is to reserve an area below the layer list, where the controls of all the selected layers are shown sequentially (in the same order as the layers).

Each group of controls belonging to the same filter has a sort of "tool" bar, where one finds buttons to toggle the visibility of the layer, activate/deactivate the layer mask, activate/deactivate the preview of the current settings, and to reset all the controls to their default values. The tool bar also contains an editable field with the layer name, and an expander button that shows or hides the rest of the controls.

Here is a preview of the new interface (with two layers selected):

As you can see, there is still a lot of work to do, but the interface is I think quite clean and intuitive. Would you have any suggestion, do not hesitate to drop a comment!

A new tutorial under construction

Meanwhile I've been also busy putting together a rater long tutorial on panorama editing with Hugin and PhotoFlow. It is almost completely written now, and should soon appear on pixls.us! Keep an eye on this blog, the google+ community or directly the pixls.us forum, as we'll certainly drop a message when it will be finally online!