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Sagelight Version 4.2 (Part I) Release Notes
Sagelight Version 4.2 was released on 10-20-2011. It is considered release-ready and stable, and is in beta form while some documentation on the new and changed features are updated.
Version 4.2 will be release in two parts. Part I is described below, and Part II will be released very soon.
4.2 (Part I) Release Notes
The Bokeh, Lens Blur, and Fast Depth of Field are a very powerful, comprehensive set of functions written to perform a number of depth of field, bokeh, and other blurring effects. Written mostly in SSE2 and SSE4 code, these functions are written to be used easily and quickly in a free-form, real-time environment. You can use these functions with a vignette-style automatic mask and/or with your own easily-drawn (or created depth mask) to create advanced effects rapidly.
Features
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Very fast real-time display. Though Bokeh, particularly, is a very intensive process, you can change the display and change the masking in realtime to get real feel for what is happening with the result.
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Fast and High Quality Results. Lens blur and Bokeh can be a slow process because it is very intensive. Sagelight's Bokeh routines are written to be as fast as possible as well as very high resolution.
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Extremely Fast Depth of Field function. Sagelight also has a "Fast Depth of Field" function that can be used on its own, but also within the Bokeh/Lens blur function to help increase speed. The Depth of Field function can perform a blur of effectively over a quadrillion pixels in just a few seconds -- on one processor. It's this sort of speed that allows the visceral feedback that Sagelight is known for.
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Graphic, interactive interface. You can change the size, shape, and placement of the auto-mask (i.e. like a vignette) reticle by just dragging it around on the screen. The display adjusts automatically.
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Multiple Auto Mask Shapes. You can choose from circle, elliptical, square, rectangular, planar, dual planar, and filled versions of each. You can change the size, shape, and angle of the mask in realtime by grabbing the edges on the screen image.
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User Mask and Depth Mask. You can also use your own mask on top of the auto-shaped mask. You can define the mask to simple block certain items to provide a depth-of-field look to your image, and to blur only selected areas.
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Real-time Mask Editing. You can edit your own mask from the Bokeh/Lens Blur and Fast DOF functions. As you work with the function, you can simply edit the mask as you see more of what you're looking for. You don't need to exit the function or take time to change the mask and re-enter the functions and redo the settings.
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Photographically-oriented Aperture Shapes. You can select from various aperture shapes, such as a circle, triangle, square, hexagon, octagon, etc., as well as filled, semi-transparent and hollow versions of each shape. The shapes are high-resolution and designed to work best for a truly photographic representation (as opposed to cute shapes).
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Realistic Specular Highlights Controls. One of the trademarks of Bokeh is the 'bloom' on specular highlights -- the specular highlights that turn into either circles or whatever the aperture shape. Sagelight has realistic highlight controls, which can help you define the highlights in your image and make them stand out.
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Extended Highlight Controls. In addition to the standard Highlight Strength and Highlight Amount controls, Sagelight also has the following controls that help with the Highlights
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Specular Edge. This is sometimes known as the 'bloom' in other programs. This basically allows the highlights, as they turn into the shape of the aperture and become larger, to become more defined or less defined. As they become more defined, they tend to look more like an effect (which can look nice, but isn't necessarily realistic, either), where using the control to bring the edge down can make the specular reflections look much more realistic and naturally photographic.
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Color Edge. This control allows you to decide how your reflections look as they grow into the aperture shape. This control allows you to move the reflections into their component color. Instead of getting a pure white reflection from a sunset, for example, the Color Edge control allows you to move the reflections into the golden hues of the sun. The sun peering through the grass is another example; instead of a white reflection, you can move the reflection into the green & yellows that make for a much more realistic image.
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Highlight Clipping. As well as the Highlight Strength, you can also clip the highlights. This allows you to establish a highlight range, avoiding too many highlights from the brighter areas, while allowing the mid-tone highlights to stand out.
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Pre-Blur Backlight Control. This is a powerful tool, as it allows you to make the highlights completely stand out while adding contrast to your image. While other vignetting features are provided (see below), this performs a backlight function with a Burn algorithm that can make the image stand out and allows the highlights to come through much more defined. It can add a dramatic dimension to your image. Contrast this with the Vignette Controls listed below.
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Vignette Controls. Post-blur, you can add a vignette to the image to darken it or lighten it. You can use one of 5 modes to get the tone you're looking for. The vignette follows the auto-mask vignette, so it is perform in just the right areas for the image.
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Post Color Functions. You can add saturation or vibrance to your image while your in the Bokeh/Lens Blur or Fast DOF functions. This can add a lot of depth to your image, especially when combined with the Highlight Backlight Control or the vignetting controls.
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Additionally, you can control the auto-shape mask areas and overall image independenly. This can help focus on the subject by adding or removing color from one area, and performing the opposite in another area.
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Highlight Mask. Another very powerful function, this allows you to create a mask for the highlights. The problem with traditional Bokeh is that the highlights get out of control very quickly -- you may see one you like, but to get it where you want it means over-highlighting other areas. With the Highlight mask, you can simply paint the areas you want to keep where they are and then adjust other areas independenly.
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Complete Mask Control. Listed below are the masking controls within the Lens/Blur and Fast DOF functions
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Edit Mask. Edit your own mask (which you can import) and see the result immediately. You can use the normal mask editor for this, and you can edit either the blur/depth mask or the highlight mask.
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Load & Save Masks. You can loads and save both mask types by saving or loading a preset.
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Enable Mask. You can enable or disable each mask type.
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As selection Mask. This is yet another powerful tool, which will be discussed in articles and the documentation. It allows you to create Depth of Field effects without having to worry about precise edges. It allows you to, in fact, be very imprecise with your mask without causing edges.
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Lazy Mask. Another Sagelight innovation, this allows you to create your depth of field blur without a mask. You can simply put back in what you want later. This avoids the problem of traditional blurring where the blur also blurs the area you want to avoid ruining the effects. This allows you to very casually create a depth of field blur without creating a mask, yet it also allows you to keep the foreground areas intact. As with the "As Selection Mask" setting, this allows you to create a very imperfect mask (i.e. quickly) while not losing the accuracy you want.
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Clip Mask. This allows you to let the blur bleed into the image, allowing the effects from the masked areas into the non-masked areas. This can make an image look more realistic when you're blurring foreground items. This will also be a subject of some articles.
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Highlight Mask Multiply Slider. This allows you to increase or decrease the areas masked with the highlight mask. As you make changes, this allows you to adjust these areas without re-editing the mask.
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Distortion and Spin. These controls allow you to distort the image, adding a surreal, zoom-like effect. This works well with centered images.
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Preset Support. You can load and save presets, which will also save any masks you have in memory (they do not need to be active). Also, when you come back into the Bokeh/Lens Blur or Fast DOF functions, your last settings are restored automatically (if you're editing the same file).
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Window Undock. You can undock the secondary controls window for greater access and speed in using the controls.
Various Masking improvements:
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New Brushes. The brushes have been revamped to work better.
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Transparency Control. You can now set transparency as well as hardness and pressure.
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Auto Mask Save. The mask now works more like an alpha channel. When you dismiss it, it is still there and will come back the next time you activate the mask. For example, if you use the Bokeh controls, you can turn the mask back on and edit it, even if it wasn't being used when you entered the function.
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Load and Save Masks. You can also load and save mask from/to files.
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Import and Export to the Clipboard. You can transfer the mask in from and out to the clipboard. This facilitates easy usage of external editors. For example, you can paste in a depth mask for use with the Lens Blur or DOF functions very easily. You can also export a mask created in Sagelight to another editor.
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Transfer to and from main image view. You can convert the mask to the main image for better editing (and then go back to the main image). You can also transfer the main image into a mask (converted to a LAB L channel), which has some benefits to be described in an article.
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Mask menu Items. There is now a 'Mask' menu item which has a host of entries in it to help make masking easier.
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Saved Status. The mask now remembers what you were doing the last time you were there. It retains the settings (i.e. brush size, etc.) until you've loaded a new file.
You can now set a path to an external Browser. You can press E or Control-E to launch it. When Sagelight receives the file from the external browser, it will load the image without starting another instance of Sagelight. You can use 'E' in place of 'O' (Open File) is you choose to use an external browser.
Features
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Launch External Browser easily . Just use 'E' or Control-E
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Ask for RAW options. As an option, you can tell Sagelight to automatically ask for RAW options (instead of using defaults) when a RAW file is passed to it from an external browser.
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Current Path Passed. You can also tell Sagelight to pass the current directory when a file is opened. This tells your external browser to start in the directory in which your open file resides.
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Fast Loads. When you load an image from an external browser, Sagelight drops it right into the opened Sagelight instance. This means it is fast. If Sagelight is not opened, the new load speed (see below) also keeps it fast.
RAW Support
An external browser can be used to browse RAW files windows cannot display, and some people use 3rd-party external browser for various reasons, rather than using the standard Windows Browser.
Windows support for RAW.
Windows now has support for RAW images in the Windows Browser. In Sagelight testing, this means that Sagelight can now show the RAW thumbnails of most RAW images in the browser. Use this link to to the Microsoft website to install it on your 32-bit or 64-bit Windows System:
This was more of a bug than a feature, but I thought it should be noted. ICC profiles stored in RAW images are now loaded and the image is converted to that profile.
note about Adobe RGB with RAW images. There has been a lot of discussion about using Adobe RGB embedded into RAW files. It has been noted by many that colors seem to be oversaturated when loading RAW files with Adobe RGB profiles. You may see this in Sagelight. It is an issue with the concept of using an ICC profile with a RAW image. My advice is to not use Adobe RGB ICC profiles with your camera. If you want to use an Adobe RGB profile, shoot in sRGB (i.e. no profile) and then convert it to Adobe RGB after you've opened it.
There are a few settings added, mostly relating to the external browser support.
In addition, there is a new setting to go back to the old-style slider handles. This version moved all slider handles to the smaller, triangular format. If you don't like the, you can use the settings to change them back (they're easier to see because they are so much larger).
Not that the previous loading time was slow by any means, but it was getting longer because of all of the graphics that have been added in the last couple releases. Now, it writes all of the compressed information to disk as uncompressed data. When you first load it, it will take as long as normal. After that, there will be at least a 5x increase in loading time.
I wanted to facilitate faster loading with external browsers, but also on Netbooks which tend to be much slower and the load time longer.
This has been requested, and now you can reload your image quickly with RAW options. Sagelight will tell you to load with Highlight Recovery here and there, and now it is that much easier. This also helps when images have been loaded with external editors, since the original path is either not completely known or is fairly long.
The Undo Brush has had some features added and bugs fixed.
Features
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You can show the mask as semi-opaque. This allows you to work with edges you want to closely define. You can see the mask your building and the image, which allows you to exactly where the undo points will be.
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You can look at the mask as opaque. This helps show streaks in areas you may have missed. Typically, such streaks have zero effect and are nothing to worry about. But, if you're created very large changes (such as blurring), then these missed areas may show up later when they are much harder to deal with. You can click the Show Mask Button quickly to toggle it to see any missed areas.
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Brushes Revamped. This also includes the Clone Brush, and actually has a more pronounced effect with this function. The brushes are smoother and work better. In the case of the clone brush, the blending is significantly better (I was a little surprised, actually)
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Display Bug Fixed. The bug that caused the display to not return to normal when using the image view buttons has been fixed.
Coming in Sagelight 4.2 (Part 2)
This is a nice HDR-like function. It takes a little explaining by way of example images. It allows you to create pronounced local contrast effects, as well as HDR-like effects that can help you bring out a lot from your image.
The Power box and Light Blender are being docked and moved into the Quick Edit Mode space. There will be three tabs, "Quick Edit", "Power Box", and "Light Blender". This will make it much more organized. You'll still be able to undock these windows if you want to.
There's a few things on the list, mostly UI issues. For example, there will be an option to skip the JPEG window that asks what compression ratio you want to save. You can then re-enable it from the settings menu.
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