Tone-Mapping (using The GIMP)

Tone-mapping helps sometimes, but not always. It's not one of my personal favorite "tricks", but it's good to know how to do this. Tone-mapping brings out details that appear lost in the original image.
My first attempt at achieving this is to do a "Curves" adjustment; but if that doesn't do the trick, I will try tone-mapping and see where that takes me.

Fig 1
Duplicate the layer twice

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Fig 2
Desaturate the new top layer

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Fig 3
Invert the top layer

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Fig 4
Blur the top layer.
The smaller the radius, the stronger the effect

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Fig 5
Set the blurred layer opacity to 75% .
Experiment !

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Fig 6
Merge down the blurred layer for a tone map adjustment layer

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Fig 7
Set the new layer to "Soft Light" and adjust the opacity until you get the result you like. 90% is a good starting point (Fig 7). For a wilder effect, set the layer mode to "Divide", "Subtract" or " Grain Extract" !

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Fig 8
Merge the two layers

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Mouse-over to see the effects of tonemapping on this scene of Paris from up the Eiffel Tower (Oct.2012).

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page written by Dave Leo