XnView Software

First of all, let me just say that XNView is one of the most amazing pieces of free software I've ever seen. I was looking for a simple image viewer for windows to replace the image/fax view thing and which would allow me to use tabs for multiple images. What I found is not only one of the best viewers but a truely excellent program for basic image alteration and file conversion. It'd be a great value at a much higher price!

I like being able to adjust the image brightness/contrast/levels/colors/hues and such, but one more adjustment that I think would be a great addition would be "shadow and highlight" which is a feature that should be familiar to anyone who used Adobe Photoshop.

It allows you to lighten the darker regions or darken the lighter regions of photos and to adjust the midtone contrast. It works especially well for photos with poor lighting, which are a bit too dark, or where areas are darkened by shadows. it can also help with overly exposed or "washedout" photos. However I find the "shaddow" feature to be the more useful of the two.

I would absolutely LOVE to see something like this added to XnView!

Thanks and let me know what you think
-Steve

DepletedCranium wrote:I like being able to adjust the image brightness/contrast/levels/colors/hues and such, but one more adjustment that I think would be a great addition would be "shadow and highlight" which is a feature that should be familiar to anyone who used Adobe Photoshop.

It allows you to lighten the darker regions or darken the lighter regions of photos and to adjust the midtone contrast. It works especially well for photos with poor lighting, which are a bit too dark, or where areas are darkened by shadows. it can also help with overly exposed or "washedout" photos. However I find the "shaddow" feature to be the more useful of the two.

Ok, i'll try to find how to make that. Do you know some software (with osurce) that have this feature?

Both PhotoFiltre (http://photofiltre.free.fr/) and PhotoFiltre Studio (http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/) have these features.

The plugin ImageSkill Magic Enhancer has this, the Lite version is free.
http://www.imageskill.com/magicenhancer ... ancer.html

Fill-Light

Picasa (and other softwares) have an adjustor called "fill-light", which may be only a gamma adjustment but seems to work better than simple gamma.

In general I find working with the Picasa Fill-Light, Highlights, and Shadow controls, in conjunction with the Picasa "live" histogram, generally the most efficient way to adjust photos. It's crazy how quickly you can fix a photo, move to the next one, fix it, move on... fastest work flow I have encountered (considerably aided by the non-destructive nature of the adjustments... you never have to save and you can always undo some other day).

However, that said...

Actually, the tools offered in the Lightroom develop mode more completely fill my needs, and support the same hyperfast workflow that Picasa does. A VERY useful adjustment in Lightoom is called "Recovery" and you have to use it to believe it. It "recovers" detail from overexposed areas. Amazing.

An XnView version of Highlight Recovery would be very nice.