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ThomasT
Known Participant
March 30, 2017
Question

What *exactly* is Clarity?

  • March 30, 2017
  • 9 replies
  • 23680 views

Hi,

camera raw and lightroom have the slider clarity.

But what exactly is clarity?
Yes I know what it is in principle, its mide ton contrast, but I'm asking for the algorithm to reproduce it in PS.
In the internet you read a lot about its like unsharp mask with large radius and small intensity. But this is true only for small corrections.
When moving the clarity-slider to the extrem right the image looks different. At first it seems that it influences only the luminosity.

But using an upper layer, applying unsharp mask (radius around 100, amount 20% -30%) and combining it with luminance-method looks quite differently.

I tried differenz things. Some come near, but not exaclty. And all what I found in the internet is rubbish and ad hoc thinking.

I need the hard slightly desaturated look when pushing clarity to the extreme.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    9 replies

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    Paper_Mine
    Participant
    August 14, 2018

    Some local tone-mapping algorithm for increasing local contrast.

    Sharpen (convolution or deconvolution) can be seen as a low-quality local tone-mapping algorithm. (I call it low-quality because of ringing effect.)

    jbm007
    Community Expert
    jbm007Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 14, 2018

    It has a sharpening function hence the ringing effect if pushed to hard.

    It also crushes the blue end to much, pushing into the purple end of the spectrum.

    thats one of the reasons I use it in LAB mode

    P
    Paper_Mine
    Participant
    August 15, 2018

    But paper mine has a point - you get exactly the same effect with Unsharp Mask at high radius.

    Personally I hate Clarity and never use it. It always looks over-processed, fake-HDR to me.


    I prefer Dehaze than Clarity to avoid photos look like over-sharpened.

    T
    ThomasTAuthor
    Known Participant
    April 5, 2017

    Hi,
    thank you to all replyer.
    So I think my question has been answered.
    The aswer is: clarity is some magic stuff with a history and there exist some approximaitons by using usm with large radius and small amount. At least for lower values of clarity. But the clarity-algorithm itself is keeped a secret.

    T
    ThomasTAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 31, 2017

    Hi,

    actually I mean with *exactly* the concrete algorithm. In a way that I can programm it as a photoshop plugin or standalone image processor etc.
    All what you told is not new for me ;-)

    Its seems nobody except the adobe programmers really have a clue ....

    Regards Thomas

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 31, 2017

    You won't get an answer to this unless an ACR engineer comes by.

    All of the above is correct, with the important distinction the clarity works locally, not globally. I suspect it's related to highlight and shadow recovery, and as such part of the "image adaptive processing". IOW it works according to actual content, not by a general rule.

    Derek Cross
    Community Expert
    Derek CrossCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 30, 2017

    Clarity is for sharpening / softening an image.

    barbara_a7746676
    Community Expert
    barbara_a7746676Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 30, 2017

    Clarity increases contrast, mostly in the midtones.

      Trevor.Dennis
      Community Expert
      Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 30, 2017

      https://forums.adobe.com/people/Barbara+Ash  wrote

      Clarity increases contrast, mostly in the midtones.

      You beat me to it Barbara, except I was going to say 'local contrast'.  It stretches out the histogram dropping the black point and brightening whites, but tries not to blow highlights.  But if you watch the histogram while dragging the clarity and contrast sliders to the right, the effect is very similar. 

      A trick some people miss is negative Clarity, which is a super easy, and very effective tool for cleaning skin blemishes.  It _tries_ not to soften the blacks too much when doing this, but it is best to do it on a copied layer and mask out the eyes, lashes, hair, lips etc.

        B
        bzareenk
        Inspiring
        March 30, 2017

        Haaha! Sure then, dont go over the top while editing.Keep it minimal and i think you will get the desired loo.Keep the clarity sliders on a lower value to maintain natural appearance.

        T
        ThomasTAuthor
        Known Participant
        March 30, 2017

        In this case I want a little unnatural look. Unnatural, but not looking unnatural, if you know what I mean.

        B
        bzareenk
        Inspiring
        March 30, 2017

        The clarity slider is an excellent tool for adding punch to images without making them look unnatural. The secret is to get all your primary corrections done first, exposure, color, highlights and shadows but not to touch the contrast. Keep the histogram within limits and then when happy with the result, slowly add in some clarity, keeping one eye on the histogram. Like any tool push it too far and the result will start to look unnatural but used carefully it can add some real sharpness to even the dullest of shots.

          davescm
          Community Expert
          davescmCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          March 30, 2017

          I don't pretend to know the exact algorithm. But on a practical point, if you want to use clarity in Photoshop, make the layers into a smart object and use Filter - Camera Raw

          Dave

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