Turning the graduated filter

@geno I’m not sure what you’re saying. You have my hopes up that I just need to learn another counter-intuitive trick with those exasperating sliders on the control points? If you can tell me what that is I’ll be eternally grateful to you. I even got myself a mouse with a sniper mode and still that warmth slider clicks along in jumps of about 160K. And even then I’m breaking out into a sweat trying to keep it to that.

I wanted to say that I got used to it. No problem to operate the Equalizer of the local adjustment even with a touchpad.

And I also have to say that the gain of picture quality was /is more than worth it.

Trying again with the graduated filter

  • after ‘pulling out’ the dotted line (see proposal from @John-M post#10), I now could see the filter snapping being close to the horizontal / vertical axis,
  • while holding the < Ctrl > key (see proposal from @geno post#6) deactivated this automatic function temporarily.

Experimenting with different pics, I also can confirm that this erratically ‘jumping around’ is due to constant recalculation. – Of course it’s necessary to ‘immediately’ see the result changing the equalizer’s values, but NOT when pulling the graduated filter’s handle (the white/black dot).

As long one starts with a ‘fresh’ pic there is no problem, but the more corrections already have been made the more it’s getting tedious – commonly when applying the graduated filter (I never start with it first place). A simple solution could be to suppress the recalculation as long that handle is moved (maybe invoked by the < Crtl > key).


@Beachscriber
well, it works with the equalizer’s sliders moving the pointer away, but could be improved like

  • using the < Crtl > key → to have finer / better control
  • and clicking on top/bottom of the relevant slider → to change in certain increments

Wolfgang


@StevenL, maybe to take note.

please also see Turning the graduated filter - #21 by Wolfgang

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I’m not sure what you mean when you say you got used to the Equalizer. It’s been a year for me and I’ve actually gotten to like it in some ways but that frustration with the Warmth, Tint and Hue sliders is turning into exasperation. I’m pulling my hair out and looking for alternatives. Do you mean to say you got used to making your warmth adjustments in 160K steps (if you’re careful enough) or you got used to making them in 1000K steps while you get it out top the side and then pulling your cursor all the way to the bottom of your screen in small increments only to discover that wasn’t far enough, so you have to start again?!! Or did you find some workaround? THAT is what interests me!

Just click the slider, hold it, slide it sideways and you are able to to do really small adjustments doing up / down movement.
That’s what I got used to.

(English ist not my mother tongue, sorry…)

For me it’s only the Warmth, Tint and Hue sliders on the Equaliser that are a problem - a serious one, I might add, especially in the case of the Warmth slider. It is truly exasperating! I’ve tried for a year to get used to it and failed. I’m now at the point where I’m cursing it.
• The smallest adjustment I can make is about 160K, even with my mouse in Sniper mode and me breaking out into a sweat to keep it to that.
• Often when I click it just to grab it and move it it jumps by a couple of hundred Kelvin and then I’m struggling to get it back to where it was so I can move on from there.
• That option to drag it out to some nebulous space on the side in order to get finer increments is absurdly counter-intuitive and unhelpful. It’s like trying to start our car off in top gear. And by the time you’ve gotten your cursor out to first gear you’re over 1000K out and you have to drive all the way to the top or bottom of your screen in first gear only to discover it’s not far enough to get even close to where you started … on your journey to make a 20 or even a 50K adjustment.
• The controls are not consistent with global controls on the sidebar. On the sidebar you can make finer adjustments to warmth with the mouse or keyboard. When you try to instruct the the Equalizer with the same words it ignores you. Arg!

@StephenL I gather you’re on the DXO staff. Please forgive me tagging you here and excuse these expressions of my frustration at what is essentially a minor aspect of some great software. Is there some way I can bring this to the attention of the right people there? Is it worth trying to do so? I use the control points a lot, having grown to love them them while using Capture NX2 for years and fixing this will make a big difference to me.

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I remember being frustrated about this behavior, too. I also started a thread about the Equalizer:

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@Beachscriber

Yes, for convincing results one needs to change the colours sensibly in small increments. As the local adjustments equalizer sliders path is comparatively short, DxO tried to circumvent the problem with “hold and drag for accurate value”.

Trouble is, one has to drag exactly horizontally to avoid changing the start value, which seldom works at first trial (experimenting with different mouse speed didn’t help btw). And after double click on the slider to quickly reset the value, one has to drag the pointer again … quite annoying and tiresome.

To improve the user experience I suggested

  • to add the < Crtl > key → to have finer / better control
  • and < Crtl > click on top/bottom of the relevant slider → to change in certain increments

Or change the (Colour)Sliders sensitiveness, like @geno proposed.

[ to emphasize, the problem is the too coarse responsiveness of the colour temperature ]

It’s all about ‘enjoying’ the software.
Wolfgang

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Yes, that business of pulling the mouse out to some nether region makes no sense at all and I can’t help wondering why it isn’t simply the other way around - that you drag it off into outer space for greater speed and have your lower gears to start off with.

As to the Ctrl+→ suggestion, I disagree in part. It must speak the same language that the side panel does, i.e. use the same conventions, and in the case of the side panel all you have to do is click on the Temperature slider and then it becomes responsive to the arrow keys. For that reason I say No to the Ctrl key. Just the arrow keys is enough.

As to the second suggestion of Ctrl at the top and bottom of sliders, YES! If they add little up and down arrows top and bottom then that will be consistent with the convention used in the side bar and the use will be obvious.

Hi folks, I think that the slider topic deserves a separate thread or posts in this feature request:

(just a thought…this thread is labeled “turning aka rotating the graduated filter”)

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thanks to remind me :slight_smile:

While there might not be a ‘one fits all’ solution – see the other threads,
I still hope the handling can be improved.

I’ve given myself a year to try and get used to that back-to-front thing and now I’m just getting pissed-off with it. Maybe if I had a touch screen I’d get used to it. But think of all the new users going through the same hassle when all you need is to have it the other way around: small increments accelerating to bigger ones as you move into the outer space. Like I’ve said before, this thing is like trying to start your car off in top gear. Even if you do get used to the jerking and the clutch burning, it’s silly.

It’s really jerky and I can absolutely understand your point of view and would prefer consistent look and feel, too.

For WB / Tint in local adjustments I hover over the slider, look up the current value and go from there using sideway and up/down motions. That way I can adjust in increments of 1. I cannot figure how one can try this for a year and still has problems using this…?

I would say that I got used to it. Every Software has it’s quirks.

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I can do it - with great care - but it remains very irritating. Maybe it’s because I’ve experienced better in the use of Capture NX2, which I used for about 8 years.

Getting to the original issue of only being able to adjust the rotation using the circle, it is also problematic in cases like this…

I could not grab the circle to adjust the rotation without first grabbing the line to expand the size to bring it out from under the sliders. Mind you, as discussed elsewhere, I think those sliders need to move over into the palette sidebars.

On a related note, I would pay extra for AI fence wire removal. :grin:

You can hide the sliders which will allow you to rotate your filter.

Hmmm, I was not aware of that. How is that done?

Here’s how to hide the sliders -check the yellow text:

When LA is enabled, right-click and then click the ? for help and that will show you the shortcut key to use (I can’t remember what it is).

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Thanks! Shift-E was the answer.