StarTools

Question, Should I be using the histogram when I stretch my image in this step? If I use " Home in" many times the histogram is so wide I am thinking that can't be the best. How do you get the best without regretting it later in the process.?

Thanks, David

Hi David,

is this the 'final stretch' (after Wipe)? The background looks still a bit undulated, so I would suggest to use Wipe module with slightly more aggressive settings beforehand. Do you use a recommended standard workflow? It's important to use the Wipe modul before doing the final stretch.

In general it's recommended to use Auto-/Opti-Dev to stretch your image. Film-Dev should be reserved for very special cases (which seems not to be the case here ). The Home-In function should yield only a good starting point, feel free to push the 'Digital Development' to your needs.

It's often a bit tricky to decide about a reasonable background level and you are right, this is an important basic step for the whole processing. So it should not be 'black', but not be too bright ( I'm sure you already knew this, don't you?), otherwise you will get a mottles and patches at the end. And it depends on the noise level of your image. So I would suggest to use Auto-Dev after Wipe and then just try with different background levels. You will soon get a good sense for that.

Best regards, Dietmar.