New Free Plugin for Colour Correction - Clean Contrast

[James_H]

Clean Contrast

Hi,

I've created a new colour correction plugin for Adobe Premiere CS6 that I think many of you will find interesting.

 

Demo

The password is: plugin

https://vimeo.com/66239802

 

Why use Clean Contrast?

When it comes to adding contrast to an image, many common tools are flawed.  These tools often use algorithms that transform light in an unrealistic way.  Clean Contrast aims to allow you to manipulate the exposure and contrast of an image in a way that mimics how light actually works.  Instead of working on a "per channel" basis, Clean Contrast uses a "per pixel" algorithm that more accurately affects light.

 

What can I use Clean Contrast for?

As the video demonstrates, this new tool allows you to add generous amounts of contrast to an image without distorting the scene's natural colours.  Of course, it also works for more subtle adjustments.

 

How do I use Clean Contrast?

There are only 3 controls you have to learn.

1. Mode: The mode determines the algorithm that will be used on the image.  Realistic will be suitable for most situations and it's selected by default.  It mimics how light works in real life.  Stylized will use another algorithm that works in the HSL colour-space.  Though it's not realistic, it can come in handy if you're looking for a more dramatic look.
2. Lift: This adds or subtracts a constant amount of lightness to each pixel in a linear fashion.
3. Gain: This defines the contrast by multiplying each pixel's lightness by a constant.

Workflow: First, you'll use the Lift control to set your darkest pixels to be pure black.  Then, you'll adjust the Gain in order to achieve the desired amount of contrast.  You may have to go back and forth between these two controls to dial in the look perfectly.  If there's too much or too little saturation, I suggest applying the "Fast Color Corrector" immediately after Clean Contrast in order to adjust it to your liking.

 

How much does Clean Contrast cost?

It's FREE!  The download link is at the end of this post

 

Which applications will Clean Contrast work with?

Unfortunately, Clean Contrast has only been designed to work with Adobe Premiere CS6 running on Mac OS X.  It may be available for other platforms in the future, but don't hold your breath for it.

 

How can I help the developer?

Just leave me some feedback.  Although I work as a software developer, this is a project I've decided to do for free.  Let me know what you think of it and how it could be improved.  Also, feel free to share some work you've done using it.

 

Where can I get Clean Contrast?

[attachment=509:Clean Contrast for Mac OS X.zip]

 

Please let me know what you think!

 

 

EDIT:

How do I install Clean Contrast?

Installation instructions are included in the INSTALL.txt file.

It turns out there's a mistake in the installation instructions.  The path for adobe plugins is: 

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/CS6/MediaCore/

It's within this folder that you copy the file.  Thanks to nigelbb for the fix!

[Ernesto Mantaras]

Interesting plugin! Unfortunately I'm on PC, but I'd love to try it out otherwise. Also, you were the one developing a plugin to handle highlights, right? That seemed very cool. Are you still working on it?

[James_H]

Interesting plugin! Unfortunately I'm on PC, but I'd love to try it out otherwise. Also, you were the one developing a plugin to handle highlights, right? That seemed very cool. Are you still working on it?

 

 

That's right.  The last time I posted a topic here, I was working on a plugin that handle highlight rolloff better.  Unfortunately, that plugin was incompatible with many common tools such as RGB Curves and Magic Bullet's Colorista II (just to name a few).  This meant that it was less useful than I had originally hoped, so I abandoned it.

 

In order to overcome the limitations of my past efforts, I decided to create my own tool for adjusting exposure and contrast, Clean Contrast.  This tool uses the same technology as the last plugin, so highlights don't suffer from hue shifts.

 

But with Clean Contrast, I went a step further.  I was unsatisfied with the results I was getting when I added generous amount of contrast with the current tools.  I determined how these tools worked and I figured out why they were giving me bad results.  Adding contrast is a pretty simple task theoretically, but the colour-spaces that we work in don't favour an easy calculation.  And I believe that the folks at Adobe & Magic Bullet haven't realized the issues with their algorithms.

 

I hope people will find Clean Contrast to be useful and that they will consider using it for small and large adjustments alike.

[Sean Cunningham]

Given that it works in Premiere, have you tried making it work in AfterEffects?  I liked your demo video a lot but I don't do any rendering or finishing in Premiere.  I would use the hell out of it if it was available for AfterEffects, I expect.

 

:)

[James_H]

Given that it works in Premiere, have you tried making it work in AfterEffects?  I liked your demo video a lot but I don't do any rendering or finishing in Premiere.  I would use the hell out of it if it was available for AfterEffects, I expect.

 

:)

 

I've only ever tried porting to After Effects once, but from what I remember, it wasn't too difficult.  I'll give it a quick try today after work.  Check back later, I will hopefully remember to post an update on that front.

[Sean Cunningham]

That would be awesome.  My fingers are crossed.  

[James_H]

The porting process is not quite trivial.  I'm experiencing some difficulties at the moment.  I'll give it more attention in the upcoming days and I'll let you know if/when it works with After Effects.

[Sean Cunningham]

No worries.  Thanks for even looking into it!  After seeing your demo it's going to be hard to look at the built in Exposure effect in AE and not be thinking to myself, "you suck, Exposure."

[nigelbb]

I would like to try this as it looks interesting. However I followed the installation instructions:-

 

 

 

 

To install the "Clean Contrast" plugin for Adobe Premiere CS6, open Finder and navigate to this path:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/CS6/

 

Within this folder, create a new folder name "Clean Contrast".  Copy the "Clean Contrast.plugin" file to this folder.

 

 

 

 

but even after restarting Premiere Pro & even the Mac I cannot find this plugin among by Video Effects. I am running PP CS6 on OS X 10.8.3

 

BTW You really should put the full instructions for using this plugin (as in this forum post) & some contact details in the zip file or at least a pointer to a web page or even this forum post.

[James_H]

but even after restarting Premiere Pro & even the Mac I cannot find this plugin among by Video Effects. I am running PP CS6 on OS X 10.8.3

 

BTW You really should put the full instructions for using this plugin (as in this forum post) & some contact details in the zip file or at least a pointer to a web page or even this forum post.

The fact that the plugin is not showing up in your video effects is bizarre.  As far as I know, there really aren't any other steps to take in order to install it.  It should show up automatically in Video Effects -> James Hall

 

Can anyone else share their experience installing it?

 

As for documentation and contact details, I'm not providing such things yet since it's still in a beta stage.  I don't have an official website or public email account, this forum is the only place I've published the test code.  However, I would consider adding more information with a more formal & stable release.

 

For now, this post is the place for your questions.  

[FLATMIND]

Hi, i've got the same problem. I can't see the plug-in.

I'm on Mac Os X 10.7.5 and Premiere Cs6 (6.0.2).

 

 

Andrea

[nigelbb]

OK, I just figured out how to install it. The installation instructions are wrong. They tell you to put the folder containing the plugin file in:-

 

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-Ins/CS6/

 

when i fact it needs to go with all the other plug-ins in:-

 

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-Ins/CS6/MediaCore/

[James_H]

OK, I just figured out how to install it. The installation instructions are wrong. They tell you to put the folder containing the plugin file in:-

 

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-Ins/CS6/

 

when i fact it needs to go with all the other plug-ins in:-

 

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-Ins/CS6/MediaCore/

 

Thank you nigelbb.  This was a silly mistake on my end.  This should fix the problem for those who've been unable to use it.  I've added your fix to the original post.

[Nikkor]

sad there is no windows version.

[KarimNassar]

very nice work.

I am on windows as well so sadly cannot try it.

But I like what I have seen in the video. great work

[James_H]

sad there is no windows version.

 

 

I am on windows as well so sadly cannot try it.

 

It's a shame that I don't have access to a Windows machine with CS6.  I understand that in most professional environments Windows the OS of choice.  I'm open to the idea of collaborating with others in order to push out a Windows-friendly version.

 

*** If there are any C++ programmers that would like to take a stab at porting it to Windows, send me a PM. ***

[James_H]

Has anyone here experienced the issues I bring up in the demo video above?  I'm talking about the discolourations & hyper-saturation of the shadow areas when you adjust exposure/contrast.  I wonder if this is something that others have struggled with.