Prefs Tab

 

The Prefs tab contains some options for defining the behavior of ContrastMaster.



On Start Up

The default On Start Up control is "Previous Settings". This option will load the settings that were previously applied to an image with ContrastMaster. The "Default Settings" option will set all controls back to the default values. The "Logged Settings" option will automatically open the settings that were applied the last time to the same image. It only works if you previously had the Log Settings check box activated and if you use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (see below for more information).

 

On Reset

The behavior of the Reset button can be defined by the On Reset combo box. If it is set to "Default Settings" and you click the Reset button, most controls will be deactivated.

If On Reset is set to "Previous Settings", clicking Reset will load the settings that were used for correcting the previous image. If you select "Own Defaults", you will be prompted to select an existing preset file. So, if you want the Reset button to revert all controls back to your preferred settings, you must first save these settings to a preset file. See the Presets page for more information about saving preset files.


If you press the Reset button after setting On Reset to "Logged Settings", ContrastMaster will look in the logfiles sub folder inside the ContrastMaster folder to see if a preset with the name of the current image has been saved there. This preset may have been automatically saved by ContrastMaster, because the Log settings check box was activated and you already applied a correction to this image (or an image with the same file name). If ContrastMaster can find a preset file, it will immediately open it. If ContrastMaster doesn't find one, nothing will happen.

 

Deactivate Multiprocessor Support (x CPUs)

If you encounter any problems, you can deactivate the support for multiple processors and hyperthreading processors with this check box. The number in brackets displays how many processors were detected by ContrastMaster. For example, for a hyperthreading or dualcore processor you will see "2 CPUs" displayed. If you only have a non-hyperthreading, singlecore processor, this check box will be disabled by default.

 

FX Values

If the FX Values check box is activated, the default values will be higher when pressing the Reset button or using the options of the arrow-down button menu. This concerns the three sliders on the Mix tab sheet as well as the Intensity sliders in the Dynamic Contrast, Adaptive Contrast and Local Contrast mode. This feature is meant for users who mainly use ContrastMaster for dramatic effects and less for photo corrections. The FX Values check box lets them start with higher default values, which saves them some time, because they do not need to crank up the sliders every time they press the Reset button or choose e.g. the "Reset" option on a arrow-down button menu.

 

Histo Zoom

Activating the Histo Zoom check box in the Prefs tab cuts off peaks when displaying a histogram in the Histo tab sheet. This avoids a flat histogram display where only a few high spikes are visible. That's also how Photoshop displays histograms. This option is activated by default.

 

Log Settings

With the Log Settings check box activated ContrastMaster automatically saves preset files in the logfiles sub folder of the ContrastMaster folder when you press the OK button to apply a correction to an image. In Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro the presets are named with the file name of the image. In other applications a random number is used, because these applications don't supply the file name of the image to plugins like ContrastMaster. If you apply ContrastMaster a second time to the same image and have Log Settings activated, the previous preset file will be overwritten.

At least with Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro this feature allows you to easily find the settings that you applied to certain images by looking into the logfiles sub folder. For other applications you can only look at the file date and guess which preset file was used for which image.

In connection with the Logged Settings option of the On Start Up combo box (see above), you can use the Log Settings check box to automatically make ContrastMaster start up with the settings that were applied the last time to the same image. So if you need to correct the same image again, you will automatically be presented with the same settings that you used the last time.

In case you don't want to start up ContrastMaster with the logged settings or forgot to activate that option, you can also open the logged settings by right clicking on the Reset button and choosing "Logged Settings" from the context menu.