Chroma denoise
In the app, the beside the Chroma denoise block says:
Smooths color noise from the scan without touching the film grain.
Smooths colour noise from the scan before the inversion, where that noise lives, without touching the film grain. Dose it at 100 %: the loupe in the header is there for that.
Smooths coloured speckle out of the chroma: the radius says how wide, in full-resolution pixels, the amount says how much replaces the scan's own colour. Zero switches the stage off.
More about Chroma denoise
In the Detail tab of the settings panel. Inside the Chroma denoise block.
The block’s own opens Detail › Chroma denoise in this manual.
Radius
- Range
- 0.0 px to 6.0 px as shown (0 to 6 stored)
- At rest
- 0.0 px
- Double-click returns
- 0.0 px
- Right end
- 6.0 px shown
Amount
- Range
- 0% to 100% as shown (0 to 1 stored)
- At rest
- 0%
- Double-click returns
- 0%
- Right end
- 100% shown
- Carried by a preset
- Yes: a preset and Paste settings carry the whole "chroma" row.
- The range stops at six pixels of radius: past the widest dose any reference film needed, about four and a half, it only smears colour across edges.
- At zero, either slider switches the stage off. Radius decides what counts as speckle, amount decides how completely it is replaced.
- Useful on coloured speckle in skies, shadows and night frames from fast or pushed films: two to four pixels of radius, amount raised until the speckle is gone.
- Never touches grain or luminance: colour bleeding across an edge means the radius is too wide, and sharpness stays the same at any amount.
- Judge it in the loupe at the top of the tab; a fitted preview cannot show a dose in pixels.
Sharpening
In the app, the beside the Sharpening block says:
Sharpens edges without adding color fringing.
Sharpens edges without adding colour fringing, almost last in the chain. It rests on, at 0.67×, and only a double-click on Amount switches it off.
An unsharp mask on the luminance alone, at a chosen scale of edges in full-resolution pixels. Amount rests at 0.67 times, restoring a scan's baseline definition; Radius rests anchored at a little over two pixels.
More about Sharpening
In the Detail tab of the settings panel. Inside the Sharpening block.
The block’s own opens Detail › Sharpening in this manual.
Amount
- Range
- 0.00× to 3.00× as shown (0 to 3 stored)
- At rest
- 0.67×
- Double-click returns
- 0.00×, which is not the resting value
- Right end
- 3.00× shown
Radius
- Range
- 0.7 px to 8.0 px as shown (0.6753 to 8 stored)
- At rest
- 2.1 px
- Double-click returns
- 2.1 px
- Right end
- 8.0 px shown
- Anchored at mid-travel
- 2.1 px sits at the middle of the track; the two halves are linear but not equal
- Carried by a preset
- Yes: a preset and Paste settings carry the whole "sharpen" row.
- Double-click on Amount goes to zero, switching sharpening off entirely; it is the only gesture that does. Radius rests anchored at the middle of its own track.
- Leave Radius on its anchor and adjust Amount first; Radius is the second knob, moved only once Amount is set.
- A soft scan from a flatbed or a lens stopped down too far: raise Amount to about 1.5×; above that, halos start to show on a normal scan.
- Harsh grain after sharpening comes from too small a radius, not from Amount; widen Radius instead.
- Halos along edges mean too wide a radius or too strong an amount; judge only in the loupe, never the fitted preview.
Texture
In the app, the beside the Texture block says:
Contrast at the scale of hair and fabric — leaves grain and overall tone alone.
Contrast at the scale of hair and fabric, leaving grain and overall tone alone. The range is asymmetric: more room to add than to take away.
Local contrast at the scale of hair and fabric: a band wider than the grain and narrower than the picture's shapes, lifted or lowered without sharpening grain or shifting tone.
More about Texture
In the Detail tab of the settings panel. Inside the Texture block.
The block’s own opens Detail › Texture in this manual.
- Range
- -1.00× to +2.00× as shown (-1 to 2 stored)
- At rest
- +0.00×
- Double-click returns
- +0.00×
- Right end
- +2.00× shown
- Carried by a preset
- Yes: a preset and Paste settings carry the whole "texture" row, and this slider alone is "texture.amount".
- Reaches fabric, stone, foliage and hair that read flat, without sharpening the grain or shifting the overall tone.
- The range runs from minus one to plus two: more room to add than to remove.
- On skin, a little below zero smooths it without softening the eyes or the grain.
- Not instead of sharpening: a soft edge wants the radius and amount above; texture will not crispen it.
- Judge at half size or more; the band is visible on a preview, unlike the two radii.
How every slider works
How every slider in the app works
- Drag anywhere on the row: the value moves by how far your hand travelled, it does not jump to where you clicked. That is what makes a fine adjustment possible without aiming.
- Hold ⌥ while dragging and the travel is divided by five.
- Scroll sideways on the trackpad over a slider to nudge it.
- Double-click to return to the base value, which is not always the resting one: on Sharpening amount it is zero, the one gesture that switches the stage off.
- Keyboard: once a slider has the focus, the arrow keys move it by a hundredth of its travel.
- A slider whose track is anchored puts one named value at the middle of its travel; the two halves are linear but not equal.
- A bipolar slider shows no fill: its whole track is the gradient between its two ends, because it is a balance between two hues, not a quantity.