ContrastMaster v1.0 offers three local and four global contrast adjustment methods as well as various

masking, saturation and brightness options. The three local adjustment methods allow you to dramatically

improve contrast in small image details without blowing out highlights or damaging the image. You can

apply these three methods separately or use various options to mix them together for even better

results.
The four global methods (S/H-Contrast, Stretch, Equalize and Polarize) work on the tonal range of the

image and help to improve the result even further. There is also an option for changing the brightness

of the image. The masking options let you conveniently remove the ContrastMaster effect from an image

area where you do not want to have it applied, e.g. skin areas, a blue sky or a wall. This can be done

with the help of shadow/highlight and color masking options. Additionally, a saturation mask feature

lets you improve saturation without oversaturating the image.
Sophisticated Algorithms.
- ContrastMaster offers three sophisticated methods for enhancing contrast in small image details. They

are called Dynamic, Adaptive and Local. In fact, these three methods utilize five algorithms in total,

because the dynamic and adaptive methods each use another algorithm for certain control settings. Each

of these algorithms adjusts the contrast of image details in its own special way, which makes

ContrastMaster useful for different types of images and allows you to produce a variety of effects and

looks.
 Each of the three methods lets you adjust the size of the image details that are affected, the effect

intensity and the way the contrast is adjusted. Additionally, the Dynamic Contrast methods lets you

avoid artifacts or noise without lowering the effect intensity, the Adaptive Contrast methods

automatically adjusts image details of different size at the same time, and the Local Contrast methods

lets you independently increase and decrease the contrast in image details as well as influence the

brightness character of the effect. Each of the three methods also offers special shadow/highlight

adjustment options as part of the algorithm.

For Beginners as well as Experts - ContrastMaster offers six modes from the simple Novice mode to the

sophisticated Expert Mode. Whereas Novice and Expert mode let you apply all contrast effects at the same

time, the remaining four modes let you apply each of the three local effects and all the global effects

individually. Moving the mouse over a control displays a detailed explanation in the Help box, so you

don't need to read the manual before using ContrastMaster.
Each of the seven tab sheets offers a button menu with various local presets for quickly applying useful

settings. Furthermore, there is a global preset feature that allows you to save and reuse useful

settings later. Several global presets are already delivered with ContrastMaster. There is a FX Values

check box on the Prefs tab for using strong instead of medium effect intensities as the defaults. That

way people who mainly want to produce special effects with ContrastMaster do not need to readjust

sliders all of the time. ContrastMaster also lets you adjust up to three different effect settings at

the same time and switch between them by using the Preview tab sheets, so you can experiment with

different effect settings and conveniently compare them without leaving the ContrastMaster dialog.
Why ContrastMaster Is Different - There is no other tool available that offers as many methods for

contrast adjustment as ContrastMaster.
ContrastMaster is not only more effective at squeezing image details and contrast out of photos than

most other tools, it also offers more options for fine-tuning and controlling image contrast than any

other tool. Additionally, the Adaptive Contrast method is not available in any other software.
You can also use ContrastMaster to give a single photo the look of a HDR image while avoiding the

overhead of HDR photography. With its masking options you often do not need to create selections or

layer mask for selectively applying the ContrastMaster effect, which saves you a lot of time.
ContrastMaster also offers special features that are not found in most other tools, e.g. spilt views,

logged settings, 17 histogram types, own defaults, blown highlights detection, rendering time