Grain Merge Layer Blend Mode in PL: Wavelet Decomposition

[cathodeRay]

I have at last tried to put these steps into an action. So far it is a two plus step process. Starting with a base image (ie load a tiff or whatever):

1. Run Wavelet 1 - Setup. The simply positively sets the layer attributes (32bit RGB no transparency) and creates and names the three starting layers.

2. Run Wavelet 2 - Iteration. At the moment this needs to be run once for each iteration, and so pauses to allow you to set the blur radius (usually 1 on first iteration, then last radius x 2 on subsequent iterations) up to say five iterations, so you will get 1px/2px/4px/8px and 16px layers (plus the Residual).

Important note: you must have only the Original and Residual layers visible each time you run an iteration, otherwise you will get some very funky results. There is a Pause in the action to warn about this.

The Original - Chk layer is for checking the decomposition has worked, checking either visually or using Difference mode. You may notice some of the layers are uniformly 1 or 2 pixel values out - this seems to be a consequence of using Linear Light/50% as the blend mode (see above discussion about file size) which is what the action uses. If however you convert to using Linear Dodge (Add)/100% with a Subtract 128 layer then the recomposed image is 100% identical to the original (at least it is for me) meaning no corruption has taken place.

Ideally the five iterations could be rolled into one action and set so no intervention was needed - oh bliss! However, I have come up against seeming impasses in Actions eg copying actions into actions (which is what is needed here...). So its one step at a time for now, rather than one giant leap in one.

BTB, the Setup Action was the one I was getting random no runs from earlier - hopefully it will behave for you if you choose to try it out.

Actions:

Wavelet 1 - Setup_v2.actions

Wavelet 2 - Iteration_v2.actions

cR

[Gerhard Huber]

Wavelet1 doesn't work here, because of a bug in PhotoLine. You have a step inside your action, that removes the alpha channel. This action fails and therefore the whole action is stopped.
I will fix this, in the meantime, remove this step.

The pause of Wavelet2 says you should hide all layers beside Residual and Original and the press Cancel and Restart. That is not necessary, you can hide the layers and go on.

[cathodeRay]

Gerhard - we humble users are always grateful for your input (one of the many great things about PhotoLine).

The alpha thing/bug perhaps explains why that action wasn't working some of the time, maybe depending on whether the layer already had/didn't have an alpha channel. I put the step in because so far as I can tell nothing in the action needs an alpha channel so it only adds bloat in files that can anyway get to be rather large. I've removed the Transparency step and re-uploaded the action (with a _v2 suffix).

Good news that you don't need to cancel and restart Wavelet 2 if you don't have the right layers visible, just hide any offending ones and continue. I have modified the Pause notice and re-uploaded (again with a _v2 suffix).

cR