The following will explain the purpose of each control in Tonalizer|VFX PRO:

Presets

The preset dialog enables common corrections to be saved for future use. Except for the Mix control and the choice made in the Assist menu, all settings are saved along with a preset. Presets can be added, deleted, re-named and re-ordered (using drag and drop). In addition, one or more presets can be exported and imported such that presets can be easily shared. Imported presets are added to the bottom of the list.

The preset dialog will use the current frame of the selected clip to render a preview of the presets. The size of the preview as well as the Preset dialog itself can be changed. If the Preview button is checked, selecting a preset will apply it temporarily to the current clip (also during playback), but the settings will only be saved for the clip if the OK button is selected. With the exception of imported presets, the cancel button will dismiss all changes made in  the preset dialog. The Preset dialog also contain version information about the Tonalizer|VFX PRO plugin. Important: Opening Presets while Tonalizer|VFX PRO is disabled will prevent rendering of preset previews. 

Adaptation

Adaptation is mainly used to offset very low contrast caused by glare or haze in the footage. Unless the footage exhibits such issues it is rarely necessary to use the Adaptation control. While Adaptation can also be used to linearize footage shot using Logarithmic encoding, it is usually only possible to obtain an approximate linearization for such Log-encoded footage. However, in many cases where footage has to be offset for low initial contrast anyway, because it otherwise would appear flat and uninspiring, the Adaptation control will usually offer a very fit approximation to what otherwise would have been a two or three step filtering process. If the footage exhibits very low contrast, Adaptation is usually the very first adjustment to make before any other adjustments.

Brightness

The brightness control adjusts the overall brightness of the footage in a color-preserving manner.

Midtones

Pushes or pulls the upper midtone range. A negative value will usually make the midtone transitions appears softer while positive value will make the transitions appear harder and somewhat brighter.

Contrast

Pushes or pulls the upper shadows and lower midtones. A negative value will decrease the contrast and make the footage appear softer and a positive value will increase the contrast. When opening up shadows using Shadow Boost, It is beneficial to work in tandem with Contrast. For obtain a very strong contrast shift, for instance to offset extremely flat footage, it is recommended to use Adaptation instead and use the Contrast control for refinement.

Shadow Boost

The purpose of the Shadow Boost control is to open up blocked shadows in a controlled manner. It is usually beneficial to work with the Shadow Boost control in tandem with contrast in order to strike the right balance for the overall contrast appearance. Also combining Adaptation and Shadow Boost can be used to achieve strong contrast while maintaining good shadow coverage.

The purpose of the Shadow Boost control is to open up blocked shadows in a controlled manner. It is usually beneficial to work with the Shadow Boost control in tandem with contrast in order to strike the right balance for the overall contrast appearance. Also combining Adaptation and Shadow Boost can be used to achieve strong contrast while maintaining good shadow coverage.

Shadow Details

The Shadow detail control strengthens details in the shadow range. This is especially useful for shadows recovered using the Shadow Boost control. Extracting details from the shadow range can be disposed to amplifying some noise as well. The benefit of the additional shadow details has to be weighted against how much noise, if any, is going to be acceptable. Hence, it is best to apply Shadow details as a refining touch after applying corrections such as Shadow boost and Contrast.

Highlights

Pushes or pulls the lower to upper highlight range. The highlight control is regularly used in combination with Highlight Rescue and Brightness to make subtle refinement to the highlight gradation.

Highlight Rescue

The purpose of the Highlight Rescue function is to recover highlight details. Very often, but certainly not always, Highlight Rescue makes it possible to recover a good deal of highlight details from seemingly clipped or near-clipped highlights. When strong application of Highlight Rescue is used it is often helpful to pull the Highlights to give a more balanced appearance to the mid to upper highlight range.

Details

Adds a subtle amount of mostly localized contrast and detail. It is best to apply the Details function after other adjustments have been made to the footage. Not all types of footage will benefit from having Details added as it may have a tendency to take on a harsh or gritty appearance.

Detail Sharpener

The Detail Sharpener control enhances fine details in the footage. Care should be taken when applying the Detail Sharpener as the footage may take on an undesired artificial appearance or amplify noise that are mistaken for details. Also, in order to avoid the influence of the soften effect of the size-reduced preview, it is best to apply Detail Sharpener while viewing the footage 100%.

Warmth

Controls the overall color balance. A negative value will give the footage a cooler appearance while positive value will add a warmer appearance.

Tint

Controls the overall Tint of the footage. A negative value will move the color balance towards green and a positive value toward magenta. Usually, Tint is only necessary if the footage exhibit an undesired colorcast - something that may be more evident after applying a strong contrast shift.

Chroma

Chroma increases color saturation in such a way that muted colors get a progressive higher increase in saturation (colorfulness) versus already well-saturated colors. In order to make the best judgment of how much Chroma to apply, It is best to apply the Chroma function after other adjustments have been made to the footage. Negative values of Chroma allow the footage to be gradually desaturated towards black and white.

Protect Skin tones

Reduces the impact of certain adjustments in proximity to skin tones. Some corrections that may otherwise be beneficial for the footage may have an adverse effect on skin tones. Specifically, the Protect Skin tones control will gradually reduce the impact of Chroma, Detail, Shadow Boost and too some extent Highlight Rescue in proximity to skin tones. By default a reasonable amount of protection is always applied, hence the ability to apply a negative values to this control.

Protect Edges

Reduces the amplification of harder transitions, such as edges. By default a reasonable amount of protection is always applied, hence the ability to apply a negative values to this control.

Noise Reduction

Apply a subtle amount of Noise reduction to the footage. The Noise Reduction function is mainly beneficial of predominantly static footage where intra-frame noise is more noticeable.

Aliasing Reduction

Aliasing reduction will attempt to lessen the impact of “flickering/jittering” of highfrequency content such as lines or repetitive patterns near or beyond the spatial resolution limit. Usually the effect will be very subtle and may inflict an overall softeningeffect on the footage.

Safe Range

The Safe Range function ensures that the data ranges are gracefully compressed into a sensible gamut/output range, such as avoiding strong hue shift near clipping limits. Safe Range is on by default when Tonalizer|VFX PRO is added to a clip and will be effective even if no other adjustments are made in Tonalizer|VFX PRO.

Assist

The Assist Menu offers a set of functions that are for visual aid only. The Show Clipping option will color code data that is out of range or clipped – the clipping indicator works independent of the Safe Range function. Specially, if Safe Range is selected, data that may show to be clipped when the clipping indicator is on will not actually appear clipped in the output. In addition, the Assist menu offers 4 distinct split-screen modes that enable before/after comparisons. The split-screen is applied to the rendered output.

Mix

The Mix function controls the blending ratio between the original and the corrected footage. The default value is 100% - that is, no data of the original is blended into the corrected footage.