Wow! Pro 2. Five Bands Frequency Equalizer and Separation Plugin

Frequency Separation With Sliders

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Here the Wow! Pro interface. There are two ways you can go. The first: you start tweaking the sliders until you get a satisfactory result. The second, faster and easier: you start by choosing a preset; the sliders will change their position and set themselves in a given configuration.

The sliders correspond to five spatial frequency bands; left to right, the bands correspond to high frequencies, which become progressively lower. If you prefer: detail is on the left, shape is on the right. The intermediate bands work on intermediate scales.

Each slider can be either boosted or cut: a boost corresponds to an enhancement of a given band, a cut corresponds to a reduction. Sliders can be combined, of course, in whatever ratio. The effect may not be easily predictable at times, and it strongly depends on the image you are working on. Also, notice the sixth slider: you may think of it as the intensity of the overall effect, a bit like opacity: 100 is maximum (and the default), and 0 is minimum, corresponding to no effect.

Frequency Separation With Editable Layers

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We have seen that Wow! works on five different frequency layers, but where these layers are? Well, they’re hidden: you actually manipulate them with the sliders, but there’s nothing else you can do unless you use the Decompose option.

This exclusive feature of Wow! Pro 2 decomposing the image in six different layers creating what scientists call a “pyramid.” Each one of these addresses a different frequency. Bottom to top: a base layer image, extremely blurred, followed by decreasing frequency layers. The smaller the frequency, the finer the detail.

These are real layers that you can edit at will for a better and more precise frequency based retouching. You can paint, clone and heal on the very exact frequency the layer that contains the features you need to target, with high precision, giving you unprecedented control over the retouching process.

Using Layers for Beauty Retouch

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Wow! Pro 2 Decompose is a must have tool in the find of beauty retouch. If for instance, the layer named Scale 2 seems to be responsible for most of the skin blemishes, using the Clone Stamp tool on it sounds like a brilliant idea.

This doesn’t change the remaining frequencies so that every layer addresses a single and peculiar characteristic of the image. In the case shown here, we added a clipped curve to modify the contrast of the Scale 3 and a layer mask on the Decompose group.

 

Frequency Separation With Landscape, Architecture, Real Estate. Products, and more.

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Frequency Separation techniques are commonly used in beauty and skin retouching, but it’s almost unknown in other fields, where Decompose opens exciting new scenarios.

There are several ways to use scale layers.
1. Reduce the opacity of the layers, increasing the effects of the remaining.
2. Add or remove contrast with an adjustment curve.
3. Blurring.
4. Pixel retouching, also locally, possibly using layer masks.

Download the “Extra” folder and install the Advanced Actions that automatically add an adjustment curve and convert the pixel layers in Advanced Objects.

Virtually there are no limits in post-producing your images.

The Before/After Training Booklet

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This booklet is designed to easily compare versions going back and forth through the pages using the keyboard arrow keys.
You can watch it in your browser or, even better, download and watch it in Acrobat Reader or Preview, selecting the option
“View in Full-Screen Mode”. We suggest going back and forth several times in order to watch even smaller details.