Physical or Logical link in cloned side branches.
Posted: September 10th, 2018, 5:00 pm
When I was preparing a small test print patch from different parts of an image I found an irregularity about cloning a side branch containing a composite transformation.
here is a simplified scenario:
1. open an imput image
2. Tint it, for example, red
3. Crop a small part of the tinted image
4. Clone the crop step and crop another part of the tinted image
5. Add a border to the first crop large enough to accomodate the second crop
6. Composite the two crops using Blend -> you get a composite of two red crops
You can skip the step 5 and use a mask in Composite, see the example in the attachment.
7. Clone a side branch beginning with the Tint step
8. Go to the Tint step in the cloned branch and change it to green -> you get a composite of two colors, green from the cloned Tint and red from the original Tint.
9. Go to the original branch and change the red to blue -> the composite in the cloned branch is now blue and green.
You would expect both composited crops to be green, but there is a physical link to the original Overlay crop (red,blue) and not a logical link to the cloned overlay crop (green) in the cloned branch.
I think that both links are necessary but the logical link seems to be preferable within the cloned part of an original branch. The physical link makes sense to images outside a cloned part of a branch.
For example, if another transformation was inserted between the step 1 and 2 (outside the cloned part of the branch) its effect would be visible in both branches, the original and the cloned.
However there might be more to it that I am not able to foresee at this moment.
here is a simplified scenario:
1. open an imput image
2. Tint it, for example, red
3. Crop a small part of the tinted image
4. Clone the crop step and crop another part of the tinted image
5. Add a border to the first crop large enough to accomodate the second crop
6. Composite the two crops using Blend -> you get a composite of two red crops
You can skip the step 5 and use a mask in Composite, see the example in the attachment.
7. Clone a side branch beginning with the Tint step
8. Go to the Tint step in the cloned branch and change it to green -> you get a composite of two colors, green from the cloned Tint and red from the original Tint.
9. Go to the original branch and change the red to blue -> the composite in the cloned branch is now blue and green.
You would expect both composited crops to be green, but there is a physical link to the original Overlay crop (red,blue) and not a logical link to the cloned overlay crop (green) in the cloned branch.
I think that both links are necessary but the logical link seems to be preferable within the cloned part of an original branch. The physical link makes sense to images outside a cloned part of a branch.
For example, if another transformation was inserted between the step 1 and 2 (outside the cloned part of the branch) its effect would be visible in both branches, the original and the cloned.
However there might be more to it that I am not able to foresee at this moment.