Hi Rob,
In fact I think I can now visualise how 'I' would want things.
Leave the existing STF box 'as is' - it is flexible enough now do do what most of us want (or, what 'I' want anyway).
But create a 'new' mainline process called "AutoSTF" which has virtually no user-controlled parameters, and which therefore occupies very little screen real-estate. This is actually even MORE important for me now that I am using a triple-monitor setup. Which sounds totally MAD, until you realise how 'far' I have to run the mouse to get from, perhaps, the top-left of my main screen all the way down to the tiny little 'A' icon on the STF window that lives at the bottom of my RHS auxilliary monitor.
So, I need a little 'target window' (or icon) that triggers AutoSTF and which I can leave behind the 'divider bar' of the primary window, "out of the way". Maybe a keyboard shortcut would help here as well, although I find now that, with PI, I tend NOT to use that much keyboard input (apart from the numeric keypad to set slider values, etc.). That said, if there was a keyboard shortcut to AutoSTF, then that might be just as acceptable as a separate icon/window.
But, the more I think about it the more sensible it seems just to move 'AutoSTF' out of 'STF', and set it up as a Process in its own right - therefore capable of being 'called' by STF (and any other Process/PCL Module/PJSR script).
That just leaves the requirment for being able to define 'how' the AutoSTF will be applied to an image - in other words, how will the Shadows, MidTones and Highlights sliders actually end up being set.
This isn't actually quite as straightforward as I first thought, because I realise that I actually use the existing AutoSTF in one of two ways:
a.) just 'as is' - you pick an image, and click the little <A> button on STF, and your image gets hit with the AutoSTF transfer
b.) because I might be working with multiple, but similar, images, I select one of the images, apply an AutoSTF, and then copy THAT STF to all the other images (to apply 'equal' stretching, for comparison porpoises)
So any 'quickie' AutoSTF would need to give me that option, I believe. In other words "Apply new AutoSTF to 'this' image" or "Apply 'current' AutoSTF to 'this' image".
And that latter option, when used in combination with an ImageContainer, can also quickly bring all images to the same level, again handy for comparisons.
Of course, we probably all use the PI environment in slightly different ways, so it would be a shame to 'bog down' the natural dynamics of the development process of PI by trying to put a committee onto every new idea
.
So, a few quick ideas, and we let Juan add 'his touch' to the matter, and then we all try out the new offering and see how we get on (knowing that changes can always be applied later on!!)
Cheers,
