To begin this tutorial it is assumed that you have a basic understanding of what HDR images are and their importance as well as a basic understanding of how to use Tone-Mapping Operators in Artizen. If you don't, please read What is HDR tutorial and Using Tone-Mapping Operators

Cipher Tone-Mapping Operator

Cipher is the newest addition to Artizen's collection of Tone Mapping Operators. Cipher has been designed to bridge the gap of global (very fast) and local (slow) tone mapping operators, by having the best of both worlds. Cipher is technically a local operator, but is much faster than Lock05 and in addition requires less memory.

What makes this operator so unique is that it adds the ability to control certain results that previously the user had very little control over, such as halos and details locally and globally (local and global contrast). Most of the options pretty much function the same as other operators so the key options in this operator are Strength, Radius, Details and Halos.

pre-tone mapped hdr from Sachform Technology HDRIbase vol. 3

Brightness: This option controls the overall brightness of the image and works similarly to a simple brightness color correction tool. Range (-10 to 10)

Saturation: Saturation boosts the brightness of each individual color. Range (0.0 to 1.0)

Strength: This option is the master control that determines the amount of influence Radius, Details and Halos option have on the image. If Strength is set to 0 than regardless of what Radius, Details and Halos values are they will not impact on the image produced. 0.5 seems to be a good initial value. Range (0.0 to 1.0)

Radius: This option controls how sharp/soft the Shadows in your image is with good initial values being between 0.5 - 1.0. If the value is set very low the image appears to be flat cause the shadows virtually disappear and blend into the the surrounding image. Setting this value very high helps smoothen out the Shadows and Halos so that they blend more smoothly into the image while preserving the overall contrast of the image. An important note to make here is that the higher the value the long this operator will take to process. Range (0.0 to 1.0)

Detail: This option controls how much Local and Global Contrast is enhanced in your image. A suggested range for this image is to image dependent and so use your own judgment and preference. Range (0.0 to 1.0)

Halos: This option now allows users to take control of the halos caused by applying Cipher to your image. Although at times halos look rather unnatural they are a common behavior of how nature disperses light in an area. Setting this value to -1.0 will have similar results as setting the Radius value to 0 and it will nullify any influence the Radius option has on the image. Good initial values range from -0.8 to 0.2, and with most images, values great than 0.2 don't make a significant difference. The trick to this setting is finding the balance at points where there are high contrasts. Below is the exact image as above with every value set the same expect the Halos option, which is set to -1.0. As you can see the horizon glow is gone and the shadows don't have the same depth they have in the image above. Range (-1.0 to 1.0) 

pre-tone mapped hdr from Sachform Technology HDRIbase vol. 3

Highlights: This option allows for fine tuning of only the Highlights in an image. This is usually one of the last options to be applied and can be used for fine tuning while watching the histogram. If you need to increase or reduce this value beyond +/-0.5 you should really consider bringing this value closer to zero and then increase or decrease the Brightness value. In other situations where not just the highlights need to be adjusted the Highlights option in the Levels tool is very useful.  Range (-1.0 to 1.0)

Shadows: This option like the Highlights is for fine tuning only the Shadows in an image. This option is also one of the last functions applied to the image and is therefore very easily used in conjunction with the Histogram. Once again the Shadows option in the Levels tool is sometimes great to use instead of this option or in conjunction. Range (-1.0 to 1.0)

Midtones: This option controls the entire image as a whole to help position the majority of image detail in the most visible way. This option shouldn't even be needed 99.9% of the time and is primarily suppose to deal with either very dark or bright images when and the Luminosity, Highlights and Shadows options are unable to achieve the wanted results. Range (-1.0 to 1.0)

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BEST APPROACH:

Now that you are bit more familiar with the different options and what they do. How to get the dramatic results using these options is your next step. 

1. For a beginner while you become more experienced, it is usually good practice to set Strength, Radius, and Details to 0.5 and Halos to 0.0. The reason for doing this is cause if these values are set to high or to low the overall brightness of the image can be greatly affected.

2. Using the Brightness option while looking at the Histogram, try to make the red line as straight as possible and try to bring as much of the data (blue vertical lines) to the center of the Histogram. Usually these two function go hand in hand. So if the data in the Histogram is well balanced the red line will be rather straight (it doesn't have to be perfectly straight, use your own judgment).

3. Using the Strength and Details options to bring out as much detail as you want. Since Strength controls how much influence the Details option has, you can start with the Details option while leaving the Strength value at 0.5. If you increase the Details value to 1.0 and you still feel that you can add more detail, then increase the Strength option until you happy.

4. Now using the Radius and Halos options to control how light is distributed in your image. Start by using the Radius option until you are happy with how the shadows and highlight are distributed (this is different than how bright or dark they are which is controlled by the Highlights and Shadows options). If the halos are too strong around high contrast objects such as in a photo with a mountain top and the sun, adjust the Halos option to till you have achieved a natural result. This process is key to getting rid of those extreme halos as well as exposing detail in dark or bright areas.

5. Lastly using the Highlights and Shadows options to increase/decrease the overall contrast of the image. This will help to give more dramatic results. If you have to decrease the Shadows value to -1.0 or increase the Highlights value to 1.0, then you might need to adjust the Brightness option just a little.