Not quite with you on this, Tony.
Fill slider is horizontal, and will move by clicking at either end, right clicking to set back to default, or dragging the Fill slider.
Center mouse works the magnifying glass to see detail.


There are nine rectangles, each with three selections, giving you 27 basic exposures... plus infinite matching Fill to go with them. (The fill is changing automatically when you change rectangles.)

The differences are sometimes eye blinking bold and sometimes barely noticeable depending on the makeup of the image.... Depends on what and where are the important parts of the image. Are you willing to sacrifice certain areas of detail for the sake of other areas.
There is no formula.
You do not put chocolate icing over everything you eat. Depends on the food.

If you find that you need more sharpening on every image, either buy a better lens, or adjust the default sharpening in EDIT PREFERENCES, RAW OPTIONS and move the slider to the left a lot.

Hope this helps,

Fred

You are partially correct Terry. Center mouse depress changes the screen to show where white or gray areas are located to aid in White Balance, but my Center mouse button is a wheel. Rotating that one click of the center mouse wheel, gives me a magnifying glass!

Fred

and you reminded me of the center button being an alternate way to get the reversed screen for the White Balance... I usually use the CTRL key for that.
I also forgot about the little icon to click on the magnifying glass, so I am equally refreshed. :-)

Fred
Thanks!

Tony,
Somewhere along the line, I think someone has given you the wrong idea about processing raw images.
Qimage does a brilliant job in reading the raw images , and applying an algorithmic logic to the processing. Not only exposure setting, but Full light too if needed.
Now, stop there for a moment.
Qimage does not apply negative Fill. It will go to zero Fill, but minus settings are user invoked.
Minus fill increases contrast... something you seem to feel the need of excessive amounts.
That's fine! Apply a negative fill.   
Your answer should be that will make your images too dark.
Right you are!
So now, back up a step to the 9 grid rectangles and the three selections per rectangle.
No one knows but you what part of the image needs what unless you send one to me.   You were kind enough to do that with that portrait of the pretty lady.  In 10 seconds it was done!
But if you feel the image needs more contrast before you get to the editor, simply select a grid location that makes the exposure change to a lighter image, and add MINUS or negative fill numbers (Move fill slider to the left).

You can see by the three samples that  #122 is the Qimage initial read of the entire image

You can see that 119 has the lower center grid selected using the BLUE colored grid. That made the whole exposure change to give a lighter image.
Then NEGATIVE FILL was added for increased contrast and lower brightness.


You can see that you have infinite control in 123 where I left the exposure at default (No grid selected) and still added a Negative FILL for effect!   
You can do anything you want, but you have to learn....

Take an afternoon off and experiment.
Send a tricky image to me and /or Terry via the system we used and ask for suggestions.

Tony many years ago, before color film, I earned my living sitting at a roll paper printing machine, deciding by eye how each negative should be exposed for printing.
It took practice and patience, to get really good at it.
There was a "normal" button for people to be able to print with these machines, but there were 5 buttons and you could use two at a time to get half way between exposures....
Same principle.... Practice...

With Qimage Ultimate you have an infinite supply of nuance tweaks....  40 clicks wide on teh fill control which is not contrast... It's called FILL because it is a combination of Contrast, Gamma curve, brightness, and saturation all rolled into a brilliant package for you to use.

Fred

I think I need to challenge the statement above.

If the White Balance is off and needs some tweaking, in almost every case, the entire image will come to life, colors more vivid and realistic. Remember, the eye makes a habit of compensating all the time when we look at a scene.
I have two simple samples below.
Like a woman's face cream commercial, BEFORE and AFTER.
It's not easy to see the drama when I have to keep the file size under 128K
But I'm sure you can imagine a large scene.

All I did was click the WB tool, found a nice place that should be white or gray in the image and click!!!
It should  never get muddy. You didn't get it right if you did make it worse.

I am going to give you another post for the second sample. It follows.
Fred

What I read you to be saying, Fred, is that the first thing is to get the WB right.

Then optimise the tones.

Then warm, or cool, the image to suit.

I can see the logic. In fact, by luck, I found that sorting the WB made it easier to sort the tones.

But I fell into the trap of thinking that if it came out of the camera warm I could get away with leaving it like that.

I learn by the hour.

Thanks again, Fred.

300mm?  You brag sir.

Jeff