Originally Posted by Venturi
So one down and four to go. I'm not a huge fan of the ufraw UI nor that its default settings "underexpose" every pic but at least it works.
I really like UFRaw and use it for all my raw conversions. It does take a bit of setup to get it working well though. Once setup, I find the user interface to be fast and precise.
The first thing you need to do is set up a base curve to compensate for the linear raw file. Others apps seem to have defaults for that, UFRaw does not. PM me and I'll send you my base curve for the K10D. It should be a good starting point; you can adjust it as necessary for the K20D. Shoot some Raw+Jpeg and compare the camera jpeg to the raw file opened in ufraw. Use the camera jpeg as a reference to help you adjust the base curve in ufraw.
The second thing you need is a Pentax raw camera profile. I use the Pentax3 profile from the free version of Bibble. I don't know if that will be the best profile for the K20D....you'll have to experiment. Bibble also has a Pentax1 profile. Anyway select your chosen profile as the input (camera) profile in ufraw on the color management tab.
Once you have things setup, processing becomes very easy in UFRaw. I rarely need to adjust the base curve. I do use the luminosity curve to do the usual stuff like setting white point, black point, adjusting contrast, shadows, highlights, etc. 1.10 seems to be a good default setting for saturation, at least for the Pentax3 profile on the K10D.
Hopefully, that gives you enough information to get started. UFRaw really is a great program, but it requires some effort to get it set up. Like you, I was frustrated with UFRaw at first, but now I much prefer it over the other raw converters. I love that I can store my original raw file plus a 2K ufraw-id file and open up the raw file at a later date using the id file with all my raw post-processed settings intact. In other words, by having ufraw store a ufraw-id file for each raw file I process, I don't have to store a huge 16-bit tiff or png file to retain my post-processed raw file. And once you have the UFRaw defaults setup properly, ufraw-batch will work great if you don't have the time to process each raw file individually.
Hope that helps. Anyone who wants my UFRaw K10D base curve can PM me and I'll send it to you. Or, use the Raw+jpeg method outlined above and create your own base curve.