LightZone

Zebooka · 05-11-2009, 05:03 AM

Well...

About a month ago I've switched from WinXP to Ubuntu. As all we know, there are no Adobe products for Linux (at least no Creative Suite). So I had big question - where to process photos like I did in Lightroom.

The solution is - LightZone.

I liked it much more than Lightroom, as it doesn't have catalog system, it stores all processing layers in EXIF and it has much more power in processing tools.

PS:

Now I have one more problem. All operations are done in 16-bits per channel. So if in result I have clear gradient like blue sky, after conversion back to 8-bits-per-channel JPEG I can see color steps (yes, I can see difference between almost all of 256 gray levels, and lots of colors). Solution for this is to use diffusion with gradients (or shoot noisy pictures), but I don't know how.

Any one here with same experience? (In photoshop I had same problem with gradients)

*germar* · 05-11-2009, 06:17 AM

I have used Lightzone casually for a couple of years. While I wish I could give you an authoritative response to the stepping issue, I can share what I have observed. I have seen this stepping effect on several instances, and it was usually associated with some very heavy adjustment I was making in the ZoneMapper. An example would be if I was trying to stretch the effective gamma by crushing the empty light zones and dark zones ... if I did it too much, the program can't deal with it and simply posterizes the sky into chunks of color with little gradiation. It's like LZ will "let" me attempt some severe adjustments, but the result is never lifelike or satisfactory.

I suggest starting by taking an original you've seen the problem with, and load it into LightZone. If you do not see the stepping effect, then start making *small* adjustments and note when the effect returns. I suggest that's the point of no return for the adjustment. Any more and you're asking LZ to do something that it can't really do.

Again, these are simply casual observations, I'm sorry I can't offer a better answer.

germar

MrApollinax · 05-11-2009, 06:55 AM

I agree with germar's explination. With the zone mapper tool if you take one zone and try to have it cover 4 or 5 zones pixelation and stepping can become visible, especially in the darker zones. Can you post a sample of what you are seeing?

*Wombat* · 05-14-2009, 05:25 AM

I also agree with germar's suggestion. LightZone is a good program but as you've discovered it can be a bit unpredictable in its results if you push it too hard. The lesson, I guess, is to try your hardest to get your shots right at the moment you take them (but you already knew that!).

BTW, you can run Photoshop quite well in Ubuntu using WINE. I've got PS7 going without any problems. Just make sure you've got plenty of RAM and away you go. And there is, of course, the Gimp, Krita etc. etc. - all native Linux and all free.