[dtra]

Hi, I apologise if this is has been posted somewhere recently, but my search only turned up posts from about a year ago.
I've just bought myself a K-1 and landscape photography is mostly my game, going to New Zealand in a few weeks and I expect that I might want to try snapping some PS shots (having said that, what scenario would I use it over say multi-exposure or just a regular exposure?).

I shoot RAW and process in Lightroom (5.7) and this is clearly an issue still, I haven't even looked at the bundled software yet, but if that's the best thing to use, I guess I'll have to break it out (although my computer doesn't have a CD drive). Is it then just a case of exporting to TIFF and importing into Lightroom?

David

[Tas]

Hi, I apologise if this is has been posted somewhere recently, but my search only turned up posts from about a year ago.
I've just bought myself a K-1 and landscape photography is mostly my game, going to New Zealand in a few weeks and I expect that I might want to try snapping some PS shots (having said that, what scenario would I use it over say multi-exposure or just a regular exposure?).

I shoot RAW and process in Lightroom (5.7) and this is clearly an issue still, I haven't even looked at the bundled software yet, but if that's the best thing to use, I guess I'll have to break it out (although my computer doesn't have a CD drive). Is it then just a case of exporting to TIFF and importing into Lightroom?

David

G'day David, stop making me jealous with your trip to Un Zud. But have fun anyway, it's a great place.

So, predominantly still images are what you need for PS so no people, animals, vehicles, wind blown vegetation or moving water. All pretty limiting really, but some testing before you go will help you work out when to use it and when not to. For example, movement in water can be managed in certain circumstances.

When shooting PS you have the choice of movement compensation being on and off. If there's something like a running river in the image you would have compensation on. If there's the potention for the odd branch moving do the same. If not you may not need it. The only program currently available that can process a PS image is the provided version of Pentax Digital Camera Utility (DCU) software. Others software companies are working on it, though the later versions of LR are not among them so they and LR5.7 will process a PS image as a single image. And in this case if there's any movement it will have colour distortion visible too. I'd recommend you go the Pentax webpage and download the latest version, I believe it is DCU5. AS PP software goes it's nothing special but it is the only way you can take advantage of PS images.

As you have already identified from DCU you can export as a TIFF and process to your hearts content.

Good luck with the trip mate and don't forget to post some images when you can.

Tas

[Adam]

I've just bought myself a K-1 and landscape photography is mostly my game, going to New Zealand in a few weeks and I expect that I might want to try snapping some PS shots (having said that, what scenario would I use it over say multi-exposure or just a regular exposure?).

Use PS if:
your tripod is rock-solid
nothing in the scene will move
there is no wind

For quick-and-dirty shots, you can stick to the camera's JPEG processing, which can save you a lot of time and disk space compared to developing a raw with pixel shift.

[dtra]

Thanks guys.
What about clouds? If I'm reading right, pixel shift is best for shorter exposures and to get maximum resolution/sharpness? So I should underexpose since the extra exposures should get more info into the shadows?

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Last edited by dtra; 04-10-2017 at 10:31 PM.

[Gimbal]

The best software for PS is (imho) rawtherapee, especially if there is some motion in the picture.
And there is no point in underexposing as far as I can tell.

[pinholecam]

I made some notes (still on-going) in the following thread :
The Pixel Shift Diaries

This is still on-going but I got tied up with personal matters for the past month and will probably get back to more impressions this week.



There's more info here:
The Squirrel Mafia's RawTherapee thread. Now with 50% more excellence & win! - PentaxForums.com

and
Pixel Shifted Images - PentaxForums.com



My summary till date :
1. USE Raw Therapee (RT) - no other software matches it for handling the pixel shift files
2. Strong ND filter (eg. 10stop) will reduce the pixel shift detail gains
3. Long exposure times (eg. >8s) - seem to suggest a decrease in pixel shift gains (more shooting to be done to confirm)
4. The changing of lights/exposure will affect pixel shift masking - though Raw Therapee has implemented a function to balance exposures between frames
5. Studio shooting with strobes is possible - if you are willing to do it
6. RT makes it so easy to work with pixel shift files that I now shoot them by default for landscapes except for the situations in #2,#3)

Unfortunately, Raw Therapee (RT) came 9 months after the K1 and what most folks out there (and even here) claim about its VERY limited usability and tough workflow has been derived from the early months of using LR/PDCU with pixel shift files.
RT changes a lot of these.
Hopefully, over time more and more folks will get to know that a software now exists which can do the pixel shift files justice.

[dtra]

I made some notes (still on-going) in the following thread :
The Pixel Shift Diaries

This is still on-going but I got tied up with personal matters for the past month and will probably get back to more impressions this week.



There's more info here:
The Squirrel Mafia's RawTherapee thread. Now with 50% more excellence & win! - PentaxForums.com

and
Pixel Shifted Images - PentaxForums.com



My summary till date :
1. USE Raw Therapee (RT) - no other software matches it for handling the pixel shift files
2. Strong ND filter (eg. 10stop) will reduce the pixel shift detail gains
3. Long exposure times (eg. >8s) - seem to suggest a decrease in pixel shift gains (more shooting to be done to confirm)
4. The changing of lights/exposure will affect pixel shift masking - though Raw Therapee has implemented a function to balance exposures between frames
5. Studio shooting with strobes is possible - if you are willing to do it
6. RT makes it so easy to work with pixel shift files that I now shoot them by default for landscapes except for the situations in #2,#3)

Unfortunately, Raw Therapee (RT) came 9 months after the K1 and what most folks out there (and even here) claim about its VERY limited usability and tough workflow has been derived from the early months of using LR/PDCU with pixel shift files.
RT changes a lot of these.
Hopefully, over time more and more folks will get to know that a software now exists which can do the pixel shift files justice.

Wow, thanks for all the info, I'll definitely have to read through this, I used to use RawTherapee in the early days on Windows, I'll have to have a look at it again now. I did like the output, but prefer the Lightroom catalog and speed. Good to see that it's still going strong.
David

[Rondec]

What Pineholecam said is exactly right. Raw Therapee is the way to go if there is any/much movement in a scene. I have a preset that I have created with Raw Therapee that uses pixel shift and drops a digital GND filter onto the image. If you have Lightroom, you can use color management files and lens adjustments from lightroom as well.

I save the file from there in 16 bit TIFF file and if I want to do any final tweaks to it, I will do it in Lightroom.

One of the nice things about Raw Therapee is it has the ability to use any of the four images as the base image and will show you any points of movement in the image. From my perspective, if an image has movement in more than 50 or 60 percent of the image then I am probably just as good to use a single shot (I then process using amaze in RT and not pixel shift algorithm).

Lightroom can be used for images where there is no movement, but if there is movement, then you will get funny artifacts around all the moving things.

[btnapa]

Hopefully, over time more and more folks will get to know that a software now exists which can do the pixel shift files justice.

Thank you for your post. I was struggling with my PS images. Now I know a lot more and will start using what you are recommending.

[dtra]

Okay, so I found the mac dev version, so my question is, what is the point of the Sub-image dropdown? In the preview window, am I only looking at the sub-image, or is it still the whole pixel shift image (just using the selected sub-image to demosaic)? E.g. what effect does the selected sub-image have on processing?
David

[pinholecam]

Thank you for your post. I was struggling with my PS images. Now I know a lot more and will start using what you are recommending.

I'm glad that you're picking this up.

Okay, so I found the mac dev version, so my question is, what is the point of the Sub-image dropdown? In the preview window, am I only looking at the sub-image, or is it still the whole pixel shift image (just using the selected sub-image to demosaic)? E.g. what effect does the selected sub-image have on processing?
David

This is what I think I know.

If Motion Correction is ON, then the sub-image choice is what is used as the top most image.
So if items are masked off due to movement, the selected sub-image will be the one that is used for masked off parts.

Edit:
If Demosiac is set to amaze (or any other non-pixel shift option), then we can choose which sub-image to process out as a non-pixel shift file.

[normhead]

My process is a little more complicated maybe.

What I do is load my PS files into the bundled software then immediately export with.

First I have the finder sort the files in order of size on my memory card, then I copy the large files to a folder named PS image on my desktop. ( PS files are 169 MB compared to 40 or 50 for a non-PS files.) I then delete all the PS files from my card so I don't import them into Aperture twice.

Digital Camera Utility 5 will correctly interpret files the and compile the four images. You must "save with image processing" , I have turned down or off most default settings like sharpening etc. I export as a 16 bit tiff which is pretty much the same as a raw file only bigger, and then import into Aperture (or in your case Lightroom) as a 16 bit tiff. As I export my files from Digital Camera Utility 5, I add a PS to the filename so that once in Aperture, I can distinguish between PS and non-PS files.

The keys for me have been, always using the file saving format from Digital Camera Utility 5 with changes. If you save without changes you just end up with the unchanged original file.

The tiff files I import into Aperture are pretty close to 200 MB, so I also use Digital Camera Utility 5 to do a basic screening, only importing the files into Aperture that I plan to keep.

That's what works for me, and I'm happy with the results.

[house]

Pixelshift can be used regardless of how much movement there is in the image. You do however only get the pixelshift advantage in the parts of the image that doesn't move.

You could argue that it's always better to shoot pixelshift when you have a tripod because there are almost always parts of the image that are still. In practice though the gains are only worth it when your main subject is mostly still.

[heckflosse]

If Motion Correction is OFF, then we can choose which sub-image to process out as a non-pixel shift file

If Motion Correction is OFF you get the combination of the 4 frames without motion correction.
To get a non Pixel Shift file you have to choose one of demosaic methods (e.g. Amaze). Then the selected sub-image will be processed as a non Pixel Shift file.

[pinholecam]

If Motion Correction is OFF you get the combination of the 4 frames without motion correction.
To get a non Pixel Shift file you have to choose one of demosaic methods (e.g. Amaze). Then the selected sub-image will be processed as a non Pixel Shift file.

Oh..yes...
I really messed up that answer.