[ogunturkay]

Ok, we might have to go back a bit here and start at the beginning as I'm a little confused over certain things.



First thing, why are we talking about FastPictureViewer at all, its totally separate from LR and SP, its simply an Image viewer software, the same as Faststone Image viewer, handy tool to quickly see RAW files usually my showing the Jpg Preview of the RAW files. Either way, why is this at all relevant in a discussion about LR and SP? When we decide to shoot RAW the intention is to edit the file in a proper RAW developer typically, is it not? Otherwise just shoot jpg and have everything embedded in the file properly at the time of the shot with whatever camera features you decide to turn on.



When importing an image (DNG) in LR for the first time, it is using Adobe Colour as its profile, you can use a pull down menu and change that to being a Camera Matching profile such as Natural, Portrait etc. You can synchronise that change across a batch of DNGs if you like. You may even be able to set LR to use a camera matching profile as standard upon all imports, I think that is an option but I don't bother with it.



I did want to know if SP can import the DNG file from the camera and apply more colour profiles from the camera than the typical five that LR can do, such as Mono, Film Reversal etc that the camera has. That would be good to know.



It sounds like your argument is that natively SP applies a better colour profile to the RAW image than what LR applies, however what version of LR are you using? Typically LR changes these things on updates, and seeing as you have about 10-20 different colour profiles to choose from and are synchronisable across a large batch I don't really see this as being a strong win for SP.



As I said before, importing a raw DNG file into RawTherapee and that software will too render the RAW (on default) differently to LR, it is even flatter and duller, but again I believe these things are changeable in RT, I have certainly done a few edits within RT to get something pleasing, it really doesn't overly stress me if the default render of the RAW is dull or lifeless, it is after all a just a canvas.



The issue with pixelshift is long and convoluted. Essentially it comes down to understanding that having the option switched on in the first place is only the beginning of fully taking advantage of the feature, there are additional steps that you should familiarise yourself with to get the best advantage of the tool. Motion Correction is often required, the recommendation is to turn it OFF in camera and let RT do the correction for you, it's typically at this stage the highest praise comes to RT with cleaner tidy ups being performed with fewer artefacts remaining. However even the motion correction in RT is quite advanced allowing a great deal of control over how its applied by the user. Lastly, a major advantage of Pixelshift is taking the Sharpness slider higher than what is normally possible with far less noise and IQ degradation than typically experienced. Usually the recommended flow is;



1) Take picture with pixelshift, motion off.

2) Import RAW file to RT and use its motion correction to achieve a cleaner image with fewer artefacts

3) Stress the file further than what non pixelshift files are deemed acceptable.



There are a lot of examples and articles on the internet showing DCU vs RT for pixelshift treatment, a google search should give you some further reading.



Interesting to hear you think a certain RAW developer handles the DR better than another. I was under the impression the sensor and camera gives the DR, it's not something that software can differ in exploiting.

Just checked the latest version of LR Classic on my another computer. You are right! Finally it doesn’t touch/change after its catalogue process! Great to see that wasn’t an issue at all!

About FPV, I used to check embed ICC on RAW files as reference software. In this case on this topic I mentioned for control the file to see the difference if there is (to make a kind of before & after session). There is nothing about JPG preview with that. It only shows if you take DNG+ (w JPG) or you put a JPG file named as same as DNG file in the same folder.

Thank you!

---

Last edited by ogunturkay; 12-20-2019 at 07:47 PM.

[BruceBanner]

Just checked the latest version of LR Classic on my another computer. You are right! Finally it doesn’t touch/change after its catalogue process! Great to see that wasn’t an issue at all!

About FPV, I used to check embed ICC on RAW files as reference software. In this case on this topic I mentioned for control the file to see the difference if there is (to make a kind of before & after session). There is nothing about JPG preview with that. It only shows if you take DNG+ (w JPG) or you put a JPG file named as same as DNG file in the same folder.

Thank you!

AKAIK it is impossible for any RAW file to not have a Jpg preview embedded within the RAW file. When you take a picture in the camera in RAW and review on the back of the camera, it is a Jpg Preview you see. So any RAW fast image viewer type program will be set to display the jpg preview to quickly let you see the general jist of the shot. I believe FastStone ImageViewer will be similar to Fast Picture Viewer, there are a lot of settings to tick on and off, perhaps actually allowing you to skip seeing the jpg preview and instead the real RAW albeit at a slower load time, there also seems to be ICC profiles and other colour things to tick on and off (that I have not investigated properly), I simply use mine as a first wave of culling.

LR/PS is a subscription now, the major advantage of of LR seems to stem from its pairing with PS, you can 'Edit In' an image to Photoshop, open multiple LR files as Layers in PS etc, and do more advanced work there, as well as a heap of 3rd party plugin support.

I simply made this post because I keep getting emails about new updates to SP, and I was curious, so I looked at a few of these updates, such as this one;

The Partial correction tool 1 | SILKYPIX

I just wondered about any direct support that perhaps LR/PS is missing out on for Pentax users, such as the possibility of selecting a Custom Image such as perhaps Film Reversal Colour Profile.

The above partial correction tool just seems overly complicated for what some brush work in LR/PS can do already?

[acoufap]

- DCU (based on Silkypix) I use only to split HDR DNG files. I‘d like to see this split function also for Pixelshift DNG files.
- Raw Therapee to develop DNG pixelshift files.
- Capture One Pro to develop my out of camera DNG raw files ... and some other software for special tasks.

[BruceBanner]

- DCU (based on Silkypix) I use only to split HDR DNG files. I‘d like to see this split function also for Pixelshift DNG files.
- Raw Therapee to develop DNG pixelshift files.
- Capture One Pro to develop my out of camera DNG raw files ... and some other software for special tasks.

hey.. that's interesting to hear.

For awhile back I was experimenting with the actual HDR feature of the K-1/KP, in RAW, I noticed the DNG file size was large (120mb etc), however in LR I was only ever getting the exposure of the first frame (or middle one, I cannot recall) and not the real deal. I think also the HDR feature of the camera is actually doing a blend of sorts? Either way... I came to the conclusion that it was really only good for Jpg shooters, and that RAW it was pretty pointless for all major editors. Would love to hear from you if you have found some neat trick or hack to using that mode that is advantageous over bracketing.

I do a lot of flash shooting, and I often feel like the effect I am trying to create with artificial light is somewhat similar to HDR (a darkened exposure for the ambient light, so cloud details are there etc, and a burst of flash to help lift the subject out of the shadow.
I've wondered about creating a bracketed portrait, something like 2-3 frames (probably just 2) whereby the EV bias between the two are quite significant. One frame will be used more for the scenery and the other for the subjects, see how that turns out. Of course it will require layering and masking, but I'm just to that kinda workflow, I often Aperture stack for example and not everyone can clearly see that technique or blend being used.

Anyway, feel free to expand on the uses of DCU and HDR for splitting, would love to hear more.

I bought a copy of Silkypix v.6 Pro a few years back. I do use it occasionally, but it's practically identical to DCU 5 with respect to everything I use it for. I also experimented with Cyberlink and Corel products; Corel never worked right and was uninstalled some time ago - frankly, I thought about suing them for various consumer protection law violations. The Cyperlink thing works ok, but I couldn't stand the constant onslaught of pop-up advertising. I ended up mainly using Serif Affinity for most stuff, and for editing JPEG's I use an old copy of Photoimpact, v.13, I think. It's still available and runs ok under Win 7.

I don't like Adobe; at first (i.e., with their original product, a typeface manager), I didn't like it because it was a huge resource hog (which to me indicates poorly written, inelegant software design). I think it's only gotten worse since then, and all their products look to me like they were written by ham-fisted seat-of-the-pants programmers. Also, since then, their products are doing too much snooping in my computer and reporting to the Mother Ship on the InterNet. I don't want to get in bed with them through "subscription" agreements, I want to be able to buy a product and use it as long as I want. Finally (being a lawyer), I read all the "legal mumbo-jumbo", and I think no one in his right mind who can read would agree to their contracts.

I did try Raw Therapee, as well, but I just don't like the interface - the functionality is scattered all over the place. A problem with open source code is often that it has too many cooks making the soup without talking to each other, and that seemed to me to be especially true of that product.

My very best favorite editor of all time is still Photoimpact, but of course, it's very limited - but what it does, it does very well. And for development, I do use Silkypix (or DCU5, depending on which computer I'm using), but my "go-to" program is Affinity. It's relatively convenient, has a few annoyances, but handles the development tasks cleanly and efficiently. (I make a distinction between "developers" that operate on the image as a whole, and "editors" that operate on pixels or defined groups of pixels.)

I tend to agree about RT, I use it mainly as a first step treatment for pixelshift and then on to my favourite editor afterwards. I think it looks very indepth, its probably very capable and very good, it would just take sometime to learn.

[parinya-ekparinya]

For awhile back I was experimenting with the actual HDR feature of the K-1/KP, in RAW, I noticed the DNG file size was large (120mb etc), however in LR I was only ever getting the exposure of the first frame (or middle one, I cannot recall) and not the real deal.

I would like to confirm that it is the first frame.

[acoufap]

hey.. that's interesting to hear. ... I think also the HDR feature of the camera is actually doing a blend of sorts? Either way... I came to the conclusion that it was really only good for Jpg shooters, and that RAW it was pretty pointless for all major editors. Would love to hear from you if you have found some neat trick or hack to using that mode that is advantageous over bracketing.

One good thing in PDCU is that it indicates for thumbnails of raw files if they are PSR or HDR files. In the case of HDR a button that triggers a split function is activated. When you push it, the HDR raw file (I use DNG) is split into three DNG files! They get the original filename plus a postfix number 1 to 3.

I'm no fan of in camera generated HDR jpegs. But using the split function I can use every specialised HDR application to get better results. Of course I could also use usual ev-based bracketing. But in this case I have to remember exactly which captures belong together. Using the HDR function the three caputures are put into a DNG contrainer - so no need to remember and no real big story.

I'd like to see more such splittable containers. For PSR DNGs to select the best image in post if computing it doesn't make much sense if too much movement is present across the four images. You can extract a single tiff file when using Raw Therapee but no raw DNG file.

Another nice feature IMO would be a container that's built for all captures that build up a panorama. There may be more applications. Unfortunately other software than PDCU will not support such helpful multi-capture raw DNG containers with indication for thumbnails and split function like PDCU does.

[BruceBanner]

One good thing in PDCU is that it indicates for thumbnails of raw files if they are PSR or HDR files. In the case of HDR a button that triggers a split function is activated. When you push it, the HDR raw file (I use DNG) is split into three DNG files! They get the original filename plus a postfix number 1 to 3.

I'm no fan of in camera generated HDR jpegs. But using the split function I can use every specialised HDR application to get better results. Of course I could also use usual ev-based bracketing. But in this case I have to remember exactly which captures belong together. Using the HDR function the three caputures are put into a DNG contrainer - so no need to remember and no real big story.

I'd like to see more such splittable containers. For PSR DNGs to select the best image in post if computing it doesn't make much sense if too much movement is present across the four images. You can extract a single tiff file when using Raw Therapee but no raw DNG file.

Another nice feature IMO would be a container that's built for all captures that build up a panorama. There may be more applications. Unfortunately other software than PDCU will not support such helpful multi-capture raw DNG containers with indication for thumbnails and split function like PDCU does.

Thanks for the insights!

I recall one day being perplexed that when I ejected the SD Card from the camera and connected it to the pc, under DCIM I was surprised to see additional folders that I wouldn't normally find. I think it was a composite mode or something and a box I had ticked and in activating that function the files were somewhat separated from the rest of the bunch by being in its own special folder. I wonder if there is an option I have missed in the menu system for making that happen for bracketing, would be a good. Having said that I don't find my bracketing bunch too hard to spot among my files. I have mine set to display as something like;

-2 -1 0 +1 +2

So in this pattern I can usually find the -2 and +2 files as they are typically more extreme, and thus can find the other files in between as well.