RAW conversion tools

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BugEZ
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RAW conversion tools

Post by BugEZ »

With this hobby I have used the simple "Digital Camera Utility" that came with my Pentax DSLRs for RAW to JPG conversion. The older versions of the software were easy to use and worked well with batch processing of RAW stacks. The newer versions have proven to be difficult and cumbersome.

My desires are rather modest. In the past I have looked over the stack, selected a good level balance and applied those level settings to the entire "batch" as they were converted to high resolution JPG. The newer versions of the software slowly apply the levels to each RAW file then save the RAW file. After the levels are applied it goes back to the beginning and individually converts each file. The older version applied the levels during the conversion saving a lot of needless IO. The RAW file was read only once.

What do you use and do you like it for speed and ease of use? I contemplate Lightroom among other tools, but thought I would ask the forum for advice.
Keith

siliconGary
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Post by siliconGary »

I am no expert in this area so take my feedback for for what its worth. I do not use the tool enough (or value the tool for the price) to use photoshop. I just could not figure out GIMP, I tried LightZone, but settled on RawTherapee which I find an extremely good tool with a ton of features. I am still discovering the power of this tool for raw conversion and image enhancement. (I am also on a Mac btw).

BugEZ
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Post by BugEZ »

Thanks siliconGary for the recommendation. The price is certainly in my budget. I'll give RawTherapee a try. I will be using it with a Windows 10 PC so that will be a bit different than your Mac. Fingers crossed.

Keith

Deanimator
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Post by Deanimator »

I do batch processing using Photoshop Elements 15. It seems to do the job well enough. You just have to know to switch it to "Expert" mode so that the "multiple files" option isn't grayed out.

soldevilla
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Post by soldevilla »

Thank you. I'm downloading Rawtherapee now and I'm going to test it.

I take this thread to ask a question that I have. I'm shooting with my Canon on Raw, but Photoshop does not read Raw directly and I use Adobe DNG Converter to translate RAW to DNG, Photoshop to render DNG to TIF and then I can use Zerene. It sounds long time but it is actually almost automatic.

My question (maybe I'm getting very demanding) is that when I stack in Zerene in Pmax mode the image has a significant noise when I see it at 100%. If I stack in Dmap mode the image is perfectly clean and no noise, but I will never find the appropriate parameters to avoid artifacts and I always end up in Pmax. Also I can not use results from both systems at a time when I'm retouching because I get an image with zones with noise and zones without noise, and the result looks very rare.

I am doing something wrong? Can I change some parameter in Dmax to avoid noise? Of course, I always shot at minimum ISO and with the histogram as full as possible, so I do not have to modify the parameters during the conversion.

Thank you

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Soldevilla, I am curious about your statement that Photoshop can't read Canon RAW. Photoshop ACR has always read Canon and Nikon RAW, as well as most other brands. Have you updated your software?

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

soldevilla wrote:My question (maybe I'm getting very demanding) is that when I stack in Zerene in Pmax mode the image has a significant noise when I see it at 100%. If I stack in Dmap mode the image is perfectly clean and no noise, but I will never find the appropriate parameters to avoid artifacts and I always end up in Pmax. Also I can not use results from both systems at a time when I'm retouching because I get an image with zones with noise and zones without noise, and the result looks very rare.

I am doing something wrong? Can I change some parameter in Dmax to avoid noise? Of course, I always shot at minimum ISO and with the histogram as full as possible, so I do not have to modify the parameters during the conversion.
Short answer: there is no parameter that will do what you want.

The math that helps PMax avoid artifacts with complex geometry also makes it unable to tell the difference between pixel noise and real detail at a very fine scale. As a result PMax finds noise and preserves it, just the way it finds focused detail and preserves that. The result is that the final image contains essentially the worst noise, at each pixel position, that was present in any of the source images.

Usually I hear the complaint about PMax noise when a user is shooting at higher than base ISO, so that image noise is barely OK with single frames. In that case I suggest to start by shooting at lower ISO. For you, lower ISO is not a possibility, but you might consider applying noise reduction to your source images as part of raw conversion. Of course this has to be done carefully so as to avoid eliminating real detail, and still the PMax result will be noisier than DMap run on the same noise-reduced frames.

--Rik

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Post by Deanimator »

Lou Jost wrote:Soldevilla, I am curious about your statement that Photoshop can't read Canon RAW. Photoshop ACR has always read Canon and Nikon RAW, as well as most other brands. Have you updated your software?
It depends upon what version of Photoshop/Elements he's using.

For years, I used Photoshop Elements 10 with my Canon EOS 350D.

When I recently upgraded to a Canon EOS T4i, I discovered that Elements 10 could no longer read the RAW files. Upgrading to Elements 15 fixed the problem.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Yes, that's possible. That's why I asked if he had updated his software. Adobe's support for Canon and Nikon formats has always been good.

BugEZ
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Post by BugEZ »

Deanimator wrote:
I do batch processing using Photoshop Elements 15. It seems to do the job well enough. You just have to know to switch it to "Expert" mode so that the "multiple files" option isn't grayed out.
I have photoshop Elements 11 and it did not convert some of the more recent raw image formats. On the ones it did convert (older cameras) it was slower than other tools. An update to a current or at least less obsolete version would no doubt provide compatibility, but I am not sure of the conversion speed.

On a separate note, I have tried RawTherapee and found it easier and faster than the "Digital Camera Utility" that shipped with the camera. I am still playing around with the settings in RawTherapee as they are a bit confusing. After I sort out the settings I'll share a comparison between DCU and RT.

Keith
Aloha

siliconGary
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Post by siliconGary »

BugEZ wrote:Deanimator wrote:
I am still playing around with the settings in RawTherapee as they are a bit confusing.
Keith
There are a lot of settings in RT. I found there are some good tutorials on Youtube that helped me figure out RT.

I am still learning - in the thread on "Can deconvolution counter diffraction softening?" I discovered RT can do Richardson-Lucy deconvolution (Sharpening) which on my microscope images I have discovered is very effective for sharpening.

BugEZ
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Post by BugEZ »

An update on using RawTherapee for conversion of RAW to JPG

I have saved a YouTube movie showing the steps in my workflow. I routinely use RawTherapee for RAW to JPG conversion. I have found it to work very well, though recognize others may have tools that work better. But for FreeWare it is quite good.

A link to the description of my workflow:

https://youtu.be/C21uCBJTGQ4

I remove the auto sharpening that RawTherapee does by default as I found that when I use PMAX it makes the backgrounds very grainy. It is better to apply sharpening to the stacked results.

Keith

austrokiwi1
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Post by austrokiwi1 »

I use capture one pro for raw conversion. I like the batch processing that application provides. I don't sharpen in Capture one... I do apply deconvolution( different process to sharpening) before converting Raw to Tiff
Still learning,
Cameras' Sony A7rII, OLympus OMD-EM10II
Macro lenses: Printing nikkor 105mm, Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G, Schneider Kreuznach Makro Iris 50mm , 2.8, Schnieder Kreuznach APO Componon HM 40mm F2.8 , Mamiya 645 120mm F4 Macro ( used with mirex tilt shift adapter), Olympus 135mm 4.5 bellows lens, Oly 80mm bellows lens, Olympus 60mm F2.8

Joyful
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Post by Joyful »

Hi - I find Faststone (free) surprisingly good, and very easy to use.

Program is only about 5mb so downloads are quick !

IMNSHO Without doubt the best free editor

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