A few screenshots of DxO Photolab 4

 Here are a few screenshots of DxO PhotoLab 4 - if you are know a raw editor reasonably well, these screenshots will give you an idea of how PhotoLab 4 lays out the menus and panels.

https://sway.office.com/068VAuiDEjDbFOFo?ref=Link

Figuring out ready made Noise Reduction

(Revised after I noticed a purple colour cast). 

It's an interesting time in image processing technology. There are genuine improvements in easy to use (read: hands free, almost) digital noise reduction features of consumer, off the shelf, software. I purchased Topaz Labs Denoise AI, like it a lot, use it a lot, for my photos.There are two algorithms - the standard and the Low Noise option. There are adjustment sliders for them. I've an affiliate link here if you want to buy it and also reward me.

DxO has just released version 4 of their PhotoLab - this has been a well known, well regarded general purpose raw processing program - the Elite Edition has an enhanced noise reduction feature named Prime Noise Reduction. Now there's Deep Prime. 

I'm just testing at the moment. Below are crops of .tiff files from an Olympus E-PM2 raw file, shot at, ahem, ISO 25,000 - yes rubbish ISO, pretty much only useful for a snapshot rather than a polished professional photo. The full .TIFF files are downloadable via links.

When I first made the Topaz Denoise AI images, I ran Topaz Denoise as standalone, loading the Olympus .ORF raw file directly, then saved as .TIFF - for some reason there's a purple cast in the images, I didn't see any Colorspace option.  Then I ran Topaz Denoise as an Adobe Photoshop plugin, loading the raw first through Adobe Camera Raw. This time there was no colour cast. 

Hope this is useful.

Olympus Workspace - Standard Noise Filter - .tiff file

Olympus Workspace - Noise Filter Off - .tiff file

Topaz Denoise AI (Low Light Mode) directly loading the raw .orf file - .tiff file

Topaz Denoise AI directly loading the raw .orf file - .tiff file

DxO PhotoLab 4.0 HQ - .tiff file

DxO PhotoLab 4.0 Prime - .tiff file

DxO PhotoLab 4.0 Deep Prime - .tiff file

Topaz Denoise AI through ACR / Photoshop - tiff file

Topaz Denoise (Low Light mode) through ACR / Photoshop - tiff file

Topaz Denoise (AI Clear mode) through ACR / Photoshop - tiff file

Getting Film Simulations for Free

I sometimes have that bit of nostalgia for that film look. I shot film from my school days until after I got married. We've influenced younger generations to think and feel that organic film colours is something to want. 

Movies are often heavily colour graded, like Christoper Nolan's Interstellar.  The quirky palettes of Wes Anderson continue that trend.  Every photo guru is keen to sell unique Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom presets. There are also, well established colour grading software like DxOLab's Filmpack. Photo editing software often throw in presets or LUTs or Actions (recorded steps).

It is very tempting to put money down and get some yummy film simulations. But. There's always a But. But what if you could have fun and fool around with that idea for free? It might not turn out to be your artistic centre to use such a tool or you might run hot and then cool off. One way to dip your toes in the water is to use Raw Therapee with the HALDCUT Film Simulation Pack. Here's how:

1. Download and install Raw Therapee. There are downloads for Linux, 64 bit Windows, 64 bit MacOS. If you don't want to contaminate your Windows computer by installing Raw Therapee, Portable Apps has a version of Raw Therapee that you can unpack without embedding itself into Windows Registry and Windows folders. 
2. Download and unpack the HALDCUT Film Simulation files into a folder of your choice.
3. Start up Raw Therapee and go into Preferences to nominate where that HALDCUT folder is.
4. Restart Raw Therapee
5. Load an image into Raw Therapee and then go to the Color > Film Simulation panel to start using the Film Simulations
6. Save the resulting image.

SOOC JPEG from Kodak P880

Image after applying HALDCUT Agfa film simulation

Topaz AI products showing Text Menus properly - Windows PC - Kensington USB Dock

Topaz Labs post processing software were one of the first to implement AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI software for photo editing is quite the buzz these days, so I tried out Gigapixel, then Denoise (or was it the other way around). I found various products unstable, slow or just didn't work on my Acer Aspire 5 laptop then backed off for a while.  That laptop was a Core i5 with dual graphic card (Intel and nVidia), originally with a magnetic hard disk, with a touch screen but pretty poor colour rendition (not IPS), I attached it to a Belkin USB Dock and external IPS monitors.

Then, gaming laptops became more common (read, less expensive) and I purchased an Acer Nitro 5

Core i7, again dual graphic card (Intel and nVidia), with SSD - so a higher performance machine. This time it would be attached to a Kensington USB dock (which allowed me to connecto to an IPS UHD (near 4K) screen. I tried Topaz Gigapixel, Denoise again and eventually I bought the whole suite.

Sometime later, I upgraded the SSD  in the Nitro 5 to bigger one and one thing led to another, I had to start fresh with a Windows 10 install, fresh installs of the Topaz products. Then, I noticed with disappointment two issues:

• If I nominated the nVidia as the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) for the Topaz Products, they would with no text in the menu or user interface and after a few seconds, the program would exit.
• If I nominated Intel as the GPU, the Topaz Products would take display menus but processing of the images was very slooooow.

I filed a Support Request with Topaz, there was to and fro, and in the end of that case, we could not arrive at a cure.

A few weeks later, I changed one thing and Hey Presto, it worked. If I nominated the nVidia GPU, the Topaz products would show text in the menus and user interface, the program processed images much quicker. The change?

When you use multiple displays with Microsoft Windows, you can invoke the Display options dialog in the Settings hiearchy. Here, you can nominate which display you want to be the Default Display. This is the one that will host the Windows Task Bar, the System Tray icons and the Clock.

Set the Default Display to the built-in screen of the notebook, not one of the external monitors. If you do this, the Topaz products will work properly. If you set the Default Display to be one of the external monitors, the Topaz products will fail to display user interface text when the nVidia GPU is assigned or be very slow when the Intel GPU is assigned.

Whether the additional DisplayLink driver muddies the diagnosis of the issue, I am not sure. But this is what works for me.

What about image theft? Should you watermark your images?

Any photo you put on the public internet can be downloaded, sometimes easily, sometimes with a bit of effort. In order for the visitor to see the image, by definition it has to travel to their computer.

Putting a watermark for me, defeats the idea of sharing - it is visible and scars your image. And it can be post processed out.

If you do not want any risk of image theft, do not share it on the internet.

If you want to share an image for cross inspiration, cross appreciation and just the sheer thrill of cross participation, then
* don't share a commercially commissioned image without approval by the owners including you
* limit the damage but still have fun by restricting the dimensions e.g. to HDTV dimensions at max
* alternatively adopt the concept that certain images are a donation or promotion of yourself to the world - artists in photography or music face the same decision.

For sincere people who want to use your images and contact you to receive credit and payment, ensure your EXIF and IPTC metadata is filled out. Although Facebook scrubs them, other galleries don't

The internet and digital images is different from print. And it's worth having the moment to ponder what it is and what value digital images have to you and others.

* if your business is about selling digital images in the stock image marketplace or for journalism or for commission by a sponsor, then you do not want someone using your image for their own gain without you sharing in the rewards of work. In such cases, to show a sample for purchase, yes, watermark it to hell, unless the intended purchaser will walk away from all that ugliness instead of paying your for a clean image.

* if you create images for self satisfaction then it is somewhat of an affront to you for someone to take your image and misrepresent it as theirs or to make money out of it. What value do you put to that affront? How much time x labour x money are you going to pay out to chase someone who has "stolen" or misrepresented your work? Put a value on that and decide whether and how you want to protect your images.

* If you are shooting a set for self improvement and participation in creativity, cross fertilisation of ideas, meaning you are gaining intangible benefits and giving intangible benefits, then you have to put up an image that views satisfactorily on your peers' devices. If everyone in the group adds a watermark, then sure, add a watermark. If you are the only one in the community adding a watermark, a watermark can come over as ostentatious decoration or feeling self important (even if you don't mean to). Of course in a challenge or a competition, it is unwise to put a watermark because the judge may positively or negatively observe who made the shot before actually assessing the shot.

I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you....

I've shot the moon a few times, over the years, without that burning passion that I see others seem to muster. Previously, I used manual focus legacy film lenses on mirrorless digital bodies, this time, I decided to be more laid back and just used an autofocus lens on the mirrorless body.

There are lots of articles on how to shoot the moon, it's not difficult but the technique depends on the body you use, liveview or optical viewfinder.  One article I came across before I wrote these notes is on the Photography Life website.

Robin Wong has a Youtube video which is pretty concise:

Here's my take.

Gear

Assumption:  We're using  mirrorless cameras. For the photo above, I'm using an Olympus OM-D E-M1 (but other mirrorless cameras should be similar)

Assumption: We're using a modern, compatible autofocus, electronic aperture controlled lenses. For the photo above, I'm using an older Sigma Four Thirds 50-500mm zoom lens.

You will want a lens with some "reach" - typically 600mm (full-frame equivalent).

The sharper your lens (meaning bigger, heavier, more expensive), the better.

Exposure: Shutter Speed

The regular moon (not an eclipse), has a similar exposure to a cow standing in the field yonder, in daylight. This may be surprising because we think it is at night and it should be dark. Well, the surrounding sky is dark, but the moon itself is on the receiving end of direct sunlight, so we can think of the moon as a subject in daylight.  The classic exposure rule is Looney 11.

Assumption: This is a regular moon, not stages of an eclipse where the light will change. In general, the light will be mostly steady for many minutes or longer.

Action: It does not matter whether you use P A S or M if the light doesn't change and your actual time for the shot is Looney 11 brightness - once you or the camera has chosen the exposure time setting (a fraction of a second)  it can stay for many shots. Heck, you can use Beginner's Full Auto. However, using M on Liveview systems has an issue, read on....

Exposure: f/no and ISO sensitivity

Since we are assuming Looney 11 brightness, you should easily be able to use the native ISO of your camera sensor - for my camera, that would be ISO 200.  Of course, the f/no you choose would be one to optimise the sharpness of your lens - usually not the brightest f/no and certainly not an f/no such that you get diffraction.

Should you use a Tripod?

Assuming Looney 11 brightness and a reasonable choice for shutter speed, you don't need a tripod unless you can't hold the camera steady enough to compose and click. Remember, you may not be used to shooting at 600mm / 1000mm (or more) equivalent, holding the lens and camera vertically. A tripod will take the pressure of finishing the job quickly so that you can relax and enjoy yourself.

If you do use a tripod, bring a torchlight since you may not used to fiddling with that ungainly obstinate thing. Fumbles in the dark could cause you to drop all that precious gear.

When LiveView works against you

With Liveview cameras normally, the screen or EVF shows you a brightness forecasr of the scene before you click. In this case however, there is a lot of night sky in our scene so the Liveview calculation will overcompensate and try to make the night sky brighter by increasing the Liveview brightness. This will make the moon a very bright featureless white blob.

My Olympus cameras have a menu item named Liveview Boost. That doesn't appear to help in this case. Here, we're having a hard time seeing the moon with the expected textures. It's a viewing issue not an exposure issue.

I chose:

• Aperture Priority (which will automatically handle the Exposure issue)
• ISO 200 (not Auto ISO) for low image noise
• f/5.6 or 8 (typically) , for good sharpness and reduced flare
• Spot Metering Pattern
• Single AF (Auto Focus) centre point 
• raw instead of jpeg so that you have the option of adjusting the white balance later on.

The moon will now appear as a defined, textured disc and the forecast exposure will be as you see.  Feel free to adjust Exposure Compensation to taste.

Choosing and off-centre AF point

If are going to focus and recompose (i.e. move the moon away from the centre of your view), you need to find a way of locking the exposure when you do that. There's a feature on cameras called AEL (Auto Exposure Lock). Otherwise, the moon will go all white again when you recompose. 

If your camera model automatically moves the Spot Meter point to coincide with the off-centre AF point, you don't have to use AEL for off-centre AF points. 

Autofocus on Mirrorless Systems

With autofocus lenses on mirrorless systems, lenses are often focus-by-wire. That means there is no hard-stop at an etched infinity mark like on a classic manual focus lens. There is also no spot on the lens barrel that you can tape or "hold" the focussing ring, still.

If you decide to manual focus a modern lens on mirrorless dystems, you can manually turn the focus ring, use Magnification in Liveview to see when the focus is best. Let go of the ring and it should stay like that. 

With a bright moon, it is just as easy or easier to just use the Autofocus on a Single AF point. Remember, the moon is not dark and the autofocus system is competent enough to do the job.

Virtual Photo Activities 2020

Many people are restricted from moving around. Here's a list of Photo Activities that I have started listing and shared with some of my friends to co-edit.

Comparing OM-Ds

My much loved OM-D E-M1 is getting tired. The rubber skin is starting to peel. So I've taking my time looking around at further OM-D and comparing features.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W2Tq_-AWRyvPdwCNIoHPDkz5rYOvP_vgXMDisvzoqtI/edit?usp=sharing

Quick Insight: Olympus Workspace - Raw Editing

Unlike third party software product like Adobe Lightroom and others, Olympus Workspace often suffers from a lack of detailed explanation of how it works, what it does and how do you know what is happening on screen. Here's a quick tip on what Olympus Workspace displays on the screen when you start to edit a raw file.

When choose the thumbnail, the in-camera settings like Picture Mode are already pre-selected and the thumbnail of the raw shows the look straight out of camera (this could be read from the embedded jpeg inside each raw file). Note that Picture Mode is not ticked which means I have not yet made any edit choices on the computer

The thumbnail shows the text RAW on the top right. Olympus Workspace can stack the same numbered raw and jpeg to avoid clutter of the screen. In that case if there are two files, the text will be R+J

This thumbnail shows the Pencil icon on the top left corner - this means I have chosen to adjust something on the computer. My adjustments are stored as metadata in the central Olympus Workspace database on this computer. If I take the raw file to another computer, my adjustments will not be carried with it.

If I right click on the thumbnail, I am given the choice to "Revert To Original" - this is because adjustments to the raw file are not merged into the file, they remain separate as metadata and can be further adjusted or removed completely