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Comparison: ACR 6.1 vs LR 2.7 800ISO

leuallen

Member
I do all my work in raw. Today I had to use ISO800 because of low light, slow shutter, and an aperture of 11.0.

I processed the file in LR 2.7 as usual and did not like the results. I then tried the new ACR 6.1 which uses the same noise reduction engine as will be in LR 3.0. It is supposed to be much better. I compared the images at 100% and the ACR conversion was miles better. Much smoother, no mottling, with only a slight loss in detail.

Attached are the comparisons at 100% and a overall of the image. The ACR is first. You might not be able to see the differences on screen, but they are there and I am impressed. Can't wait for LR 3.0

The image from a Tokina 90mm 2.5 macro and is almost 1:1 using converter. With Pana G1.

Larry
 

pellicle

New member
interesting

particularly in the mid tones that's noticeable. That the images are 100% sections would lead me to think that for prints at 22inches / 55cm wide (essentially printing at 180dpi) that is quite acceptable either way.

Considering that this is such a small format camera (easy to use + convenient to carry) that is rather quite impressive (either of them).

Your overall image is also nice, and assuming has no further post processing than either of the crops is a nice contrasty image.

These cameras are really quite good aren't they!
 

Jonas

Active member
Hi

There are differences, clearly visible. But they are hard to evaluate. The first image (ACR 6.1 beta) shows less noise and gives a smoother over all impression. OTOH, the right image (LR 2.7) is sharpened and that together with, possible, more saturation makes for more noise.
So, it is hard to tell. Is it possible to turn sharpening totally off for both?

Jonas
 

leuallen

Member
Jonas,

Both images were sharpened the same amount. Just enough sharpening to restore the loss caused by demosaicing, capture sharpening.

This is my standard workflow. To process without sharpening would be academic because I would never work that way.

The choice is a slightly sharper image with a less smooth appearance or a smoother image with slightly less detail.

I am by no means expert on using the noise reduction in ACR 6.1. There are new sliders for detail which I have not investigated. I just used the defaults. It is possible that the sharpness could be improved in the first image if one knew what one was doing.

I doubt that the detail loss would be missed once the image is printed, but the smoother, less mottled rendition, probably would be noticed.

Larry
 

Jonas

Active member
Jonas,

Both images were sharpened the same amount. Just enough sharpening to restore the loss caused by demosaicing, capture sharpening.
Hi Larry,

Hmm. If they were sharpen the same amount the sliding scales aren't matching. You can see the differences in sharpening already when looking at the thumbnails.

This is my standard workflow. To process without sharpening would be academic because I would never work that way.
I'm sure we all sharpen nearly every image, either in one, two or three steps. But if the converters are compared the images should be sharpened the same amount.

I think the important message from you is that you can see improvements with the new Adobe version. I'm looking forward to the final release. Something tells me I'll avoid high ISO also in the future but every improvement here is most welcome.

regards,

Jonas
 

leuallen

Member
Jonas,

I think your right, the sliding scales probably do not match. Think I read that somewhere.

I, too, avoid high ISO but in this case it was darkish, the flowers were gently moving, and the shutter speed at 100ISO did not stop motion. I wanted to see how the 1:1 converter worked so I upped the ISO not expecting results as good as I got.

Larry
 
K

Kiri

Guest
I've also seen much better results using the new LR3 beta. I think it is the same engine as the ACR one you used. Very impressive, and useful for high ISO shots.
 
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