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Processing GRD/GX100/GRD2 Files

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Mitch Alland

Guest
I suggest someone start a thread on Ricoh DNGs and RAW processing. There's a lot of knowledge here, collectively, on this topic...
I'll start by repeating a posting on my B&W processing that I made in another thread:

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I use Lightroom as a contact sheet or light table, looking at the RAW files in colour, with a bit of sharpening (25) and some increase in contrast. Sometimes I convert the pictures to B&W in Lightroom, but only to see how they look: I do the actual conversion and all the post-processing in LightZone.

In doing the conversion in LightZone I usually place the point in the yellow section of the colour wheel, towards and top and right of the yellow section; but in high ISO pictures (800 and and 1600) I've put the point into the blue section which reduces grain a bit. I have not been doing any chroma noise reduction, but am experimenting with this for high ISOs.

I tend to be very aggressive with sharpening and often apply the sharpening tool, which is USM, twice at 20/50/0 to bring out mid-tone contrast; but for some pictures this is clearly too much and creates problems with high-contrast edges, in which case I only do it once, or apply this double sharpening to only a part of the pictures. As I find GX100 files quite soft I often also apply the sharpening tool a third time at 100/5.0/20, which also sharpens the grain; but often I have to pull back on the 5.0, which is very radical, to 2.5 or 1.5. Alternatively, I pull transparency/opacity slider to 50% or 25%.

In setting the tones my first move is to add a Tone Mapper with Hard Light or Mutiply to get a rich gradation. But I then add more Tone Mappers lightening the pictures, as well as doing selective dodging and burning. To control highlights I often add Relight with a selection of the high tones.

Of course all this could be done in Photoshop but I find it much easier to work in LightZone. Also, I save a good number of LightZone Styles and apply them to pictures that have a similar look to the picture that the Style came from. I then edit the selections in the various tool to get them in the right place for the second picture; and add or subtract tools as required to get the picture to look like I want it to.
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A question: Wouter mentioned that sometimes he shoots at -1.0 EV to preserve highlights: the few times that I've shot a -0.7 EV I found the files difficult to process, but that may be because I was trying to apply the same method as to my other files— any hints on how to deal with such underexposed files?

Please feel free to talk about colour as well as B&W processing.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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Mark Turney

Guest
Really great to see your workflow Mitch. As Socrates (I think it was him) said: 'The more I learn, the more I realize I know nothing.'

I consider myself really good with the technical aspects of Photoshop; but, I think we could all learn from your workflow, as it shows an artistic end-result that I don't often see. Your images are simply fantastic.

Thank you for sharing Mitch.

Mark T.
 
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wbrandsma

Guest
A question: Wouter mentioned that sometimes he shoots at -1.0 EV to preserve highlights: the few times that I've shot a -0.7 EV I found the files difficult to process, but that may be because I was trying to apply the same method as to my other files— any hints on how to deal with such underexposed files?
Maybe it works for me, because I shoot ISO80 and ISO100 most of the time (less noisy image). I don't try recover the shadows. I like to keep my shadows dark (even to the point of just becoming black).
Have you tried lower ISO files as well to compare differences in the results of your processing? I personally think higher ISO files are harder to process.
 
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Sean_Reid

Guest
C1 Pro is my normal RAW development program but it doesn't currently support the GR II and the G9 that I am testing right now. So, I'm experimenting with SilkyPix at the moment and, so far, it seems quite promising. The controls design is excellent. It doesn't (yet) support ICC profiles for the file conversion so I can't use my favorite JFI profiles. But it does have two monochrome development settings that I'm experimenting with.

The free version doesn't batch files but there's a 14-day trial version at: http://www.isl.co.jp/SILKYPIX/english/download/early_preview/?20071130

There's the option to download an early preview version which specifically supports the GR2.

Cheers,

Sean
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Sean, I've been impressed with Silkypix. The only reason I'm not using it is because I'm doing post-processing with LightZone and it's so much simpler to do everything in program if I can, particularly as LightZone uses the original DNG files and saves TIFFs of about 50MB that contain all the adjustment steps one has used.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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Mark Turney

Guest
Here is a picture of the Empire State Building that I post-processed from a GRD I jpg. Please, let me know what you think, as constuctive criticism is always welcome.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

Mark T.
 
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danfromp

Guest
That's really great; like that look. How do you come up with that image? Using photoshop?
Does anyone use "Convert to Black and White Pro 3 Photoshop plugin (CBWPro)"?

I have an issue. I've just bought a GRD1 and downloaded the updated GRD2 firmware.
When using the Raw, I happened to get just the jpg file and not the dng.
What a surprise.
Using Ricoh Gate La software, I did not succeed in finding the dng file when downloading from my Ricoh to my Pc.
Some hours later I found a solution to get the dng file, I use windows to find the hidden dng files on my ricoh...
 
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Mark Turney

Guest
Thanks Dan. I started with a GRD color jpg (as I had not taken this picture in RAW). Using Photoshop CS3 - I selectively burned and dodged the color image using layer masks and different blend modes. I used the screen blend mode for the lighten layer and multiply blend mode for the darken layer. I may be mistaken; but, I think getting the color image the way I wanted before converting to B&W was the way to go. Once I felt the adjustments to tone were complete, I merged the layers. At some point later in the whole process, I remember adding some grain to the building; because, the image was shot @ ISO 64 and it didn't have enough 'grit' for me. Just before the B&W conversion, I sharpened @ 20/50/0 (something I learned from Mitch Alland - great tip) to bring out mid-tone contrast. I then did this a second time; but, faded the second sharpening by 50% as luminosity. Then, I used Photoshop's B&W conversion tool, choosing High Contrast Red Filter. I have attached a screen shot of my working photo if it is of any use.

Take care.
Mark T.

PS - Not sure about the GRD RAW file loss; but, I use Extensis Portfolio to transfer and manage all my files. Sorry.
 
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Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
How are you processing GRD II raws?

Let's start with ISO 1600. I've compared LR v 1.3 vs. C1 v.4.0 below.

Here is the full image processed in LR with minor adjustments in PS (including 2.2% correction for barrel distortion) and minor cropping. Exposed at ISO 1600, 1/125 sec. f2.8.

View attachment 973

Here are the crops. First processed in LR, noise reduction=0, sharpening 100/0.6/15/0:

View attachment 974

Second processed in C1, nr=0, sharpening 100/0.6/1

View attachment 975

Both are attractive. The C1 version has finer, more pointilist "grain". The LR version has coarser, clumpier grain. The clumpier grain is in fact more film-like; I'm working remotely so I don't have samples of scanned Tri-X - I'll post samples when I'm able to do so. Despite the coarser grain the LR version has greater apparent accutance - compare the clock faces. I set the LR Clarity slider at 30 but the difference persists if it is 0. The dark areas of the LR version has less "light speck" noise.

Both print nicely at 8.5 x 11 inches - I haven't tried larger but will.

Can anyone provide other comparisons? I'd be particularly interested in the new version of DXO vs either LR or C1.

Regards and Season's Greetings to all,
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Re: How are you processing GRD II raws?

Woody there is a thread started in the image processing forum exactly on Raw processing

http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=293

If you would like to move your post there , just let me know. I can move your post and delete the thread. jack and I wanted to keep the image processing stuff in one place so folks can see all the cross platform processing with different systems and converters.

Merry Christmas BTW. :)
 
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tucker

Guest
Guys - for someone who has only just become a GRD owner this thread is superb and full of great information for a relative newbie - thank you all for your comments and sharing great tips.
 

Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
So I said that I'd upload a Tri-X file for comparison. Well I've finally gotten around to it:

Here's a scan (on a Hasselblad Imacon) of a 1970s MF negative shot on Tri-X Professional.

View attachment 1121

Here's the C1 crop from above:
View attachment 1122

Here's a crop of the dog from the Tri-X negative:
View attachment 1123

Here's a crop of the LR crop from above:
View attachment 1124

Sorry that I don't have any film shot at ISO 1600 for comparison.

Draw your own conclusions. To my eyes the LR noise in the LR image really does look like grain.
 
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pb61

Guest
That's really great; like that look. How do you come up with that image? Using photoshop?
Does anyone use "Convert to Black and White Pro 3 Photoshop plugin (CBWPro)"?

I have an issue. I've just bought a GRD1 and downloaded the updated GRD2 firmware.
When using the Raw, I happened to get just the jpg file and not the dng.
What a surprise.
Using Ricoh Gate La software, I did not succeed in finding the dng file when downloading from my Ricoh to my Pc.
Some hours later I found a solution to get the dng file, I use windows to find the hidden dng files on my ricoh...
I can't see anyone answering this so I will. I thought that when I took pictures in RAW when I first got the GRD1. I popped in to Ricoh in Tokyo and even asked them. They were amused that i was using RAW - What for? Then they showed me that though the jpeg only shows in the camera when downloaded to a computer with their software all becomes clear.

I tried but it didn't seem as though there was a RAW as well as a jpeg. It became clear that my Photoshop didn't support RAW at the time. Now all is fine. I use a card reader and download to the HD on my Mac. The two files are always there. I open the RAW and then save as a jpeg replacing the one from the camera so I have the picture and the original RAW is left untouched.

All seems easy now

Good luck
Peter

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88974125@N00/
 
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