Hi Paul:
I'm curious about the processing here. How did you use PS for everything but the water? I have wondered if it was possible to apply a single exposure layer over a PS file and use masks, or there a better way?
Thanks,
Tom
Hi Tom
With Pixel shift files, here is what I have found in regards to quality.
Silkypix Developer studio pro very good, but very limited in tools, but has the best conversion.
Pentax included software, does a good job on the conversion but has a terrible interface, like win3.1 or something, and no tools
LR, the most limited conversion with motion, but the best tool set by far.
C1 so far has chosen not to support the pixel shift files, for what reason not sure.
I still prefer LR, mainly for the colors, and tool set. On this shot, I took several pixel shifts, there was little or no wind movement. Then I took a couple non-pixel shift just for the water. In LR, I worked up both Pixel shift and non, then exported them to CC. There I just layered the non pixel shift over the other, and then painted the water over. I have also found that LR can at time have problems with clouds if they are moving fast. This cloud did not have any issues.
Also, in the camera, you can set pixel shift for motion correction or non motion correction. In the Pentax software you can select for either in the raw conversion. It seems that LR prefers images shot with no MS, or MS off. Still can't handle the water movement, but seems to work better with wind.
Wind is by far the single biggest issue with Pixel shift, and all the software tools have problems. So if I see much movement, I will always work a scene both ways, knowing that parts of the file in Pixel shift mode will just have a lot more potential. The images are so much better than anything else I have seen from 35mm DSLR's that I almost always try to use it.
I have also started working with just the base Pentax code, to get the basic tiff conversion made, then importing that image to LR, where I can do more work.
Frustration is that Pentax could have done so much more with this, at least with Adobe. I doubt anything else will ever be done.
Paul C