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The latest image-processing tool you discovered and love it

FloatingLens

Well-known member
For me that's ImageMagick. Perfect companion for scripting image resizing or creation of a white frame (like I am using in my posted images).
 

Manoli

New member
Not the latest but one of the first. Best described ss a ‘capture sharpening’ tool - the link below describes it better than I can. Judicious use recommended.

 
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Paul Spinnler

Well-known member

Best generative upscaler - beats Gigapixel ... but expensive.

Can be useful if you need to crop and want to print large.
 

Ben730

Active member

Best generative upscaler - beats Gigapixel ... but expensive.

Can be useful if you need to crop and want to print large.
Is that true, you have to enter the email to get the prices?
If this is the case, I don't take the software seriously.
Whoever wants to know the prices will be bombarded with spam every week in future?

The before and after examples are interesting, but in most cases the image is not positively influenced in my opinion.
Sharpness and resolution are often (not always) overestimated.
 

pegelli

Well-known member
The "add on" software I use a lot is Topaz Photo AI, but also the older Topaz Clarity and Topaz detail. I find Topaz AI works well on scanned negatives and slides, not only digital captures.

In general I find all these tools all too "bold" so I apply them on a layer in Photoshop and then blend to taste to achieve a more subtle effect that is more to my liking.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member

Best generative upscaler - beats Gigapixel ... but expensive.

Can be useful if you need to crop and want to print large.
Creates the photo that you wish you'd taken but didn't :LOL:

Could be useful for some of the work I do, and price ($390 per year) isn't that scary. However, information on their website is lacklustre to say the least. I assume that the processing is done not at my computer but at theirs. If that is the case, it should be mentioned, since that opens a big can of privacy and copyright issues, particularly when working on client material.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Three tools I cannot live without:

- DxO PureRAW, particularly for Microfourthirds files, which tend to be somewhat noisy at high ISO.
- Topaz Gigapixel AI, both for large prints and for fixing old, low resolution photos (Can you print this photo that we took at a conference back in 1974 really, really big please?).
- Topaz AI Sharpener. One of their old tools, and I don't think it's getting updates anymore, but I find the user interface much better than that of Topaz Photo AI.

For those with Canon printers:
Canon Professional Print & Layout. Makes the printing process very simple and nearly failsafe.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I haven't used much other than Photos, Lightroom, and SnapSeed—and very very occasionally Affinity Photo on the iPad for when some raw file is not openable by SnapSeed—in many years. I don't use any plug-ins or other automated tools; my automated tools are presets in LR that I created, and mostly frames in SnapSeed when I want framing other than a white border. I do have RAW Power as well and Nitro as well, but I've barely used them at all.

I "found" Lightroom in 2004-2006: it worked the way I wanted, and I've been there ever since.

G
 

MartinN

Well-known member
I always do a first selection using FastRawViewer, because of my aged computers. That program is performance for little money.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
I "found" Lightroom in 2004-2006: it worked the way I wanted, and I've been there ever since.

G
What?!? I Lightroom that old? I still think about it as that new software that I should look into as a supplement to Photoshop :LOL:
Probably won't happen. After nearly 35 years as a Photoshop user (Version 2 I believe), I've become a bit too old for these modern experiments.
 

diggles

Well-known member
Here's a technique I've recently incorporated into my ACR/Lightroom workflow that leverages the Luminosity Curves tool panel to help achieve better tonal control and dynamic range.

Image with no corrections…
Screenshot 2025-01-28 at 1.43.46 PM.jpg


Open the shadows by raising the blacks to 100% and then drop the exposure so the brightness is roughly the same as it was before raising the blacks.
Screenshot 2025-01-28 at 1.44.01 PM.jpg


Use the Luminosity curve to fine-tune the lights, darks, and shadows. Lights generally end up between +50 and +100. Depending on the image and the look you are going for, adjust the darks and shadows (e.g., raise darks and lower shadows or vice versa).
Screenshot 2025-01-28 at 1.44.32 PM.jpg


More often than not, I do not have to make any other global adjustments in the Light panel. However, some images require a bit more fiddling with other sliders like Highlights and Shadows, but not much. I'll use masks to do any additional dodging/burning local adjustments.


For example:
If the sky becomes too bright after raising the lights, create a mask to select the sky and lower the exposure. Since reducing exposure increases contrast, also reduce the contrast slightly to balance the adjustment.
Screenshot 2025-01-28 at 1.45.09 PM.jpg


To focus attention on a certain area of the photo I'll often create a radial mask that is bright in the center– the settings are missing from the screenshot in this example, but I raised the whites by +67. If brightness is maxed then another way to achieve the same effect would be to invert the gradient and lower the exposure of the edges.
Screenshot 2025-01-28 at 1.45.43 PM.jpg
 
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