Corros' Photo Blog

DXO labs Tutorials

2013-04-07T14:59:00.000+02:00

Since some time, DXO Labs is giving webbinars and tutorials about their software. The last months, DXO placed a couple of tutorials on their website: DXO Academy.

These tutorials are very handy when starting to use DXO's software. You can find tutorials about HDR photo's, printing, color management etc.

Short review of DXO Optics Pro 8

2012-10-30T20:28:00.003+01:00

This week, DXO released DXO Optics Pro 8. Is this version better than the last version? Does is change anything about the drawbacks it has opposed to Lightroom? In this review I will focus on the things which are new.

Speed

DXO has never been the fasted program. But in this version. Processing 9 images took only 40 seconds on my system. As seen here (scroll down), this was for 8 images more than 60 seconds. Another big pro is the possibility to show noise reduction at zoom levels less than 75% makes it possible to do fast adjustments.

Adjusting settings is nearly instant at my system, but may vary per computer. But after all, it's much faster than version 7.5.

Image quality

Can I get more out of my RAW file? After some testing and tweaking, I can't find any differences. The recovery of Highlights has become much easier with the new controls:

The problem is that I can't recover more details from highlights. With Lightroom I still can get more dynamic range out of my RAW files.

The too heavy noise reduction is still there.

The new Smart Lightning functions are easy to use and much like Lightroom and other RAW processors. Combined with the smart autoexposure makes it easy to get all the details and quality out of you RAW files. Now DXO is nog working that awkward anymore.

Functions

DXO Optics Pro 8 does have few new functions. One is the printing function. It's handy to use, but because DXO is not very good as an image organiser, most people won't use it.

Beside that there are a couple of new functions which finetune the things you can do with DXO:

Beside this. The interface has been updated. The new icons are a little bit modernised and more space is between them.

All these changes makes it even easier to use DXO and makes it still my first choice for converting my RAW files. I hope DXO will now work on better image quality (recovering dynamic range) and a more subtle auto noise reduction.

Lightroom 4.1 released

2012-05-30T19:04:00.004+02:00

Today, Adobe released Adobe Lightroom 4.1 after two release candidates.

This version offers some new features and fixes some of the quirks from version 4.0

Bugs Corrected in Lightroom 4.1

The following bugs that were part the Lightroom 4 releases have been corrected. The team appreciates the very detailed feedback the community has provided on Lightroom 4 and we’re excited to correct a number of issues experienced by our customers. These issues have been FIXED:

Point Curve adjustments made in Lightroom 3 have been restored.
Edit-in functionality has been restored to external applications including Adobe Photoshop and Nik plugins
Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.
Ability to update DNG previews and metadata for more than 100 photos has been restored.
This update allows for improved viewing of subfolders and stacks in folders with a large number of photos.
It was possible that a layout of a saved book could be lost after quitting Lightroom 4.
Adjustments made in the Develop module were not properly being reflected to photos that have been laid out in the Book Module
Postscript Type 1 Fonts do not appear in the Font menu within the Book module.
Clarity adds grey tinting to 100% white tones.

Known Issues in Lightroom 4.1:

Double byte fonts such as those found in Chinese and Japanese characters are not being exported to PDF or when published to Blurb.
The Revel Publish Service will delete photos from a carousel. This occurs when the customer asks Lightroom to delete the carousel and then cancels out of the confirmation dialogue box.

source: Adobe Blog

Highlight recovery, Lightroom vs. DXO

2012-05-30T18:49:00.001+02:00

Hightlight and shadow detail recovery is one of the things DXO Optics Pro is famous for. But with Lightroom 4, Adobe pushed it further.

In the sky, Lightroom rendered the clouds while DXO leaves some blown out parts from which I wasn't able to recover the details. In Lightroom I didn't use the local adjustment brushes, only the sliders for exposure etc.

Lightroom 4.1

DXO Optics Pro 7.5

The original files are a 14 bit .DNG file from my Pentax K-5.

And just another try. Left is DXO, right is Lightroom

original

As you can see, Lightroom can get more detail from the clouds and recovers more detail from the shadows!

This shot was with my Pentax K-7 in .DNG (12bits).

read more about Lightroom vs. DXO

DXO Optics Pro 7.5 released

2012-05-23T20:01:00.002+02:00

Today, DXO labs released version 7.5 of it's great Image Processing Software. This version is the first version supporting 64bits to handle the files of camera's like the Nikon D800. DXO promises another speed improvement.

I tested it on my computer. I started first version 7.2.3 and closed it after it started. Than I tested a new start of 7.2.3 and tested the exporting speed:

DXO 7.2.3
startup: 38.8 seconds
exporting 9 files: 1:27

Than I installed 7.5.0 and started it the first time (and did the new registration). I closed it after it and restarted 7.5.0:

DXO 7.5.0
startup: 19 seconds
exporting 9 files: 1:05

That's another big leap in speed!

Other changes can be found at: www.dxo.com

Review Kata Bumblebee Ul-222

2012-05-03T18:28:00.000+02:00

Introduction

For a year now, I'm using the Kata Bumblebee as backpack when hiking and taking pictures. This bag is quit special and I've not seen a better bag for my type of use.

The special thing about it, is when carrying it around, Is sometimes forget I'm carrying 10 kilos of stuff. The harness system and the Aeriform straps fit to my body like a custom-made suite.

To show the possibilities of this bag, I made some pictures of it.

Photos

The bag is light grey to protect it from heating of the sun. This layout also got reddot award. I really would have this bag in a darker color, when shooting wildlife. On the bottom of this picture you can see the parachute zippers. They are easy to use when you put your finger in the 'parachute'.

Here you can see the harness. it's a little bit bent so the pressure will be on your shoulders and hips. No pressure on your back.

The backside of the bag is like all other backpackers bags. A frame with netting in it combined with the foam shoulder straps makes this bag the best to carry.

On the top you can see the notebook compartment, the head compartment and the little pocket on the front.

A tripod holder is included and can be fitted in two places: on the right side and on the front of the bag.

This little organiser makes it possible to carry around your small stuff like phone, memory cards, etc.

on the top left corner of the bag are two more pockets to fit some stuff.

The top compartment to put you additional stuff in. Food, a (rain) jacket, etc. a lot off stuff can be put in.

The camera compartment is closed with a additional net. This for extra safety.

The main drawback is you can't leave it open because when letting it go, the bag closes itself.

On the front of the camera is another pocket which can also be used as tripod holder.

The camera compartment is large enough to fit a lot of stuff. Because the dividers are not rigid, it's easy to put your stuff in and adjust it.

also the compartment for your lenses has it's own net.

close-up of the materials. The materials don't look very solid, but they are! After a year of use, I can hardly see any scratches or tears in the material.

close-up of the harness.

After all this bag is great to use. The difference of Kata to other camera-bag manufacturers is they design the bag around a carrying system. Others seems to desing a box for you stuff and than think about carrying.

There are some drawbacks:

because of the rounded form of the harness, the bag is big for what fits in
there are hardly any pockets for fitting the really small stuff like sd-cards, remote, etc.
the bag can't stay open by itselves

But there also some big pro's

lightweight!
easy to carry without pain on your back or shoulders
good ventilation (a big problem with other camera bags)
easy to fit your stuff in because of the soft dividers
big notebook compartment
very good protection for your gear because of the harness and spine system

Verdict

I really like this bag. it has a lot of space for my stuff and is still easy to carry when packet with a load of camera stuff. The bag is big enough to carry enough stuff for a oneday hike.

DxO Optics Pro v7.2.3 released

2012-05-02T16:01:00.000+02:00

Today, DxO Labs released a new version of its great image processing software. It ads support for the Canon EOS 5D MK III and the Pentax K-01. Also a bunch of lenses are supported for this lenses.

source: DXO

Fighting Swans

2012-05-01T20:20:00.003+02:00

Yesterday evening, I saw this nature phenomena. A adult Swan who drove away it's siblings from last year.

The pictures are a bit dark because it was 30 minutes after sunset

Blue Hour shots

2012-05-01T20:19:00.000+02:00

SNS-HDR Lightroom Plugin

2012-04-15T13:43:00.000+02:00

I'm using SNS-HDR for my HDR photography since august 2011. I really like it, but one thing I missed was a Lightroom Plugin. But since this week, that has been fixed. MIchael Koetter wrote a plugin for Lightroom.

The plugin is very easy to use. All you have to do is installing the plugin and setting it. After opening SNS-HDR you can do the editing you're used to and save the image by clicking the button and the image will be imported to Lightroom (if you selected that option).

One thing is missing. The SNS-HDR application isn't closed automatically. But that's no big deal and will speed up the process if you want to do a couple of images after each other.

New Pentax Prices in the USA

2012-04-03T22:14:00.003+02:00

Today, Pentax USA shocked all Pentax users with the new prices. Some prices increased 90%. Reaction from European Pentaxian are like: "Now the prices are like in Europe."

I checked it with the prices given from B&H and the cheapest prices of the shops in The Netherlands:

I really think this is remarkable. The prices in the USA are still cheaper! Some are more expensive, some are cheaper, but after all, When you want to buy all this lenses with Euros, buying in the USA is cheaper!

Maybe somebody knows if this big difference is also existing for the other brands like Canon, Nikon, Sony.

Source: http://www.pentaxforums.com/news/pentax-lens-price-increase-2012.html#ixzz1r0YFlEcM

Lightroom 4 edit in error fix

2012-03-26T22:15:00.001+02:00

Many people who upgraded their copy of Lightroom to version 4 or installed a fresh copy of version 4 suffer a strange problem: An error when exporting to a external editor like DXO Optics Pro, or NIK filters, etc.

When you want to edit you picture in any other program you wil get the next error:

Unexpected error performing command: bad argument #1 to 'lower'(string expected, got nil)

A very strange error, and after setting the stuff again, the error was still there. After some searching on the internet I found a lot of people with this problem. But it was hard to find a solution.

One solution which seems ridiculous is installing Adobe Photoshop (Elements). I don't exactly why this works, but it does!

All you need to do is installing a trail version of Adobe Photoshop (Elements) and everything is fine.

I really hope Adobe will fix this problem, because installing a 1,5GB package (PSE) is a little bit awkward for this problem.

If you're a little bit more confident in editing some settings on your computer try the next (it worked for me):

First backup you registry in case something goes wrong

Windows:

1) Open Notepad

2) Copy and paste everything in bold below into Notepad

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Photoshop.exe]

"Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CS5\\"

@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CS5\\Photoshop.exe"

3) Go File > Save As

4) In "File Type" Select "All files"

5) Name it "LightroomPatch.reg" and save to your Desktop

6) Close notepad and double-click "LightroomPatch.reg".

7) When it asks if you trust the source, click "yes"

(source: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4264823#4264823)

This fix tells where Photoshop is installed to Lightroom, even when Photoshop is not installed. Normally Lightroom checkes if and where Photoshop is installed, if it's not found, in checkes if and where Photoshop elements is installed. When nothing is found, that option won't be available in Lightroom and you can use other programs to edit in. The problem is that when Lightroom don't find Photoshop (Elements), the options to edit in other programs are somehow broken. Now you will see the option to edit your picture in: C:\\Program Files\*** etc. No big deal. But I still hope Adobe will fix this problem soon.

Edit

In Lightroom 4.1, this error has been fixed.

DSLR Guru Lightroom Presets

2012-03-19T22:45:00.000+01:00

This week, DSLR GURU released PROFX Pack for Lightroom (3 and 4). This pack contains a lot of presets for global and local adjustments.

The presets contain 125 presets for adjusting the picture like contrast, vignette etc. Also a bunch of cross process presets are available. Last 12 presets for film Emulation.

You can find them on: www.dslr-guru.com (with a very low introductory offer til 31-3-2012).

But even for a very low price. Is it worth the money?

First off all. This is not a software package, but a package of 'setting files' for Lightroom. Most presets do the same as adjusting one slider (like contrast + or vignette +). I think these presets are nearly useless. But they have one advantage. When hovering these presets with your mouse, you can see the results in the Navigator. That's much more easy than adjusting a slider, and see the changes.

But there are some nice presets also. The film presets give a great look and do a great job. Also presets for sepia, B+W and cross processing can be very handy. I think these presets are great to play with, and could you give results which need a lot of effort to achieve, when setting everything manually. The ...Autotone preset does a great job.

Especially the introduction price is very low, and worth the money.

Image processing software comparison

2012-03-15T22:44:00.002+01:00

Introduction

Last months, many RAW converters has get updated. I reviewed a couple of them, but how do they compare?

In this comparison I will compare four RAW converters. Corel Aftershot Pro 1, DXO Optics Pro 7, Adobe Lightroom 4 and Cyberlink Photodirector 3. Aftershot Pro has version 1, but is the new version of Bibble which has ben acquired by Corel. The youngest piece of software is Photodirector 3. Version 1 was released half 2011.

Features

I made a ranking of the most used features.

Lightroom is the winner. The others are close, but there are some big differences when looking at the categories. DXO does a great job for the editing, but loses for exporting and other functions like importing, photo book, etc.

Image Quality

To compare the image quality, I used the next 8 images:

Original pictures (RAW- jpeg without adjustments in Lightroom)

As you can see some images are to dark, to much dynamic range and as last a high iso noise image with a very difficult white balance.

To compare the images fairly, click on them to open them in higher resolution. When reducing the image size, sometimes strange things happen to details and colors.

Image quality: exposure and color

Round 1: automation

In this first round, I set all software in auto, as much as possible. Aftershot Pro has no auto white balance, so I selected the white balance with the droplet.

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector

As you can see, all programs do a good job, except DXO. The image is way to dark. Lightroom and Aftershot Pro have the best colors, Photodirector makes the image to red. Lightroom has the best skin tones.

winner: Lightroom

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

The difficult job. DXO has the colors as best, but is to dark. Photodirector has no auto noise removal, so all noise is still there. Aftershot Pro has very nice colors, but is a little redish. After all, DXO has got the colors most natural.

winner: DXO

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector

This picture has a difficulty with the contrast. The black eyes and mouth vs. the hair. In this one, DXO and Aftershot Pro are to dark. Photodirector is lacking contrast in the final result. Lightroom got it all right in the auto mode.

winner: Lightroom

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

Again a picture with some bad shadows. Only Lightroom got the exposure and contrast right, but the auto White balance is a little bit to warm. I really like the colors in the DXO version, but the shadows are to dark. The same story for Aftershot Pro. In Photodirector, the white balance was a little bit to cool.

winner: Draw

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

This cute little lamb is walking in a green landscape. Aftershot Pro and Lightroom did a great job and Aftershot gives the colors a little bit more saturation. DXO has the right white balance, but the contrast and saturation are a little bit to low. Photodirector fails with the wrong colors.

winner: Aftershot Pro

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

This picture is a little bit to light. How well do the programs fix that in auto mode? Aftershot Pro renders a colorful and sharp picture. The contrast is also good, but same of the details in the highlights are lost. Only Lightroom has recovered all the details in the highlights, but the overall image is to dark. DXO is very good, but the colors are a little bit to much. Photodirector has to cool colors and is lacking black tones.

winner: Aftershot Pro

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

A very difficult picture. A under exposed animal, with details in the highlights. Photodirector got the exposure right, but the white balance is to cool. Lightroom is to warm and DXO and Aftershot to dark. After all, this one don't deserve a winner. Aftershot Pro is the loser, because of the exposure is way to dark.

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

In This picture, there are some difficult contrast and colors. But all software did a good job. Lightroom and DXO gives the most natural colors, while Aftershot Pro is a little bit to warm and Photodirector a little bit to cool. Lightroom got the exposure best, but with a very small difference.

winner: Lightroom

Overal winner for automation is Lightroom. DXO and Aftershot Pro did also a very good job, but DXO sometimes do strange thinks to the exposure and Aftershot Pro is lacking the auto white balance.. Photodirector is falling behind.

Round 2: full control

In this round I will compare the quality of the images after manual settings. For each picture I would take more than 1 minute to do the tweaking. I used all software for several hours before doing this test. DXO was in lead, because I used it before for 1 year. (but is still strange to use)

The draws like the autoexposure in DXO or the wrong whitebalance in Photodirector can be fixed now, so it's all about the quality the software can get out of the image. I didn't tweak the color settings, other than white balance.

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector

When setting up manually, the differences are not that big. Lightroom still has the best result. The skin tones are very real, as is the color of the hair. In DXO, it's very hard to get the right tones and contrast.

winner: Lightroom

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

In this picture with yellow light from the left, and some blue light from my computer screen from the right, it was very hard to get the colors right. The manual white balance picker was doing a very good job in Lightroom and DXO. Strange enough didn't the colors be the same when selecting the same area (right, on the paper with the C1000 logo) with Aftershot Pro and Photodirector. I didn't get the colors right after all. DXO was best in removing the noise.

winner: DXO

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector

This picture wasn't a big deal for all of the software. DXO is a little bit grey and Aftershot Pro a little bit yellow (the picker was used on the same spot in the images). Lightroom has the most natural colors after all.

winner: Lightroom

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

In this picture, the contrast was a bit difficult. But after manual settings, the contrast can be adjusted very well. Lightroom renders the grass a little bit yellow, but gives a nice picture. DXO has the most natural colors. Photodirector renders some blue in the sky after adjusting the contrast and exposure (which was a very difficult job with Photodirector.

winner: DXO

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

This picture is no problem for all of the programs. The colors are right (even with Photodirector). The differences are because of different settings.

winner: draw

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

The exposure in this picture was very hard to correct. Except Lightroom, it seems impossible to adjust the highlights, without changing the blacks. But after all, Lightroom and Aftershot Pro (with a lot more effort) got nearly the same result. With the strange HDR module of DXO it was hard to get the contrast right, so the bird is a little bit to black for my taste. Photodirector couldn't correct right, and in the highlights, some strange yellow colors appears.

winner: Aftershot Pro and Lightroom

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

In this picture, you can see how much you can gain with a RAW file. Only Lightroom got it all right. The branches are all there, and the bear is not to dark.

winner Lightroom

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

In this picture, it was very hard to get the shadow in the eyes removed. Lightroom and Aftershot Pro got the exposure right. DXO is to dark, while Photodirector is to light after all.

winner: Aftershot Pro and Lightroom

Winner after all is Lightroom. Some pictures were ready after 20 seconds! It's so easy to set everything. Natural colors are easy to achieve. And the control of the contrast is stunning. Aftershot Pro is second. It was difficult to set the right white balance, but after some experimenting, I could get it right and the image quality is very high. DXO is third. Colors are good, but contrast and exposure are hard to get right. Photodirector is last. Exposure is good, but white balance is still hard to get right, and the picker is sometimes not working at all.

Image quality: details

The image quality is not only exposure and color. Also the details are important. Comparing the auto settings is not fair because that don't show the capabilities of the software. Only DXO and Lightroom do auto noise reduction and DXO automatically changes the details of the picture when the lens profile is available.

Round 1: highlights and shadows

To compare the programs I used the next image:

Origineel (RAW - jpeg without changing settings.

The exposure is way to dark, but there are still some highlights. In this test I will test the quality of noise reduction, the recovery of details from the shadows and highlights and the reduction of the chromatic aberrations.

Aftershot Pro

In Aftershot Pro, I couldn't lighten the shadow very much without blowing the highlights. The shadows stay to dark.

DXO Optics Pro

DXO does a great job in recovering the details from the shadows and highlights. But the tree in the background has some strange black leaves.

Lightroom

Lightroom does a great job. The shadow and highlight details are all recovered, while the colors are realistic.

Photodirector

Photodirector got the details from the shadows and highlights, but the picture looks strange. Much noise is still left. The colors are muted.

winner: Lightroom.

Lightroom is the only software which can get all information from the RAW file. The colors are very natural, the contrast is great.

Round 2: Chromatic aberrations

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

In this case, Photodirector can be used as the reference, because it has no possibility to reduce chromatic aberrations and purple fringing other than manually changing the saturation of the red/purple/green/etc. color. Aftershot Pro has a manual tool to remove it, which works good, but isn't simple to use. Lightroom has the option to remove CA automatically, and that job is done very well. DXO left a little bit of the red color, but most of it has been removed.

winner: Lightroom

Lightroom removed all the chromatic aberrations, all automatically.

Round 3: Noise reduction

Noise reduction is very important because it makes it possible to shoot with very high iso, or save underexposed images (like the image I'm testing here).

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

For this test, I used the same image. In this picture, you can see that Lightroom removes almost all noise and has the most details.

The next picture has no corrections, except noise reduction.

Aftershot - DXO - Lightroom - Photodirector (UL - UR - LL - LR)

First, Lightroom renders the picture brighter than the other software. But does a great job in reducing noise. DXO removes most noise, but also some color (the saturation drops a little bit).

Aftershot Pro's build in noise reduction is very weak. I used a plugin called Wavelet Denoise. It does a decent job, but leaves some noise and a quite messy picture. Aftershot Pro has the possibility to use Noise Ninja, but than you need to pay extra.

Photodirector does quite a good job, but don't match DXO and Lightroom.

winner: DXO and Lightroom

Speed

Speed is important when using this software for professional photography. Every minute you spend behind your computer is expensive.

These tests are done on a computer with an Intel i7 processor and mid-level graphics.

Speed of use

All four programs works very fast. Aftershot Pro and DXO have some lag when changing the settings. Lightroom and Photodirector works almost without delay.

Zooming is fasted in DXO. When zooming, the pictures are almost instant rendered. Second fastest is Photodirector with a short delay. In Lightroom and Aftershot Pro, zooming takes around half a second. Lightroom zooms in and renders the image afterwards, Aftershot Pro, first renders the image (not visible) and zooms in afterwards.

After all, Aftershot Pro is the slowest, while the other programs are equal in speed when changing the settings and do the adjustments.

Speed of exporting

For this test, I exported the 8 pictures, used for the image quality test. The resolution was not changed and the files where saved as 93% jpeg.

Time in minutes needed for exporting 8 images to jpeg:

Aftershot Pro: 0:15
DXO: 1:02
Lightroom: 1:01
Photodirector: 1:05

Aftershot Pro is by far the fastest when exporting. I think that has the same reason why the speed of use is the slowest. All the images are real-time rendered, and exporting isn't much more than saving the file.

Photodirector is the slowest when exporting.

Time in minutes needed for exporting 1 image to jpeg.

Aftershot Pro: 0:04
DXO: 0:17
Lightroom: 0:06
Photodirector:0:09

In this case the same standing, with DXO being much slower than the others.

Winner: Lightroom

When using the program, Lightroom is running very fast. Because of the 64bits support, it runs without any glitch.

Conclusion

After all, it seems like Lightroom has the most complete package. DXO and Aftershot Pro follow fast and Photodirector is not yet ready to really compete the other programs.

Prices

Lightroom: €129,71

DXO Optics Pro: €149,- / €299,-

Aftershot Pro: €89,-

Photodirector: €139,99

Value

Lightroom is not cheapest but gives best value for you money. DXO and Photodirector are quite expensive considering the lack of functionality to the other two programs. Aftershot Pro is the cheapest, but when you really want to use all features, you need to buy Noise Ninja (another €34).

Does this mean, Lightroom is always the best choise? No, when you don't need al the stuff in Lightroom, but want the RAW converter with the most options to correct your images, DXO may be your choice. If you like the free plugins for Aftershot Pro, it may be your choice, and Photodirector is easy to use and may became a real competitor in the next years.

I hope you liked this review and it helped you to make a good decision which software you will use.

Review Adobe Lightroom 4

2012-03-07T21:47:00.002+01:00

Lightroom has been the benchmarkt for RAW-workflow programs for the last couple of years. The competition has come with several new programs: DXO Optics Pro, Powerdirector, Aftershot Pro, etc. But can Adobe stay on head of them?

for a very good review of all parts I recommend to read the review on dpreview.com. I want to show some of the most interesting changes Adobe has done.

Highlight and shadow recovery

With the new PV2012 it's now very easy to recover colors from the highlights and shadows. In the image below you can see the effect. DXO is known for it's great highlight recovery, but Lightroom beats it!

One click Chromatic Aberration removal

In Lightroom 4 it's very easy to remove chromatic aberrations. You don't need any lens profile order other stuff. The new engine in Lightroom has an algorithm to measure what's real color, and which color should be there. The function is not flawless, but does a great job. In the next example you see what the effect can be. How simple can it be?

Editing Brushes

Ever shot an image with a couple of light sources? It's very difficult to set the right white balance. With the White balance brush it's very easy to fix that problem. What about the next picture?

on the right is the original image with the white balance set to the white snow on the cars on the right. The yellow light of the street on the left is ruining this image. The snow on the building should be white, but is yellow. With the brush I selected the building and adjusted the white balance and the exposure a little bit. The result is great! This trick also works with the graduated filter!

Verdict

My conlusion is that Lightroom is still ahead of other RAW converters. The image quality is the best I've seen, the ease of use with the new sliders is better than ever, and the extra tools make it great to use.

See also the comparison to DOP 7

Adobe Lightroom 4 vs. DXO Optics Pro 7

2012-03-07T20:38:00.002+01:00

One day ago, Adobe released Lightroom 4.0. Two months ago, DXO released DXO Optics Pro 7. These two updates changed a lot in both software. How do they compare?

I'm using DXO Optics Pro for quite a while. I really like the simplicity and results. For landscape and nature photography the build in HDR tools are great. The possibilities to gain details from highlights is unsurpassed. The lack of speed of version 6 has been fixed in version 7.

Is DXO still my favorite, or does Lightroom beat it? That question will I answer on the end. First of all I will compare them.

Features

workflow

Lightroom is still the best workflow tool on the market
Workflow is not the best in DXO. You need a tool like Picassa to do the file management

winner: Lightroom, DXO doens't have real workflow tools

image quality

Lightroom gets very much detail from images, the lens correction is okay, but not very good,
DXO get's a little less details from my images, but the lens correction tools are the best ever seen.

winner: draw.

speed

Lightroom is very fast. When editing the changes are live, even when viewing the whole image. Processing 6 images took 1:01 minutes
DXO is also fast when processing, during the editing, some changes can only be seen at >75% zoom level. Processing 6 images took 1:08 minutes.

winner: Lightroom. The speed of DXO has improved much, but Lightroom is still ahead.

ease of use

Lightroom is very extensive and has many options. But the editing of the images is very easy. When looking around on the internet, many tutorials can be found.
DXO is working a bit different. When not used to it, you will think the image quality is not good. When you understand how it works, it's quite easy to use.

winner: Lightroom. The many options makes a steep learning curve necessary, but after that, it's easy to use.

Price

Lightroom: €130,-
DXO: €149,- to €299,-

winner: Lightroom. When using an entry level camera, the price is about the same, but when using a pro level camera, DXO is much more expensive.

The things I'm really missing in DXO compared to Lightroom:

plugins
lens modules for third party lenses
selective editing brushes
gradient filter
importing images
geo tagging

The thinks I'm really missing in Lightroom compared to DXO

high quality lens modules
sharpening more to the edge of the image, than in the center, to reduce that lens flaw
correcting volume anamorphosis and easily correcting other geometrical problems

As you can see, DXO has more flaws.

But after all, what images can you get with Lightroom en DXO?

Left: Lightroom Right: DXO

All the images have automatic settings for colors. As you can see, Lightroom gives a little bit more vibrant colors and better contrast. Also the details are a little bit better. The noise reductions of Lightroom is a little bit less. DXO sometimes tends to to 'to much' (see the Polar Bear). Highlight recovery is better in Lightroom. With the new process version 2012, I can get details from my image, I didn't even know they where there because Lightroom 3 or even the newest version of DXO didn't get these details from my image. (more details about this). DXO gives more natural colors which I like.

The noise reductions needs some special attention:

again: left Lightroom, right DXO.

As you can see, DXO leaves the image a little bit darker in the standard settings. So, there should be a little bit less noise in the image. In de default setting, Lightroom only removes chroma noise, the luminance noise is not edited at all. That's why you see so much noise in the Lightroom versions.

These last three images show the result when I set the luminance noise reduction manually in Lightroom. Now the pictures are more on par. DXO has removed to much detail by default, but that can be set. The bigger problem is the loss of saturation in DXO. The colors are less vibrant. I think Lightroom has the edge here, because of the less saturated colors in DXO.

Verdict

I think, Lightroom is the better choice if you want the best image quality. The price of Lightroom is better, it has more options, plugins, and better image quality. I used DXO because of it's ability of recovering details from shadows and highlights. But with the new Process Version (PV2012), Lightroom can also do that very well (see the image of the toucan), and even better.

The lens modules of DXO do a great job. The removing of Purple Fringe and chromatic abberations was the strenght of DXO, but Lightroom takes the lead there with version .4.1. The correction for architectural images is better in DXO.

DXO is only a RAW converter with the need of an image organiser like Google Picasa. When you want to use your pictures in more programs, that's my favorite because of the better filesystem integration than Lightroom.

I think Lightroom 4 is the best choice for most people.

Do you think I've overseen something, tell me!

see also the review of 4 RAW converters and this comparison of recovering hightlights

Review Cyberlink Photo Director 3

2012-03-06T13:56:00.005+01:00

Last week, Cyberlink released Photodirector 3. A very fast update, after the first and second version, released end of 2011.

Some new features has been added. The biggest change are the adjustment tools. They make ik possible to adjust specific areas. After all, I think an update is needed, after I made a review for the first Beta version.

The biggest question is: Is Cyberlink Photodirector 3 ready to start beating the competition?

First, let's define the competition: Adobe Lightroom, Corel Aftershot Pro and DXO Optics Pro.

These were the drawbacks of the first Beta version:

The lack of correcting keystoning, crooked images etc.

Fixed. You can manually correct it, with a slider.

The program is crashing to much when having a big library

When testing it last days, no crashes at all

The price is a little bit to high when it will really be $99,95

The price has been even higher.

After all, the drawbacks has been fixed, and should be, because the price is even higher than the new Lightroom 4!

Now let's have a look at the thinks that have changed.

The main features in the software haven't changed much. The biggest change is in the editing tools:

Adjustment Brush

do local adjustments with a brush and auto edge detection.

Gradient Masks

Use up to five masks

The only things changed in the main functions are:

Curves tool

With the curves tool it's very easy do adjust the contrast and exposure of the picture. You easily can see how much correction is possible. the area you can drag the curve to is grey. You can also use the sliders to correct the image.

Lens Correction

Correct distortions such as warping, keystoning or fisheye with adjustment sliders so the image is straightened and natural looking. This is a first step in the right direction. Only the correction of lens faults can't be corrected.

What is lacking in the software is:

Good noise removal. The included tool is not as effective as with the competition.
Auto lens correction. Now you can do something manual, but that's not very effective

But there is some funny new stuff. I don't think it belongs is software like this, but it's an interesting development: Editing tools.

Now you can beatify you whole family (if needed), or remove that nasty aunt from your pictures. The tools you can find in editing:

As you can see, some tools you will find in Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paintshop Pro are added in this workflow program. I really like these extra's, but they come with a price. They are not as complete as in the other programs.

After all I think Photodirector 3 is not on par with the other RAW workflow programs. It's in between Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. The price is the same as Corel Aftershot Pro and Corel Paintshop Pro combined. The easy of use is very good and the image quality at high level, but I don't see a Unique Selling Point to this software.

Image gallery:

auto tone (before and after)

adjustments made as good as possible

noise reduction not very good

people beautifier tool

gradiant mask (after and before)

Long exposure handheld

2012-02-18T11:11:00.003+01:00

Have you ever tried shooting photo's with a shuttertime longer than 1/focal length? Than you know it's hard to get sharp pictures. You get pictures like the one above. And even systems like IS, VR, SR, etc won't always help. A tripod is not always usable. What to do?

On the Pentaxforums is a great article about this. Read it yourselves

New Pentax Lenses

2012-02-08T21:37:00.000+01:00

After the release of the new Pentax lens roadmap, some pictures showed up on the Pentax Japan website

Pentax Da 50 1.8

DA 560 5.6

That looks pretty good! Okay, I think the DA 560 won't fit my budget, but it's great Pentax is closing this gap in it's lineup. The 50 1.8 is also great and will hopefully be around €100 to €150. I don't really need it, because I own a FA 50 1.4, but this lens is great to attract new consumers to Pentax.

Also funny is the adapter to mount K-mount lenses to the Pentax Q.

Update:

Some more pictures

The coldest day of my life!

2012-02-04T20:22:00.002+01:00

Today was the coldest day of my life. This morning it was -20 degrees Celsius. The world today was white, white and white. Yesterday some snow and this night lots of frost.

Also today is World Pentax Day. A great opportunity to shoot some great shots on this important day for Pentax Photographers.

I think a lot of text don't belong in this post, because pictures belong here. View them here, or in my galery

black bird, white bird

Bird CSI

Heavy load 2

Pentax K-01 announced

2012-02-02T20:02:00.000+01:00

Today is a great day for Pentax! A new camera has been announced!

The best is that Pentax didn't release another mirrorless camera, but released the mirrorless camera with the most available lenses! No adapters or other stuff are needed, because this camera uses the some K-mount as the (d)SLR's do since the 1970s.

The design of the camera is done by a industrial designer. I think you love it, or you hate it (and i do both).

To know everything about the design, see this video:

And to see the camera in the first Hands-on video available (lucky guys)...

The most fun about this camera is the fact everybody has an opinion about it. This camera leaves an impression everybody who has seen it! That's something you can't say about every camera.

I hope this is the first step of Pentax new life after they have been bought by Ricoh. And I think the signs are great.

Critique

After (and even before) this camera was announced, critique came up. No EVF/OVF, no this, no that etc. But I don't agree with that critique. I understand all the complaints about a ovf/evf, but in reality, it's not a big problem. I've worked in a camerastore for a couple of years. And I hardly sold external evf for m4/3. The NEX were popular, and they haven't a evf, but a 16:9 screen which is for photo pretty small, but no complaints at all. The rear screen isn't articulated, but that would have made the camera even bigger.

I think if you really want to look through a viewfinder, buy a dSLR. Many people use compact camera's and even their phones. They don't offer an EVF/OVF. Pentax wants to serve these people with this camera. Not only the camera enthusiast. I hope Pentax will expand the K-0* line and offer a cheaper version, and a high-end version with weahtersealing etc. And yes a EVF would than be great, but in this first step, I don't know why it's needed because of the difference with a dSLR is not that big.

Pro's

After all the critique, I think it's time to view the advantages. First of all the video mode. Do we all remember how much the Canon 5D MKII is loved because of it's video function? This camera is the next step. You can adjust all settings like a pro camera. Shutterspeed, Aperture, Gain, mic, etc. An external mic is also possible. Another great feature is the focus peaking. That's very useful when manual focussing during video. That's a function I'm really missing with my K-5. This camera has AF during video, that's what dSLR's are missing (or it's not uasable because of the quality of that AF).

The other advantage is the build quality. The used materials are great. This camera is build for everyday use. Okay, no Weather sealing I hoped for, but after all, this camera is build very well. Even the flash is build in aluminium. And there's a build in flash like one of a dSLR.

And after all, this camera will be one of the csc's with the best image quality. It should be even better than the Pentax K-5, which is, in terms of image quality, the beste APS-C camera on the marked. Combined with some of the Pentax limited primes, this camera will help you to achieve your photographic goals.

Conclusion

I think this camera has a lot of potential. Pentax has a great line-up with the Q, K-01 and the K-5. I hope Pentax will stay self-opinionated and don't copy other camera's.

Pentax new lens roadmap

2012-02-02T20:01:00.002+01:00

Today a new lens roadmap has been released by Pentax. Within the next two years* eight new lenses will be released (including a new teleconverter).

source: Pentax Imaging

It's great to see that a "500-600 mm prime" will be released this year and next year a "100-400mm" zoom. Also a teleconverter, a new DA* zoom like 16-80 will be released. Also a new 50mm (50 1.7?), a new superzoom (18-200?), a limited zoom (20-35?) and a wide zoom (12-24?) will be released. The biggest step would be the tele-lenses. Now Pentax is lacking everything above 300mm.

This is a great sign Pentax will regain it's position in the camera marked!

*the lenses for 2013 could be delayed as shown at the bottom of the roadmap.

Review of Google Picasa

2012-02-01T21:15:00.000+01:00

1. IntroductionGoogle Picasa is a popular photo and video program. You can use it for management and editing of your files. I really love Picasa.
Why? Now, that's pretty simple. As a big user of Google's services (including this blog) the program integrates perfectly with all the services. To upload a picture to my online gallery (Google+/Picasaweb) I only need to click on "Add to Google+" and select the album. To post pictures on this blog, I can select Blogthis! and I can start Blogging.Another big advantage is the easy of use. The photos are ordered according to the folders you create in Windows. But you can also order all those folders by date, size or name. Many other programs (Adobe, Corel, etc) have library independent of your folder structure and when you delete photos from your hard drive, the library can get broken.

In addition, the face detection works very well and is linked directly to your Gmail address book. When someone calls me on my Android phone now I see that photo.

These are the main reasons why I've chosen Google Picasa.

2. Interface

The most important of a management program is the interface, how does it look, how easy is the program to use?2.1 OverviewPicasa looks like this:

It is clear that to the left the folder structure can be seen, and to the right the pictures in that folders. At the bottom left you can see which photos are selected. On the bottom you can see fast links for Email, Print, etc. In addition, two buttons to rotate the pictures and also one to add a star to a picture. On the far right a scroll bar to zoom in on photos, and four buttons for information about the photo display (people, places, tags, exif)Top right is the login to Google services (such as on the websites of Google). There's also a search box to search through the photos. Next is a circle that can indicate the progress of processes.

Top left the familiar menus as with nearly all Windows programs.

2.2 Edit view

When you double-click on one of the images, Picasa will open the edit mode. The big picture comes into view. At the bottom of the window remains the same. The menu on the left is a menu of operations. For the operations there are five tabs: Basic Fixes, Tuning, and Effects (3x). Below is the histogram showing the exif details. In the top center is a film strip to see the images in that folder so you can reach the next and previous image fast.Right click on the picture and a menu opens with more options.

3. Editing

Editing in Picasa is very basic. Do not expect many layers and 'photoshopping', but just minor adjustments and creative filters. Exposure can be adjusted, contrast, sharpness, etc. Well worth mentioning is the black / white mode. That is quite extensive for this type of program. There can be filtered by color. I found that very helpful.In addition, the picture easily be straightened and cropped:

The original photo is saved with the edited. This occurs in a hidden folder called Picasaoriginals. This directory is by default not visible in Windows Explorer. The original is retrieved by using the menu: File, select 'Locate on Disk' and then select the original. It is also possible to edit the picture and not save it to the original picture. The edits are saved in a separate file. Also, RAW files can be edited in Picasa. The disadvantage is that Picasa has no noise reduction and advanced tools to do that. Picasa will directly show an optimized version of the RAW file. This makes it difficult to verify that the RAW file itself is good or not. The operations are easy to undo by clicking the appropriate button. However, it is not possible the see the history of edits. The original RAW file is retained. When you save the original key to a hidden folder and save the RAW as JPEG. This is a high quality jpeg.

For editing RAW files I would advice DXO optics pro 7

4. Exporting and importing

Picasa has many options to export the files. First is export to disk. You can set the quality, resolution, stamp, etc. Other options are:

Print
Order print
Google+
E-mail (with Gmail or your default program)

Importing is easy to use. You can select the device you want to import from and start selecting the pictures you want to import. The pictures are imported to a location on your harddrive, which you can select. Folders can be made by date, file date, or import date. It's possible to delete the pictures from the original device after import.

5. Conclusion

Picasa is an easy program with quite a bit under the "hood". Personally, I can work very quickly and easily with the program. The edits are not saved to the original file, so you don't loose data.
Of course there are drawbacks. The processing of RAW files is weak (which is actually in all such programs). Also the import function is very basic and lacks the ability to direcly tag pictures or do some basic fixes like red-eye removalNow a list of all pros and cons. Some points are added not worth mentioning in the long review, but they belong in this list:Pros:

Fast
Simple
Free
Integration with other Google services
Good management
Many options to edit pictures
Color Management
Good help function
Face recognition

Cons:

RAW processing

importing too simple

Of course, the best test is testing it yourselves. Download the program here for free

Pentax interview

2012-01-31T19:16:00.000+01:00

Great news. I can't wait to see what cameras will be released!
Pentax hints at new DSLR camera news - Amateur Photographer - news, camera reviews, lens reviews, camera equipment guides, photography courses, competitions, photography forums

shutter counter

2012-01-30T22:32:00.000+01:00

Do you want to check how many photos you've made with your camera? Check out this tool by Pentaxforums.com: http://www.pentaxforums.com/pages/check-shutter-count-exif.html

My camera has 3716 shots made since I got it.

Corros' Photo Blog

DXO labs Tutorials

Short review of DXO Optics Pro 8

Lightroom 4.1 released

Bugs Corrected in Lightroom 4.1

Known Issues in Lightroom 4.1:

Highlight recovery, Lightroom vs. DXO

DXO Optics Pro 7.5 released

Review Kata Bumblebee Ul-222

DxO Optics Pro v7.2.3 released

Fighting Swans

Blue Hour shots

SNS-HDR Lightroom Plugin

New Pentax Prices in the USA

Lightroom 4 edit in error fix

DSLR Guru Lightroom Presets

Image processing software comparison

Review Adobe Lightroom 4

Adobe Lightroom 4 vs. DXO Optics Pro 7

Review Cyberlink Photo Director 3

Lens Correction Correct distortions such as warping, keystoning or fisheye with adjustment sliders so the image is straightened and natural looking. This is a first step in the right direction. Only the correction of lens faults can't be corrected.

Long exposure handheld

New Pentax Lenses

The coldest day of my life!

Pentax K-01 announced

Pentax new lens roadmap

Review of Google Picasa

Pentax interview

shutter counter

Lens Correction

Correct distortions such as warping, keystoning or fisheye with adjustment sliders so the image is straightened and natural looking. This is a first step in the right direction. Only the correction of lens faults can't be corrected.