RAW converter for K5

I purchased a decent scanner for my medium format film system about half a year ago. After spending much time on learning how to use my scanner, I am getting quite pleasing results. When I watch the scanned film on my screen, there is a special acutance/contrast, natural colour and richness that I like.

The problem now is that I am enjoying the images form my K5 and K20D less. The digital images lack something in general character, compared to medium format film. I have started to think that maybe I should do some research on RAW converters, since I shoot exclusively RAW. My RAW files are converted in the Apple Aperture editor, where there is a K5 preset.

Do any of you use the original Pentax software that comes with the camera, for RAW conversion? Are there other RAW convertors that have fundamentally different (i.e different demosaicing algorithm) from Aperture that would be worth while to check out?

I am grateful for any advice!

Bjørn

Pentax Digital Camera Utility produces very high quality basic RAW conversions. It has a reputation for not being intuitive, but that is based mostly on misunderstanding of it IMO, and I have tried to correct that on this forum and promote understanding of it. The key difference between PDCU and other more common RAW converter software is that it presents the editing controls in the form of panels that mimic the on-camera menu controls (Eg the custom image settings, DR expansion such as highlight adjust / shadow correction), lens corrections etc.)

So it doesn't look like a 'normal' editor, something like Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW, which have the key controls laid out together and you move sort of from top to bottom.

PDCU then is ideal if you already take control over you shots on the camera by setting the custom image parameters and use the shadow / lens NR corrections, and you want even more control of the same things and even higher quality output. The JPEGs from the camera are of course 8it (as is the TIFF output) - but from PDCU you can get a glorious 16bit TIFF and much more fine control.

Limitations? It does not offer selections, or 'adjustment brush' type selective editing - you work on the whole shot, just as you do on the camera. I have a mini guide and a suggested workflow for the software up on the general photography forum as a sticky subject if you want to read more about it.

You are going to be told to use Lightroom, as it is very popular. There are alternatives though, some very good. RAW Therapee is very powerful and offers batch processing, is free, but takes quite a while to process each shot, maybe a minute or so after you hit 'process'.

My first choice is the extraordinary Sagelight 4.0, very reasonable and offering an enormous amount. Heres the site ... link

It is very quick, and offers quite a unique and intelligent approach to adjustments by combining common processes into one dedicated slider, (eg fill shadows slider includes radio buttons to activate 'add low tone contrast', 'wider' as you go - a sort of auto curves control but with the user in charge. It uses a hidden layers principal, ie you don't actually create layers yourself, the program builds up your work in auto layers, allowing easy rubbing back' with an undo brush or restore button. So selections are not needed. You can commit at any time with the 'apply' button and this effectively flattens your hidden layers and resets your controls to add more if needed.

Thats my promotion out the way! I strongly recommend it and if you would like any pointers of tips then I'd be only too happy

As you shoot a lot of low-light stuff, I'd seriously consider DXO Optics Pro 9, it will give you an extra couple of stops in noise-reduction compared to anything else.

You can't rate or compare NR effectiveness on software in 'stops' as a fixed amount quantifiable. NR effectiveness comes down to so many variables - what you start with being most important, but also level of skill and experience of each user. This can be developed, you just need to commit to something. You get more NR by applying more of it .... its the level of fine control over the mixture of NR elements (eg yellow colour, luminance, blue) etc that matters most, and you find this control in different ways. PS users have the benefit of full selective & layer control for, say if using a plug-in like Topaz DeNoise. You wouldn't just whack on the whole lot onto the background image, it would be targeted and finely controlled ideally.

There's a case to be made for not 'exporting' much NR from your RAW - unless you expect to be achieving a near 'finished' product from the RAW converter then it may be better to leave the balance of noise, sharpening and other detailing work to the end of a workflow.

Thank you both for valuable advice! I guess the best thing for me is to try out different RAW converter options, and DXO Optics Pro 9 and the orginal Pentax software is a good place to start.

Don't forget Sagelight Oh, there's another one I remember, thats got 'light' in the name as well ... light.something??? Oh, never mind, probably nothing.

Lightzone, that's it. Not bad either!

Hi Bjorn,

I think scanned film has a different character to digital images, with both strengths and weaknesses on each side. Don't get hung up on the demosaicing algorithm used - that can be important with specific 'difficult' patterns in the image but doesn't determine the overall look and feel of that image. And most decent RAW converters are going to give you a choice of different demosaic methods anyway.

Different RAW converters do give different results and provide different user interfaces and so are worth trying to find out which ones you like working with. As well as Greg's recommendation for Lightzone I can also recommend RawTherapee and Darktable from the world of free open source software. Those three are in ascending order of both power and complexity of use. All of them are capable of providing such a wide range of final output that what you actually do with them will I think determine the look of your image more than any fundamental difference between the products.

As far as I'm concerned, if one type of noise-reduction enables me to get the same results as I would with an image taken at two stops less ISO processed with another application, then I am getting two stops from noise-reduction, whatever anyone else wants to call it.

Bjørn, one thing I should mention about DXO Optics Pro is it doesn't have the ability to use a grad filter, which is why I use it in conjunction with Lightroom. However, the Prime noise reduction engine works far better (two or more stops, Nigel :wink than Lightroom's NR. It also has a number of very good controls (smart lighting being my favourite) which are incredibly good. You can download a 30 day free trial, so it's worth experimenting with.

Jon, your 'two stops' may well be a way of internalising the differences for an individual, but it can't be a serious measurement between a range of programmes and a range of user experience. How do we know that another photographer could not start out on the same shot with different software and achieve demonstratably superiour results? Unless you have a noise reduction processing shootout!

Bjorn, Sagelight includes a 'Smart Light' panel, with superb control over highlights, shadow recovery and contrast. You alternate between a strength and range control (strength is like a layer opacity setting, range adjusts the 'coverage' of the adjustment). You will be amazed at the power of shadow recovery - I am, and I've got a K7!

There is a great polariser filter as well as an excellent ND grad panel with control over angle, softness and opacity. Well worth a try!

Thank you for even more suggestions about different RAW converters!

Jon: The DXO Optics Pro free trial sounds like a good thing to check out. Thanks for pointing this out!

Nigel, it's not just me, here's a quote from DXO's website...
"DxO Optics Pro 9 offers a gain in image quality of up to one full stop over the best noise reduction algorithms currently on the market."
My own experiments show it to give +/-two stops over LR.

No problem, Bjorn, hope you find the program you want!

The power of marketing! Jon, no reason to doubt your judgements at all But if you're ever up for that shootout ....

Any time....could be an interesting experiment.