Interesting example. After seeing that, I tried a similar image of tree branches against a blown (?) sky. RawDigger showed the RAW to be blown in green and blue channels.

Although the difference was not quite so clear as in your example, ACR6.2 did rather better than RawTherapee V4.0 in recovering the sky and detail of the branches.

Andrew

I remember that you recommended in another thread that I should look at Rawdigger. I did and discovered that some image highlights were indeed clipped in the RAW, even though ACR seemed to have recovered them unclipped.

I "think" that Rawdigger shows the truth. ACR seems to be able to model levels in a clipped channel from data in an unclipped channel and appear to recover unclipped highlights. While this seemingly works well, I "think" it could result in a colour shift in the recovered highlight - though it might not be noticeable.

Andrew

Providing the scene is pretty average, this works well in PS Elements .....

* Open the image, select and copy to clipboard
* File/New/Image From Clipboard
* For the new image, Filter/Blur/Average (or whatever does the same in your editor of choice)
* Click on the original copy
* Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Levels then select the middle (grey) dropper tool
* Click once in the second averaged copy

The original copy should now have the colour cast removed. It is a lot easier than it looks and only takes a few seconds.

Processed as above, your second image looks like this .... not perfect, but quite a bit better.



Andrew

I have RawTherapee installed and have used it occasionally, but not recently for it's primary purpose. I usually use Photoshop Elements 8 (ACR6.2) for RAW conversion and editing - as it seems to produce results that are just as good and with less effort. Having said that, RawTherapee is a complex and powerful application that I have yet to get to grips with properly. It has a long, steep learning curve that I have not yet fully scaled, so I'm sure there is more to come. Maybe it'll become my fave RAW converter in time.

Unlike PSE, Rawtherapee will open an image, allow me to convert the output profile from sRGB to DSCL's profile for lustre paper and their Fuji printers and resave as a JPEG in only a few key presses/mouse clicks. Photoshop CS6 would let me do the same easily, but PSE can only convert from sRGB to Adobe RBG and back.

Andrew

+1 for the Dell 2209WA

A bit (lot) bright out of the box, but wonderful once calibrated. It also holds its calibration well.

Andrew

Thanks for that. Problem "solved" ......

I've just bought a DA 35mm f/2.4 from SRS, so I don't think I need a 28mm any more.

Andrew

The PKA version of the Komine made Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 Close Focus should probably be on the list too. I have heard that it's not so hot wide open - and the 'A' version seems quite rare - I don't think I've seen any recently on Fleabay.

Andrew

You've probably guessed that the thread title *should* have been "Best bet for ....".

Finger trouble!!

I rather like 28mm as a focal length for a walkabout lens. I have a 24mm prime which feels a bit wide (Sigma Superwide II) and a 50mm f/1.7 (Pentax M) which feels a bit long. I do have a Chinon 28mm f/2.8 which is nice and sharp from f/5.6 upwards, but is pretty soft wide open and I've rather taken to 'A' lenses recently - so I'm looking for something to replace it.

The lenses I've been pondering about are .......

Pentax SMC A 28mm f/2.8
RMC Tokina II 28mm f/2.8
Sigma 28mm f/2.8 Mini Wide II

From research on the web, my guess is that the Tokina and Sigma lenses are at least as good as the Pentax - and can usually be had for well less than half the price.

What do you folks reckon is the best bet? (or should I just leave the 18-55mm ALII kit lens on my K30 and forget about old 28mm primes).

Andrew

To try out a utility called Rawdigger, I've just taken a whole ruck of photos of a white sheet of paper, starting at the exposure as metered and increasing by one third of a stop, all the way up to four stops overexposed. According to Rawdigger, no clipping took place in any RAW channel until the exposure reached +2.66 stops.

Spot metering the brightest highlights and opening up two stops is the strategy that I've used for quite a while for contrasty scenes - and, according to Rawdigger, it seems to still give about 0.66 stops headroom before any clipping takes place. If the highlights are some bright colour with no detail you need (or want) to record, then you might be able to push it even further than +2EV without detriment to the resulting image.

Andrew

Andrew