Leisure Suit Moose wrote:
> As I don't work, I can waste some of the time saved on techie reading,
> testing and pontificating. :-)
While I don't have the same privilege, I was able to "multi-task" and
wrote my treatise on a conference call that was sucking braincells out
of my ears.
I do want to address one thing that Moose wrote about sharpening and
diffraction "recovery". While using fancy sharpening tools, such as
those found in NIK and other packages, the lowly sharpener in
Lightroom is now advanced enough to get you most of the way
there--possibly enough to avoid chasing rainbows with expensive
packages. However, what works on some files won't work on others.
The E-1 is a good example of altered settings (altered reality?). One
of the tricks of the trade with that camera is to set the radius of a
USM-based sharpener to 0.6 (give or take) pixels. This will usually
correct for the raw converter and will also address diffraction that
spreads across a couple of pixels. The caution with this type of
sharpening--especially with the E-1, is causing pixel-level clipping
that creates an increase in noise that just doesn't look right. PWP's
sharpening algorithm does a better job with E-1 files than anything
else out there, but the latest/greatest version of Lightroom is now
pretty close AND has better threshold adjustment. That said, if I do
the 0.6 setting with 6D files, things can go wonky in a hurry--it's
better to keep that at 1.0 pixel and make up for it with the output
sharpener.
I've been reprocessing "ancient" image files from the E-1 for stock
uploads. If I were to estimate apparent resolution increase, I'm
getting at least 50% more detail out of the images than I was only a
year ago. I've gone back and revisited hundreds of images and applied
new software and "mental firmware" to and it's like I shot them with
an entirely different camera.
To reinforce another Moose'D'Point, though, it's ONLY because I shot
RAW that I'm able to revisit them and reconvert.
AG (slightly sharper, but older) Schnozz
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