Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] This year's Snowy Owl Prowl

Subject: Re: [OM] This year's Snowy Owl Prowl
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2020 10:24:47 -0800
On 2/7/2020 4:43 AM, Wayne Shumaker wrote:
It is a nice shot. I have never been to Crane's beach in the winter, only 
summer, even during the 35 years I lived in MA. Now in AZ, I'll have to put it 
on my list when I visit MA. May have to find my mud boots though. Are snowy 
owls found in Glouster or Rockport, or the Cape?

I do see, at 100%, a lot of camera processing artificers. I don't see any 
mis-focus or motion blur. It would have been interesting to see what -2EV ISO 
invariance would do to change the camera processing. But how much time did you 
actually have to make that kind of decision?

I don't know if any of the Topaz AI tools could sharpen it up a bit?

Hmmm, I had the same question. Thinking most folks here wouldn't view large, and that I do natter on about post processing details, and minutia, a lot already, I only replied to Mike:
=============
It seems you hit a Perfect Storm, with an image file that neither DxO Prime NR nor AI Gigapixel get along well with. <http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Usher/SnowyOwl.htm>

No matter what I did with settings, at least while still reducing noise, DxO 
Prime NR generated lots of artifacts.

Topaz Denoise did a much nicer, cleaner job, a light application of Topaz Stabilize sharpened, sans new artifacts. With normal processing, in this case, LCE, Levels and Curves, there are some artifacts, if one looks for them, but overall, quite nice, at original size.

Uprez, and the combo of DxO PNR and AI Gigapixel is pretty bad. Topaz Denoise fares much better. But, unusually, it has more artifacts than simply using the PS Resize tool with Auto choice of method.

Add levels and curves, anything to increase tonal differentiation, and the artifacts that are already there become more obvious.

A case where original size makes a nice photo.
=============

Although it's probably only us Digital Darkroom nuts who have noticed, we've slithered into a new world, where the intended purpose of a program/tool/plug-in may not be all it does; where the "best" application often depends on the file being worked on far more often than in the past, and so on.

Example: Topaz Denoise AI was trained to reduce noise. In many cases, it does that magically well, up to medium ISOs. But it also does something else, perhaps as an unintended consequence of its training diet. Used on a base ISO file, with sharpening set to zero, and Recover Details set to 5-10, it often/usually does a wonderful job of bringing out fine detail, with a side effect of brightening a little.

Example, from above: AI Gigapixel is another AI program that often works pure magic. Yet in the Owl photo of Mike's, it's not as good at 200% as PS's own Image=>Image size=>Resample, Automatic. Look at the sample closely; GigaP has generated more artifacts, esp. around the grass.

Example: FocusMagic generally does a better job, quicker, of post downsampling resharpening for web sizes than any of the options in Topaz Sharpen AI.

Don't get me wrong, I consider the Topaz AI stuff to have raised my processing to a new level, and would hate to be without them. But, unlike programs written by coders, there are side effects of the training examples from which they "learned" that have nothing to do with the intended purpose, some good, other not so much.

I do wish they ran faster, though. With some photos, I end up trying both options in Denoise AI, with various settings, and/or all three options in Sharpen AI. My processing is slower as a result. The results make it worthwhile, to me, but it can be tedious at times. I added a top end-ish GPU, which helps a lot, but . . .

Deep AI Moose

Here in AZ I have the occasional horned owl on my roof hooting into the 
bathroom vent. No snowy owls here in the desert.

Good you respect their habitat. Here, if one startles a desert turtle, or tries 
to move it out of the way, it might urinate and then dehydrate and die.

So, carry lettuce for hydration?

Let Us Moose

--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz