Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u

v2016.152   Jun 3, 2016

Priority: Med

v2016.152 includes:

• Raw photo update: Support for many new camera models.
• ODR: New optimal dynamic range feature automatically balances dynamic range, brightening dark shadows while maintaining highlights (see the video: https://youtu.be/3WxfITitP88 (https://youtu.be/3WxfITitP88)).
• Fixes: Minor fixes based on customer feedback.

Mike

Wow, I find this a wonderful tool.
Mike's video showed an extreme image with sky vs foreground.
I just wanted to post 2 samples of one ordinary shot that improves dramatically, and one poor shot that jumps at you and  can be saved nicely without a lot of tweaky weaky.
You can still do all the tweaking you like, but it saved me the task of adjusting the exposure.
ODR did it for me with a click.

Its' fun and accurate.
Fred

Thanks Fred.  Thought I'd post an example too.  For some less challenging images, you may be able to match ODR with just the right "hit" of fill+HDR but the beauty of ODR is that you don't have to figure out those settings as many times, it just works.  Also, ODR is able to go beyond fill+HDR on the more challenging images.  ODR can often beat any combination of fill+HDR on images like sunrises, sunsets, and other sky exposures.  Take this one for example.  Some of the darker clouds are so close to areas on the ground that fill+HDR has a difficult time distinguishing the two and you can't really get good brightness on the ground without affecting detail in the darker clouds.  ODR does a better job, and... automatically.

Interesting side note: I had to compress the ODR version more to get it posted here under the size limit.  The ODR version had more detail and resulted in a bigger file: as you would expect, because ODR pulls out the maximum detail possible.

Fill+HDR left/ODR right
(http://ddisoftware.com/tech/qimage-ultimate/v2016-152-issuescomments/?action=dlattach;attach=7290;image) (http://ddisoftware.com/tech/qimage-ultimate/v2016-152-issuescomments/?action=dlattach;attach=7292;image)

Mike

Another example.  Best I can do with fill+HDR versus ODR only...

Fill+HDR on left/ODR only on right
(http://ddisoftware.com/tech/qimage-ultimate/v2016-152-issuescomments/?action=dlattach;attach=7294;image) (http://ddisoftware.com/tech/qimage-ultimate/v2016-152-issuescomments/?action=dlattach;attach=7296;image)

Mike

Greetings Fred,

Good to see you working with some top class files!!

Greetings from HRH who had a lovely party last weekend. Said she missed you!

Tony

Thanks, Tony.
Those shots were taken by a first class Photographer

Thank HRH for me. I still remember her as a teenager. (really)

Stay well,
Fred

Is there a plan to include a tick for ODR in RAW Format Options?

I realise this would not activate the Focus - but it would make ODR work on every image until removed.

Or maybe you think think this is a bad method of working?

Tony

Tony,
As long as you put it that way, yes, this is not the way to use ODR in auto mode.
I worked with Mike during the development stages and it became obvious that to wring out the best from each image, you should zero the Fill, find any hot spots and box them with a magenta rectangle, Check ODR, and now fine tune the detail area you wish to improve by drawing a yellow box around it.

If you want more cloud detail, you yellow box the sky. If you want more facial or  foreground, you yellow box that area.
The trick is; and here you must practice, to be able to envelop two or three areas that you might want to improve, with your yellow box.
Think % of the yellow box. If you draw a yellow box around a too bright area and a too dark area, with half the yellow box covering some dark and some light.... nothing will change
So you have to manipulate the yellow box and place it so it adds detail in the area that you need.
You can put the yellow box over, inside, outside of the magenta box. They are independent.

.
Look at the screen snao, just to show what I mean
Magenta box is boxing in a hot cloud.
Yellow (by trial and error) is drawn so it has some sky, some green grass, some dark pebbles of teh foreground too.
Percentage!!!   It will prioritize the emphasis on providing detail based on teh percentage of how much of the yellow box is over what area.

Last.. It is a tool.   It is not necessarily going to dramatically improve every image.

Hard to do this in words... If it would help, be happy to make a video for you to illustrate the subtleties of the yellow box.

Fred

Thanks Fred,

You know Me. Batchman Tony.

I cull to get my potentials. I apply a filter to add some sharpening and contrast. I then convert to 85% jpg. It takes a while as it is still building thumbs and caches so I make a cup of coffee.

I then work through my jpgs, deleting the ones that are not good enough and I re-do them probably just fiddling with the RAW. By then I have probably got 95% useable and the final 5% I do, probably with Edit. I do a final scan and that probably flushes out the odd shot that is not as good as the rest.

Not the way you'd like me to work....

But I have seen the videos of ODR and I reckon I know how to place the magenta and yellow boxes. It is great. I tried on a few shots I'd done with the sliders and, yes, it generally does it better. I tried it on those shots I sent you of the actor, David Haig, at the table and where I had a noise problem. The tones were far better.

Brilliant.

Tony