Really Nice Looking Lens Modules of DxO Optics 8

[Greg Chappell]

This evening I decided to download the free trial of DxO Optics 8 and see for myself how their lens profiles for Micro Four-Thirds lenses, specifically the 9-18 M. Zuiko worked.

Turns out, it works very well. Actually, several things looked very nice. Default settings pop up excellent-looking images with no effort, it takes little to dial in what few corrections I wanted to make, and the lens profiles are really, really good. ACR utilizes the in-file coded corrections, but many are not 100% corrected, especially the wider you go. DxO does away with the in-camera corrections, applies its' own unique profile, and the profiles are superb.

The program is slower to work compared to Photoshop and ACR and it took me a while working with the output settings to work out what I'd like, but I certainly like what I'm seeing thus far..

9-18 M. Zuiko..









The 14-150 M. Zuiko, zoomed to 150mm..



And then zoomed back to 14mm..



The 12-50 M. Zuiko, zoomed to 50mm..



The 12mm f2 M. Zuiko..

[boBBrennan]

Dang, looks terrific for the little 9-18 and I like how the 12-50 files look too.

I noticed recently that ASPro (which I use) now recognizes most all the Zuiko 43 lenses on the P3, and does profile corrections for them with tweaking if wanted. In the beginning no, but now pretty good.
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Hey...... will you bring your Rokinon 7.5 Saturday, it might be fun from a few angles.

[Greg Chappell]

Sure, the Rokinon was actually the lens I had in mind regarding an image with the show and lit stadium.

[SammyKhalifa]

As much as I like Lightroom it does not seem to come with lens profiles for any of our cameras or lenses (or I don't understand how to get them, haha).

[boBBrennan]

Greg, from what I hear about the RIT "Big Shot" is that all lights at the stadium and street lights around it will be shut off AND the stadium will be lit from the west and southwest sides of the stadium... if that is the case we won't see it from the park.

Too, RIT is saying the project can take from 2-to-3 hours for them to do it.

[James Emory]

Great shots Greg, as usual.

[Greg Chappell]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

As much as I like Lightroom it does not seem to come with lens profiles for any of our cameras or lenses (or I don't understand how to get them, haha).

Lightroom and Photoshop both use the same raw processor. With Photoshop you go into the Camera RAW window. In Lightroom the same program is called the processing window.

Adobe does not create lens profiles for micro four-thirds lenses. That's why you do not see them. There are no Adobe profiles. The raw files themselves have the correction data embedded. The cameras themselves use this data if you are shooting JPEG to make the distortion corrections. Adobe uses the same data in the raw files and applies them before you ever see the file in ACR or the Lightrrom processing window so, techinally, it is already "done" when you open them to process.

But, the corrections performed are not 100% perfect, and in the case of some lenses, the auto-corrections are better than others. That's why programs like PTLens and DxO have dual profiles for each lens they have aclibrated, for both raw and JPEG files. If you shoot raw, those program make complete corrections. If you shoot JPEG, they make the smaller needed corrections to do what the cameras themselves do not complete.

[Greg Chappell]

Originally Posted by boBBrennan

Greg, from what I hear about the RIT "Big Shot" is that all lights at the stadium and street lights around it will be shut off AND the stadium will be lit from the west and southwest sides of the stadium... if that is the case we won't see it from the park.

Too, RIT is saying the project can take from 2-to-3 hours for them to do it.

Oh well, darn it. There's still the opportunity to do a long, tripod-mounted exposure that'll light up the stadium with the tents in the forground.

[James Emory]

Greg, do you feel that LR is easier to use than PSE10 or 11? I uninstalled PSE10 from my computer because it was a PITA to use/understand.

Originally Posted by Greg Chappell

Lightroom and Photoshop both use the same raw processor. With Photoshop you go into the Camera RAW window. In Lightroom the same program is called the processing window.

Adobe does not create lens profiles for micro four-thirds lenses. That's why you do not see them. There are no Adobe profiles. The raw files themselves have the correction data embedded. The cameras themselves use this data if you are shooting JPEG to make the distortion corrections. Adobe uses the same data in the raw files and applies them before you ever see the file in ACR or the Lightrrom processing window so, techinally, it is already "done" when you open them to process.

But, the corrections performed are not 100% perfect, and in the case of some lenses, the auto-corrections are better than others. That's why programs like PTLens and DxO have dual profiles for each lens they have aclibrated, for both raw and JPEG files. If you shoot raw, those program make complete corrections. If you shoot JPEG, they make the smaller needed corrections to do what the cameras themselves do not complete.

[Greg Chappell]

Elements is really stripped down in terms of options users have access to working with raw files compared to either Lightroom or Photoshop, and Lightroom is, by far in my opinion, the easiest of all three (Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements) to use. The development window in Lightroom has everything sorted out and easily found. Having primarily used Photoshop for a while it took me some time locating tools in the Lightroom development window as I was used to accessing them from other "places".

I know there are videos by both Adobe and other users that show typical workflows they use in processing files in Lightroom. You might want to search for a few and watch them. I don't know if there's a trial term you can use Lightroom before buying, but I would check if I were you. I bought Lightroom 4 for Katherine at Christmas and she loves it.