Making Foveon-like Images with a Bayer Camera

Tom Schum wrote:

Human Elements wrote:

I just came across this article. Most of it is beyond me but I figured you guys would find it interesting, regardless of how effective it actually is. If anyone tries it, I'd love to see samples that aren't web-resolution versions...The author seems to have a good grasp of the strengths of Foveon and some of the images do appear to have that Foveon *something.*

Really excellent link! Thanks for posting it.

I just spent at least a couple hours:

Install Raw Therapee, follow instructions in link, finally figure out that GIMP is a separate thing I have to download and install, install GIMP, follow instructions in link, open in Photoshop Elements 2020, tune colors.

At the end of the linked article is this, "For the future, it would be great if this alternative RGB downsampling method could be provided directly in software applications (for example, as part of libraw, the Open Source debayering engine of RawTherapee and Darktable)."

I heartily agree!

Comparison of 100% crops from fp L camera. 2.7mb download for 1920x1080 image.

Same as above but sharpened. 3.3mb download for 1920x1080 image.

To me, it looks like the downsized JPG is nearly equivalent to the new process.

There are differences plain to see in the sharpened comparison but for textures, the images remain nearly equal.

Here is a crunchy high-texture content version, processed in Raw Therapee.  We lose Sigma Color Tech, though.

16.3mb download for 4760x3164 image.

Here are some Raw Therapee settings:

Capture Sharpening:  Contrast threshold=0, Radius=0.90, Corner Radius boost=0, Iterations=50, Auto Limit Iterations=OFF.

Demosaicing:  Method=AMaZE+VNG4, Contrast Threshold=0, Border=8.

Chromatic Aberration: Auto=OFF, Avoid Color Shift=OFF, Amounts=0 (both).

Microcontrast:  Contrast Threshold=10, Quantity=20, Uniformity=5.

Local Contrast:  Radius=20, Amount=0.50, Darkness Level=1.00, Lightness Level=1.00

Exposure Compensation=+0.25

Downsized in Photoshop Elements 2020 to 1/4 original pixels using Nearest Neighbor method.  No additional sharpening applied.