New SilkyPix

[LVPG]

Anyone try out the new version of SilkyPix? Interface and website are completely different [at first glance]. I also notice it asks for a new user key. I wonder if the new version will have to be re-purchased?

--
Rick

We all know what it can't do. Show me what you can do with it.

 

[KAllen]

I tried one Kodak conversion and one Canon one with it, I need to do a lot more as I'm not familar with Silkpix But..... I was very surprised at the result. The Kodak file was fantastic, the detail and vibrance was excellant compared to a P/shop comparisson I did and no painterly effect what so ever, the only reason I mention that is because the Canon file showed painterly effect! I've never seen that on tthe Canon before. This in no way a good test on just two different files of differing subjects, but the Kodak detail was very real looking.
I'm certainly going to give it a good go.

Kevin.

 

[mike m134089]

I played with it a bit last night. I like the new features like "Blue Sky" which adds some good color to otherwise washout images.

White balance seems to work well.

The application seems a bit more sluggish compaired to 2.0. And I wish it was not on a black background since it is a bit harder to see the labels for the functions and settings.

I'll look for the painterly effect, since I use Canon exclusively. I had quite a bit of paint effect on 2.0. Reducing the noise reduction seemed to help this, but I wish this lower noise reduction was the standard.

Looking forward to seeing what others are saying. Mike

 

[pepeillo]

I converted an image with PD, ACR and Silkypix and to my surprise the best detail wise was Silkypix. It had some blotchy christmas lights that could be removed with the dust and scratches method in LAB mode, but some color contaminations remained. So it seems to me that best all in one still is ACR.

 

[Paul Spatafora]

I ran the same two files with ACR, Bibble (my default converter) and Silkypix 3.0 Beta, and to my astonishment, both my wife and I picked the Bibble file over the Silkypix. They both provided the excellent detail and color but Bibble won because of the tonality and gradation of the file. Silkypix did eck out a little more detail that Bibble though, but not much and not enough to plop more money down. I only tried one file though. I would like to see how Silkypix handles the noise from an ISO400 image. If it removes the blotchiness in the shadows, I'm in!!!

Paul

 

[MikeMiles]

I'm a regular silkypix user and started to demo 3.0 last night. I definately enjoy the work flow - it suites my style - and for the most part I find I don't have to fix any moire in PS after converting the image which I did with other converters.

It does seem a little slower in changing the preview. But I really didn't notice a difference in the actual conversion. To be honest, this isn't a huge point for me. I often batch convert and don't stare at the monitor while this is in progress!

I should point out that I only used 3.0 for a short time last night. I'm sure, because they are using a new algorythms (Not just demosaicing, but also sharpening and noise reduction, etc), that it'll take a little practice to fine tune the images for my taste.

In use, I don't find it that different than 2.0. I think its easier for you to save your favorite conversion methods by using tastes. Though, by assigning key strokes in 2.0 you could do a very similar approach. Albeit, not as flexible as the new tastes method.

A while back I posted asking about blown highlights with other converters than kodaks. I found that, irregardless of what someone else claimed, kodak did the best job. This, IMO, was SP's weak point. And not just with my slr/c, but also with my canons. However, SP updated their highlight control box. I now believe that SP is better than kodaks, or other converters I've used, conversion in this regard. I can use the show highlights feature (like the out of gamut warning) and adjust the hightlghts into range while mantaining, or extracting more detail.

And to reiterate, my favorite part of using SP is how fast I can get a great result. I believe getting a great result is possible with just about any converter, but I spend much less time with SP than when I use other converters. The images are the most PRINT ready right after the conversion. I'm also not one to worry to the nth degree. Clients just don't care!

 

[MikeMiles]

I forgot to mention that when 3.0 beta was released in Japanese I sent SP an email. They said there will be an upgrade fee for 3.0 but didn't know the price yet.

 

[the signatory]

Mike M wrote:
8

And I wish it was not on a black background since it is a bit harder to
see the labels for the functions and settings.

8

Hi Mike,

If you go into Option/Option/Select Skin... then you can choose between 3 different 'looks', including a quite nice 18% Gray! YMMV ;-)

hth
--
Kind regards,
Nigel

Kodak DSLR Beta Firmware and Custom Looks requests: Please send an email to my profile address above, including the word 'FIRMWARE' in the subject line. If you use a spam filtering service, then please ensure you add my email address to your 'Approved' list, as I haven't the time to cope with bounced emails. Thanks.

 

[the signatory]

Hi Mike,

If you go into Option/Option/Select Skin... then you can choose
between 3 different 'looks', including a quite nice 18% Gray! YMMV

.. you have to shut down and restart SilkyPix to apply the new 'skin'. At least, I do! Strange but true! )

--
Kind regards,
Nigel

Kodak DSLR Beta Firmware and Custom Looks requests: Please send an email to my profile address above, including the word 'FIRMWARE' in the subject line. If you use a spam filtering service, then please ensure you add my email address to your 'Approved' list, as I haven't the time to cope with bounced emails. Thanks.

 

[andrea buso]

I like the new interface, and all the new improvements that were made to some of the tools.

One of the best capabilities of SP, is the possibility of color correct images targetting only certain shades of the color pallet. It allows of eliminating completely the "notorius" "yellow/green tinge" on skin shadows transitions, which is one of the major problems of the kodak cameras if you shoot people, portraits, fashion and beauty. No other color converter has the capability of eliminating the "yellow/green tinge on Kodak files as SP can do.

It might work (I have not tryied yet) on the similar "green/gray tinge" which affect the canon 1ds cameras I and II, again on skin shades. (the 5d does not suffer from the problem though).

A bit OT, I was wondering if somebody is still using "raw magick", to which they made some improvements for the Kodak files (the improvement they made on the .DLL also works on the 14n to a certain extent).

I think raw magick has been matched ( or almost, to a negligeable difference) by other converters on the "extracting details" capability, which it used to be its best point compared to others converters. RM still has the demosaicing tools that remove color noise and moiree, like no others, but it still lacks on speed which makes it painfull slow even on a dual xeon computer, it has a very questionable interface and work flow (what were they thinking), not so good high light control and washed out colors, and several bugs that have been there forever, like "non rotating thumnails" which together with the slowness in generating previews make it totally unusable for editing.

I'm using RM once in a while for images where I have the time to color enanche the files in postprod and I need the demosaicing capability, but otherwise I prefer SP or Lightroom.

--
http://www.andreabuso.com
http://www.andreabuso.com/select

 

[KAllen]

I'm not sure I could get the same image twice from Silkpix, there's so many variables in control. I like what I have done so far with it, I'm not sure if the extra detail I see is a result of added sharpening or contrast or something else.

The images I have made with my fumbling approach are very nice, I'm still deciding if I have a use for it in my workflow. Worth a play with for an hour or two.

Kevin.

 

[mike m134089]

I processed a couple hundred wedding pics last night with 3.0 beta.

I had a few shots with a washed out sunset, so I used the sunset feature. It did not make too much of a difference in my image which was way too blown out in the sky, but a side effect of this feature was that it added yellow splotches in the shadow detail. I showed my wife the image and the first thing she said was, "What's wrong with his tux?"

I also noticed that it takes about 45 seconds to process an image from a Canon 20D. 2.0 took about 30 seconds.

Perhaps this is a feature, so I am hoping you heavy users can help me:

I would like to set up a key stroke to switch from "White Balance" mode to "Contrast" mode. And then have key strokes to manipulate the black level or gamma level, which are common tasks for me. Any idea if this can be done?

If not, can it be done in 2.0? and if, so, how?

Thanks. Mike

 

[MikeMiles]

Hi Mike,

I had a few shots with a washed out sunset, so I used the sunset
feature. It did not make too much of a difference in my image
which was way too blown out in the sky, but a side effect of this
feature was that it added yellow splotches in the shadow detail. I
showed my wife the image and the first thing she said was, "What's
wrong with his tux?"

You might get a better result using the highlight control. The manual tells you how to use the HC for just this purpose. Tools like the sunset feature are like most similar tools. When they work, they work great, and when they don't..... Just like shadow/highlights in PS. It either works great or you have no idea what it's doing!

I also noticed that it takes about 45 seconds to process an image
from a Canon 20D. 2.0 took about 30 seconds.
Perhaps this is a feature, so I am hoping you heavy users can help me:

Yeah, it's probably the feature the gets a better raw conversion with more detail. Like I said above, I often batch convert and when I do I just leave and come back later so I don't notice the difference. For one offs, waiting the extra 15s isn't an issue for me either.

I would like to set up a key stroke to switch from "White Balance"
mode to "Contrast" mode. And then have key strokes to manipulate
the black level or gamma level, which are common tasks for me. Any
idea if this can be done?
If not, can it be done in 2.0? and if, so, how?

Don't know offhand. The key stroke assignment is a pretty easy tool. Just open it up and if these are in the list, assign a key stroke. It look like a spread sheet with columns of unassigned items and currently assigned items. I think it's under options> keystrokes. At my initial glance it looked the same as 2.0.

Mike

 

[MikeMiles]

Hi Andrea,

I'm using RM once in a while for images where I have the time to
color enanche the files in postprod and I need the demosaicing
capability, but otherwise I prefer SP or Lightroom.

Are these guys even around anymore? I thought they folded? I recently downloaded the freeware Rawtherapee. I think it uses the same algo as RM. Still it's just as painfully slow...

Mike

--
http://www.andreabuso.com
http://www.andreabuso.com/select

 

[the signatory]

Are these guys even around anymore? I thought they folded? I
recently downloaded the freeware Rawtherapee. I think it uses the
same algo as RM. Still it's just as painfully slow...

In fact I just received a round-robin email from Peter, the software developer, advising of a new update, which reads as follows:
"There is an update to the latest version, 1.065, just hit help-> update
from the menu. It provides latest DLL's for D80 and others, improved
WB for Kodak and Canon, and also some improvement to Browse Mode."

They already announced back in the summer that a completely revised version of Rawmagick is in the pipeline, due at the end of this year. They are currently beta testing it amongst a select group of users only, but I am not one of them. ;-)

--
Kind regards,
Nigel

Kodak DSLR Beta Firmware and Custom Looks requests: Please send an email to my profile address above, including the word 'FIRMWARE' in the subject line. If you use a spam filtering service, then please ensure you add my email address to your 'Approved' list, as I haven't the time to cope with bounced emails. Thanks.

 

[Dan Sroka]

I also noticed that it takes about 45 seconds to process an image
from a Canon 20D. 2.0 took about 30 seconds.

Remember this is beta software -- speed optimization is usually the last step of development, after all features are locked down.

 

[MikeMiles]

Hi Dan,

It's allready past beta and released in Japan. They did the same thing by starting with a beta version there too. You still may be right.

mike

I also noticed that it takes about 45 seconds to process an image
from a Canon 20D. 2.0 took about 30 seconds.

Remember this is beta software -- speed optimization is usually the
last step of development, after all features are locked down.

 

[mike m134089]

I just assigned some keystrokes to common functions, which is great. But what I would really like to do is create an Action do do thing not listed in the Assign Keystroke area.

Is there a way to do this, a hack, a script?

-Mike

 

[MikeMiles]

What do you mean by scripts? What are you looking for? With 2.0 I set a key stroke to open a directory where I stored my preferred setups. I gave the setups descriptive names so after I used the keystroke I assigned, all I had to do would just select the setup from the "open" window. After you create a setup that you like, instead of putting it in the cloak room, just save it.

3.0 offers "tastes." I haven't' played much with these, but is appears to be a similar to what I did.

On a similar note, I do wish photoshop had scripts. I've written long actions in which I wanted to make minor changes. It would be nice if I could open it into a text editor, make the change, and save it.

I hope I helped out,

Mike.

 

[mike m134089]

The main thing I want to do when adjusting images is adjust the amount of black in increments, so I want to make an action to add +1 Black.

Or, I want to convert to black and white and have a specific curve assigned to it. Can this be done with a key stroke?

By script, I really mean Action, I guess.

-Mike