Best image processing softwarde for OMD-EM1

[tom60634]

When I open a detailed image in DXO the preview looks spectacular, like my camera has gained several megapixels of resolution. Unfortunately after it churns out the final image, whether DNG, TIFF, or Jpeg, it's always disappointing by comparison. I feel like I should be doing a screen capture of preview image crops at 100% and then stitching them together in photoshop. This is the only software I've encountered where the difference is so surprising. Is there a way to make the output match the preview, something I'm missing in the settings?

 

[jkrumm]

You know, I was a little skeptical of my initial impression since no other editor has done that. I went back and looked and processed some more files. The only case where it occurred was in one image that I had significantly adjusted the shadows on. DXO in that case just didn't give me a very accurate noise and sharpening preview. But for regular images without heavy adjustment it was very good.

One thing it fell apart on was an extreme shadow on a chair. Lightroom had a more graceful interpretation of what was essentially 0 data. DXO gave me a weird reddish blob.

That's another thing. Red and magenta is very strong at default. I have to desaturated some faces.

 

[tom60634]

You know, I was a little skeptical of my initial impression since no other editor has done that. I went back and looked and processed some more files. The only case where it occurred was in one image that I had significantly adjusted the shadows on. DXO in that case just didn't give me a very accurate noise and sharpening preview. But for regular images without heavy adjustment it was very good.

One thing it fell apart on was an extreme shadow on a chair. Lightroom had a more graceful interpretation of what was essentially 0 data. DXO gave me a weird reddish blob.

That's another thing. Red and magenta is very strong at default. I have to desaturated some faces.

--
John Krumm
Duluth, MN

When I run into the occasional problem file I will create a virtual copy and in the Preset panel choose "No Correction", this leaves you with the raw file in its sometimes frightening original state. You can run through your normal workflow, just don't forget to turn on the very useful automatic edits i.e. vignetting, distortion etc.etc.

With the extreme shadow on your chair you might find it useful to set your black and white points with the Tone Curve panel before adjusting shadows and blacks. It's something to try and it seems to work for me. It's easy enough to do while watching the histogram and/or turning on the shadow and highlight clipping warnings.

 

[bs1946]

Hi,

This is my first post, as I am now the proud owner of an OMD-EM1, which I got yesterday, along with the 12-40 f2.8 and 60mm f2.8 macro.

I have an E-M10 with four primes between 12mm and 60mm and two more are on the way. It's a disease.

Having been the owner of a Canon 7D & 60D for a while, and a few heavy L lenses, i just wasn't using the kit any more due to being fed up of carrying the heavy weight around, so decided to switch to mirrorless. Primarily I shot wildlife with my 7D and 100-400mm lens, but even with that combination I struggled to get close enough to my subject. I realise the MFT system may have it's limitations with wildlife photography due to not having the auto focus capabilities of a DSLR, but it is unlikely I will have the time now as I have a baby on the way. So from now on my photography is probably going to focus on portraits, nature macros, and landscapes. I will stick to watching wildlife through my bins and scope (when I have the time!).

You might have to rethink your views on autofocus. My E-M10 has 81 contrast focus points. I can use one, a block, or all of them. Your E-M1 adds 31 PDAF focus points on top of the 81 contrast focus points. With either of my two Olympus primes, the E-M10's autofocus is blazing fast, almost instantaneous, and highly accurate. With my two Sigma primes, the autofocus is still very fast and accurate. I had the loan of the 12-40mm f/2.8 for a while and its autofocus performance is also excellent. You might want to visit the Olympus USA site and see the results Jay Dickman gets with the E-M1 and various Olympus lenses. Besides being an Olympus Pro, he is a well noted National Geographic wildlife and landscape photographer.

So I was just wondering what image processing software people find to be the bey for the 'Oly' files. I don't have any software at the minute, only what came with the camera kit. I don't want to spend a fortune, something in the price range of PS Elements/Lightroom.

The answer to what software to use lies in how much post processing you want to do. Are you looking to transform your images so they look like Picasso painted them or are you just looking to make adjustments and perhaps some cropping. I'm in the latter category. I started with iPhoto and then moved on to Photoshop Elements. At that point I was shooting JPEGs and just did some cropping and an occasional minor adjustment. The quality of Olympus OOC JPEGs is considered one of the best so they didn't need any help from me. Then I decided to start playing with RAW, so I ran out and bought Lightroom and DXO Prime; both have gone largely unused. I listened to some advice from a couple of Olympus techs, started reading Robin Wong's blog and reviews, and started using Olympus Viewer 3 to post process my RAW files. Best of all it's free and will spit out JPEGs that are just as good as your EM-1's images. You can apply any of the ART filters, create HDRs or multiple images, change the color profile, or create monochrome images with or without any of the monochrome filters that Olympus has. The downside is it won't process anyone else's RAW files.

Also, can anyone recommend a nice shoulder bag, at the moment the the bags I have are from having my Canon kit, therefore are far too big for my new Oly kit.

I have a Domke F2 that you can almost live in, so when my E-M10 showed up I got an Ona Bowery bag. Right now I have my TG-3, E-M10 along with my 12mm, 30mm ,and Sigma 60mm plus a couple of spare batteries and such. I still could fit my 17mm in there if I wanted to. Aside of what is inside the bag is quite small. They make them in leather or waxed canvas and all of the hardware is top notch; no cheap plastic buckles or velcro. But, you're starting with a larger camera and two large lenses so you might be better served with one of their larger models and we are still talking a lot smaller that what you were probably using to haul around your DSLR kit.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Natalie

 

[first tee]

I am also a relatively new E-M1 owner. I use both Lightroom and OV3. I like the results with OV3 but it is painfully, agonizingly slow.

 

[Rmark]

the answer to what software to use lies in how much post processing you want to do. Are you looking to transform your images so they look like Picasso painted them or are you just looking to make adjustments and perhaps some cropping.

Bill S.
Digital film is cheap; shoot fast and shoot often!!!

Probably the best advice anyone can get about choosing a program for PP.

Also many of the programs have significant learning curves to get the most out of them. I personally went from iPhoto to Aperture. Aperture has probably the best organizational structure of any of the programs, but is being discontinued so not a good choice. If the new Apple program "Photos" has the same asset management structure I will likely use it along with LR or Elements.

 

[DMikey]

I've been surprised at just how versatile even lowly Iphoto has been, with the option to reprocess in raw and the various sliders/curves available. The basics are there, sharpness, highlights, shadows, denoise.....

 

[Glen Barrington]

Hi,

This is my first post, as I am now the proud owner of an OMD-EM1, which I got yesterday, along with the 12-40 f2.8 and 60mm f2.8 macro.

Having been the owner of a Canon 7D & 60D for a while, and a few heavy L lenses, i just wasn't using the kit any more due to being fed up of carrying the heavy weight around, so decided to switch to mirrorless. Primarily I shot wildlife with my 7D and 100-400mm lens, but even with that combination I struggled to get close enough to my subject. I realise the MFT system may have it's limitations with wildlife photography due to not having the auto focus capabilities of a DSLR, but it is unlikely I will have the time now as I have a baby on the way. So from now on my photography is probably going to focus on portraits, nature macros, and landscapes. I will stick to watching wildlife through my bins and scope (when I have the time!).

So I was just wondering what image processing software people find to be the bey for the 'Oly' files. I don't have any software at the minute, only what came with the camera kit. I don't want to spend a fortune, something in the price range of PS Elements/Lightroom.

Also, can anyone recommend a nice shoulder bag, at the moment the the bags I have are from having my Canon kit, therefore are far too big for my new Oly kit.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Natalie

ACDSee Pro 8 does an excellent job with orf files. It's all I use for raw.