New 2.2 version of iWE RAW Editor (HHHR is added)

[Serguei Palto]

Version 2.2 of my iWE (image-waves editor) is ready and can be downloaded from my Google directory at

Loading…

drive.google.com

(file iWE_22-02.ZIP)

About basic IWE properties I have already reported in new release of iWE raw-editor: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) and some comparison examples with other soft (OW and Topaz Denoise AI) are in new iWE edition (iWE vs Olympus Workspace vs Topaz Denoise AI): Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

The new 2.2 version has simple, but quite powerfull stacking module (see image #1).

Now practically unlimited number of images (JPG, TIFFs, RAWs) can be stacked in order to get an image with better signal/noise or even resolution, for example, in case of a set of images is captured handheld.

The HHHR result can be received just in one click after the list of files is loaded. There are options to adjust the stacking for different situations using either single or multiple alignment zones. After the stacking is done, the wave sharpening or other filters can be applied in iWE. The detailes on options properties can be find in the iWE 2.2 manual which is in the same ZIP-file. The manual is both in Russian and English.

The images below (#3, #5) demonstrate HHHR images from iWE in comparison with single shots (#2) from the same set. The last crop (#6) is from HHHR image generated in Photoshop 2021 for comparison (the procedure used in PS is in the caption to #6).






#1 iWE in stacking mode.




#2 Single OOC image used for stacking .



View attachment 426981c5756046bbbbb5152042d990b3.jpg
#3 HHHR image from iWE. 16 RAW files were processed. iWE wave sharpening is applied.




#4 Crop of single OOC image (see image #2) above, but 2X resized (for comparison with #5).




#5 Crop of HHHR image from iWE (see image #3)




#6 Crop of HHHR image from Adobe Photoshop 2021 (for comparison with #5). The processing was as follows: 16 RAW images (same as in iWE) were loaded in stack (processing with default settings), resized (2X) and autoaligned. The result was convereted to the Smart object, where the images were averaged. Finally, Smart sharpening (with default values- 200, 1) has been applied.

 

[Dino Anderson]

Can this align the images automatically before stacking?

 

[Serguei Palto]

Can this align the images automatically before stacking?

All (from start to the end) is done automatically. The program does not generate an intermediate set of files of aligned images. You just load the list of images (for example, list of raw files you got as a series with G9 camera that allows getting about 20 Raws per second) and puch a single button in iWE. As a result, at the output you have a new single image with a huge dynamic range (DR) or with a high resolution and improved DR (in case of an option 2X was checked) for saving or further processing (sharpening and so on) in iWE.

Moreover, you can do the same for any predefined crop area of an image in the list just by checking the "Crop" option.

 

[Dino Anderson]

Can this align the images automatically before stacking?

All (from start to the end) is done automatically. The program does not generate an intermediate set of files of aligned images. You just load the list of images (for example, list of raw files you got as a series with G9 camera that allows getting about 20 Raws per second) and puch a single button in iWE. As a result, at the output you have a new single image with a huge dynamic range (DR) or with a high resolution and improved DR (in case of an option 2X was checked) for saving or further processing (sharpening and so on) in iWE.

Moreover, you can do the same for any predefined crop area of an image in the list just by checking the "Crop" option.

That sounds fantastic!

 

[Serguei Palto]

Can this align the images automatically before stacking?

All (from start to the end) is done automatically. The program does not generate an intermediate set of files of aligned images. You just load the list of images (for example, list of raw files you got as a series with G9 camera that allows getting about 20 Raws per second) and puch a single button in iWE. As a result, at the output you have a new single image with a huge dynamic range (DR) or with a high resolution and improved DR (in case of an option 2X was checked) for saving or further processing (sharpening and so on) in iWE.

Moreover, you can do the same for any predefined crop area of an image in the list just by checking the "Crop" option.

That sounds fantastic!

Thank you for the interest.

Below is another example, where the dynamic range and improved resolution are important. It is connected to the Moon imaging.

The first image (#1) is just a result of raw processing of a single shot in a series of 24 images taken handheld during of about 2 sec. G9 with Leica 100-400 is used.

The image #2 is the result of stacking of those 24 images. The output image has high dynamic range, so rather high value of sharpening can be applied without introducing the noise. In current example wave sharpening (spectral algorithm) is applied in iWE just after the stacking.

The image #3 is the result of raws stacking with the option 2X, so the high resolution image is generated at the output. Again, the wave sharpening has been applied.

The stacking was done for predifined crop area in raw files, which accelerates the processing. Due to spectral algorithms and float point processing the iWE needs significant computing and memory resorces . On my Laptop with i7 (8 cores) it takes of about 40 sec to get theoutput result from 24 images. It includes the time for the RAWs processing itself, which is quite acceptable.


#1. Single RAW image from the stack.


#2 Stacking result of 24 raws in crop mode .


# Stacking result of 24 RAWs in the crop mode with 2X resizing, so HR image is generated at the output.

 

[abgestumpft]

Hi Serguei,

this looks very interesting!

The Olympus EM1.3 does something very similar internally for the HHHR shot: it takes 16x 20MP images and combines them in camera to a 50MP (8160x6120) RAW file.

The EM1.2 does not have this feature, but it can shoot 60fps (which can be limited by a setting to e.g. 16 frames). So this could be used to quickly create sets of 16 (or more) images that could be combined in iWE.

I did a very quick test and shot the same scene with the EM1.3 HHHR and with 16x Single shot and combined them in iWE.

Here are two screenshots taken from iWE with scale 2:1 - no sharpening applied.
I downscaled the iWE crop (80MP) to match the EM1.3 in camera size (50MP).




Em1.3 20MP Single shot: 2:1 view in iWE - no sharpening applied. Upscaled to match HHHR size


Em1.3 internal HHHR shot - 2:1 view in iWE - no sharpening applied


16x 20MP shots combined in iWE - 2:1 view and downscaled to match EM1.3 HHHR - no sharpening applied



The internal EM1.3 looks a little sharper, but also has more artifacts. So hard to say if it has more information or not...

I'm struggling a little bit to find a good sharpening settings etc. for those shots.
Do you have some profile I could use for a starting point, e.g. the one with the settings you used for the shot in the initial post?

 

[Serguei Palto]

Hi Serguei,

this looks very interesting!

The Olympus EM1.3 does something very similar internally for the HHHR shot: it takes 16x 20MP images and combines them in camera to a 50MP (8160x6120) RAW file.

The EM1.2 does not have this feature, but it can shoot 60fps (which can be limited by a setting to e.g. 16 frames). So this could be used to quickly create sets of 16 (or more) images that could be combined in iWE.

I did a very quick test and shot the same scene with the EM1.3 HHHR and with 16x Single shot and combined them in iWE.

Here are two screenshots taken from iWE with scale 2:1 - no sharpening applied.
I downscaled the iWE crop (80MP) to match the EM1.3 in camera size (50MP).


Em1.3 20MP Single shot: 2:1 view in iWE - no sharpening applied. Upscaled to match HHHR size


Em1.3 internal HHHR shot - 2:1 view in iWE - no sharpening applied


16x 20MP shots combined in iWE - 2:1 view and downscaled to match EM1.3 HHHR - no sharpening applied

The internal EM1.3 looks a little sharper, but also has more artifacts. So hard to say if it has more information or not...

I'm struggling a little bit to find a good sharpening settings etc. for those shots.
Do you have some profile I could use for a starting point, e.g. the one with the settings you used for the shot in the initial post?

I am very glad that there is someone who is trying using iWE...

iWe has extremely poweful sharpening tools. Just after the stacking you have to go to the "Detail" tab on the same "Fast Options" panel. Below I give a detailed description for a simplest way that can be used not only by you, but maybe for sombody else as a starting point. Have also in mind that the effectivness of the sharpening depends on the quality of the stacking. The default settings are not always the best. Often it is very useful to set alignment box or boxes manually to get the best result.

To start with just do the following:

1. Double click the image to get 1:1 view and open the "Smart box" by clicking a proper button on the top buttons bar. In the "Smart box" you can observe the work of iWE filters before you decide to apply them to the whole image. Place the Smart box to the most detailed place on your image (push left mouse button on the smart box and move it where you like).

2. Go to "Detail" tab and check the "Convolved Denoising/Sharpening" option (later you can play with the two sliders; if you are sharpening a 2X HHHR image then you can place the "Radius slider" to the central position).

3. Go to the "Spectral S/D" sub-tab and check "Spectral Sharpening" option. Push the "Strength" slider to the right-side position (value 1.0). Push the "Spectral position" slider a bit to the left (to the value of about 0.45 or 0.36); push the "Spectral Width" slider also a bit to the left (A bit later, after you start filling the iWE, I recommend changing the pixel pitch on the "Basic options" panel to the twice lower value in case you work with 2X upscaled images; in that case you will go to the correct spectral scale, so there will be no needs in decreasing the spectral position and width; even more sharpness can be applyed using the controls on "Spectral equalizer and Spectral Profiles" panel)

4. After you get a desirable result push the "Whole Image Evaluation" button. It can take some time depending on power of your PC to apply the filters to the whole HR image.

5. After the whole image evaluation is done you can either save the image or go to a second round of the sharpening. To do that push the "Processed->Principal" button (result is that the processed image replaces the pricipal image to which the filters are applied) and "Reset" button (all iWE filters are reset to their default settings). After that you can repeat the sharpening.

 

[Serguei Palto]

I'm struggling a little bit to find a good sharpening settings etc. for those shots.
Do you have some profile I could use for a starting point, e.g. the one with the settings you used for the shot in the initial post?

In addition to what I have already said, probably the simplest way to set an arbitrary sharpness is illustrated by an image below.

By varying amplification coefficients (in current example it is 9 for the three color channels ), spectral position (140 1/mm) and spectral width (60 1/mm) for band width 240 1/mm (defined by the pixel pitch, which is 2 um in the current example) you can get a sharpness level you need.

Remark! iWE mode must be ON ("iWE" button must be pressed on top bar)

 

[abgestumpft]

I am very glad that there is someone who is trying using iWE...

iWe has extremely poweful sharpening tools. Just after the stacking you have to go to the "Detail" tab on the same "Fast Options" panel. Below I give a detailed description for a simplest way that can be used not only by you, but maybe for sombody else as a starting point. Have also in mind that the effectivness of the sharpening depends on the quality of the stacking. The default settings are not always the best. Often it is very useful to set alignment box or boxes manually to get the best result.

To start with just do the following:

1. Double click the image to get 1:1 view and open the "Smart box" by clicking a proper button on the top buttons bar. In the "Smart box" you can observe the work of iWE filters before you decide to apply them to the whole image. Place the Smart box to the most detailed place on your image (push left mouse button on the smart box and move it where you like).

2. Go to "Detail" tab and check the "Convolved Denoising/Sharpening" option (later you can play with the two sliders; if you are sharpening a 2X HHHR image then you can place the "Radius slider" to the central position).

3. Go to the "Spectral S/D" sub-tab and check "Spectral Sharpening" option. Push the "Strength" slider to the right-side position (value 1.0). Push the "Spectral position" slider a bit to the left (to the value of about 0.45 or 0.36); push the "Spectral Width" slider also a bit to the left (A bit later, after you start filling the iWE, I recommend changing the pixel pitch on the "Basic options" panel to the twice lower value in case you work with 2X upscaled images; in that case you will go to the correct spectral scale, so there will be no needs in decreasing the spectral position and width; even more sharpness can be applyed using the controls on "Spectral equalizer and Spectral Profiles" panel)

4. After you get a desirable result push the "Whole Image Evaluation" button. It can take some time depending on power of your PC to apply the filters to the whole HR image.

5. After the whole image evaluation is done you can either save the image or go to a second round of the sharpening. To do that push the "Processed->Principal" button (result is that the processed image replaces the pricipal image to which the filters are applied) and "Reset" button (all iWE filters are reset to their default settings). After that you can repeat the sharpening.

Hi Serguei,

thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. I've now played a little bit with the settings you mentioned and already found a setting for the start.
I don't have any bursts on disk I could use to test the HHHR feature of iWE. But I have several HHHR shots done with the Olympus EM1.3 -> 50MP RAW files that are very soft.

Here are some different scenes (all 100% crops) to compare the 50MP JPG created by Olympus with the one from iWE.
It seem that Olympus is darkening the shadows a little bit and also pushing the contrast -> I made those changes to the iWE files afterwards to create a similar look.


Scene1: Olympus


Scene1: iWE


Scene2: Olympus


Scene2: iWE




Scene3: Olympus




Scene3: iWE




Scene4: Olympus


Scene4: iWE



For the start I'm happy with the iWE results: they show a lot of details (more than I managed to get with DXO PhotoLab in a lot of experimenting) and I like the look. But when zooming in very close I see some patterns (I don't see those in your example), so maybe I have overdone it a little bit

One comment on the files saved:
I recognized that not all Metadata is written to the JPG and TIFF files:
E.g. the information about Lens, Exposure Compensation, Shooting Mode and Flash used is gone after saving the file with iWE.

 

[abgestumpft]

I'm struggling a little bit to find a good sharpening settings etc. for those shots.
Do you have some profile I could use for a starting point, e.g. the one with the settings you used for the shot in the initial post?

In addition to what I have already said, probably the simplest way to set an arbitrary sharpness is illustrated by an image below.

By varying amplification coefficients (in current example it is 9 for the three color channels ), spectral position (140 1/mm) and spectral width (60 1/mm) for band width 240 1/mm (defined by the pixel pitch, which is 2 um in the current example) you can get a sharpness level you need.

Remark! iWE mode must be ON ("iWE" button must be pressed on top bar)

Thanks for the update. I will check those settings the next days. I'm slowly starting to understand the software

Maybe I also find some time to do some testing with Oly HHHR vs. iWE HHHR.

 

[Serguei Palto]

I am very glad that there is someone who is trying using iWE...

iWe has extremely poweful sharpening tools. Just after the stacking you have to go to the "Detail" tab on the same "Fast Options" panel. Below I give a detailed description for a simplest way that can be used not only by you, but maybe for sombody else as a starting point. Have also in mind that the effectivness of the sharpening depends on the quality of the stacking. The default settings are not always the best. Often it is very useful to set alignment box or boxes manually to get the best result.

To start with just do the following:

1. Double click the image to get 1:1 view and open the "Smart box" by clicking a proper button on the top buttons bar. In the "Smart box" you can observe the work of iWE filters before you decide to apply them to the whole image. Place the Smart box to the most detailed place on your image (push left mouse button on the smart box and move it where you like).

2. Go to "Detail" tab and check the "Convolved Denoising/Sharpening" option (later you can play with the two sliders; if you are sharpening a 2X HHHR image then you can place the "Radius slider" to the central position).

3. Go to the "Spectral S/D" sub-tab and check "Spectral Sharpening" option. Push the "Strength" slider to the right-side position (value 1.0). Push the "Spectral position" slider a bit to the left (to the value of about 0.45 or 0.36); push the "Spectral Width" slider also a bit to the left (A bit later, after you start filling the iWE, I recommend changing the pixel pitch on the "Basic options" panel to the twice lower value in case you work with 2X upscaled images; in that case you will go to the correct spectral scale, so there will be no needs in decreasing the spectral position and width; even more sharpness can be applyed using the controls on "Spectral equalizer and Spectral Profiles" panel)

4. After you get a desirable result push the "Whole Image Evaluation" button. It can take some time depending on power of your PC to apply the filters to the whole HR image.

5. After the whole image evaluation is done you can either save the image or go to a second round of the sharpening. To do that push the "Processed->Principal" button (result is that the processed image replaces the pricipal image to which the filters are applied) and "Reset" button (all iWE filters are reset to their default settings). After that you can repeat the sharpening.

Hi Serguei,

thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. I've now played a little bit with the settings you mentioned and already found a setting for the start.
I don't have any bursts on disk I could use to test the HHHR feature of iWE. But I have several HHHR shots done with the Olympus EM1.3 -> 50MP RAW files that are very soft.

Here are some different scenes (all 100% crops) to compare the 50MP JPG created by Olympus with the one from iWE.
It seem that Olympus is darkening the shadows a little bit and also pushing the contrast -> I made those changes to the iWE files afterwards to create a similar look.


Scene1: Olympus


Scene1: iWE


Scene2: Olympus


Scene2: iWE


Scene3: Olympus


Scene3: iWE


Scene4: Olympus


Scene4: iWE

For the start I'm happy with the iWE results: they show a lot of details (more than I managed to get with DXO PhotoLab in a lot of experimenting) and I like the look. But when zooming in very close I see some patterns (I don't see those in your example), so maybe I have overdone it a little bit

One comment on the files saved:
I recognized that not all Metadata is written to the JPG and TIFF files:
E.g. the information about Lens, Exposure Compensation, Shooting Mode and Flash used is gone after saving the file with iWE.

For start your results are very good!

Difference between iWE and Oly is that in iWE you tried to amplify very high frequency components, which are rather weak in your original files. And yes, you have little bit overdone (to my taste). In all Oly cases the situation is different, they amplify middle frequency range my using too large sharpening radius (to my taste they amplify middle frequency range more than necessary even if sharpening in camera or in their Workspace is switched off, so the middle-size fine details start looking unnaturaly large - your result looks better for me).

I think the optimal settings are somewhere between you current settings and ones used by OLy. So for the given shots you have to decrease a bit a magnitude of the amplification and shift the amplification frequency band to the lower frequencies, but not too far to escape the same unnatural look as in Oly. All this , of course, is subjective.

Also in you iWE examples one can see chromatic abberations. Have in mind that iWE has powefull tool for their very quick compensation ( just go to the Lens tab and, to start with, just play with sliders A1 for red and blue channels).

As far as metadata is concerned the TIIFs and JPGs use different tags and formats for the metadata. If only RAWs are in the working folder then metadata can also be lost. It can happen, for example, if the camera released after one of the libraries used in iWE to decode the RAW. A problem with loosing the metadata can be escaped if in the working folder besides the raw the jpg-file with the same name exists, so all the metadata will be automatically copied from that jpg to your iWE-processed image. Also you can copy the metadata from the JPG-file manually (in File menu there is a proper item).

Best wishes, SP

 

[J R 47]

Serguei,

Thank you for sharing your new 2.2 version of iWE RAW editor, plus tips for using it to best advantage. Please accept compliments on your hard work and best wishes for your continued progress

 

[Serguei Palto]

Serguei,

Thank you for sharing your new 2.2 version of iWE RAW editor, plus tips for using it to best advantage. Please accept compliments on your hard work and best wishes for your continued progress

JR 47,

Thanks you for the supporting words!

SP

 

[Guy Parsons]

Re Olympus in-camera and Workspace sharpening - I've always disliked their defaults as it tends to leave nasty edge halos if pixel peeped.

Over many years of playing with all sorts of cameras and when sharpening is needed I find that I get the results that I like with unsharp mask at 0.3 radius and amount as needed to get it "right". That goes for original MP of the camera from the raw file or for resizes or crops, always 0.3 radius and wildly varying amount depending on the scene or subject.

Larger radius and the results start to look too crisp and digital.

That's just me as I like results to be natural or erring slightly on under-sharpening - maybe caused by too many years of film.

 

[kamerakiri]

Version 2.2 of my iWE (image-waves editor) is ready and can be downloaded from my Google directory at

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Hvx3-j_gHf5_2QMl78z0NO3JmZ_F4f3M?usp=sharing

(file iWE_22-02.ZIP)

About basic IWE properties I have already reported in new release of iWE raw-editor: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) and some comparison examples with other soft (OW and Topaz Denoise AI) are in new iWE edition (iWE vs Olympus Workspace vs Topaz Denoise AI): Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

The new 2.2 version has simple, but quite powerfull stacking module (see image #1).

Now practically unlimited number of images (JPG, TIFFs, RAWs) can be stacked in order to get an image with better signal/noise or even resolution, for example, in case of a set of images is captured handheld.

Thanks a lot for this software!I didn't know this works with non-Olympus raw files too. Tried it yesterday on a Nikon raw file.

I also want to thank you for keeping all the technical names of sharpening functions - I can look up algorithms on internet to see what is happening in background.

Are you by any chance a mathematician/engineer? I like several Russian mathematicians' works.

Thanks a lot for giving developing and sharing this excellent tool !!!

 

[Serguei Palto]

Re Olympus in-camera and Workspace sharpening - I've always disliked their defaults as it tends to leave nasty edge halos if pixel peeped.

Over many years of playing with all sorts of cameras and when sharpening is needed I find that I get the results that I like with unsharp mask at 0.3 radius and amount as needed to get it "right". That goes for original MP of the camera from the raw file or for resizes or crops, always 0.3 radius and wildly varying amount depending on the scene or subject.

Larger radius and the results start to look too crisp and digital.

That's just me as I like results to be natural or erring slightly on under-sharpening - maybe caused by too many years of film.

Agree with you.

After some work on demosaicing in iWE I came to the conclusion that, for example, OLy uses rather special demosaicing or "raw-cooking" algorithm which is effectively decreasing the noise, but killing extremely fine details. Thus we need to apply sharpening with very small radius to restore the pixel-level "naturality" and escape what you call "too crisp and digital". However, even using very small radius in unsharp mask (like 0.3) not always resores original naturality I like. It is one of the reasons why in iWE a spectral sharpening algorithm is implemented. Despite unsharp mask can also be treated in terms of high frequency pass filter, it does not allow getting a control level comparable with direct manupulating the spectral components by going to the spectral space with Fourier Transfer.

 

[Serguei Palto]

Version 2.2 of my iWE (image-waves editor) is ready and can be downloaded from my Google directory at

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Hvx3-j_gHf5_2QMl78z0NO3JmZ_F4f3M?usp=sharing

(file iWE_22-02.ZIP)

About basic IWE properties I have already reported in new release of iWE raw-editor: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) and some comparison examples with other soft (OW and Topaz Denoise AI) are in new iWE edition (iWE vs Olympus Workspace vs Topaz Denoise AI): Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

The new 2.2 version has simple, but quite powerfull stacking module (see image #1).

Now practically unlimited number of images (JPG, TIFFs, RAWs) can be stacked in order to get an image with better signal/noise or even resolution, for example, in case of a set of images is captured handheld.

Thanks a lot for this software!I didn't know this works with non-Olympus raw files too. Tried it yesterday on a Nikon raw file.

I also want to thank you for keeping all the technical names of sharpening functions - I can look up algorithms on internet to see what is happening in background.

Are you by any chance a mathematician/engineer? I like several Russian mathematicians' works.

Thanks a lot for giving developing and sharing this excellent tool !!!

Yes, iWE can work practically with RAWs of all existing camera. For that iWE uses many open source libraries, which are originally based on DCRAW code from D. Coffin. In particular, in iWE for RAW decoding a user can use: "Freeimage" library (used by default), "LibRawSharp" library ( it is rather young LibRaw wrap for .Net, but allows reading RAWs from latest 14-bit Pana, and dual pixel Canon camera) and directly DCRAW from D.Coffin that can run as external process hidden from a user. Staring from 2017, I have not seen a new release of DCRAW, but it is still extremely powefull program, and in iWE one can use almost all available options of the DCRAW.

Unfortunately, you will be not able to find in Internet the sharpening algorithms used in iWE. These are my algorithms, which are not similar to popular wavelets and were not described somewhere except the manual to iWE. Also you can easily understand and feelling these algorithms by going deeper into iWE. The basic concept is rather simple - it is direct amplification (scaling) the desiered spectral components in the inverse (spectral) space.

Yes, my main activity in this life is connected to Radio Engineering, Math and Physics.

 

[CarlosU]

You are a gem to this forum

 

[Serguei Palto]

You are a gem to this forum

As the majority at this forum I like m43...

 

[abgestumpft]

Hi,

I did now shot the same scene with Olympus EM1.3 internal HHHR and then 16 single RAW shots (in a burst).
In iWE I applied used the auto-alignment and 2x upscaling and applied sharpening afterwards. I have not yet done any actions on chromatic aberrations in iWE (didn't find any good settings quickly and don't have much time at the moment...)

Here are some 100% crops of that:


Olympus 20MP RAW converted with OlyWorkspace and upscaled to 50MP


Olympus HHHR - 50MP out of camera JPG


iWE: 16 RAW images upscaled 2x and stacked, sharpening in iWE, downscaled to 50MP

I must admit I'm really impressed by the iWE result: it has more details and looks more natural than the Olympus HHHR.