Making Foveon-like Images with a Bayer Camera

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.*

… To my eye, the “after” pictures look nothing like the clean, pure colours of vintage Foveon.

Iain G Foulds wrote:

… To my eye, the “after” pictures look nothing like the clean, pure colours of vintage Foveon.

I don't think I've ever seen a successful imitation of Foveon.

Don

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.*

Interesting especially as I do have RawTherapee and the GIMP on my computer.

Quite a lot of work, though it seems.

D Cox wrote:

Iain G Foulds wrote:

… To my eye, the “after” pictures look nothing like the clean, pure colours of vintage Foveon.

I don't think I've ever seen a successful imitation of Foveon.

Don

Here y'are:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65000409

Yeah, it really does look like a lot of effort. I would try it myself except I use Fuji X-trans, which naturally, isn't Bayer 

Yeah, not all of them necessarily have "the look." But the first sample, with trees and grass, did catch my attention. Even though the resolution is garbage you can see the classic, waxy Bayer greens. And the converted image does appear to have the rich green vibrance that Foveon is good at.

Further WB adustment (which Foveon RAW files need as well) might make it look even better.

Thanks for sharing your results with us! What catches my eye are the reflections on the rear windshield and hood of the trunk in your conversion. As well as the deeper red shade and color shift of the wall. Though that sky is certainly...Something

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.*

You can skip all that work and just compare a Pentax-style pixel-shift image (4 images, shifted a full pixel, so the image is the same pixel dimensions as the regular Bayer image, but full color at every pixel)

I did that a couple of years (and a couple of computers) ago. I got nice crisp images, but somehow not as nice color as a Foveon image. However, as you'd expect, better shadow color.

Probably I could find those images on one of the 10 external HDDs I have laying about.

David

xpatUSA wrote:

D Cox wrote:

Iain G Foulds wrote:

… To my eye, the “after” pictures look nothing like the clean, pure colours of vintage Foveon.

I don't think I've ever seen a successful imitation of Foveon.

Don

Here y'are:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65000409

Nice!

The linked instructions say, "We launch Gimp and open the exported TIFF".  I don't know how to do this. Is this part of Raw Therapee?  Anyone?

Tom Schum wrote:

The linked instructions say, "We launch Gimp and open the exported TIFF". I don't know how to do this. Is this part of Raw Therapee? Anyone?

Tom, in the GIMP prefs, there is an option to define a raw editor that can opened from within the GIMP:

See "Raw Image Importer"

Never used it and have no idea how it works ...

xpatUSA wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

The linked instructions say, "We launch Gimp and open the exported TIFF". I don't know how to do this. Is this part of Raw Therapee? Anyone?

Tom, in the GIMP prefs, there is an option to define a raw editor that can opened from within the GIMP:

See "Raw Image Importer"

Never used it and have no idea how it works ...

Is GIMP something I have to download from somewhere, then set up?

Is GIMP part of Raw Therapee?

Tom Schum wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

The linked instructions say, "We launch Gimp and open the exported TIFF". I don't know how to do this. Is this part of Raw Therapee? Anyone?

Tom, in the GIMP prefs, there is an option to define a raw editor that can opened from within the GIMP:

See "Raw Image Importer"

Never used it and have no idea how it works ...

Is GIMP something I have to download from somewhere, then set up?

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is unrelated to RawTherapee and is totally separate from it. Once downloaded no setting up is required, it's ready to go. Big learning curve - the GUI is quite formidable but there's lots of help available on the web.

You can download it free from here:

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Is GIMP part of RawTherapee?

No.

xpatUSA wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

The linked instructions say, "We launch Gimp and open the exported TIFF". I don't know how to do this. Is this part of Raw Therapee? Anyone?

Tom, in the GIMP prefs, there is an option to define a raw editor that can opened from within the GIMP:

See "Raw Image Importer"

Never used it and have no idea how it works ...

Is GIMP something I have to download from somewhere, then set up?

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is unrelated to RawTherapee and is totally separate from it. Once downloaded no setting up is required, it's ready to go. Big learning curve - the GUI is quite formidable but there's lots of help available on the web.

You can download it free from here:

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Is GIMP part of RawTherapee?

No.

From my limited experience of them, the GIMP is just about usable, while Raw Therapee is not. There are a hundred people who can code an image processing algorithm for every one who can design and code a user interface.

Perhaps a thousand.

Don Cox

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.

xpatUSA wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

The linked instructions say, "We launch Gimp and open the exported TIFF". I don't know how to do this. Is this part of Raw Therapee? Anyone?

Tom, in the GIMP prefs, there is an option to define a raw editor that can opened from within the GIMP:

See "Raw Image Importer"

Never used it and have no idea how it works ...

Is GIMP something I have to download from somewhere, then set up?

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is unrelated to RawTherapee and is totally separate from it. Once downloaded no setting up is required, it's ready to go. Big learning curve - the GUI is quite formidable but there's lots of help available on the web.

You can download it free from here:

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Is GIMP part of RawTherapee?

No.

Thanks, Ted.  I did a web search before reading your post.  At least, now I know what GIMP is.  Hate the name, by the way.