I’ve noticed that the shots taken using the “High-Resolution Shot” mode of the OM-1 look very soft when processed with PL5.
The high-res shot is essentially an in-body combination of 5 to 8 pictures taken in rapid succession with the sensor shifting 1 pixel at a time.
Here is a example of a hand-held-high-resolution shot (HHHR shot) processed in DxO PL5:
More information would be helpful. Can you share a RAW file and its sidecar (.dop)? Or at least share what settings you’re using to develop the RAW file in PhotoLab? (In particular, make sure Lens Sharpness in PhotoLab is enabled and isn’t set low.)
My own experience with HiRes mode is that it’s very effective when one is forced to use a high ISO setting, and the main subject is not moving - - but not much point in good lighting conditions … unless the aim is to enable very large print/output sizes.
All the same, it’s interesting to see your comparative results of a HiRes shot processed with PL vs OM-Workspace … I had not thought to do that !
What do you mean by “low”, Greg ?
I usually go with the default setting for Lens Sharpening … on the basis that it’s determined by the OP module for the {body+lens} combo used for the shot - and, therefore (presumably), the best setting.
What I mean by “low” is reducing the Global slider below 0.00 and maybe the Detail slider below 50 such that the image becomes too soft. Like you, I’m usually happy with the defaults. But some lenses benefit from lowering Global to eliminate artifacts from oversharpening. One can still set it too low and get a result that isn’t sharp at all.
Lens sharpness was left at “vanilla” setting: 0, 50, 50. Adding more sharpness doesn’t seem to yield satisfactory results either.
@John-M I usually use HHHR to get more dynamic range, with this mode I can recover a lot more information from the shadow whilst only have to edit 1 file, so I find it very handy!
I wish PL5 would perform as well as OM workspace, because now I have to have a specific workflow for HHHR files.
Does the OM Workspace apply any type of sharpening by default? I looked at your file in some other RAW converters as well as PL5 and none of them look as sharp as your example from OM Workspace.
The image in PL is 8160x6120. In OW it’s 8180x6132 - not much different. The sharpness difference is due to processing, not actual image detail. (Much of the image is out of focus.) You can get closer to what OW produces by raising the Global setting in Lens Sharpness. However, I believe the optics module for this lens and camera body combo is defective. The problem should be reported to DxO Support as a possible bug. Or perhaps @Marie can help using the image you provided here?
It would also be good to test using a better image that has a lot of fine detail in focus.
Note: I don’t yet have the new AI noise reduction module installed in OW. I don’t know if that will have any further enhancing effect.
I am not familiar with OM Workspace but both Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) and Nikon’s NX Studio apply all the in-camera settings by default so that the starting point for editing tin those programs looks exactly like the straight out of the camera jpegs. I wonder if that is also the case with OM Workspace. That might explain the difference in sharpness @Jibz is seeing. I also looked at the image he uploaded in other raw software and it looked similar to PhotoLab’s rendition.
Additionally this high res feature with pixel shifting may not be available or viewable in 3rd party software. It may require OM Workspace to see its results. I know, for example, that Canon’s DPP software can apply lens optimization to raw files but this feature is not supported by other software.
@rrblint regarding sharpening, in OM Workspace I didn’t edit the picture at all, I just exported it to JPEG without retouching.
@Egregius I tried pushing the lens sharpness sliders to the max, but the image remains very soft, nowhere near the result OM workspace produces. I tried with or without AI noise reduction, it doesn’t have any impact.
Regarding the optics module being defective, I don’t see any problem with the regular non-HHHR shots with this combo (OM-1 + Oly 8-25mm). What makes you say that the module could be defective?
Workspace isn’t showing more detail, it’s just applying more sharpening which increases local contrast. None of the test images in this topic is in sharp focus, though. Can you supply a better hhhr image?
I downloaded the raw-file (not your dop !), opened it in PL5, downloaded & installed the camera/optics module, then made a virtual copy and reset that to no corrections …
Comparing the master with the uncorrected version shows significant improvement through the profile, but only in the pic’s center. Everything else seems to be out of focus.
I come to the same conclusion trying this ORF file for myself in PL and OW. Raising PL’s Lens Sharpness Global adjustment to 3.0 (maximum) comes close to Workspace’s sharpening, which like the in-camera sharpening is aggressive. There is no extra detail in Workspace - just more microcontrast. Overall, the image is only sharp in one area of the rock face, where there isn’t much contrast to begin with. Not a good test image to determine if PhotoLab’s optics module needs improvement (which I still suspect).
Thanks for the feedback, I’ll try taking other HHHR shots to see if there is a lens softness problem. What troubles is that this particular lens (Oly 8-25mm Pro) is usually very sharp when taking regular pictures.
It may be that the process of creating the HiRes shot in-camera (whereby multiple shots are composited into one) is resulting in some softness - because, even in Hand-Held mode, the process does depend on there being very little movement.
Perhaps try a HiRes shot with the Tripod mode - to see if that makes a difference (?)
