My landscape photos (taken with Panasonic S5+Panasonic 50mm f1.4) are already very sharp images and Photolab 5 oversharpens them partially (especially the tree bark looks quite bad); even before I start with corrections. I can’t get rid of the over-sharpened areas even when I minimize the micro contrasts. What else can I do to get back the natural texture of the tree bark?
Here is the link to a folder in my dropbox containing the files: Dropbox - PL5 Oversharpening - Simplify your life
The files “Bizarrer Baum im Brander Wald.jpg” & “Bizarrer Baum im Brander Wald_DxO.jpg” were created from the RAW file PIHL5221.RW2 using LR6 and PL5 respectively. After I had made the file Bizarrer Baum im Brander Wald_DxO.jpg I played further with the corrections so that the DOP file contains further steps after compilation of the jpeg file (but I hope you can come back to the correct state using the correction story).
I also added the file PIHL5221.jpeg which is the jpeg file directly from the camera.
For my eyes all the files (but the “Bizarrer Baum im Brander Wald_DxO.jpg”) have a very natural sharpness. I can see PL5 starts sharpening my RAW files before I did any correction. Sometimes (first of all in wide angle shots) the results are still (till pretty) good, sometimes absolutely crazy. And the worst thing is, I can not reset this!
If you are shooting JPEG, the camera may be sharpening the image if you have enabled it, thus PL is sharpening an already sharpened image. If that is the case, either disable sharpening in the camera or switch to shooting RAW images, where no adjustments are made in camera.
Hi Joanna,
I took a RAW file. When I compare the respective Jpeg directly from the camera, a Jpeg created from the RAW file with my old LR6 and the Jpeg crated from the RAW file by the PL5, it is the last one only which has this agly oversharpening which makes the picure look so as it was taken with a smartphone!..
In my experience, many people have different expectations on the appropriate amounts of sharpening an image should have.
I’ve seen countless “finished” images that from my perspective looked undersharpened and dull, and countless others that were so oversharpened they were almost painful to look at. There is no right and wrong here, but a question of personal preferences and the goal of the photograph.
Then too, there is the possibility that PhotoLab does oversharpen images from your particular camera model. Could you upload a high resolution copy of one of those images so we can all take a look?
For my images taken by several different cameras, and hundreds of others images I’ve edited, captured by other people, I do not recall a single incident where DxO oversharpened them using the default Lens sharpness settings.
Besides telling us which adjustments be applied, it would be helpful if he could post an example of an oversharpened image, and most importantly, an upload of the raw file.
We would be able to quickly determine if the issue is his use of PhotoLab, his expectations, or if indeed PhotoLab does oversharpen images from this particular camera model.
I just reviewed your raw file and.dop. I believe the apparent over sharpening you are seeing is a direct result of your use of the ClearView Plus haze removal tool, which is set at its default value of 50. Try lowering the value to around 15, or deselect that feature altogether. I would also select the Micro Contrast magic wand to change the value back to the default of 16 for this image. I find ClearView Plus useful for situations other than haze removal, but the value must be set carefully since it can easily be over applied, as it was for this image.
Hi
I don’t see too many artifacts on my tablet on the dxo processed file, but for sure the right amount of sharpening is not an universal shared value… and also depends on the use on the image (screen, ink printer, other printer,…).
As far as I am concerned, i use less and less clearview plus on the full image, but with local adjustment if needed. And never on portraits. And never on skies.
I suppose the default setting is to impress with the function but it is definitely to high.
So good news for Vladislav : it will be easily solved by a user setting.
PhotoLab’s interface is fairly straightforward for new users, but there is a learning curve necessary to understand the subtleties of using the tools in conjunction with each other. I’ve been using it now for over 4 years and I’m still learning.
Hi Mark,
thank you again!
I had been pretty happy with my LR6 standalone version but now I‘d like to try out a software with more tools for corrections of my photos. I’m a hobbyist and photograph mainly landscapes.
I‘ve been testing a trial version of PL5 since a few days only but I‘ve already have an impression the PL5 has not only more tools in comparison to my old LR6 but also enables me to better final image quality (and I don’t mean here less noisy high ISO photos as I use Topaz Denoise which performs equally well; it’s rather more details in most scenes (but not so contrasty and more natural what I value a lot).
But I wonder how well the current PL5 would perform compared to more modern LR Classic and C1 22.
What is your long-time experience with the PL? Has the PL replaced by you all other Raw convertors and why?
Hi Joanna,
Sorry, I’m a green beginner with the program and I have a problem with opening your corrections.
What I have done was renaming your DOP file, renaming a copy of my RAW file accordingly and saving your renamed DOP file in the same folder on my PC. Then I opened the renamed RAW file in PL5 but I couldn’t see any corrections.
What do you think was my mistake?
The RAW file name is embedded in the DOP. The best thing to do is to copy both your original RAW file and my DOP into another folder without changing their names.
