While waiting for a smartphone/dng solution from DXO PL

[Joachim (Joachim Seehusen)]

Converting to tif is popably the simplest solution, but then we will lose the possibility to use prime and deepprime noise reduction. Since the small smartphonesensors more often than not requires noise reduction this is perhaps not a good solution.
Other software? I have tried Darktable and Digikam, but I am not very comfortable with the UI of any of these two.
So, how do you all handle your dng files from your phones, while waiting for the upgrade that will solve this issue?
Regards from Oslo, Norway

[herman (Leica M9 | iPhone 16 Pro | iMac M1 | PL6, FP, VP | Photo Supreme)]

For anything not supported by PhotoLab I use Qimage Ultimate: link.

Although (for me) it is primarily a printing utility it does a pretty good job on raw conversion.

[Mike1]

Personally I use LightZone - free, opensource, and available for Windows Mac & Linux.

But I’d still prefer to use DxO.

[HamsterDR (David Redfearn)]

If you are using a Mac (or iOS device) you might want to try out RawPower (on the Apple Mac and iOS Stores). It handles the Apple Pro RAW (DNG) files very nicely - and has a “Local tone Map” adjustment tool. I find that my iPhone 12 Pro Max RAW images benefit from backing off a bit with this control.

David

[Joachim (Joachim Seehusen)]

Thank your for this suggestion - but I am on a windows computer. Hopefully the DXO team will serve us a solution in the near future. We have been waiting quite long, and the smartphone cameras get better and better.

[pierre5018 (PIERRE LABRECHE)]

I found that if the samsung exif camera and model data are modified the raw file becomes readable by Photolab.

Changing the exif parameters create “spoofed” versions of dng files,replacing camera make and model. The created dng files can be developed using Photolab 4.
Both methods override the camera make and model to “Apple” and “Apple iPhone 8 Plus” .

Method 1 : Use a command line tool. exiftool -m -Make=“Apple” -Model=“iPhone 8 Plus” -o %d%f_spoof.%e FILE …

Method 2 : Use Exif Pilot to edit the metadata fields in the graphical user interface.

Tested on dng images from Samsung phone models S8 and S20 5G.

[Joachim (Joachim Seehusen)]

That’s grate news. I’ll give it a try during the weekend. Thank you for sharing.

[Mike1]

@pierre5018

I found that if the samsung exif camera and model data are modified the raw file becomes readable by Photolab.

Good find! I’ve tested it and it also works with non-Samsung Android phones too.

For ExifToolGUI the command required is -exif:Make="Apple" -exif:Model="iPhone 8 Plus"

And if it’s that easy, it does raise the question of why we’ve been waiting since June 2018 for generic Android DNG support…

[pierre5018 (PIERRE LABRECHE)]

To readers of this post : please consider voting for the following items related to dng files

Dng file format : Samsung Galaxy S8, ... S20 phones

Generic support for Android DNG images has been in the backlog since at least June 2018, and has been raised multiple times before and since then. I first raised it myself on the old forum, either in early 2016, or at the end of 2015. Despite being ‘under development’ last March, it seems it still hasn’t made it into Version 4. Which is very disappointing. So, I’m voting in support of your request.

Process by Nik collection: allow DNG support with options for corrections

The advantage is that DNGs produced by PL appear to be more compact than TIFs, and DXO already supports output to DNG with just optical corrections and denoising (HQ, Prime, DeepPRIME). A workflow via DNGs is the preferred route if multiple images are derived from a raw file. The long process of demosaicking and denoising is performed once, with optical corrections saved to a DNG. From there, a user could continue editing in PL, or invoke external programs accepting DNG. For example Picture …

[Swingman]

I downloaded the Windows version and the help file on how to use it extremely complicated. In my case I would like change camera model name from Z fc to Z 50 so that I can use the Z 50 profiles for the raw files. As there are lot of files, can I use this tool to batch process all raw files in one sub-directory? If you have already used it to modify files, what is the exact syntax to carry out a batch process to change model name?
Regards

[Deneice (French photographer | PL7, Film Pack 6 and NIK 7 suite user)]

Same for me with android raw, DNG and old raw that DXO doesn’ t support and in this case I switch to ON1 Photo Raw that support lot of formats and keep support on old cameras or exotic ones.

[UMH]

Hello

I want to process a DNG file which
easily can be processed in Lightroom. So it should not be corrupted!?`

After command

-exif:Make=“Apple”
-exif:Model=“iPhone8Plus”`

I got following error message

======== ./20221217_104406.dng

0 image files updated

1 files weren’t updated due to errors

Warning: SubIFD BitsPerSample should have 3 values - ./20221217_104406.dng

Error: [minor] Undersized SubIFD StripByteCounts (230400 bytes, but expected 345600) - ./20221217_104406.dng

<-END-

What is the problem?

[pierre5018 (PIERRE LABRECHE)]

This is a problem I already reported, but the author of exiftool won’t fix it.
refer to Error reading image data when writing dng files from phone Samsung S20 5G

First process your file using Adobe DNG converter, the output can be tweaked using exiftool.
Or use ExifPilot

[UMH]

Hello Piere
Thank you for your quick response!
ExifPilot works fine. But having entered and stored “Apple” and “Apple iPhone 8 Plus” still leads to refusal through PL6. May be it relates to other EXIF data like UniqueCameraModel=SM-G781B (Samsung) or Software=G781BXXU4GVK6. But both of it I could not edit with ExifPilot .
I wish you a happy Christmas
With best Regards
Uvo

[pierre5018 (PIERRE LABRECHE)]

Try without the string "Apple " in the phone model string.

Happy new year

[UMH]

Thanks, happy new year as well!
PL6 still refuses to open dng file and to reduce noise/ to deep prime