dlRaw

Hi folks, 

just a few lines, to give you an impression of the next step for LabCurves (16 bit L*a*b* curves for GIMP).

Since a link to LabCurves is always followed by a link to L*a*b* color space basics, people seem to have troubles with this color model. Although it is very powerful for image enhancements it is rather unintuitive. Working with the luminance L* is still ok, but working with a* and b* seems more or less try and error.

So, here is an approach towards usability with L*a*b*: a saturation curve which will work relative to the luminance or relative to the hue. I hope this will be easier to handle than a* and b*. And since harsher saturation adjustments are prone to banding anyway, they will profit from the 16 bit in LabCurves.

It is still work in progress, so you still have to wait a few days... The image edited in the screenshots is a 8-bit jpeg, after some minor luminance adjustments you can see the effect of the saturation curve; one image plain, one image with adaptive saturation and one with absolute saturation applied. The x-axis corresponds to the hue (which is not yet reflected in the GUI), starting with red on the left side.

Enjoy your weekend, 

greets mike

EDIT: Added a newer screenshot.

Hi folks,

since I got some comments and mails about installing the dlRaw preview on linux:

Please make sure, you have all listed packages installed, and follow the instructions closely. Up to now, all such problems could be solved like this

greets mike

Hi folks,

a few days ago Jacek Góźdź released a new version of his DCB demosaicing algorithm. I've already been a fan of the former method, but the new one is even better. Less artifacts and it computes faster (since less refining steps are needed). Additional there is a new denoiser (joint work with Luis Sanz Rodríguez), which works on the Bayer pattern, so the noise won't be amplified with the demosaicing.

Of course it cannot do wonders, but the results even on high ISO pictures are very good. I don't know any open source alternative which is on par with it... So, if you're looking for really high quality output, you should give it a try

greets mike

Hi folks,

so do you still like the new year At least we got snow during the last days, so outside it is white and not the usual grey... But both situations allow nice shots, so how do you like mine?

Of course there are some other news. I've implemented Jpeg and Tiff support, with 16 bit, fully color managed and of course with exif support. So it will be possible to use one program for all photos and to work on 8 bit files with 16 bit precision (to loose as little as possible). For me there are more reasons why a RAW converter should support Jpeg and Tiff.

First it allows retouching already processed photos and many people like to (or even have to) shoot Jpeg anyway. Furthermore colors are a big issue with non supplied RAW converters since the algorithms of the camera producers are kept secret. So many people like to process their RAWs first in the supplied tool (for the best color rendering), but these are usually not very feature rich... Last thing, if you use film cameras and scan your images afterwards, you also won't have RAWs... From another perspective, this will hopefully help to enlarge the user group (once it is released) and this will help the project.

So stay tuned for the upcoming developments,

greets mike