DxO PureRAW 5.2.1
This software is absolutely by far the best RAW Denoising and Demosaicing piece of software on the market today. And this latest version includes processing Fujifilm's X-Trans Sensor.
This option is still in the beta stages but it works amazingly well. You can also share your opinion of your results with DxO if you like. Dare I say better than the other Raw processors on the market right now? Hummm - Let's see ...
FULL STOP! DISCLAIMER !!
DxO has asked me to write articles and create videos of their products. I have affiliate links and a discount code for their software which I will post at the end of this article. What does this mean?
It means that I will make a small commission if any of you decide to make a purchase using my affiliate link. I would like you to download their trial software and spend some time working through your own images to really see if any of these products work for you.
For those who do not know me, I have been involved in photography for over 50 years now shooting all kinds of stuff including but not limited to photojournalism back in the film days. When it came to photographing hockey inside those old arenas where the light was very low to say the least, I made it my mission to find the finest grain, high speed, (ISO today but back in the day it was known as ASA) film/developer combination that was available to me back in the 1980's & 1990's.
At first we would push process Kodak Tri-X (ASA 400) but then we tried Fujifilm's Neopan 1600 and eventually Kodak's T-Max 3200 tubular grain film. These were great for photographing indoor sporting events but the grain was somewhat in your face so to speak using the development recommendations from the manufactures.
So I started looking into different film developers and combinations of other chemicals that would result in finer grain. I got some great results combining Edwals's FG7 solution along with some sodium sulphate - 9% sodium sulphate if I am not mistaken.
Needless to say, I have been on the hunt for fine grain, now known as digital noise, for many, many years. When I transitioned to shooting digital, I had to start my search all over again but instead of darkroom chemistry, now computer software.
Over the last 25 years, noise reduction has improved immensely. In the beginning, noise reduction was good at best but better than nothing at all. I have to admit that I have tried most noise reduction software out on the market but none compare to what DxO has come up with.
I started using DxO's PhotoLab version 4 and then moved up to PhotoLab 5 Elite Edition. Then I started looking into PureRAW, version 3 I believe, then version 4 and now version 5.
Not only is PureRAW 5 amazing at noise reduction but also at it's ability to extract detail is second to none that I have found.
ON WITH MY REVIEW ... This image was shot at ISO 6400
I shoot a lot of hockey these days and sometimes in very dimly lit arenas forcing me to crank up the ISO dial more than I like but, DxO's PureRAW 5 handles my Raw files with ease.
Let's take a look at some ...
Here's one thing to take note of; PureRAW only looks at the original Raw file so if you have made edits to either colour balance or brightness and contrast, PureRAW will not recognize those edits. I'll show you that in another article.
NOTE: There are a few different ways to work with the PureRAW 5 software; from within Adobe Bridge, from within Adobe Lightroom, from within the Finder window on Mac and I can only presume the Explorer window on a Windows based machine and as a stand-alone application. In this article I will be using the stand-alone application by launching it from my Dock (on a Mac) which is along the bottom of my screen.
The above screen capture shows the interface once you click on the "Process with Preview" button. In the upper right corner you can see the entire image and then that tiny rectangle in the centre is what we are viewing in this screen. So there is going to be some serious cropping going on later in my image editor.
Notice along the right side of the preview window there is a vertical line - a split window for comparison purposes - at the bottom of that line you will notice some text in a greyed out background. On the left it reads "Original File" and on the right it reads the process version that is being used.
So this is showing what the image looks like before processing ...
and this shows what the image will look like once processed using the default options.
Much cleaner I do believe. Not only is the digital noise gone but also notice that the letters are crisper.
There are three different options to choose from; two for most every camera make and model except for Fuji X-Trans sensors and one specifically for Fujifilm's X-Trans Sensors. Unfortunately X-Trans 5 sensors are not compatible at this point in time but, I am sure DxO will include X-Trans 5 sensors in a future upgrade to their PureRAW application.
As you can see here, I am using an older Mac with slower processor power but if you have a newer machine than I have, your processing times will be much faster than you see here.
The following quoted text is directly from the DxO website ...
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DeepPRIME 3
DeepPRIME 3 is the third generation of our original, groundbreaking technology based on machine learning. Its processing remains a fantastic choice for images where noise must be eliminated and detail enhanced.
DeepPRIME XD2s
DeepPRIME XD2s is the latest generation of our ‘eXtra Detail’ version of our machine learning technology. Built using a larger neural network, it is at the cutting edge of demosaicing and denoising, designed for the most demanding images. Expect photos free from noise, with smoother bokeh, finer textures, and colors that are true to life.
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If you find that the default settings for either or both Luminance Noise Reduction and Force details do not produce acceptable results for you then simply experiment with these sliders to find values that work for your particular camera make & model and lens combination. Once you find settings that you like, make a preset with those "Luminance Noise Reduction and Force details" settings.
Don't forget, default settings are just that, and act as a starting point for your images. I want to encourage you to experiment with these two sliders in order to see the differences based on your Raw images.
As with any camera and lens combination, results will vary. Depending on the lenses you are using you may have to either increase the values from their default setting or decrease them.
For example, if you ar using what is known as a "Kit Lens", you may find that you have to increase the slider amounts because "Kit Lenses" are not known for their high image quality, for the most part.
Ok, so back to examining the various processing options ...
In this screen capture you will notice that the processing method is DeepPRIME XD2s/XD with the Luminance Slider max'ed out at 100 and Forced details is at the default value.
Here I have max'ed out the Force details but unsure if you can see the difference here but if you look close enough you can see the increased detail on the goalie's face just under the nose and in the cuff of the goalie's jersey near the glove. See the arrows and circles indicating the differences. There are more details in the lower image where I set the Force details to 100.
Now let's take a look at DeepPRIME 3 to see what it has to offer ...
In this first image where I have both the Luminance and Force details max'ed out ... I'm not that impressed so let's take things back a bit
Here I have set the Luminance to 40 (the default is 20 I believe) and the Force details goes from -100 to +100 so I choose a value of 40 here as well. No rhyme or reason just 40 is more than 0 and less than 100
And in this image I have used the same values as in the above image but this time using the DeepPRIME XD2s/XD processing option. Let's examine these two highlighted area in all images to see which we prefer. This is objective and your opinions may not align with mine but that's ok as well.
So once you have done some testing to see which slider values work for your images based on camera model and lens combination ( I would test each lens you have for each camera body) and then just create a Preset with these specific values so you can batch process your images all in one go.
To create a Preset simply click on the Preset drop down menu and scroll down to the "Save current settings as a New Preset" option ...
In the resulting dialog you will be prompted to name this new Preset. I suggest you give it a very descriptive name so you know which one to choose from in the future.
In my case here, I named this Preset "XD2s/XD-L-40-Fd-40-LSO-Standard-VCL"
XD2s/XD = Process method
L-40 = Luminance 40
Fd - 40 = Force details 40
LSO = Lens Softness Optimization
VCL = Vignetting - Chromatic Aberration - Lens Distortion
(The Vignetting - Chromatic Aberration - Lens Distortion options are at the bottom of the Optical Corrections section of this panel which is not part of the above screen capture).
I always try to give my presets a descriptive names like this. Once I have tested this software with varying ISO settings, I will include the ISO in the Preset names which will help me choose the correct Preset down the road.
Below is the Masking Panel. This allows you to selectively paint in or mask the area in your photograph you want to have PureRAW 5 to work on. I'll cover this later in a separate article.
This is the third and final Panel in PureRAW 5 - The Output Settings ...
Output file formats include DNG, TIFF (8-bit or 16-bit) and JPG. For JPG you can choose the image quality that suits your needs. There is one other option that is only available to JPG which is "Smart Lighting". This option tries to balance out the lights and darks in your JPG image in an attempt to make your JPGs look great for immediate use which is what DxO is assuming your want - send it out for social media sharing or other similar uses.
It is not offered in DNG or TIFF because it is assumed you are using these file formats for further enhancements in your favourite image editor. I hope this makes sense.
Smart Lighting set to 0 means nothing will be lightened and 100 means full on, which is not much anyways and anything in-between is, well, in-between ...
Destination is self explanatory - basically letting the application know where you want the processed image file(s) to go.
File Renaming is just that and you have the usual choices to select from. In the beginning it would be wise to choose "File Name - Processing Method" so your original file name stays intact with the addition of what process method you have chosen.
This sort of thing can help you when you decide which process methods works best when first exploring the various options for your camera + lens combination.
In order to edit the File Renaming option simply click on the Edit icon to the right of the dropdown menu. Once you do that, you will be presented with the resulting dialog as seen below.
As you can see you have all of the usual renaming choices offered by so many other RAW applications.
Here I have chosen the "File Name-Sequence #" option and in the Composition Field you will notice these two options separated by a dash in computer speak also known as a separator. Those two items in the Competition Field are also known as Tokens.
In order to create your own naming convention, click on an item in the Token section such as "File name" or "Date and counter" or "Metadata" and choose which ever options you want to include in your new file name. The changes will be noted in the dialog so you can see how your files will be renamed.
Once you are satisfied, click on the three dots to the immediate right of the Preset drop down menu and choose "Save current settings as new preset" and click "Save" at the bottom of the dialog.
In order to get rid of any of the Tokens in the Composition Field just click your cursor beside the one you want to get rid of and then click "Delete" and it should disappear from your dialog.
In my case I have chosen to only have the "Filename" Token and have named this new preset "File Name ONLY" and clicked "Save". This option now appears in the File naming list drop down menu.
Conversely, if you do not want to change your file at all, you could just as easily chosen to not highlight the File naming section at all. I hope this all makes sense.
After a while, once you have figured out things for your gear, you may want to stick to just "File Name" as I do at this point. I personally do not like long file names which is why I tend to rename my image files as soon as I transfer them to my hard drive. In the first screen shot of this article you may have noticed this image's file name; 0328-006 and then of course .NEF. I will elaborate on my file naming structure in a future article. If any are interested in learning how and why I use this method let me know in the comments section so I will write about that topic sooner rather than later ...
Export is different than processing and output in that you can choose to export the processed image(s) to your image editor of choice such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, DxO PhotoLab and so on. If you have the latest version of PhotoLab, there would be no point in selecting that option for exporting because the latest version already has the Denoising and Demosaicing features already included.
At this point I choose "Don't Export after processing" but that may change as time goes on.
What I am saying is if you already own the latest version of DxO PhotoLab 8.xxx, you do not need DxO PureRAW 5 as PhotoLab 8.xxx already has this technology in it.
DxO is pretty smart in realizing that not all are willing to give up their favourite image editor, ie Adobe Lightroom for example, so they created this as a Plug-In to add or include into your current workflow.
I hope I have covered off everything needed to start using DxO Pure RAW 5 on your RAW Files ...
Please remember that this is not image editing software but rather Denoising & Demosaicing software. What this means is if your RAW files need either White Balancing or Tonal Adjustments, this will have to be done afterwards in your favourite image editor.
Next I will discuss using this software as a Lightroom Plug-In and how that plays into your workflow.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article I do have an affiliate link below along with a special discount code if you decide to make the purchase after using the 30 day trial. If you decide to take advantage of DxO's 30 day trial offer, please make sure you have some RAW files already chosen to experiment with and that you can safely set aside enough time each week to make use of this software.
If there is one thing I have experienced is, that 30 day period goes by really really fast.
Enjoy ...
Discount Code of 15%: JohnWarren
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