Converting from PV2010 to PV2012

[MarkNicholas]

Since upgrading from LR3.6 to LR4.1 I have not been able to resist the temptation to play around with my older photos and see what they look like in PV2012.

As suggested by others I have not carried out a mass conversion. I have treaded carefully and am running through them one by one. Here are my experiences so far after having converted around 400 photos.

I select the photo I want to upgrade and press the large asterisk next to the photo, and I have selected the compare side by side option and only convert that photo and not all photos in the filmstrip.

Probably around 60% of photo conversions result in a lighter less contrasty photo. For these, usually auto-tone gives quite a pleasing result and often results in a closer match to my PV2010 rendition. The auto-tone is a good place for further development. I note that the initial conversion tends to bump up the exposure slider but not the white slider. The auto-tone tends to reduce the exposure but bump up the whites.

Of the remaining 40% probably 30% result in a close match with PV2010 but again the white slider is often way to the left. The remaining 10% end up significanty darker after converting.

The clarity slider is much more powerful in PV2012. Some portraits which had -40 in PV2010 had to be adjusted to -15 or -20 in PV2012. Also, the auto lens profiles seems to make a larger and more accurate adjustments in PV2012 than in PV2010. Is this a known upgrade ?

There does not appear to be any significant change with sharpening and noise reduction. The PV2012 settings are pretty close to the PV2010 settings.

So far I am very pleased with the results. The PV2012 results in a more pleasing result than those previously created with the PV2010 engine. The changes are subtle rather than dramatic. I have not yet come across a photo where I was more pleased with the PV2010 version but I really had to work hard on a couple of photos to avoid this Probably not all of this is down to PV2012, part is probably down to my own improved conversion skills (since some of the photos in PV2010 were rendered quite a while ago).

A word of warning. If you are going to embark on this per photo conversion exercise for a significant number of photos then you really need to one of those people that enjoys playing around in LR. If you aren't and consider RAW conversion to be a necessary evil then you are in for a very long and hard slog ! Personally I find it quite theraputic to convert say a dozen photos just before going to bed. If often ends up being being a couple of dozen or more !

 

[Mark Sirota]

Great observations, Mark. I agree wholeheartedly. The areas that I find PV2012 to be vastly superior are those shots that are "tonally challenged", like an underexposed subject in front of an overexposed background, or those that need significant highlight color recovery.

But in addition to those special cases, I do find PV2012 just plain faster to work with. I get a good result in less time per photo than with PV2010.

To answer your question about lens corrections, there are some slight differences in the algorithms employed, but the profiles would need to be updated to take advantage of the new algorithms. I don't believe that's happened with the existing profiles, though I could be wrong. Can you be more specific about the differences you see?

 

[MarkNicholas]

To answer your question about lens corrections, there are some slight differences in the algorithms employed, but the profiles would need to be updated to take advantage of the new algorithms. I don't believe that's happened with the existing profiles, though I could be wrong. Can you be more specific about the differences you see?

It could just be my perception but it does appear that the adjustments made in PV2012 are more extensive than in PV2010. I will have another look tonight to see if I can make a direct comparison. I do agree that the new sliders make adjustments quicker although I am still getting used to them. I am still struggling a little with the whites slider. I can never quite work out whether to keep sliding to the right until just before it clips or whether to pull it back a little.