DXO and Lightroom

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kowhai

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Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forum so hi, nice to meet everyone.

Now my question.

I am using DXO Pro 5 and Lightroom 2. I want to import images from my 45'D into DXO and let it do lens corrections and sharpening before I import into Lightroom. If I do this does Lightroom sharpen ontop of this, because when I look at an imported image in Lightroom it seems to have a sharpening level of 25 already?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Kowhai 8)
 
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Hello and welcome to the forums from the Wairarapa!!
To help us help you could you please take a moment to fill in your signature in the "userCP' that is found in the nav-bar at the top left of the page - thanks.
What are you sending from DXO to LR? DNG's?
LR will apply default settings unless you set "zeroed" at import. Of course you can rest the settings after import.
I'll let you respond with file type etc and I'm sure one of the other guru's (Hello Victoria) who has experience with DXO will chip in.

Enjoy!
 
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Kowhai, welcome to the forum!

There's a few things you need to be aware of. For a start, a linear DNG that DXO saves is not a standard DNG file - it's a demosaiced file and it's BIG. You'll want to bear that in mind as it'll fill up your hard drive quickly and you won't get the same results from LR with a DXO processed file.

That said, I do the same from time to time, using DNG as an interim file. I've attached the DXO preset that I use, which gives me a result as close as I can get to the raw starting point, but with DXO lens corrections, noise reduction and sharpening applied. It makes minor adjustments to the curves, and drops the saturation back to the original look. You'll then want to turn off noise reduction and sharpening in LR, otherwise you get a very weird look. [ETA can't attach a .dxo or .zip - here's the link instead: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/temp/Match_DNG.zip]

The reason I've done this is simple - I can copy the LR settings back to the original proprietary raw file and get basically the same look without the lens corrections, and delete the interim linear DNG file when I'm done with it. It saves me filling my hard drive with huge linear DNG's. I keep the .dxo sidecar, so if I ever need to recreate the lens corrected version, I can open the original raw file in DXO again, create a linear DNG with the same settings as before, import it to Lightroom, and sync the settings from the other raw file. It's a workaround, no question, but it's a workaround that works quite well.
 
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about DXO and Lightroom...

Kowhai and Victoria,
I've been experimenting with Dx', found this thread and it caught my attention because I've been less than satisfied working with the DNG from Dx' as well. Victoria, your workaround is intriquing but the link you have in the reply leads to "Error 4'4 - Page Not Found".
I thought that the DNG was the way to go as it's still essentially a raw file and, I thought, retained all the original content + the optical corrections of Dx'. Is it more feasible to convert to a tiff from Dx' and import that back into LR?
By the way, Victoria, your LR ebook looks like a great investment.
Thanks,
:)
 
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Doh! The automatic linking picked up the ] at the end. Try this: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/temp/Match_DNG.zip

It sets the curve midpoint to '.95, ups the shadows point on the curves to 1' to stop it blocking the shadows, and reduces the saturation by -15. These settings were for a D3'' - I have to experiment further to check whether it works the same on other cameras too, but it's the right kind of ballpark.

There's 2 flavours of DNG. A standard DNG is still a raw file - raw data directly from the sensor rewrapped in a DNG wrapper. A linear DNG is kind of a cross-between a DNG and a Tiff. There's blurb on it here: http://www.barrypearson.co.uk/articles/dng/linear.htm

DXO has to demosaic the data (i.e. turn it into image data) in order to apply its lens corrections in a way that other programs can read and understand - just the same as DXO can't understand any slider adjustments you may have already done with LR.

I still go with DNG rather than Tiff, because the size is comparable, and LR will let me use a kelvin scale white balance rather the fixed ' white balance point that it uses for Tiffs.

The book - thanks Johnny, I think so! ;)
 
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Hi, this thread reminds me of something I wanted to ask here, but never got around to.

I normally export from DxO as TIF and import the TIF into LR. I was experimenting with DxO and and produced both a TIF and a DNG. On importing both images into LR the TIF looked normal, but the DNG looked extremely oversharpened with white spots on edges.

Are you experiencing the same?
How does LR decide what changes to make to the imported image, by file type, by meta info?

Thanks
Pieter
 
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Turn the sharpening and noise reduction off in LR's Detail panel.

LR is assuming the Tiff is pre-sharpened as it's a rendered file, but assumes the DNG is not as DNG's are usually raw files. So Tiff is getting set to ' by default, whereas the DNG is defaulting to 25.
 
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Kia ora Geoff, it is DNG I'm working in. also I have changed my signature with required info.

Thank You everyone, lots of useful info there. I'm not sure about the huge files that DXO creates as working with normal RAW files is big enough for me :shock:.

The link for the preset is appreciated, I will have more of a play around although I'm only using the demo so might well not continue using it due to the inconsistencies Victoria pointed out. This post processing lark is so complex.
 
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Thanks for the sig info!!

Lots of good info here...... great people too.:lol::lol:
 
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PTLens

:cheesy:
Wow! PTLens looks like a great alternative to Dx'. Am planning to download and try it tonight. It looks like with the $$ saved I can order Victoria's eBook and still have $$ left over. You're a babe Victoria! Thank you , thank you. This forum has improved my workflow and even looks like it's improving my bottom line...
:p
 
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PTLens

I've been using PTLens for the last couple of months and I think it's a great piece of software.
 
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After working with PTLens on a number of photos and playing with a few different scenarios it seems perfectly suited for what I need. All I was using Dx' for was optical correction anyway and after doing result comparisons I can see no advantage in paying $1''+ for Dx'. PTLens even recognized my old original Nikon E25''! The only possible drawback is if someone absolutely feels the need to have a DNG (raw) output.
Thanks all!
:D
 
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Sean Sam Mac;431'8 said:
The only possible drawback is if someone absolutely feels the need to have a DNG (raw) output.
Click to expand...

That's good news Johnny (or is it Sean.... I'm confused!!!)

Being that the DNG output from DXO is a linear DNG rather than a 'raw' DNG, there's not an awful lot that you're losing by going with Tiff instead. There are some technicalities, but at the end of the day, it's a demosaiced file, not the original raw data.
 
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Lightroom and "Smart" object Q's

Thanks for the reply Victoria. It is just plain John, and I'm actually a "Mc" not a "Mac". The nickname stuck from a few years back. As for Sean, it's the Gaelic/Celtic equivalent of John and I was trying to be clever with a moniker... :)
I do have another question concerning your LR ebook. Is there a section that covers "smart" objects such as raw files between LR and PS? In my case actually it would be PSE7, I've added "smart" functionality in Elements with an add-on. I swear, some of this stuff is so over my head trying to grasp it all is a bit daunting! I want to be able to import the raw file as an object in Elements, applying Noise reduction, PTLens corrections and sharpening and be able to import back into LR if that makes sense. Hope this area of the forum is suited for this question...
Thanks. :D
 
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Probably a good one to discuss on the forums John - I don't think anyone's ever asked that before, so it's not in the book (although it might now be in the next one!!!)
 
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