170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.xmp (15.3 KB)
RT version
170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.pp3 (16.7 KB)
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Thanks for sharing, nice challenge!
I wouldn’t denoise that much if it was my image, but since you’re comparing with an LR edit, I used that as reference.
170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.xmp (29.9 KB) (dt 3.2.1)
I wouldn’t do pixel peeping here, decided to go for a clean image here instead of keeping much details.
170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.xmp (10.5 KB, dt3.3)
(Comment applies to the work by member elstoc. Sorry, haven’t figured out how to tie my reply to that posting)
That’s a magnificent effort on the blown highlights - every bit as good as what I can achieve in LR and just way ahead of my results in DT. I 'll look at your xmp to see how you achieved it. Thank you. I’m, somewhat perversely, interested to note that there is still a fair amount of noise left (far less than with my efforts) and you say it is a challenging image in DT, so maybe I wasn’t the complete failure I thought. Even so, my results in LR are, in my opinion, better - and that should not be so, given the far superior set of tools, options and parameters in DT. More thinking for me to do.
(Comment applies to the work by member gadolf. Sorry, haven’t figured out how to tie me reply to that positing)
Wow, I am impressed. Great highlight recovery in all the windows (better than I achieved in LR). The residue of noise in the beautiful mahogany furniture is no consequence to me and better than I achieved in LR, where I tended to end up with a much reduced noise (of both types) but a noticeably plastic look to that wood. You even got the chandeliers to sparkle, doing justice to what was a tiny but super camera, sadly taken without my consent… I must examine your xmp to learn what I can.
You are right - I do remember exposing for the light coming through the East-facing main windows on the thinking that I would lose the interesting pattern of the metal tracery in the windows if I exposed for the interior of the building. I planned to use the ‘shadows’ slider in LR to lighten up the interior and in general this worked well in LR but delivered all that noise.
I am delighted to see all the detail outside the windows magically return - I had forgotten about all that. I also like the appearance of that wood - which is impressive ‘in the flesh’. I see you had a battle with the noise, though you came far closer to victory than I ever did!
I really like what you have achieved in the highlights and the dark wood. Given the amount of residual noise still visible in the plaster work of the roof and walls after such effective noise reduction in the wood, I think I may have been setting my expectations too high. That camera was much loved, but was designed at least 15 years ago, and had a very small sensor which was very noisy, even at 400 ISO (The ‘fastest’ I ever used it).
Just type a “@” before start typing the username and a list of users will show up, then just choose it.
Thanks! Like I said, I still find it a bit overdone, regarding nr, but it’s just an exercise. And, although the recent overhauled denoise profiled tool did most of the work, I still had to enable another denoise tool to start plastifying the image as in LR 
I almost never use this one.
By any chance are you on CHDK?
I love this tiny cameras! especially when powerd by CHDK.
I still have one that I sometimes use, an A3100 IS.
Sadly I no longer have this camera - taken by persons unknown. It went everywhere with me - throughout the world, especially when bike riding, being much favoured over my Nikon D300S because of its weight and size. I replaced it with Powershot G7X Mk II, thinking that this would be at least 10 years better. But the G7 is just too big and heavy for what I need, even if the sensor and processor are better. Don’t know what CHDK is, but assume it is an alternative to Canon’s firmware? Should I be considering this for the G7 ?
Take a look at this interview I made with some of the devs. Not a great piece, as I am no reporter at all 
, but it was fun talking to those hardworking guys:
You should check at their supported cameras list. In my case, the main use was to get access to otherwise hidden raw files (probably G7 already let you grab the raws), but chdk has many other features.
A bracketed double/triple shot (+/- 4 EV overall spread) would have been nice for this specific scene. But that comes with all kinds of assumptions about that being possible at all…
But I think it is always better not to clip the highlights (“pinpoints” notwithstanding).
fabulous work, I’ll be inspecting your sidecar file for sure!
As good a rescue job this is however, I think at 1/100, f7.1 and 400ISO the cautionary tale here is to bracket exposures.
Yes, that is clearly sound advice. I didn’t follow it with this image because I was completely taken by surprise at being able to enter the building with a few seconds to spare before it closed and having no tripod with me (highly inconvenient in a busy central London). The idea of a barketed exposure just never occured to me. I limited my self to ISO 400, this being a camera design which was at least 10 years old when I took the photo. I wanted a good depth of field (for obvious reasons) so ended up with a reasonable shutter duration of 1/100. Even with the IS capability of this camera I shake too much to go much slower and still get a reasonably sharp photo. I’ll make a better job of it next time I visit!
Hmm, yes, an altogether most satisfying restoration of my poor original. I’m keen, as are others, to examine the sidecar file. I would also like to know what ‘ART’ is, that produces the out.arp file. This file format is completely unknown to me.
Hi,
I would also like to know what ‘ART’ is, that produces the out.arp file.
well, since you asked… ART is a variant of RawTherapee, another RAW converter/image processor. More info here: agriggio / ART / wiki / Home — Bitbucket
This file format is completely unknown to me.
It’s the format used to store the processing parameters of ART, like xmp is for darktable and lightroom.
And while I’m at it, here’s my take with ART (I hope you don’t mind). I opted for a slightly less saturated and darker look, that I find more suitable to a church – IMHO obviously.
170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.arp (10.8 KB)
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A new learner’s attempt. darktable 3.2.1, only, using modules tone equalizer, filmic rgb, and denoise (profiled).
170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.xmp (6.5 KB)
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That was fun. After white balance, exposure and Filmic corrections I applied Profiled Denoise and created custom curves in wavelets. I recall seeing a video from @rawfiner where he recommended cranking up the strength and then backing off of the wavelets.
That seemed to work ok for me. From there I played around with Color Balance and some other modules to introduce light split tones and some extra punch.
170322_Waterloo_Bridge_37.CR2.xmp (26.8 KB)
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