I have to say I was very impressed with some of the .pp3 posted on here in the Revealing more details thread Revealing more refined details using RT
I learned more from these pp3s in an hour than I have learned on my own in months of using RT. The thread was opened for extracting more detail, but the color and overall feel of the image was enhanced beautifully.
My question is, is there a repository for pp3s anywhere?
Not entirely sure what you mean by a repository for pp3s, but you can have a look at the Play Raw section here at pixls:
There will be edits made with other RAW editors as well, but there are a good many excellent RawTherapee edits to be found there and providing a sidecar is a bit of an unwritten rule.
You might also be interested in the material created by Andy Astbury (hi @Andy_Astbury1!). He created a very nice collection of videos detailing varying aspects of RawTherapee. I found those to be very educational
Here’s a link to his YouTube RawTherapee playlist.
EDIT: If you’re just interested in the pp3s posted in the Play Raw section: Search results
Thank you I will look at the videos and links.
@dellaaa - yes I too find that sidecar files is a great way to learn by example. Playraw is great resource for that.
Side car repository - Interesting thought. Could certainly help to supplement the documentation - like DIY samples.
Couple of thoughts on that - Given the extreme variations in picture situations, conditions, equipment and personal tastes the use might be limited though to documenting common use-cases (like darken sky, noise reduction etc). Longeivity of the repository would also have to be considered - if the sidecar file structures undergo changes over longer periods with changes in raw processors like RT or DT then keeping the repository consistent and usable could pose challenges.
Neverthless, I have certainly benefited from studying the sidecar files shared in Playraw.
Yes side cars by categories would be very useful, landscape, reduce noise ect.
PP3s really are helpful to learn by.
@The_Squirrel_Mafia has a .pp3 repo for Pentax. Maybe it also works fine for other brands…
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/misc.php?do=showattachments&t=382982
@arvindppixls.us mentions some very solid points when it comes to having such a pp3 repository.
@dellaaa It is worth looking at the pp3s that Ingo linked to. Do be careful with the dcp files though, they will probably not fit your camera profile. @The_Squirrel_Mafia does have the correct approach in my opinion: Build your own set of pp3s which are tailored to your camera(s)(+lenses) combos.
This is especially true for noise reduction. I started working on a set, they are still in the development/tuning stage and for my Z 6ii but maybe they are helpful, so here they are:
iso.1600.pp3 (701 Bytes)
iso.3200.pp3 (865 Bytes)
iso.4500.pp3 (700 Bytes)
iso.6400.pp3 (679 Bytes)
iso.9000.pp3 (681 Bytes)
iso.12800.pp3 (685 Bytes)
iso.18000.pp3 (560 Bytes)
iso.25600.pp3 (560 Bytes)
iso.36000.pp3 (558 Bytes)
iso.51200.pp3 (776 Bytes)
These influence Demosaicing, Capture Sharpening, Sharpening, Impulse Noise Reduction and Noise Reduction and are supposed to become a solid, auto applied base from which to continue (think: fine tuning and specifically targeted denoiseing using Local Adjustments → Blur/Grain & Denoise → Denoise).
I mentioned Play Raw in a previous reply as a general source for pp3s. Although in general people share nice images to play with, often times people ask help concerning specific issues and it pays to check those out.
The following are a few examples of solutions to some of those issues. These examples are mine and were appreciated by the community, do check for other pp3s as well:
Looking at the other topics might also be worth it:
Do remember one of the things that @arvindppixls.us said in an earlier reply, which is very true:
Given the extreme variations in picture situations, conditions, equipment and personal tastes the use might be limited […]
EDIT: Updated the base noise profiles.
Yes, this is very much a pp3 repository – for a specific hardware. Thanks @heckflosse for pointing out.
A related question - when I view multiple edits suggested for a picture in Play_raw, I sometimes attempt a comparison of what changes each pp3 has made. For this, I load each pp3 file and go through the entire set of filters looking for active ones, etc. This is certainly rewarding, but often tedious especially if multiple RT instances are not opened simultaneously. Is there a better way to compare multiple pp3 files ? I suppose I could look at the standard Linux text file comparison tools of course, but just checking if anything like an app exists within the RT universe or elsewhere. Thanks.
Yes. They’ll work with other cameras. I use the basic ISO PP3 files on the following cameras:
Pentax K-50
Pentax K-3II
Nikon D5200
Nikon D7200
Olympus OM-D E-M1
Olympus OM-D E-M1 III
Sony a7III
These were created with APS-C cameras in mind, particularly the Pentax camera, hence the PP3 files with Pentax colors. I have other color PP3 files for the other cameras.
With the m43 cameras, I’ll occasionally have to go “up” with an ISO. Like if I shot an ISO 12800 image, I might end up using the ISO 25600 file.
With the full frame camera, it’s the opposite. If I shot an ISO 25600 image, I’ll go “down” using the ISO 12800 file & so forth & so on.
You can set up Dynamic Profile Rules & it all becomes as easy as right click, select all, reset to default, send to queue, & let RawTherapee handle it all.
It’s easy to edit the PP3 files. I use Notepad ++ on Windows to edit them. You can do the same with any text editor. And there you have it. 