[Play Raw] Calke Abbey Church Window

Bit different. I have a Nikon V1 and tried a day out with it. Took 2 shots to get an exposure that stood a chance.
This is pretty realistic other than the surround and frame are darkened down compared with an eye view.

DSC_0282.NEF (13.0 MB)

Poor angle to take the shot at but had to rest the camera on the back of a pew.

John

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The version I wasn’t keen on. :wink: Walls need painting for instance.

John

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Nice to have something different :slight_smile:. Good shot from a little camera.

Every stain-glassed window tells a story: do you happen to know it? And what is that rectangular prism at the top of the right panel? Looks like an awkwardly placed microwave oven :rofl:.

Thanks. No takers though. I’m uploading another version of it as I am not sure which version I posted and am having some problems with KDE 5 colour management. This is the version I used to check what is actually using my monitor profile.

Edit - Good I can see what I expected to see. Some desktop apps are showing less saturation even with colour management installed.

John

Here I tried to get a smoother azure glass image by disabling the input color profile during processing in RawTherapee.

DSC_0282.NEF.pp3 (12.4 KB)

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@Ajohn I will play with this eventually :slight_smile:. There is a shot of the same window on Wikipedia: File:Calke Abbey Church Window.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. It is public domain.

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Finally found the time and energy to do another PlayRaw. I am guessing that the panes tell the story of the magi from afar traveling to celebrate the birth of Jesus. That is the focus of my take on the raw. The crop also includes the upward and downward tips of the leaflet panes. Processing:

  1. PhotoFlow (options: stable; output: linear_gamma)
    a) Lens correction, no color profile.
    b) Perspective correction, crop.

  2. gmic
    a) Gamma and curve adjustments on D50 L*, append channel with D65 a*b*.
    b) Sharpening using wavelet details and grain merging (like samj_Wavelet_Sharpen_Test).

  3. PhotoFlow (linear_gamma)
    a) Final crop
    b) Final output (seemed necessary to get colors right).




Edit: Similar to the first take but with a more streamlined process and slightly better crop.

When I took the shot there was an attendant there. Maybe that’s why I caught the candlesticks and the wiki didn’t. The colours of that and mine are pretty accurate but I’d say the wiki one has been pushed a bit more than mine. That’s probably down to me bringing up the window frame more.

Actually I expected that there may be some colour problems as it was shot with a Nikon. There only seems to be one package that supports Nikon raw development and that is ufraw. It has the ability to apply a curve to the raw file before the usual one might be used. Get this curve right and it tends to correct colouration. This is a screenshot of it with the curve I chose to use selected… The rest is reset and all settings as per the camera.

It always amazes me that the people who produced ufraw added this panel as nikon raw needs it yet no other package I am aware of includes it. Another method some people use is to use nikon’s software and search for the profile in temp or use adobe’s. The Nikon profile taken from temp can be a mixed bag so it’s not that unusual for Nikon shooter to use Nikon’s software to develop and then export.

This particular curve is only available from the internet archive now. There are others about on the web but mainly for when they are loaded into the camera

Doh - Forgot to reset of all ufraw settings - there is a slight contrast increase. Also didn’t mention that I worked from the camera jpg in RT as while ufraw did get the correct red’s blue are off. Colours aren’t totally correct in the jpg either.

John

That blue part is interesting, I’m not experienced enough to know what is going on.


Instead of disabling the input color profile, I enable Darktable’s “unbreak input profile” module.

Still a bit blotchy

Definitely a problem with the color profile. I used a linear profile in darktable. I like these color. The blue is still poor.


DSC_0282.NEF.xmp (12.2 KB)

DSC_0282_01

A philosophical question:
Is it good that the color is good-looking or color of the original object?

I would like to answer philosophically: That depends on your goal in photography. If you want to document a subject, the colors should be as lifelike as possible.
In art, on the other hand, (almost) everything is permitted… :art:.

Contra-metaphysically, it’s good to start with a faithful rendition, as a point of departure for art. :rofl:

I started by assuming this was another instance of extreme blue rendering shenanigans like we’ve seen in a few recent threads, but it then occurred to me there may be color gradations in the stained glass. So, rather hard to tell from the presented evidence…

My take using RawTherapee. You need a development build for the attached pp3 file.
I went for fine details while keeping flat areas smooth.

DSC_0282.jpg.pp3 (10.9 KB)

And my take

DSC_0282-3.jpg.out.pp3 (11.3 KB)

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@gaaned92 very nice! I saw you also used AMaZE+VNG4 but stayed with camera white balance. I used a different white balance because I think the white balance measured by camera does not really reflect the white balance of outside the church, which imho is relevant for the colours in the window.

Indeed, a good example of AMaZE+VNG4 at work. It was hard to tame the colours in my entry. I might try again later (when @Carmelo_DrRaw finds the time to integrate AMaZE+VNG4 into PF :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:).

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@heckflosse AMAZE+VNG4 is a must!
Regarding the white balance, I agree with you, but was unable to decide what would bring more accurate colors (without some reference). And was pleased by the cast sent by the window on the walls.


DSC_0282_rt2.jpg.out.pp3 (11.1 KB)

A theological answer: Never mind the “virginity”, it was invented by evil old men, not by Me. People are meant to make love.

The other function of the virgin birth was to hide Jesus from the evil men but they killed him anyway approx 30 years later.