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RAW Conversion: Adobe Camera RAW vs DXO Optics Pro
The choice of RAW conversion technique can have a significant effect on every aspect of image quality:
- Color — even at the same white balance and tint, the output from different RAW converters can be very different in color balance and color saturation.
- Contrast — an “as shot” or default setting can result in a subtle to markedly different tonal distribution.
- Noise — sharpening and processing algorithms can reduce or increase the appearance of sharpness.
- Sharpness — sharpening algorithms can produce a crudely harsh look, a finely detailed but grainy look, or anything in-between. Effects can be global, or vary by image constant throughout the frame.
- Distortion — can be corrected by choice or implicitly with no choice, and when corrected is not necessarily the same with two different converters.
- Vignetting/HDR — affects the light/dark balance of the image globally (by location) and/or by localized tone adjustment.
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Diglloyd Making Sharp Images articulates years of best practices and how-to, painstakingly learned over a decade of camera and lens evaluation.
Save yourself those years of trial and error by jump-starting your photographic technical execution when making the image. The best lens or camera is handicapped if the photographer fails to master perfect shot discipline. High-resolution digital cameras are unforgiving of errors, at least if one wants the best possible results.
- Eases into photographic challenges with an introductory section.
- Covers aspects of digital sensor technology that relate to getting the best image quality.
- Technique section discusses every aspect of making a sharp image handheld or on a tripod.
- Depth of field and how to bypass depth of field limitations via focus stacking.
- Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
- MTF, field curvature, focus shift: insight into the limitations of lab tests and why imaging performance is far more complex than it appears.
- Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
- How to test a lens for a “bad sample”.
Intrigued? See Focusing Zeiss DSLR Lenses For Peak Performance, PART ONE: The Challenges, or (one topic of many) field curvature.