Kevin Merchant Photography News - 2022

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, even though I'm a day late.

This week I finally completed processing images from 2019, currently sitting in the NEW section of the GALLERY, and soon to be moved to the NEW > 2022 section as the year draws to a close. A very large addition of bluebirds has been added due to a very successful series of day trips to Ellensburg.

During the course of processing the bluebird images, I happened across a fellow photographer's blog entry that included a discussion of a relatively new software application from DxO called PureRAW 2, released earlier this year. In his case, he was singing the praises of how well the software rendered Canon R5 images, as compared to Adobe Lightroom. The software can be used as a standalone app or as a Lightroom plugin. I was intrigued so I downloaded PureRAW 2 to use on the 30 day trial, with no restrictions/limitations to see how well the plugin integrated with Lightroom.

In addition to seeing what it brought to the table in terms of processing images, I wanted to see how well it would fit into my workflow. Let me discuss the workflow first, because it can be very annoying if you have to drastically change it in order to use a piece of software. To be sure, this software has its own way of doing things, some of which cannot be adjusted to my own personal preferences.

By default, PureRAW will create a DxO folder inside the original image folder. This can be customized to route resulting image files to a location of your choosing, but then it becomes a case of "How do i manage the resulting files?". By this, I mean "How do I then manage my backups?. I have chosen to use the default. This keeps the resulting output file on the same hard drive as my master file.

The output file can be either in JPEG or DNG format. The only choice for me, and why I decided to use PureRAW, is DNG which I will discuss below.

PureRAW provides a way to do some customizing of the resulting file name with at least one notable and annoying exception - it defines the file name to be Image Name plus File Extension. At least in my case, I don't care about keeping the File Extension part of the file name, and am forced to edit the file name once the process is completed. But, considering what is gained, I can live with this nuisance.

With PureRAW, I noticed that when the plugin would re-import the resulting DNG file, all of my custom metadata was missing. My first workaround was to Remove the new DNG file from Lightroom and Import it again. This picked up the metadata that I globally apply to all images that are imported. It did not, for example, capture all of the keywords that had been applied to the original image. For that, I had to go back and re-enter it all. This solution had the feel of a showstopper. With some sleuthing I was able to find a solution on a DxO user forum. It has to do with the fact that PureRAW carries forward only the metadata contained in the RAW file unless there is an XMP sidecar file. If an XMP sidecar file exists, the metadata is included, otherwise it is not.

What is an XMP sidecar file? Before Lightroom existed, custom metadata could be added to RAW image files with a sidecar file using the XMP file format. With Lightroom, the same metadata is held in the Lightroom database and when you Export an image, the metadata is embedded in the file. As an option, you can enable Lightroom to create sidecar files for every image that you import, but I have this disabled for two reasons - 1) you double the number of files and 2) every time metadata is changed, the XMP file is updated. At least for me, the separate sidecar files are a messy and unnecessary way to handle custom metadata.

Back to my workflow discussion - if I create a sidecar file with all of my custom metadata, PureRAW picks it up and includes it in the resulting DNG file. This saved a lot of extra work that I was visualizing having to do. My resulting workflow is that I have to Save Metadata to File in Lightroom before launching PureRAW. In the end, I do not intend to keep the sidecar files so I do have to go back and delete them.

One other nuisance is that every time PureRAW processes an image, the result is put into a Lightroom Collection. For the most part, I do not use Lightroom Collections and so I end up deleting each of the collections.

Now, what does PureRAW do for you that Lightroom does not? DxO has developed a noise reduction and sharpening technology called DeepPRIME, that includes machine learning (AI). In the cases that I have used it for, it does a much better job of noise reduction and sharpening than Lightroom. This alone makes it worth using. In addition, DxO has a vast library of lens and camera profiles that allow for optical, vignette and aberation corrections (much larger than that offered by Adobe).

The processing elements that PureRAW executes (noise reduction, sharpening, optical corrections) DxO refers to as linear operations. This matters because the resulting image data can be stored as a linear DNG. I didn't even know that linear DNG was a thing. What this means is that a linear DNG file can be processed as though it is still RAW since none of the non-linear adjustments such as white balance, exposure, highlights, shadows, saturation and other adjustments have been made yet. To me, this is what makes PureRAW so appealing.

For now, PureRAW 2 is giving me better results than Lightroom does alone. I made the purchase.

Starting back in 2009 I added a NEW section to the GALLERY to show off what was being added as time went forward. Whenever one of the NEW uploads became more than a year old I deleted the folder, figuring a year was long enough for people to see. While upgrading the GALLERY to Piwigo in 2020, I decided to add back all of the deleted folders to NEW, grouped in the year they were uploaded, to give a glimpse of what I have been shooting over the years - a time capsule as it were. I have now completed the task of uploading all of the years from 2009 to 2020.

As of last week, I completed a multi-year project of image resizing for the GALLERY. What was originally a 3678 image project turned into 5709 images. I worked my way through each digital camera body with images taking me all the way back to 2005 and forward to 2017, when I had adopted a larger size for web use.

In the beginning, I worked on this project off and on as time allowed. Last summer I decided to dedicate my time to it so I could finally finish it off. Well, as I have mentioned before I have been fulfilling a promise to a friend that only began taking much less of my time in June of this year. I have had my head down working solidly on this project since then.

Perhaps one benefit of this project dragging on is that new software appeared on my horizon and I finally took the plunge to use it. Since the beginning of my use of DSLR's, I have chosen to use a noise reduction product called Neat Image. At the time that I chose Neat Image it came with high recommendations for reducing digital noise (and still does). For some time now, I had seen and read about Topaz Labs and their DeNoise AI product. It had gotten very high recommendations on several nature photography web sites that I frequent. Of course, AI is all the rage in just about everything digital. In the case of noise reduction, this product performs especially well for wildlife photography. The short story is that it has allowed me to utilize a large number of images that I might have otherwise passed over because of digital noise and/or less than sharp focus. It does a great job in both cases and for a lot of wildlife images, it is just what you need. It proved especially valuable for the images made with my Canon 1D Mark III and its 10 megapixel image resolution. I highly recommend it especially for wildlife photography.

For now, I'm glad to be done with this project so that I can get back to processing newer images.

As evidenced by the lack of entries for last year, there was a dearth of photographic activity. The year started out promising with a couple of productive trips to Fir Island for short-eared owls. There were thoughts of getting out to Grays Harbor for the shorebird migration in April/May. But life has a way of interrupting plans. I have been involved in some personal business that has occupied much of my time and will for the forseeable future. Let's say that I am fulfilling a promise to a friend and leave it there.

With the computer woes experienced in late 2020 and early 2021, I broke down and ordered a new computer system from a local company, Puget Systems, who builds computers tailored to the needs of, but not limited to, photographers. Although, for the last 30 years or so, I have primarily built my own systems. The supply chain disruptions in all things electronic were a major factor in my thinking; best to choose someone who deals in such issues on a daily basis and also keeps up with the latest technology choices. I was told that it could take 6 weeks for the system to ship because certain components were not available. It did. But, it was definitely worth the wait. If money is no object, I highly recommend them.

Shortly after receiving the new system, I entered the world, kicking and screaming, of subscription service for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. With the new Canon EOS R5 camera, there was little choice since LR6 did not and never will support it. Perhaps I will make enough use of the R5 this year that it is worth the upgrade. For now, my universe is a better place with working equipment and software.

I wish you all a Happy New Year.