Challenge! Digital Darkroom Derby #120 (closed, results posted)

[WhidbeyLVR]

Start Date

May 17, 2023

End Date

May 21, 2023

This is Digital Darkroom Derby #120, a digital image editing/processing challenge.

Please read the rules here. Short version: Host provides the challenge image and selects the winner, who then becomes the next host.

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Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux. And, YES -- that's my finger. Deal with it!

Taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M5ii and the Bower (Samyang) 7.5mm fisheye lens.

You may go as far down the rabbit hole as you wish with this one. Or not. I am providing raw and jpg files for a 3-shot exposure bracketed set. Use any or all. De-fish or don't.

Please have fun!

The RAW and JPG files are here.

The challenge will close at 12:00 Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday, May 21st. Enjoy!

 

[betamax]

I wonder why someone (LR, Capture One, DXO, ACDSee,On1 etc) don't have a defish tool in their apps. I know folks here speak highly of hugins, but it does not like me and took me several goes including this one (not in contest)

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Before finally getting it right.

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So, #1 above - merged all 3 orfs in ACDSee (trial version) and processed it to my likes. Then into Hugins. Then straightened it a little and adjusted perspective in Capture One 22. Then Denoise AI for final polish.

 

[Herbert Hound]

Enrty #1. No de-fishing, but I HDR merged the under and mid exposed. Basic exposure tweeking plus lightening the blue sky and adding warmth to the church. Over to PS to remove the finger and the top left and right intrusions, then back to LR for more sky lightening, a vignette and a frame.

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[Herbert Hound]

Entry #2. Crop and exposure tweaks...

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[Peano]

Not competing ... this one is pretty dicey using old Photoshop CS6.

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[BosseBe]

Made corrections to the middle file in DxO without any defishing, then copied those corrections to the other pictures and sent hem to Aurora HDR as DNG file for merging.
Then back to DxO as a TIFF for defishing (@betamax defishing tool in DxO can be found under Geometry Distortion, you can choose between Barrel, Pincushion and Fisheye).
Entry #1:

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[BosseBe]

B&W from the above.
Entry #2:

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[WhidbeyLVR]

I wonder why someone (LR, Capture One, DXO, ACDSee,On1 etc) don't have a defish tool in their apps. I know folks here speak highly of hugins, but it does not like me and took me several goes including this one (not in contest)

DxO PL6 has fisheye correction in the Geometry tab. In the Distortion panel, select "fisheye", then set the Intensity (83% in this example). You can then do perspective correction using your usual methods.

If anyone is interested in the Quick-n-Dirty hugin approach, I can show that, too.

 

[BosseBe]

DxO PL6 has fisheye correction in the Geometry tab. In the Distortion panel, select "fisheye", then set the Intensity (83% in this example). You can then do perspective correction using your usual methods.

View attachment 388463

If anyone is interested in the Quick-n-Dirty hugin approach, I can show that, too.

I'd really like to see a Hugin approach as I always struggle to get things done in Hugin.
Thanks Lyle @WhidbeyLVR!

 

[WhidbeyLVR]

hugin example

1. Open hugin, set the interface to "Advanced", and load your images
2. Set "Lens Type" ("Full frame fisheye"), focal length (7.3mm works better than 7.5mm), and crop factor (2 for m43)
3. Click "Align"
   
   
4. Select your output projection on the "Projection " tab.
   Try "Panini General" first and experiment with others later.
   The "Cmpr" slider will adjust from rectilinear (0) to extreme Panini edge compression.
   
   
5. On the "Move/Drag" tab, adjust your view.
   Drag the image up to straighten horizon if desired. Right-click-and-drag to rotate the view
   
   
6. Adjust crop in the "Crop" tab
   
   
7. Go to "Assistant" tab and click "Create panorama..."
8. On the "Stitcher" tab, optimize the size. Select desired outputs.
   (Select remapped images, no correction, if you want to use another HDR program).
   Click "Stitch!"
   
   

 

[betamax]

DxO PL6 has fisheye correction in the Geometry tab. In the Distortion panel, select "fisheye", then set the Intensity (83% in this example). You can then do perspective correction using your usual methods.

Much appreciated Lyle as I didn't realise DXO had defishing. Will give that a go! Thanks for the hughin tutorial too, very informative!

 

[betamax]

#2 - wasn't happy with the hDR merge so redid it in Capture One, then into hugin for defishing..

 

[Stiga]

#1 All 3 images > Pl6 (denoise and lens correction only > Blended output in SNS-HDR > Back into PL6 to correct fishyness > PS/ADR to wrap it up

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[kae1]

Entry #1 Used middle exposure then DXO PL5, Elements, and DeNoise

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[kae1]

Entry #2

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[RobD]

#1. merged all 3 in Aurora, then ACR & PS

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[gecko]

I have not entered the Challenge for quite a while now (much too old!) but I could not resist this one. My aim was simply to see how well I could correct the geometry. I tried using DxO PL5 but failed miserably. I then tried PS Element and ultimately got better results. I used the Correct Camera Distortion filter (Remove Distortion and Vertical Perspective) iteratively (many iterations, as the maximum effects were much too small) until I got what looked to me to be more or less reasonable results. I did not try to get the best editing as my aim was simply to see what I cold do with the geometry.

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A crop:

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[WhidbeyLVR]

The challenged now is closed to further entries. I'll post results soon.

 

[WhidbeyLVR]

As always, many thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge! I think there may have been more variety in the resulting images than in any recent challenge I have hosted, which is good.

I wanted to see how folks would choose to deal with the exposure bracketing/HDR, the very bright cloud edges, the fishiness, perspective distortion, and (of course) my errant finger. (I have included my feet with this lens, too.) I was agnostic on fisheye correction and perspective correction and treated it as an aesthetic choice. I think the HDR merge wasn't strictly necessary if you were working from the raw files -- the middle exposure could cover the dynamic range okay. But the tone-mapping step in HDR sometimes has other aesthetic benefits. I preferred the color entries over the B&W.

Results:

I liked the Polaroid by @copescamera , but he wasn't competing.

5-way tie for 3rd place:
@betamax #2 -- I liked the de-fishing and color & exposure, but there were ghosting artifacts from the HDR merge.
@Herbert Hound #1 --Rich color and generally nice HDR merge, but there was a lot of noise in the sky and the "finger fix" was a bit rough.
@Stiga -- Nice de-fish and general processing, but the image mirror flip and the remaining sliver of finger were distractions.
@BosseBe #1 -- Nice HDR merge, but the sky seemed a bit over-cooked with blown highlights in the clouds. The "finger fix" was pretty rough, too.
@gecko -- good de-fish and perspective adjustment, but the colors seemed muted and there were noise, banding, and blown highlights in the sky.

2nd place:
@RobD -- Nice de-fish with partial perspective adjustment and good HDR merge.

Winner:
@kae1 #1 -- I liked the color, exposure, and local contrast. The cloud highlights kissed right up against the top without being obviously blown. The partial de-fish worked nicely. The finger replacement wasn't perfect, but close enough to not be a distraction.

I'm sure Ken will have something interesting for us in DDD #121.

 

[kae1]

I'm sure Ken will have something interesting for us in DDD #121.

Thanks Lyle for win . Next challenge is live Challenge! - Digital Darkroom Challenge #121