RAW processing for Olympus M5 Mk3 images

DxO PureRAW is my initial pass for ORFs. I just export them as JPGs, but you can do TIFF as well, I believe. Give it a free trial and see. It’s just a before step in your normal workflow, and it does a great job, IMO. Works great on M1 Macs, but does require a decent GPU on everything else or you will be waiting a long time for it to run.
 
Rose, just another thing to watch out for is the ability to handle wide gamut colour spaces, such as ProPhotoRGB.

Some programs can only handle aRGB at the widest. Okay for many photos, but not wide enough for some intense colours (reds, orange, yellow, purple, mauve, etc) and some colours that are very unusual, such as green canvas.
 
Hi everyone, thanks for all your suggestions, I do appreciate you all taking the time.

So - I was open to buying and learning a new programme, then I got petrol and had the attendant check the oil for me. He advises that there is water in the oil, and therefore it's very likely a blown head gasket is the cause! My car is due for a service so I just need to book it in and either have the bad news confirmed or refuted! I know these kinds of jobs are not cheap! There goes any $$$$ for new software ...

Fingers crossed anyway.

So I've been reading and watching youtube about the various products recommended ...... still difficult to make a decision, however until I know about the blown head gasket, or not, I'll use darktable to import and export as .tiff. Had a play today, a lot to learn, but think, with practice that I'll get there. I think someone said you can export tiff to LR, which is what I'll try to do!

Had a sort of trial run today with card from M5 Mk2, Choes tiff on export but when I imported into LR they were .orf. Will check when new camera arrives anyway.

Once again, thanks for the input. I had pretty much decided on DxO pending another trial, but the head gasket thing changes the situation a lot!

Fingers crossed!!
 
DxO PureRAW is my initial pass for ORFs. I just export them as JPGs, but you can do TIFF as well, I believe. Give it a free trial and see. It’s just a before step in your normal workflow, and it does a great job, IMO. Works great on M1 Macs, but does require a decent GPU on everything else or you will be waiting a long time for it to run.

Thanks, will give it a go ....
 
Hi everyone, thanks for all your suggestions, I do appreciate you all taking the time.

So - I was open to buying and learning a new programme, then I got petrol and had the attendant check the oil for me. He advises that there is water in the oil, and therefore it's very likely a blown head gasket is the cause! My car is due for a service so I just need to book it in and either have the bad news confirmed or refuted! I know these kinds of jobs are not cheap! There goes any $$$$ for new software ...

Fingers crossed anyway.

So I've been reading and watching youtube about the various products recommended ...... still difficult to make a decision, however until I know about the blown head gasket, or not, I'll use darktable to import and export as .tiff. Had a play today, a lot to learn, but think, with practice that I'll get there. I think someone said you can export tiff to LR, which is what I'll try to do!

Had a sort of trial run today with card from M5 Mk2, Choes tiff on export but when I imported into LR they were .orf. Will check when new camera arrives anyway.

Once again, thanks for the input. I had pretty much decided on DxO pending another trial, but the head gasket thing changes the situation a lot!

Fingers crossed!!
Try the free stuff mentioned above then. You can always uninstall it if you don't like it. RawTherapee, Darktable and The GIMP all run on Win, Lin and Mac. The GIMP is a photoshop type program. To convert RAW files, you can set it up to fire up RawTherapee or (I think) Darktable. I would start with RawTherapee and Darktable first. They both have good documentation and all the youtube videos you can dream of. Both can import/export about anything.

Good luck with your vehicle!
 
My brain is quite addled!

I've been trying various software, and not succeeding with any. Can manage the import but exporting is another thing altogether. Then tried the Olympus software. Got as far as wanting to crop, but unable to actually complete it!

Feeling quite frustrated currently, but I guess experiemting with several software options and not persisting with any, is not conducive to output!
 
One open source editing tool to check out is Agriggio ART, which is a fork of RawTherapee. It's slightly less convoluted to use, and includes masking tools for local editing. It's not quite as easy to use as Lightroom, but it's workable.

Sorry to hear about your headgasket, Rose, those things are a pain to replace. Even in older, simpler engines. We once did the gaskets on my friends old Ford Granada, with it's Cologne V6, and that job took us several nights. And that engine was old school simple... Can't even fathom the pain it must be to perform the same on a modern engine...
 
My brain is quite addled!

I've been trying various software, and not succeeding with any. Can manage the import but exporting is another thing altogether. Then tried the Olympus software. Got as far as wanting to crop, but unable to actually complete it!

Feeling quite frustrated currently, but I guess experiemting with several software options and not persisting with any, is not conducive to output!
Are you getting any error messages as you export?
If you don't get any error messages your export is probably working, but only to a place you don't expect.
Look for a path to export to when exporting.
 
My brain is quite addled!

I've been trying various software, and not succeeding with any. Can manage the import but exporting is another thing altogether. Then tried the Olympus software. Got as far as wanting to crop, but unable to actually complete it!

Feeling quite frustrated currently, but I guess experiemting with several software options and not persisting with any, is not conducive to output!
Rose, I am going to again recommend just using ExifTool to change the camera entry from E-M5MarkIII to E-M1MarkII because it is free and doesn't alter your workflow.

You can find ExifTool here:

For simplicity, install the Stand-Alone Windows Executable and follow the installation instructions here:

Then download and install ExifToolGUI for Windows (instructions for installing ExifTool are repeated there, too):

Open ExifToolGUI and navigate to the folder with your image and select it and follow the instructions in red:

ETG.jpg


It should save your original with a modified file extension before writing the modified file.

Then process as usual.
 
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Yes, I've tried darktable with some files from the M5 Mk2, but after export, then import to LR found they were .orf not .tiff. Had another try, but obviously not doing something right. The new camera should arrive later today, so will have another go then. In the meantime will look at rawtherapee ....
Click lighttable on the upper right, and select the image(s) to export. Then on the bottom right is the export section. Click the arrow to the right of "file format," choose your desired file type, then click on export at the bottom of that section. There is a tiff option, but I've always just gone straight to the final format from Darktable as a jpg or png. I've almost always done all the work in one program, DT, RT or Xnview. The latter is usually when I want to do something quick and easy, or to get a lot of raw files converted to look at before deciding which ones to keep and take the effort of PP.

IMO DT is better in some ways, but RT has maybe a smoother workflow. With either, I usually search the on-line manual or youtube when I want to discover how to do something. I used RT for a long time, but went back to DT, because the negative conversion works so much better, especially for color.

DarktableExport.png


You mentioned early on in this thread that you were spinning up a Linux computer. Most of these programs were probably originally written by the Linux community. Some probably run best on Linux. You might want to give that a try.

I hope you get something going that doesn't frustrate you. That's what employment is for. You don't need that in our hobby!
 
Thanks again for all the information and suggestions. I really do appreciate it.

I thought I had followed the process outline above to export in darktable .....

The exif tool does sound best, O presume i only to do it once for any computer I use? It would be good not having to add another step to processing. I did look at it, but it seemed rather scary, however I ought to be able to do what's outlined above!

The battery is just charging then I'll get set up, and take some images tomorrow (it's evening here).


Edit: D/L the efiftool, but can't change the file name. Googled but still couldn't change it. Right click and F2 don't give me the "rename" option.
 
Okay - just an update so that all of you who have offered your assistance know where I'm at.

I really wanted to make the exiftool work, as I could then keep doing what I was before. But extensive Googling has not helped me rename the file that I need to. I have a friend who has a husband into IT, so I might ask her if he'll do it for me for a case of beer or some such. I am very frustrated that I haven't been able to find a solution myself!

In the meantime I have tried the open source darktable and rawtherapee. When I exported just one image in darktable it was fine, but when I did maybe a dozen, they all turned out about a stop or more underexposed .... fixed it in LR, but pointless. rawtherapee I managed but it didn't "do" it for me.

DxO PR was very slow but did produce terrific images. I know it advertises that, but didn't really believe it. I'm also impressed with DxO PL5, but need a lot more experimentation with it.

So far the best results have been: DxO either PL5 or PR, to Lr, then PSE 18, which I tend to use for naming as much as anything, although do sometimes do "auto fix".

Once again, thanks everyone.
 
I just tried FastOne for the first time ever. Very simple to use. Much easier than Xnview, no setup required! I think it's 32 bit only, where Xnview is 64 or 32 bit. For quick, easy conversion from raw to jpg, FastOne is probably your best bet. I can't test oly, just fuji, but export was just a matter of the good old school menu "file"|"save as" and pick your file format. I understand you don't want to try more right now, but if you can't get DT to work for you and you don't like RT, I don't see other options.

On DT, search youtube for "presets" and "styles." I think it exported based on the exposure of that first image.

On export to jpg format, if you plan to manipulate the image later, you might want to export to png. png is widely accepted and works like something between a tiff and a jpg. It is compressed like jpg, but lossless like a tiff (or raw file). It does not compress as small as a jpg, but it does get much smaller than a tiff. It also can have more color channels than jpg. This is less important if you archive your raw files. If disk space is a problem, you might explore the png format.

Hmmm, file format = file type in this context.

I wish you well, Rose. If I were close by I would help in person. If you get that IT guy in, hopefully he can get you going quickly.

Edit: I believe Xnview is win/mac only and FastOne is win only. So if you are going to move on to another platform, these solutions would be temporary.
 
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I really wanted to make the exiftool work, as I could then keep doing what I was before. But extensive Googling has not helped me rename the file that I need to. I have a friend who has a husband into IT, so I might ask her if he'll do it for me for a case of beer or some such. I am very frustrated that I haven't been able to find a solution myself!
Rose, this sounds like a permissions problem. If you run Windows File Explorer as Administrator, you may be able to overcome it.
 
I use DxO PL5 and have since I started out in photography again maybe 7 years ago.
I like that what you buy you can keep and use for ever (dislike subscription).
One thing to note about DxO PL is that you skip upgrading every other time , so go from version 5 to 7 and 7 to 9 etc. (Hope this is still true!)
This keeps the yearly cost at about half. (Not that I have ever skipped an update, but you can do it.)

Oh, and if you go for DxO PL take the Elite version, more expensive but DeepPRIME NR among other things are not available in the Essential version.
I can also recommend their DxO Viewpoint SW and the DxO Filmpack, buying them as package gets you a good discount.
And of course you will want that DxO NIK Collection package also.;)

But if you miss upgrading it is buy new again. (Your yearly cost will take a hit if you miss updating, but it evens out.)

I do recommend to trial DxO PL5 again!

Thanks for all the information. When I first saw the prices I thought "no way"! However I've since pondered, and realise i've been using the Lr 6.14 stand alone for however long since the subscription model started. If I bought DxO PL5 I wouldn't need to upgrade unless I bought a new camera, which is unlikely at this point in my life as I am semi retired. I only bought the M5 Mk3 because of the good tax rebate, and for future proofing. I had found myself using the M5 Mk 2 more frequently lately, rather than the M1 Mk2, so it seemed a reasonable purchase. The $$$$$ for DxO PL5 doesn't seem so expensive viewed in that perspective.

Also I've been watching some youtube tutorials and realise it is a lot more functional and powerful than I first thought. It had seemed like Luminar to me, where you were tied into a lot of presets, but I realise I simply hadn't it explored it sufficiently. I'm currently playing with the free trial, and leaning towards buying it.
 
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I just tried FastOne for the first time ever. Very simple to use. Much easier than Xnview, no setup required! I think it's 32 bit only, where Xnview is 64 or 32 bit. For quick, easy conversion from raw to jpg, FastOne is probably your best bet. I can't test oly, just fuji, but export was just a matter of the good old school menu "file"|"save as" and pick your file format. I understand you don't want to try more right now, but if you can't get DT to work for you and you don't like RT, I don't see other options.

On DT, search youtube for "presets" and "styles." I think it exported based on the exposure of that first image.

On export to jpg format, if you plan to manipulate the image later, you might want to export to png. png is widely accepted and works like something between a tiff and a jpg. It is compressed like jpg, but lossless like a tiff (or raw file). It does not compress as small as a jpg, but it does get much smaller than a tiff. It also can have more color channels than jpg. This is less important if you archive your raw files. If disk space is a problem, you might explore the png format.

Hmmm, file format = file type in this context.

I wish you well, Rose. If I were close by I would help in person. If you get that IT guy in, hopefully he can get you going quickly.

Edit: I believe Xnview is win/mac only and FastOne is win only. So if you are going to move on to another platform, these solutions would be temporary.

Thanks. It does sound like a viable option, but I am currently leaning towards DxO PL5, as I've been watching tutorials and it appears it will do everything I need it to, and more. Seeing as I am unlikely to buy another new camera I wouldn't need to be upgrading it, so it potentially could be my last major software purchase.
 
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