How to use the RAW FILE CONVERTER EX powered by SILKYPIX The X-Pro1 comes with RAW FILE CONVERTER EX powered by SILKYPIX software for processing RAW images. This software lets users make precise adjustments to individual parameters for images that better reflect their personal vision. In this section, we ll cover retouch using color hue controls and monochrome tone controls. Retouch: Color / RAW Processing for Richer Colors Retouch: Black-and-White / RAW Processing for Presence : Creating the Effect of Prints on Monochrome Photographic Paper Commentary by Hideyuki Motegi 90
SILKYPIX Retouch: Color / RAW Processing for Richer Colors SILKYPIX gives you control over the following six parameters: 1.Color: Choose the basis for color reproduction. 2.Tone: Adjust contrast. 3.Shading: Adjust peripheral illumination. 4.Fine color controller: Adjust brightness separately for each color. 5.White balance adjustment: Enhance colors by adding depth. 6.Gamma: Enhance details in shadows. These steps are detailed on the following pages. Original RAW image This section takes you through the process of using SILKYPIX to retouch this original image to reflect your personal vision. Retouched image Each parameter has been carefully and precisely tuned for high-quality colors. The steps involved are described on the following pages. Using SILKYPIX to process RAW images lets you make precise adjustments for colors that are richer and deeper. Not that these are the only factors by which we judge the quality of photographs: the smoothness of the transitions between colors also plays a part. While adjusting colors in JPEG images makes these transitions less smooth, this is not true in the case of RAW processing: adjustments that make colors more expressive have no effect on quality. This section describes the steps involved in creating images with deep colors and smooth transitions. 91
STEP-1 The Color Parameter Choosing the Basis for Color Reproduction The first step is to choose a color reproduction mode. Why not try each of the five film types on offer? The basic menu is displayed on the left side of the window. The first step is to choose the base color reproduction mode: click the paint tube icon to display Color options, where you will choose a base for the color processing that will be applied to the RAW data. Applied to the same data, each of the 13 tastes (flavors) produces different colors. In this example, we ve selected Film color V1, giving us a base for color reproduction that features natural colors with good contrast, similar to color film. In addition to this setting, SILKYPIX offers a choice of four other film types. It might be a good idea to try another setting so that you can see the difference for yourself. 92
STEP-2 The Tone Parameter Adjusting Contrast Contrast is an important factor in determining the overall impression created by an image. Keep making adjustments until you are fully satisfied with the result. One benefit of working with RAW data is that the quality of the image will not degrade no matter how many changes you make. Overall contrast can be adjusted by clicking the icon consisting of a circle that is half white, half black. Increasing contrast gives the effect of a film positive, brightening highlights and darkening shadows. The border between highlights and shadows is chosen using the Contrast center slider. In this example, we ve selected 0.50 to better emphasize highlights. The balance between highlights and shadows can also be adjusted using Gamma, but we will not do so here. Choosing a positive value for Black level lends the image definition, but also reduces detail in shadows and so is used only infrequently. 93
STEP-3 The Shading Parameter Adjusting Peripheral Illumination Choosing higher values for Angle increases the size of the area affected. To darken edges, choose a negative value for Amount. To adjust shading (peripheral illumination), click View in the menu bar and select Lens aberration controller. Although the original intent of shading is to correct loss of brightness at the edges of images due to the optical characteristics of the lens, it can also be used to decrease peripheral illumination and direct the gaze to the center of the image, drawing attention to the subject by virtue of the fact that the human eye is attracted first to brighter areas. This used to be done manually as part of the process of making prints from film, but with digital cameras the effect is applied directly to the data. Chromatic aberration and Distortion items are also available, but as XF lenses are not particularly prone to either of these vices there will likely be little opportunity to use these controls. 94
STEP-4 The Fine Color Controller Parameter Adjusting Brightness Separately for Each Color Sky darker Flowers brighter Colors are reborn richer and more vibrant thanks to adjustments performed separately by hue. The View menu also contains a Fine color controller option. The fine color controller divides colors into eight individual hues, each with their own Hue, Saturation, and Lightness controls. In particular, the ability to adjust Lightness separately for each hue allows photographs that give the impression of greater clarity with higher contrast and better color definition, an impression that is one of the defining features of photographs developed from film. This is also an important step in the process of developing RAW images. In this case we have adjusted hue to make the sky darker but also vivid, the flowers brighter and attention-getting. Adjustments to the sky and flowers each involved two hues. 95
STEP-5 The White Balance Adjustment Parameter Enhancing Colors by Adding Depth Adding a color cast the same shade as the main subject deepens colors. Note that raising saturation too high can give whites a color cast. Darkening the sky and brightening the flowers in Step 4 has made our photo more vibrant. This step adds another dimension, that of depth. Using the White balance adjustment option in the View menu, we can deliberately give the entire image a color cast. A slight adjustment produces a cyan cast that deepens the colors in the sky and muddies the complementary colors in the shadowed portions of the flowers. The effect is to make colors deeper and richer. The White balance adjustment option in the View menu also provides excellent visual feedback in the form of a color wheel in which colors can be freely selected by moving the cursor. 96
STEP-6 The Gamma Histogram Enhancing Details in Shadows Even with the information provided by color, an even distribution of tones from black to white is an important element in the creation of realisticlooking photos. Before After Final image Increasing overall contrast has produced shadows that are slightly underexposed. The resulting loss of detail makes the image seem less real. The answer is to return to the Tone parameter and adjust Gamma. Selecting a value of +1.3 corrects underexposure and brings out details in shadows, specifically the flower stems. As we have seen, using RAW data lets each parameter be adjusted over and over again. The original RAW data is unaffected by these changes, so that the data do not degrade no matter how many times changes are repeated. This feature is unique to RAW data and does not apply to JPEG images. You can safely make as many changes as you like in search of the perfect colors. 97
SILKYPIX Retouch: Black-and-White/RAW Processing for Presence : Creating the Effect of Prints on Monochrome Photographic Paper Black-and-white processing employs the same six parameters used for color images: 1.Color: Convert the image to black-and-white. 2.Tone: Adjust contrast. 3.Shading: Adjust peripheral illumination. 4.Fine color controller: Darken the sky. 5.White balance adjustment: Bring adjustments into line. 6.Gamma: Enhance details in shadows. These steps are detailed on the following pages. Original RAW image This color image clearly shows reality as it is but does communicate what the photographer may have felt. Final image The towering clouds signal the proximity of summer and make us conscious of the swift passage of time. Given that the human eye sees the world in color, it is strange that black-and-white images still seem real to us after all other colors have been removed. It may be that this sensibility developed out of the history of photography, no doubt due to our having been exposed to large numbers of black-and-white photographs. These experiences have taught us that among the conditions for a good black-and-white photo is that smooth gradations of tones from white to black and the expression of details through fine, unambiguous tone transitions are necessary if images are to seem real. This is a world that was once created through the medium of monochrome photographic paper. Black-and-white is not a target for nostalgia but a living part of our culture. 98
STEP-1 The Color Parameter Converting the Image to Black-and-White From black to white, black-and-white images is all one hue. A Saturation of 0 gives us the color gray. Click the paint tube icon on the left side of the window to display Color options and set Saturation to 0 to convert the image to blackand-white. Saturation controls the vividness of colors, and setting it to 0 cause colors to lose all vividness and be expressed instead as shades of gray. Although images can also be converted to monochrome in the Profile menu, in this case we have instead set Saturation to 0 so that we can later make adjustments to tone. As is suggested by the term monochrome, which is composed of the elements mono (single) and chrome (color), setting Saturation to 0 is also the first step in creating sepia and other single-color images. 99
STEP-2 The Tone Parameter Adjusting Contrast Contrast can also be adjusted using the Tone curve option. Try it once you are used to the Tone tool. Tone the even transition between different levels of brightness is everything to monochrome images, which lack color information. A large range of brightness creates a sense of contrast, a small range a sense of detail. This is connected to our perception of what looks good and is what lends photographs their presence. Naturally, it is controlled through adjustments to Contrast. Here we have set Contrast and Contrast center to their maximums to enhance detail in the clouds. The trick to bringing out details in bright whites is to not overbrighten highlights. 100
STEP-3 The Shading Parameter Adjusting Peripheral Illumination Darkening the edges of the image makes the objects in the center stand out. This is a good reason to compose shots with bright subjects in the center of the frame. As was the case for color images, reducing peripheral illumination draws the eye to the center of the image. Even within the bounds that describe the world of the photograph, human vision concentrates on brighter areas and the area near the center, emphasizing their properties. This naturally also determines how photographs are framed, resulting in easy-going bulls-eye compositions with the focus of interest placed without pretension near the center, a settled, stable composition easily grasped by the viewer. 101
STEP-4 The Fine Color Controller Parameter Darkening the Sky The apparent darkness of blue objects is related to the properties of film and feels natural in black-and-white images. People tend to think of the fine color controller as a parameter that controls color, but it also has a major effect on the tones in monochrome images. Adjustments to the Lightness color component provide a means of directly controlling the brightness of the colors in the image. In addition to darkening the sky, here too we have emphasized the clouds and enhanced their details. We clicked blue in the color wheel to select the hue and set Lightness to -40. We then selected purple and again set Lightness to -40. 102
STEP-5 The White Balance Adjustment Parameter Bringing Adjustments into Line Chance adjustments bring out details in highlights and shadows, a benefit of the RAW format. White balance adjustment offers a further means of enhancing images. Converting color information to black-and-white results in different colors being rendered at different levels of brightness, and consequently changing the color cast of the original image changes overall contrast as well as allowing adjustments to the brightness of individual subjects. Given that the effect differs from subject to subject within each image, the first step is to click a random location on the color wheel and check the effect. Brightening greens and reducing their contrast while increasing the contrast of reds tends to result in more vibrant images. 103
STEP-6 The Gamma Histogram Enhancing Details in Shadow You can go back and change parameters even after completing a later step. Note that changing gamma changes the overall brightness of the image; make adjustments carefully with reference to the histogram. Before After Final image The absence of color information makes tonal richness extremely important to monochrome images. Everything depends on not blowing out highlights or blocking shadows. The Histogram control has as its horizontal axis brightness expressed as values from 0 to 255 and as its vertical axis the number of pixels of brightness. Vertical spikes indicate lost information, areas of the image that can not be expressed as data: at the left end, spikes indicate the loss of detail in shadows (blocked shadows), while spikes at the right end of the graph show loss of detail in highlights (blown highlights). Here too we have returned to the Tone parameter and set Gamma to 1.20 to correct blocked shadows. NEXT 104