Tag Archives: #DxO Pure Raw

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Orion in the evening sky.

The other night, I used my Nikon Z7-II to capture the constellation Orion in the evening sky.

Although an amazing camera, when fitted with the Z-series 24-70mm lens, this picture making combination suffers from vignetting when used at the widest aperture.

I needed an 4.0 aperture to picture the starry sky while keeping my total exposure time to just 30 seconds, when set at ISO 200.

To minimize the effects of the vignette, I converted the NEF RAW file to a PNG file using DxO Pure Raw software. Once converted, I imported this file into Lightroom to make a few corrections.

Below is both the adjusted file direct from the NEF RAW, and the adjusted PNG file to show the advantage offered by converting the RAW using Pure Raw.

The light streaks moving through the image are from an eastward Amtrak Keystone bound for Philadelphia on the old PRR Main Line. Please note that in both versions, the images have been compressed by the Word Press platform used by Tracking the Light to display the photos via the internet.

Scaled JPG made from the NEF RAW file without DxO Pure Raw conversion. Note the constellation Orion in the sky toward the top center of the photo.
This is the same NEF RAW file as above, but following conversions to PNG format using DxO Pure Raw to denoise the image, and more importantly, eliminate the effects of vignetting inherant to the 24-70mm Nikkor lens at f4.0. Notice the more uniform rendition of the night sky, especially in the corners of the frame.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

NECR 3038 at Night

The other night, New England Central’s former Canadian National GP40-2L 3038 was working the yard at Palmer, Mass.

This was an opportunity for me to make some High ISO photographs for experimentation and comparison using the DxO Pure Raw 4 software to denoise and correct for lens defects.

In this situation, I was especially interested in seeing how well the software corrected for the high-pixelation of the image exposed at 12, 800 ISO using my Nikon Z7-II.

Below are two sets of images. The first is a scaled camera NEF RAW file (plus enlarged detailed view), followed by the same NEF RAW file but processed using DxO Pure Raw 4 software. If everything posts correctly you should see four images.

Scaled NEF RAW file without Pure Raw conversion.
Enlarged section of the above photo (Scaled NEF RAW file without Pure Raw conversion.)
Scaled NEF RAW file following Pure Raw conversion to denoise the image and correct for lens defects. Note the lack of pixelization.
Enlarged section of the above photo (Scaled NEF RAW file following Pure Raw conversion to de-noise the photograph.) Compare this image with the earlier enlargement.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Amtrak 448 at CP83 by Night.

On our most recent visit to Palmer, Mass., in addition to architectural photos of the old Union Station building, I also made some views of Amtrak 448, the eastward Boston-section of the Lake Shore Limited rolling by the building.

I’ve made similar views over the years by day and by night. In recent years the brush along the tracks has partially obscured the view of passing trains. I opted to include the brush in the photo, rather than make a tight view that may have cropped the station, which was the primary subject.

Below are two versions from the same NEF RAW file. One is a JPG converted straight from the RAW without denoise or demosiac adjustment. The second was converted using DxO Pure Raw 4, which includes both denoise, demosiac features that removes/mitigates pixelization and diestracting artifacts as result of using the sensor at high-ISO (in this case 12,800), and also corrects for lens defects that are specific to my 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom

Over the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with a demo version of the DxO Pure Raw 4 software. This was recommended to me by Tracking the Light reader David MacKenzie. This sophisticated software requires several minutes of processing time for exach file, but cleans up many of the objectionable qualities inherant to high-ISO files, and allows for significantly superior end results.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to display a variety of results using DxO Pure Raw 4, and other processing software.

JPG converted straight from the RAW without denoise or demosiac adjustment. Compare with the convert version. ISO 12,800 f4.0 at1/10 second. Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens set to70mm, and mounted on 3Pod tripod.
Image converted using DxO Pure Raw 4, JPG output using Adobe Lightroom. ISO 12,800 f4.0 at1/10 second. Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens set to70mm, and mounted on 3Pod tripod.

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