[Leica] Shout out to SonC and others for software suggestions.

[chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com (Christopher Crawford)]

Silver Efex Pro is great, too. I suggested Topaz just because Don had just 
bought the Topaz software bundle for the sharpening and noise reduction 
stuff, so I wanted to encourage him to try the B&W conversion software, too.

-- 
Chris Crawford
Fine Art Photography
Fort Wayne, Indiana
260-437-8990

https://chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio

https://crawfordphotoschool.com Learn From Me

?On 8/4/22, 10:23 PM, "LUG on behalf of Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG" 
<lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org on behalf of 
lug at leica-users.org> wrote:

    So does Silver Efex Pro, which I have been using since it hit the market
    around 15-20 years ago. You can actually change acuity, contrast and
    brightness for Highlights, Midtones and Shadows independently, as well as
    mask (U-Point) for localized adjustments. I continue using the Nik Suite
    out of sheer familiarity, coupled with high inertia for learning another
    complicated bit of software for no real reason other than Internet 
chatter.
    
    Recently, however, I have used Luminar as well, its AI works very well on
    certain types of images, and their preset library is impressively huge,
    giving a multitude of starting points. The B&W module there is based on
    Tonality, which I am told has been a standard for B&W conversion on Apple
    systems. Luminar is a creation of the same group that developed the Nik
    Suite, who left Nik post Google's purchase of the suite, so that it is 
not
    surprising that it is so usable. I have never seriously tried it out,
    though.
    
    I use Topaz Gigapixel, Denoise and Sharpen as part of my everyday toolkit
    nowadays, and they are very good. Another software program that I have
    found very effective for taming High ISO images is DXO PureRaw, but it 
does
    introduce an additional independent step, between the RAW capture and RAW
    converter, in the workflow.
    
    Cheers
    Jayanand
    
    On Fri, Aug 5, 2022 at 5:15 AM Christopher Crawford <
    chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com> wrote:
    
    > Don,
    >
    > I don't know if you ever convert your color digital images to B&W; but 
if
    > you do, the Topaz B&W plugin is one of the best ways I have found to 
get
    > good B&W from digital. Most conversions are too flat in the midtones, 
and
    > simply increasing contrast means losing highlight and shadow detail. 
The
    > Topaz software increases midtone contrast without losing highlight and
    > shadow detail.
    >
    > --
    > Chris Crawford
    > Fine Art Photography
    > Fort Wayne, Indiana
    > 260-437-8990
    >
    > https://chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio
    >
    > https://crawfordphotoschool.com Learn From Me
    >
    > ?On 8/4/22, 5:35 PM, "LUG on behalf of Don Dory via LUG"
    > <lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org on behalf 
of
    > lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
    >
    >     Many on this list have been quietly promoting Topaz labs products.
    > SonC
    >     showed me what their products could do on a motion blurred image 
which
    >     convinced me of their value.  I waited until there was a bundle 
sale
    > and
    >     just acquired the bundle.
    >
    >     So, money very well spent and now suggestions.  The denoise works
    > extremely
    >     well,  owning 2.8, 3.5, or 5.6 lenses is not a limiting factor on 
newer
    >     cameras that go up over 50,000iso.  The noise can be drastically
    > reduced
    >     without sacrificing image detail.  A little motion blur can also be
    > worked
    >     with effectively.  Basically, if a lens is good but slow you have a
    > nice
    >     light package that will work in almost any light.
    >
    >     This also makes the use of my M9 practical again as I have been
    > fighting no
    >     dof in dark places to try to keep shutter speeds up.  Now, the AI
    > programs
    >     will mostly eliminate motion blur and I can get the dof I believe I
    > want.
    >
    >     So, thank you to all those on the list who have been suggesting 
better
    >     software.  Also, I believe this will work on scanned film so with a
    >     convoluted work system you could shoot HP5, scan it in, de noise 
the
    > grain,
    >     then output to a large format "negative" and contact print on real
    >     emulsions.
    >
    >     --
    >     Don
    >     don.dory at gmail.com
    >
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