DCRAW 9.21 for OS X Mavericks: using LightZone

The list of applications that are using dcraw is impressive, you have plenty of choices anywhere from  free basic programs to pretty costly well-known commercial products. As a Fuji x-trans user my favourite free product is LightZone (you need to register to access the download area). The latest version 4.1.0~beta9 now includes dcraw 9.21 and improved tone curve for XT-1 raw files.

What is LightZone? Obviously it is more than just a graphical front-end to dcraw. The quote from LZ website: "LightZone is professional-level digital darkroom software for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, that includes RAW processing and editing. Rather than using layers in the way that other photo editors do, LightZone lets the user build up a stack of tools which can be rearranged, readjusted, turned off and on, and removed  from the stack.  It's a completely non-destructive editor, where any of the tools can be re-adjusted or modified later — even in a different editing session. A tool stack can even be copied to a batch of photos at one time. LightZone always operates in a 16-bit linear colour space with the wide gamut of ProPhoto RGB"

I tested LightZone using very basic editing technique.

DCRAW 9.21 for OS X Mavericks: using the command line

In my previous article I gave simple instructions how to compile your own dcraw executable. But if you don't want to mess with C compiler feel free to download my executable from here (but you still need to put it into bin folder). Now let's have some fun and test the program.

Fuji x-trans raw file post-processed in dcraw 9.21

Here is my basic workflow and couple recommendations.

DCRAW 9.21 for OS X Mavericks: compiling the program

dcraw is a command line program that can read various proprietary raw files (the list is endless) and convert them into a standard image format (TIFF or PPM). Once I came across this description of the dcraw project: "Dave's mission is to write and maintain an ANSI C program that decodes any raw image from any digital camera on any computer running any operating system”. Very well said.

The program is small, portable and used in many well-known free and commercial products including Adobe Photoshop. Did I say that it's free? Development work was started in 1997 followed by the first release three years later. In 2012 dcraw was the first program that processed Fujifilm x-trans raw files without smearing of fine details ("water colour effect"), here is my short review.  dcraw is also one of the few raw converters that can read and decode Sigma Foveon raw files.

The genius behind dcraw is David Coffin who just released version 9.21 and, as always, the source code is readily available for download. But David provides only the source code, which means for the folks like me "computer mumbo-jumbo that no one can use in real life".  In order to use the program you need an executable file,  the file that is compiled from the source code. Just google and you will easily find the latest dcraw executables for win32/64 systems but not so many (if any) for Mac OS X. Here is what you can do.

Berries for breakfast

As I have already mentioned in my previous post AF works faster and more accurate in M mode (using AE-L/AF-L button). Don't know why but I am consistently getting better results.

X-Pro1+XF 55-200+DCRAW 9.1.9

Thanks,
vkphoto

DCRAW 9.19

* July15th Update: Colour Noise

DCRAW is a very popular Open Source raw converter developed by Dave Coffin. DCRAW supports almost every raw format available on the market and  is used by a large variety of imaging programs, including Adobe, ACDSee, RPP, RawTherapy, LightZone, etc.
Just 6 months ago DCRAW 9.17 was possibly the  best raw converter for x-trans files. The level of details was amazing, no "foliage" or "colour bleeding" issues but it came with the price - so called "zipper aliasing".
Couple weeks ago version 9.19 was released and I quickly tested it. For test purposes I used raw file available at DPReview (Respective Owner, thank you and let me know if you would like to remove it from this review)

-v -w -o 1 +M -T

I think that DCRAW code (at least related to x-trans sensor) was significantly re-written, "zipper" effect is gone. But the output image looks a bit softer. Easy fix with USM.

I am impressed, the image looks very crisp and clean. Dave, job well done!

*** After doing some additional testing and pixel-peeping I found some weird colour noise in the some of my output files.

What strange is that noise (colour artefacts?) appears to be identical to Aperture.

Thanks,
vkphoto