Hi all,
I'm trying to post a couple pics here to show a useful benefit of the latest version of DXO optics.
I realize this shot is hardly my best work, but it's about the third one I worked over with DXO, and I think it demonstrates a capability I know I'll use in the future.
This shot was taken with my 20D, with the 10-22 EFS zoomed to 10mm, 1/60th sec., f/8. I forgot to take off the polarizer, so you can see sharp vignetting in the corners. [If you're curious, these people are discussing radioactive items found in your typical household. The location was the Trinity test site in NM, where the first atomic explosion was detonated in 1945. Shot taken yesterday.]
Typically, I process RAW files in ACR. I correct for fringing, exposure, etc. in ACR. Then, if necessary (almost always with the 10-22) I use the PTlens plugin to repair as much lens distortion as possible.
In this case, I did an ACR import into PSCS2, ran PTlens on it, sharpened it, converted to sRGB, resized, and saved it as a jpg. Thats the "PSandPTlens" version.
Then I did a second import to PSCS2 via the DXO 4 plug-in. Of the numerous DXO options, I only applied exposure compensation, lens corrections, and most importantly, volume anamorphis. Then in PS, I just did sharpen, sRGB conversion, resize and saved as the "DXO" jpg. Color and contrast are different from the ACR version, because I made no effort to match them (or even make them any good, for that matter).
I think this volume anamorphis correction is highly intruiging. Ordinarily, I would avoid a shot like this, knowing that the distortion would be really awful. When I took it, I was thinking that I'd see just how much I could recover with some radical DXO processing. It certainly costs you some image space (note the lost shoulder of the lady on the left side), but it makes a shot like this actually somewhat usable. Next time, Ill frame less tightly so that I'll have better framing options after the DXO process. But I'm going to consider using that 10-22 around people more often now.
One serious drawback of DXO is that it only works on digital captures from a limited number of cameras. I'd love to try this kind of fix on some of my film images. Anyone have ideas, or know of other apps that can do this type of correction?
