Topaz: Edit JPG to Raw Files

[digitaldog]

Slobodan,

I accept your premise that Andrew was a bright light in his past, and that you and others learned from him. He deserves appreciation and respect for that.

Further, I accept that his knowledge is useful today, but this has not been there to be seen on this matter, which was the point of my remark. What has he said other than that the output of j2R is not equivalent to Raw, and in how many angry posts has he said no more than this?

And, you, seemingly like him, think others who you know little about are weak in logic, and that is quite an assumption. Anyway, good logic stands on its own, and Andrew has failed miserably there.

In the past I have visited this and other post processing threads occasionally, and I have seen the very useful knowledge available here, as represented by Bart, you, and a few others whose names are not as memorable as yours. It is clearly present and valuable.

So, I hope that the old vets will continue to contribute but surely it should not be the hope that this blog be the exclusive domain of the old dogs? Andrew's behavior is antagonistic to this blog's sustenance and vibrancy and I felt it worth complaining about. Your acknowledgement that he is endless repetitive and abusive is quite stark, fwiw. Do you have no concerns that this is not harmful to useful contributions to this blog over time?

BTW, I am an old dog myself, and recognize the old Silicon Valley saying that "Perspective is worth 20 IQ points."

Bill

Being a newbie here, perhaps you need a tutorial in the use of the Ignore feature of this blog forum?
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=121220.0

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Bart, what is the purpose with this latest example? It shows a bit more sharpening applied, and a bit shadows opening, both of which can be achieved easily by any program today. I do not see any improvements in recovering highlights, however. They are still blown.

Depending on the training set, some A.I. models are more successful than others. Given the lack of other example contributions, I thought it might be useful to see some different types of images given the current capabilities. When new models become available, it will allow comparing if and how progress was made.

I too was looking at highlight and shadow detail. I still feel that the noise reduction is too strong, even in the Normal setting. Obviously some room for improvement can be achieved there. Highlights can only benefit if 2 channels (expressed in the RGB colorspace) are not clipped in the original. The source JPEG uses a different type of colorspace (with one Luma and two chroma channels).

Cheers,
Bart

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... Your acknowledgement that he is endless repetitive and abusive is quite stark, fwiw. Do you have no concerns that this is not harmful to useful contributions to this blog over time?...

Bill,

First, thanks for elaborating your position, appreciated. But more importantly, let me correct one thing. I said that "perhaps I can agree  that Andrew can be repetitive and abusive at times." That is a long way from "endlessly."

As for long-term impact of "abusive" members, it is a grownup world around here, and we are mature enough not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Or as Merilyn Monroe would say: "If you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." I also understand that Steve Jobs was very abusive to everyone, including to his daughter

[Rhossydd]

Please explain upon what authority you tell a contributor to "do his homework" before commenting? If you are King here, as you seem to think as you sit on your perch and preach, I will shortly move to a new realm.

Bye.
As a newbie here maybe you should look in depth at who you're picking on.

Andrew is a very respected author and software creator who is held in very high regard by anyone with any real knowledge of photographic software and process.
OK he's sometimes too pedantic, abrupt and unwilling to accept any imprecision in approach, but his fundamental knowledge is beyond reproach.

[Patricia Sheley]

I've seen more!

... Than 720 years?   

[earlybird]

...what is the purpose with this latest example? It shows a bit more sharpening applied, and a bit shadows opening, both of which can be achieved easily by any program today...

 I made a similar assumption and then attempted to prove this idea to myself by making my own tests. When I was done trying to achieve similar results using the easily available software I am familiar with, I found myself impressed with the AI systems capability to make a sharper picture with less ringing than any of the traditional methods that I tried.

[billbane]

Rhossydd,

Some time ago I bought and read Andrew's 2005 book, among others. It is still for sale: https://www.amazon.com/Color-Management-Photographers-Techniques-Photoshop/product-reviews/0240806492/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewopt_sr?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=five_star&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=1#reviews-filter-bar

I am always keen to learn, and hope I never come remotely close to thinking I know all there is to be learned.

That is why I visit this blog, to learn.

In this case, I was interested in learning what this just released new j2r program could do. What was your motivation in following this thread?

Bill

[albytastic]

... Than 720 years?   

OOPS - shoulda gone to specsavers

Only 7.5 decades.