Dual ISO - massive dynamic range improvement (dual_iso.mo)

[glubber]

I can't remember the Dual-Iso settings.

All i remember is wondering why my liveview is so bright while shooting a RAW-video of another helicopter.....
...till i found out that by activating modules to shoot RAW i also enabled DUAL-ISO (Of course with some high ISO d'oh).

It was the first Dual-Iso build for 550D by mk1174. And if memory serves me right going to ISO 6400 wasn't possible.

So i guess ISO 100/3200 is right, at least your DNG looks as good as it could get.

[a1ex]

Another update for the amaze experiment, mostly on the speed side.

Basically, this algorithm is very powerful in semi-overexposed areas and (coupled with the alias map) in deep shadows. In midtones, you already have full detail from both ISOs, so there's no point in doing expensive interpolations that will be discarded anyway. So, this update will be a little faster for well-exposed images, and a little slower for tricky ones.

cr2hdr-amaze-edge3.exe

Here's a crop that was quite difficult to solve, because all this detail was covered only by one ISO:



(obviously, power lines can't be guessed, but most diagonal lines should be fine).

If there are no obvious regressions, I'll update the first post.

[tron]

@alex: There is indeed significant improvement. A slight negative is that the lens correction part of ACR cannot remove CA as it could.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5d77c4rkirfn3tj/oct-11-version.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yby8ffj21r3658/oct-23-am-edge3-version.JPG

[Danne]

Wow! This looks amazing.

Another update for the amaze experiment, mostly on the speed side.

Basically, this algorithm is very powerful in semi-overexposed areas and (coupled with the alias map) in deep shadows. In midtones, you already have full detail from both ISOs, so there's no point in doing expensive interpolations that will be discarded anyway. So, this update will be a little faster for well-exposed images, and a little slower for tricky ones.

cr2hdr-amaze-edge3.exe

Here's a crop that was quite difficult to solve, because all this detail was covered only by one ISO:



(obviously, power lines can't be guessed, but most diagonal lines should be fine).

If there are no obvious regressions, I'll update the first post.

[a1ex]

A slight negative is that the lens correction part of ACR cannot remove CA as it could.

That was probably chroma smoothing. You can apply it as a separate step (I don't know how it's called in PS, but in GIMP it's this: http://registry.gimp.org/node/10306 )

[naveed]

Dear ML team and members,

I am new to ML, I am using 5d Mark III. how can i install and use this feature?

how can we remove this add-on after installation?

have any one lost his camera because of this?

Regards,
Naveed

[Marsu42]

I am new to ML, I am using 5d Mark III. how can i install and use this feature? how can we remove this add-on after installation? have any one lost his camera because of this?

Feel free to have a look at the tutorials section ... but here you go: Get a "nightly" release & enable the dual_iso in the module tab - you can disable it again anytime you want. However, if you are concerned about bricking your camera and safety you shouldn't use ml on your 5d3 at all right now as it's in the unstable alpha stage.

[a1ex]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yby8ffj21r3658/oct-23-am-edge3-version.JPG

@tron: can you post the same crop with this version?

cr2hdr-amaze-edge4.exe

I'm trying to find out why do you get jagged edges in highlights; I can't get them in either ufraw or rawtherapee, no matter how aggressive highlight recovery, sharpening or tone mapping I try. My crop looks like this:



The only difference from the previous one (edge3) is in highlights above white level.

[Bassaidai]

Hi folks,

first of all: thanks Alex for unleashing the dual_iso beast on the 5d2! (and other cams) (and overall for generally unleashing that beast at all...) THANKS!

Here are a couple of images, for the fun of it... (based on ...amaze_edge2.exe)

I know, I pretty much overdid the HDR effect, but heck, thats whats possible with dual_iso :-)
Some of those images were strongly underexposed, even to a degree where only the high-iso lines captured detail at all. Postprocessing all done in Lightroom 4...

Have fun,
Bass



edit: smaller images

[Danne]

Hi! did you use noise reduction as well on the pictures? Lacks detail?

[Bassaidai]

yes, very strong noise reduction actually. Getting brightness up on underexposed images drastically turns up noise, so, yep, I had to hit that button hard...

Btw, how do I setup nicely clickable thumbnail images within the forum editor? Sorry for cluttering the thread with those bulky full-res images.... :-/

Bass

Edit: THANKS admin for changing those images into small tumbnails. How do I do that? (I initially used the "insert image" feature...)

[a1ex]

I use something like [img width=200].

If you still have noise, you probably need something like 20 stops of dynamic range (or clip some more highlights).

[Bassaidai]

Thanks, I just checked the corrected post. Will use the "img height = 100" tag in the future!

Yeah, well, black dog against direct sun is probably something at the very edge of whats possible dynamic range wise. I keep on working to find the right ETTR / dual_iso range balance...

[Bassaidai]

A couple of days ago when I first started using dual_iso I noticed regular patterns in the resulting DNGs.
I reconverted one of the original CR2 with todays "...amaze_edge4.exe". Pattern is unchanged, see the 300% crop:



If I remember correctly dual_iso was set to ISO 800/100. Any idea?

[a1ex]

Can you upload a CR2?

[Bassaidai]

yep, please check your inbox.

[a1ex]

Diagnosed: there's gibberish in the top optical black bar, and cr2hdr interprets it as black level.

[Bassaidai]

Thanks for checking!

I don't know if I fully understand. What kind of gibberish is there? Is there anything I can do to avoid that?

[a1ex]

Look with dcraw -E IMG_1234.CR2. The top bar wasn't pitch black, as I've assummed until now.

Solved: cr2hdr-amaze-edge5.exe

Also, the embedded previews should be OK now.

[Ivycreek]

  I'm forced to do some of my processing at work on a Mac OS X 10.5.8, I've downloaded the Mac apps (all three) from the first post in this thread and when I try to process a .CR2 file the cr2HDR crashes with this reported:

cr2hdr // Beta 1.4
Input file : IMG_1062.CR2
dyld: unknown required load command 0x80000022 /Users/rollinbergman/Desktop/Dual ISO ap/OSX_cr2hdr/cr2hdr.app/Contents/Resources/script: line 17: 94254 Trace/BPT trap "$CR2HDR" "$FILE_NAME".CR2 > "$FILE_NAME".txt Logfile    : IMG_1062.txt
THE END

I've been searching the forums for a few hours looking for a solution but haven't been able to find the answers.

What am I missing here...when I'm processing at home on a PC the process goes off without a hitch.

[Bassaidai]

Yep, great stuff there, Alex. Thx!

Couple of examples, also from other shots:
(alternating edge4, edge5, same lightroom settings per pair)



Also the color rendition is much more natural now!

[Marsu42]

Solved: cr2hdr-amaze-edge5.exe

This crashes for me after the "Black borders" step, same with the current version from the repo commit 0327295...

[a1ex]

Got it, 6D has thin black bars => division by 0.

Solved and reuploaded.

[Marsu42]

Got it, 6D has thin black bars => division by 0.

Meaning what (and why is it only on 6d?) - that the active size on dual_iso is less than in normal mode?

Solved and reuploaded.

Yes, the crash is gone, thanks for working for the 6d :-)

[a1ex]

See your previous post. These bars are important for noise and black level calibration.