Batch Processing of Raw Files

I have done a few batch processes on tif's and it works fine. Ideally I would like to perform a batch process that goes all the way from raw (or dng files) to an optimized jpg output. I don't see any mechanism for processing raw files with a preselect set of parameters in a batch process. When I try to use DNG's in the batch mode, the Raw Converter opens in an interactive mode and waits for input. Is there a way of creating a batch script that includes raw conversion and PerfectPhoto in one pass? Is there any way of doing it in two passes, one to convert raw or dng to tif's and then a batch file to process the tifs?

Werner

Hi,

Yes, PhotoPerfect fully supports batch processing scripts, which can either processes RAW files and saves the processed files as JPEGs and/or Tiffs in one pass. Alternatively 2 passes-converting is also possible. For which option are you interested in ? If a sample RAW and of your Panasonic is available, we can provide you with a Panasonic-tuned sample script.

Best regards

Hoang-Tran

Unfortunately my personal web space is limited to 10 MB and the rw2 files are 14MB. However, I did find this FZ35 test file on the web;

http://artzen2.com/webmisc/ps000209.RW2

Thanks,
Werner

I would probably like to work with one pass from rw2 to a high quality jpg. From there I would just review the jpgs and decide which images need further work and redo those from scratch with the raw files. I would rather not clog up the system with GigaBytes's of interim tif files. However, the FZ35 is a typically noisy consumer-level superzoom camera. During my working with PhotoPerfect this weekend I noticed that the Perfectly Clear optimizer did not do too well with noisy images, anything above ISO200 resulted in amplified noise on the final image. I was not able to get the noise functions in PhotoPerfect to clear the noise very well. If you have a little noise processing tutorial handy I would appreciate it. I did use an external noise processor and it cleared up the noise sufficiently for PerfectlyClear to create remarkable good images from difficult lighting test shots.

Thanks,
Werner

Thank you for the link. We will play a bit with it and get back to you immediately as soon as we get a working script for your cam.

Thanks in advance for your patience. It may take a bit as dcraw 8.97 is required - we now see what you mean - the colors are way off :-(

You can try the following copy of dcraw 8.97. It works on our test computers.

Dcraw 8.97

Cheers

Hoang-Tran

P.S. Regading noise, we will try to use the noise reduction mechanism of dcraw by implementing the corresponding parameters within the processing script. I think this is better than apply noise reduction on a JPEG file afterwards...

Ok, I take that back. The provided dcraw 8.97 is still buggy and caused some crashes.

Best regards

Hoang-Tran

Please redownload. This dcraw version works:

Dcraw 8.97

Cheers

Hoang-Tran

Thanks, Hoang-Tran

8.97 works fine on several FZ35 files that I tried. Thank you very much!

I am new to dealing with raw files so I'm not sure that I'm on the right track here but I had thought that I would incorporate some preselected noise processing parameter sets for several different ISO values from ISO 80 all the way to the max that the camera will do, ISO 1600, as 3 or 4 separate batch files. ISO 1600 images are likely to be unusable anyway but at least I can try. I would incorporate the applicable noise filter in the batch files just before the optimization. But I haven't yet had much success with the built-in noise functions. I suspect PhotoPerfect was designed to be used with DSLRs with much larger sensors and much lower noise at moderate ISO values than the camera that I have.

regards,
Werner

You are welcome :-)

I would do exactly like that. Actually I have already done that for my Canon DSRLs. I will try to comment the sample batch file thoroughly, so that you can modify/tune it for your needs.

Best regards

Hoang-Tran

I just realized what you meant here. I had not been using the "Denoise" lever in the Raw Converter dialog. I was using the noise functions in the main program. Denoise in Raw works fine. I can now load a noisy ISO rw2 image through the Raw Converter, run PerfectlyClear and then a USM and the image looks better than anything I've been able to do manually.

Thanks for the tip, regards,
Werner