Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

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SimonJASimpson
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Joined: 13.10.2014 23:16

Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by SimonJASimpson »

I have noticed that the final composite image is slightly desaturated in comparison to the original images. I have screenshots to demonstrate this. I am using the ProPhoto colour space throughout.
Screen Shot 2015-04-19 at 17.02.13.png
(1.73 MiB) Not downloaded yet
Screen Shot 2015-04-16 at 15.33.11.png
(2.29 MiB) Not downloaded yet
Also, the HeliconFocus plugin never completes the return trip to Lightroom stalling after the TIFFs have been exported to HeliconFocus. Saving the composite into the original folder makes no difference and the Lightroom action has to be terminated separately.

Any suggestions appreciated.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Method C may change a saturation a bit, have you tried method B? The effect might be increased by the fact that you are using ProPhoto colorspace with 8 bit JPEG images. I would recommend to use 16 bit tiffs for color spaces other than sRGB.

I would appreciate if you upload source images so we can make our own tests.

Lightroom: Please make sure the same happens with more recent version from our site. And here is the video of how it should normally work: http://www.youtube.com/embed/PQLAyW1q7po
SimonJASimpson
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Joined: 13.10.2014 23:16

Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by SimonJASimpson »

It was my mistake in showing you a screenshot from some incorrectly generated JPGs. But the same applies to RAW files converted to 16 bit TIFFs (see attached screenshot).
Screen Shot HeliconFocus.jpg
(418.97 KiB) Not downloaded yet
You can have the original RAW source files but there are 15 of them @ 25Mb each – total to upload 375Mb plus 15 XMP files of relatively insignificant size. Do you still want them ?

I tried using HeliconFocus 6.3.0 but trying to save the composite image causes the attached error message. And indeed most of the EXIF data has been expunged from the saved composite. Also in earlier tests, on quitting, HeliconFocus 6.3.0 crashed every time (I can send you the crash log if you wish). In later tests it seems to be OK (not crashing), but still the error message and no EXIF data.
Screen Shot Error Message.png
(40.49 KiB) Downloaded 102 times
After all this Lightroom now seems to be importing the saved file correctly – in both versions ! Perhaps because I reinstalled the plugin ? The Lightroom plugin reamins at version 1.0.0 despite uninstalling and reinstalling it.

6.3.0 seems much faster than its earlier iteration so if you could fix the metadata problem, this would be wonderful.

I can of course fix the saturation problem in Lightroom, but still it is puzzling; and it would be nice if HeliconFocus retained the original file’s specifications, yes ? BTW, there seems to be no difference in the saturations of the composite regardless of which rendering method I used.

But thanks for some great software which I am really enjoying using.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Thanks for your reports! We think that we solved the problem with XMP and we send a link to beta version in private message to you. I would appreciate if you test it.

As to saturation problem, we would like to understand it so your stack is still of interest to us.
SimonJASimpson
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Joined: 13.10.2014 23:16

Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by SimonJASimpson »

Hi Stas.

Many thanks for your help.

XMP:
I have tested your Beta version and the application no longer crashed nor do I get the error message. However, neither do I get the metadata in the composite ! Helicon Focus 6.2.2 still works fine in this respect.

Helicon Focus not round tripping from Lightroom:
It sometimes does the roundtrip after I've saved the composite and sometimes not. When it doesn't I get an error message when quitting Lightroom. I have now captured this error message and uploaded it (below).
Screen Shot 2015-04-23 at 14.45.08.png
(34.84 KiB) Downloaded 70 times
Minor saturation difference between original images and composite:
I was not able to upload the zip file containing 15 low resolution TIFF files generated from Lightroom but you can download the stack as a zip file from this URL:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dzvreb61m9na1 ... 9.zip?dl=0

Best wishes; and thanks again for your help.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Thanks for the images. Please let us a few days for testing.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Thanks for the images. I think desaturation is connected with XMP bug. Color profile might be lost as well as XMP data. We fixed XMP in the latest release, so I would like to ask you to test this stack again with the newest version from our site.
SimonJASimpson
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by SimonJASimpson »

Hi Stas.

There is an improvement in the matching of the stack and composite images although there remains a very slight difference.

I'm sorry to tell you that the XMP bug remains as all the EXIF data and keywords disappear after being processed with HF.

In my test the roundtrip to Lightroom is still not working, the saved version not appearing in LR and the Helicon task not completed. On exiting HF or LR the error message appears (as above).
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Hmm, very strange, we will test it over again.
What OS version, Helicon Focus version and Lightroom version do you have?
SimonJASimpson
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by SimonJASimpson »

I’m sorry this is causing such a problem…

Mac OSX 10.7.5
Helicon Focus 6.3.2. (EXIF loss doesn’t happen with 6.2.2)
Lightroom 5.7

Many thanks Stas.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: Composite Image Desaturated + Lightroom Plugin Stalling

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Thanks! We will try to fix it. Please wait till new release is out.
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