Sigma Merrill trichromes

[halvmesyr]

Did an experiment with exporting each color layer of a photo as monochrome from SPP and then combining them together in photoshop. To make it more interesting I used a photo that I had shot at iso 800 in monochrome mode.

Original JPEG from camera:

SPP color output:

Trichrome output:

Trichrome output with saturation and brightness/contrast tweaked slightly:


It has a lot of color noise and it heavily saturated but I kind of like the look. Will have to experiment more with files that suffer more from color blotching/smearing and see what I get.

A pet peeve of mine is the boosted micro contrast and detail that SPP adds to color photos. Thankfully it's not added to monochrome photos so I think this method might be a workaround for that. Here's a quick example I did:



Has anyone tried this method before?

I used this video to learn how to combine the different layers:

 

[halvmesyr]

Okay I found more time so here's another example using a photo shot at 1600 and that has a lot of color blocthing. I disabled all noise reduction for these.

SPP:


Trichrome with some small tweaks:


And with color noise reduced:

 

[Deleted member 82967]

Okay I found more time so here's another example using a photo shot at 1600 and that has a lot of color blocthing. I disabled all noise reduction for these.

Interesting!

Had to take a peek (800%):

 

[Deleted member 82967]

Did an experiment with exporting each color layer of a photo as monochrome from SPP and then combining them together in photoshop. A pet peeve of mine is the boosted micro contrast and detail that SPP adds to color photos. Thankfully it's not added to monochrome photos so I think this method might be a workaround for that. Here's a quick example I did:

View attachment 4820562

Has anyone tried this method before?

I don't use Photoshop, but the RGB, raw composite, and individual layer outputs from RawDigger are similarly softer than SPP's default sharpness (0.0).

RawTherapee can open Merrill shots and is not so fierce with the microcontrast ...

 

[halvmesyr]

Oops haha I think the color nr was a bit aggressive!

 

[halvmesyr]

RawTherapee can open them but it has lots of green vignetting unfortunately!

 

[Deleted member 82967]

RawTherapee can open them but [the review image] has lots of green vignetting unfortunately!

Yes, especially on the Merrill DP1 and DP2. As you can gather, the vignetting is in the raw data but not taken out - unlike SPP.

 

[dourbalistar]

Did an experiment with exporting each color layer of a photo as monochrome from SPP and then combining them together in photoshop. To make it more interesting I used a photo that I had shot at iso 800 in monochrome mode.

Has anyone tried this method before?

I used this video to learn how to combine the different layers

I've made color separation trichromes with black and white film, but I think the process of combining photos would be the same with a digital monochrome file. I followed this tutorial which uses GIMP to assemble the final image:

Trichromes in GIMP • PH.BRHFL

archive.brhfl.com

 

[halvmesyr]

Yes, especially on the Merrill DP1 and DP2. As you can gather, the vignetting is in the raw data but not taken out - unlike SPP.

Finally found out how to quote posts! Sorry about that.

Yes and that's too bad. I don't understand stand why that micro contrast boost is added for color photos but omitted in monochrome mode. A switch would be handy 🙂 But I don't think it will ever happen as Merrill sensors are legacy tech.

 

[Deleted member 82967]

Yes and that's too bad. I don't understand stand why that micro contrast boost is added for color photos but omitted in monochrome mode.

The boost is applied during conversion to the RGB review image. But the monochrome Mode does no conversion - it used the raw values tarted up a bit and applied to the Mono Mixer.

A switch would be handy 🙂 But I don't think it will ever happen as Merrill sensors are legacy tech.

There's sort of a switch - instead of the Monochrome Mode, select 'Monochrome' in the WB settings drop-down which just de-saturates the color review image but still gets the boost .

Another sort of switch for some folks is to "always set Sharpness to minus 2.0" but I don't care to do anything by rote.

 

[halvmesyr]

The boost is applied during conversion to the RGB review image. But the monochrome Mode does no conversion - it used the raw values tarted up a bit and applied to the Mono Mixer.



There's sort of a switch - instead of the Monochrome Mode, select 'Monochrome' in the WB settings drop-down which just de-saturates the color review image but still gets the boost .

Another sort of switch for some folks is to "always set Sharpness to minus 2.0" but I don't care to do anything by rote.

Interesting. Didn't know you could desaturate via WB settings.

I always turn sharpness down but unfortunately it still doesn't match the jpegs.

Someone at dpreview mentioned using negative values in microcontrast in som raw editor. Haven't tried it yet.

Too bad that theres no raw editor in camera like the quattros have.

 

[Deleted member 82967]

Interesting. Didn't know you could desaturate via WB settings.

Yes, but it's only a simple color-to-gray by luminance method - which I'm sure is OK for most folks.

I always turn sharpness down but unfortunately it still doesn't match the jpegs.

Someone at dpreview mentioned using negative values in microcontrast in some raw editor. Haven't tried it yet.

Try any editor that has Gaussian blur/smoothing and set it to a low number of pixels or even fractions of a pixel

Too bad that there's no raw editor in-camera like the [Quattros] have.

Too much in-camera stuff bothers this simple old man - my Lumix G9 is a nightmare - I love my raw-only SD9 ...

 

[Deleted member 82967]

Did an experiment with exporting each color layer of a photo as monochrome from SPP and then combining them together in photoshop. To make it more interesting I used a photo that I had shot at iso 800 in monochrome mode.

A bit off-topic but, twenty years ago, one Chris Brown was messing with Sigma SD9 unconverted raw outputs:

SD9 raw to RGB

 

[halvmesyr]

A bit off-topic but, twenty years ago, one Chris Brown was messing with Sigma SD9 unconverted raw outputs:

SD9 raw to RGB

Thanks for sharing! Sd9 is the best.

Haven't read all of it but it looks like similar findings to what I found here. But I have the benefit of the SPP monochrome export taking care of levels.

 

[halvmesyr]

Really have a love/hate relationship with the DP2 Merrill. I think I would be better of with the original DP2. I have the DP1 already and I adore the output from that. I prefer a normal lens though.

 

[Deleted member 82967]

I've o

Really have a love/hate relationship with the DP2 Merrill. I think I would be better of with the original DP2. I have the DP1 already and I adore the output from that. I prefer a normal lens though.

I've owned an original DP2 and, before that, a DP2s. The DP2s a little easier to use with the inlaid colors on the buttons as opposed to just plain black.

I quite liked the 24.2mm (41mm equivalent) lens ... a bit less than the usual 50mm.

I would have to have a JJC auto lens cap and a hot-shoe view finder on either one, couldn't live without them ...

 

[Samouraï]

I got some nice, filmic results with this technique...almost looks like a bleach bypass. Anyone had any luck with achieving more realistic colors? Is there a better ratio of r to b to g?

 

[Deleted member 82967]

I got some nice, filmic results with this technique...almost looks like a bleach bypass. Anyone had any luck with achieving more realistic colors? Is there a better ratio of r to b to g?

Messing with that ratio changes the white balance, if I understand correctly.

So, if "more realistic" means more accurate, the scene would need a neutral object such as a Kodak gray card and the separate monochrome images adjusted so that the object is gray when they are merged.