Alternatives to lightroom - Image comparison - Take 2

[Brian G]

Prompted by the other thread started by "Ancient Mariner" (https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/alternatives-to-lightroom-image-comparison.668832/) I have done a similar comparison between the same image developed in Lightroom and OnOne.
This is quite an old image but I think a good test of a raw developer.
Out of Camera the sky is completely devoid of detail and the shadow areas are blocked up.
One thing that convinced me to switch to Lightroom was it's highlight recovery, but I think that OnOne does a pretty good job here.
The object was to recover as much sky and shadow detail as the software would allow.

Basic Image - Out of Camera with no adjustments applied.
Henry Moore Sculpture by Brian Gibson, on Flickr

Processed to taste in Lightroom.
Henry Moore Sculpture by Brian Gibson, on Flickr

Processed to taste in OnOne Photo RAW 2018
Henry Moore Sculpture by Brian Gibson, on Flickr
My main criticism would be that there is an edge effect, similar to CA but without colour, around the sculpture and the back of the bus.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Hi Brian, I've only just seen your image comparison. Where you had your edge effect around the back of the statue, did you use the 'practically perfect' brush to drop sky brightness? I've sometimes found that struggles to select edges well, and it needs use of the edge refinement tool to prevent this kind of artifact.

Going back & forth, I'd say you've pulled shadows up a little more in On1 or given Lightroom a touch more contrast, with lower-mid tones having more density in the LR image. Thanks for posting.

 

[Brian G]

Hi Brian, I've only just seen your image comparison. Where you had your edge effect around the back of the statue, did you use the 'practically perfect' brush to drop sky brightness? I've sometimes found that struggles to select edges well, and it needs use of the edge refinement tool to prevent this kind of artifact.

Going back & forth, I'd say you've pulled shadows up a little more in On1 or given Lightroom a touch more contrast, with lower-mid tones having more density in the LR image. Thanks for posting.

Hi Toni, thanks for the comments.

This was intended to be a quick comparison between LR and OnOne, mainly to compare highlight and shadow recovery, so I didn't spend a lot of time on the details, and I certainly didn't spend time trying to correct the edge effect I saw with OnOne, which didn't seem to occur with Lightroom. I think it would be possible to improve the edge detail with more work, but I've noticed that OnOne seems to be prone to suffering these aberration effects on other images, although cheap, CA prone "standard" lenses probably don't help in the first place, but the profiles in LR seem to offer better correction, than those in OnOne.
I could well have adjusted each one differently, since they were done at different times and without reference, simply a matter of "about here looks right" and neither are intended to be a definitive result, just a case of comparing the two programs. Overall, I still feel that Lightroom offers better results, but that may be more to do with familiarity than absolute performance, and OnOne certainly offers a viable alternative.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Hi Toni, thanks for the comments.

This was intended to be a quick comparison between LR and OnOne, mainly to compare highlight and shadow recovery, so I didn't spend a lot of time on the details, and I certainly didn't spend time trying to correct the edge effect I saw with OnOne, which didn't seem to occur with Lightroom. I think it would be possible to improve the edge detail with more work, but I've noticed that OnOne seems to be prone to suffering these aberration effects on other images, although cheap, CA prone "standard" lenses probably don't help in the first place, but the profiles in LR seem to offer better correction, than those in OnOne.
I could well have adjusted each one differently, since they were done at different times and without reference, simply a matter of "about here looks right" and neither are intended to be a definitive result, just a case of comparing the two programs. Overall, I still feel that Lightroom offers better results, but that may be more to do with familiarity than absolute performance, and OnOne certainly offers a viable alternative.

Interesting about the edge effects. I see terrible edge issues in LR and NIK Silver Efex occasionally, and sometimes find they limit what's possible with an image, even when there is good information in the RAW file to work with. I suspect it's to do with how sensors handle separate light channels and handle the subsequent information that creates the potential for edge halos - certainly it seems that FX sufferes less drastic effects than DX.