DNGMonochrome 0.9.72 beta released

No spectacular changes in this release, but it does come with some new stuff.

New in version 0.9.72

• Fixes some very minor bugs in the user interface, which didn't affect the conversion.
• Makes some small adjustments to the GreenSplit implementation of previous version, improving fine detail in darker areas.
• Improves the red and blue conversions. Especially the red conversion could suffer from a zipper like artifact, visible mostly on highlighted edges with bright red background. This started showing in some photos around 200 to 300% magnification.
• Improves the algorithm by applying a localised minimum and maximum during interpolation, which helps especially the very noisy photos and improves the outcome of the algorithm when used together with the 'sharper' setting.
• Adds code to enable this version to function with the new Lightroom plugin. The plugin installs through the regular installer, together with DNGMonochrome 0.9.72 (only for Windows Vista / Windows 7 and Lightroom 4/5).
• Brings back the strength setting for RAW red and RAW blue filtering, which was dropped too hastily in an earlier version... strength has the same range (steps of 5%) as the RGB filters... if you want to get to the RAW red or RAW blue results version 0.9.71 produced, push the strength slider to 100%.
• Adds a manual 'Update check' through a new button in the main screen... it will tell you if there's a new version available, provided you're online.

Lightroom plugin

If your work flow is based on Lightroom, the new plugin can be quite a help. It can be installed by choice (it's in the 0.9.72 installer, you don't have to download anything else... turn it off during installation if you don't use Lightroom, although installing it anyway won't harm).

A few notes:

• The plugin is more or less beta. This is my first Lightroom plugin, so be gentle if it doesn't work on your system as intended. Please try it out on some backup DNGs first and make sure it works properly! DNGMonochrome contains safeguards to avoid ever overwriting an original, but nevertheless, convince yourself first it works as intended.
• The plugin will not work with older versions of DNGMonochrome: you need to install it together with at least version 0.9.72 - the plugin is embedded in the installer of DNGMonochrome.
• The plugin will not work with older versions of Lightroom (earlier than version 4).
• Lightroom 4 doesn't work on Windows XP, so if you're on Windows XP, this plugin won't be very useful. Also, since DNGMonochrome itself was adapted to work with Lightroom, the XP version now has a separate installer. Pick the right one on the download page since the Vista/Windows 7 version of DNGMonochrome will not work on XP.
• Do not change the folder of DNGMonochrome (usually under Program Files) or move it to another location after installation: the plugin will get lost. If you need or want to install DNGMonochrome in a different folder, do it during installation, when the installer asks you for the installation path, or - if you want to change it after installation - uninstall DNGMonochrome, then reinstall and change the installation folder during installation (and be sure to include the plugin in the re-installation).

After installation, start up Lightroom, select a color DNG and look under the Help menu in Lightroom. There should be an entry called 'Plugin extras -> DNGMonochrome -> Convert with DNGMonochrome'. If you select it, DNGMonochrome should start with the selected photo from Lightroom, and after conversion (you still have to press that button in DNGMonochrome!), the monochrome DNG is automatically imported into Lightroom, after being saved to the same folder as the original color DNG.

Note that if you're working from a 'last imported' folder within Lightroom, you might not see the imported monochrome photo. If that happens, go to the Library module and select the folder the original is actually in. Then you should see the monochrome version.

You can keep converting the original in DNGMonochrome (changing filters or noise reduction and reprocess) and every converted copy will be imported automatically. Close DNGMonochrome after you're finished, or select a different DNG in Lightroom and go to the Help menu again to select 'Convert with DNGMonochrome' once more. The already running version of DNGMonochrome will close automatically and a new one will open with your selected DNG.

Read more about this plugin here (about installing, using, turning it off or deleting it if you want to get rid of it).


Why the strength setting for RAW filtering?

Well, the reasons are a bit fuzzy, but in hindsight, the RAW filtering with strength is a very simple procedure compared to the more complex RGB filtering. I haven't extensively compared both results side by side, but I did notice that the RAW filtering with strength (after compensating for the loss of exposure in Lightroom) seemed slightly cleaner and less noisy than similar results with RGB filtering.

There are some distinct differences:

• With RGB filtering you get the right exposure setting at every strength setting. Strength at 5% will give the same exposure as strength at 100%. With the RAW filtering, the stronger you filter, the more you have to compensate in your RAW converter for lost luminance.
• RAW filtering doesn't care about white balance.
• RAW filtering can not do a green filter.
• Due to the loss of exposure it's not possible to use gradient filtering with the RAW filters. So if you only want to filter part of the photo, you'll have to use the RGB filters.

Download

You can download the new version of DNGMonochrome here.