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Full-color 41 MP photos with the M10M!


onasj

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1 hour ago, onasj said:

I just took one of the most color-accurate photos I've ever taken indoors.  

I took it with the M10 Monochrom.

The result blew me away—I was expecting the experiment to work ok, but not to exceed the color accuracy of most of the digital cameras I've used in the past.   Perhaps only the Phase One IQ3 Trichromatic output colors that were close in accuracy to these (but the M10M in this setting was still better).

The color accuracy was far better than that of my M10P using the same lens. The M10P has always rendered the color of this room’s walls far too yellow, resulting in apricot walls rather than the actual brick-colored walls.

You can probably already guess what I did (a centuries-old technique, in fact): I shot the same image three times, each time through a red, green, or blue color filter, then used the resulting M10M images to serve as the red, green, or blue channels of the full-color image.  Voila, a 41 MP full-color image from your M10 Monochrom.  The quality is outstanding since there’s no Bayer CFA, no demosaicing, no anti-aliasing filter, and 41 MP of resolution.

Methodology:
1) Get red, green, and blue color filters.  To get the most accurate colors, I recommend using BLUE #47B, GREEN #61, and RED #29 filters.  They don’t let through as much light as broader-bandpass filters such as BLUE #47, GREEN #58, and RED #25 filters, but because they are so narrow-pass in only allowing a narrow range of wavelengths of light through, the resulting color accuracy of the composite image is better.  Moreover, the M10M is amazing at high-ISO photography, so photons probably aren’t going to be in short supply.  Tiffen sells high-quality filters in all of these colors for not much cost (I purchased mine for about $10-$20 each).  Best to get them all in one larger size, then buy step-down rings ($3 each) to adapt them to fit your lenses.

2) Pick a stationary subject.  Any movement between captures will show up as the world’s worst chromatic aberration, so still subjects are important unless you want the psychedelic color ghosting effect (which can be artistic).

3) Set up your M10M on a sturdy tripod and frame and focus as usual.

4) To correct for differences in light transmission between the three filters, I let the camera and computer do all the work.  Set your ISO as you wish, and use auto shutter speed.  Put on the green filter and capture a raw file.  Replace the green filter with the red one and capture.  Finally, replace the red filter with the blue filter and capture.  The order isn’t critical, although one small advantage of starting with green is that its transmission level is intermediate between the red filter and the blue filter for most scenes, so you can get an easier sense of proper exposure from the green-filtered shot.

5) Label the three raw files RED/GREEN/BLUE and adjust their exposure, contrast, etc.  I simply used command-L (auto-adjust) on each photo individually in Capture One 20 and the results were excellent.  Export as JPG files.

6) In Photoshop, open all three files and paste two of them as layers into the third file, so now you have one Photoshop image with three layers.  In the Edit menu, auto-align layers to minimize any tripod shifting that may have occurred between filter changes and shots.  Make sure the image is in RGB mode (if not, switch to RGB mode).

7) Click on the TOP layer of the stack of aligned layers in the Layers tab.  Select All the entire image of the TOP layer, and Copy the entire image of the TOP layer to the clipboard.  Then go to the Channels tab, select the color channel that corresponds to the top layer’s filter (green, for example, if that was your top layer), and Paste the image into that color channel.

😎 Next, click on the middle layer in the Layers tab, Select All the entire image (let’s assume it’s the red-filtered image), Copy, select the TOP layer in the Layers tab, click the Channels tab, and Paste into the TOP layer’s corresponding channel (the red channel, in this example).

9) Finally, click on the bottom layer in the Layers tab.  Select All the entire image (the blue-filtered image in this example), Copy, and Paste it into the TOP layer’s remaining (blue) channel.

10) Now be sure all RGB channels are visible in your Channels tab.  Voila, your 41 MP image should be in spectacular full-color.  Merge Visible to ditch the now-unnecessary middle and bottom layers, edit to your taste, and Save.

Example attached in preview size.  You can download the full-resolution 41-MP result here (M10M, ISO 100, 50 lux at f/5.6, auto shutter speed):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jhja1oijmee0yaj/Test image 1 composite-from autoadjusted autoaligned layers.jpg?dl=0

Here is the the M10P's color image with its horrid apricot-colored walls taken on the same tripod with the same lens and settings:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/357aczg6z57wa8h/M10P-100-f6.8-2s-L1008463.jpg?dl=0

You can download all the raw files and intermediate JPG files in the process here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g3xaazb1ukst0bu/AADd0uYoiQg06WAgA2NaXhSIa?dl=0

 

Enjoy!

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Impressive!  Thanks so much for taking the time to conduct and share this test.

- Scott

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9 hours ago, onasj said:

I just took one of the most color-accurate photos I've ever taken indoors.  

I took it with the M10 Monochrom.

The result blew me away—I was expecting the experiment to work ok, but not to exceed the color accuracy of most of the digital cameras I've used in the past.   Perhaps only the Phase One IQ3 Trichromatic output colors that were close in accuracy to these (but the M10M in this setting was still better).

 

What a brilliant experiment. I don't know where it takes us – but it is extremely interesting.

Thank you

Edited by marcg
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14 hours ago, onasj said:

I just took one of the most color-accurate photos I've ever taken indoors.  

I took it with the M10 Monochrom.

The result blew me away—I was expecting the experiment to work ok, but not to exceed the color accuracy of most of the digital cameras I've used in the past.   Perhaps only the Phase One IQ3 Trichromatic output colors that were close in accuracy to these (but the M10M in this setting was still better).

The color accuracy was far better than that of my M10P using the same lens. The M10P has always rendered the color of this room’s walls far too yellow, resulting in apricot walls rather than the actual brick-colored walls.

You can probably already guess what I did (a centuries-old technique, in fact): I shot the same image three times, each time through a red, green, or blue color filter, then used the resulting M10M images to serve as the red, green, or blue channels of the full-color image.  Voila, a 41 MP full-color image from your M10 Monochrom.  The quality is outstanding since there’s no Bayer CFA, no demosaicing, no anti-aliasing filter, and 41 MP of resolution.

Methodology:
1) Get red, green, and blue color filters.  To get the most accurate colors, I recommend using BLUE #47B, GREEN #61, and RED #29 filters.  They don’t let through as much light as broader-bandpass filters such as BLUE #47, GREEN #58, and RED #25 filters, but because they are so narrow-pass in only allowing a narrow range of wavelengths of light through, the resulting color accuracy of the composite image is better.  Moreover, the M10M is amazing at high-ISO photography, so photons probably aren’t going to be in short supply.  Tiffen sells high-quality filters in all of these colors for not much cost (I purchased mine for about $10-$20 each).  Best to get them all in one larger size, then buy step-down rings ($3 each) to adapt them to fit your lenses.

2) Pick a stationary subject.  Any movement between captures will show up as the world’s worst chromatic aberration, so still subjects are important unless you want the psychedelic color ghosting effect (which can be artistic).

3) Set up your M10M on a sturdy tripod and frame and focus as usual.

4) To correct for differences in light transmission between the three filters, I let the camera and computer do all the work.  Set your ISO as you wish, and use auto shutter speed.  Put on the green filter and capture a raw file.  Replace the green filter with the red one and capture.  Finally, replace the red filter with the blue filter and capture.  The order isn’t critical, although one small advantage of starting with green is that its transmission level is intermediate between the red filter and the blue filter for most scenes, so you can get an easier sense of proper exposure from the green-filtered shot.

5) Label the three raw files RED/GREEN/BLUE and adjust their exposure, contrast, etc.  I simply used command-L (auto-adjust) on each photo individually in Capture One 20 and the results were excellent.  Export as JPG files.

6) In Photoshop, open all three files and paste two of them as layers into the third file, so now you have one Photoshop image with three layers.  In the Edit menu, auto-align layers to minimize any tripod shifting that may have occurred between filter changes and shots.  Make sure the image is in RGB mode (if not, switch to RGB mode).

7) Click on the TOP layer of the stack of aligned layers in the Layers tab.  Select All the entire image of the TOP layer, and Copy the entire image of the TOP layer to the clipboard.  Then go to the Channels tab, select the color channel that corresponds to the top layer’s filter (green, for example, if that was your top layer), and Paste the image into that color channel.

😎 Next, click on the middle layer in the Layers tab, Select All the entire image (let’s assume it’s the red-filtered image), Copy, select the TOP layer in the Layers tab, click the Channels tab, and Paste into the TOP layer’s corresponding channel (the red channel, in this example).

9) Finally, click on the bottom layer in the Layers tab.  Select All the entire image (the blue-filtered image in this example), Copy, and Paste it into the TOP layer’s remaining (blue) channel.

10) Now be sure all RGB channels are visible in your Channels tab.  Voila, your 41 MP image should be in spectacular full-color.  Merge Visible to ditch the now-unnecessary middle and bottom layers, edit to your taste, and Save.

Example attached in preview size.  You can download the full-resolution 41-MP result here (M10M, ISO 100, 50 lux at f/5.6, auto shutter speed):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jhja1oijmee0yaj/Test image 1 composite-from autoadjusted autoaligned layers.jpg?dl=0

Here is the the M10P's color image with its horrid apricot-colored walls taken on the same tripod with the same lens and settings:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/357aczg6z57wa8h/M10P-100-f6.8-2s-L1008463.jpg?dl=0

You can download all the raw files and intermediate JPG files in the process here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g3xaazb1ukst0bu/AADd0uYoiQg06WAgA2NaXhSIa?dl=0

 

Enjoy!

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great experiment and results, thank you

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Ah! The Produkin-Gorskii method!  :) They should be sharper as well, as you are stacking three high-resolution files. 

 

By Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, ca 1905 - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID ppmsc.04442., Public Domain,

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Indeed—the sharpness of that test photo at 100% was quite surprising.  41 MP,  no Bayer CFA, no AA, high dynamic range (I suspect), insane high-iso performance... it’s ideal, except for the whole “your subject and camera can’t move at all for three exposures” limitation :)

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4 hours ago, onasj said:

Indeed—the sharpness of that test photo at 100% was quite surprising.  41 MP,  no Bayer CFA, no AA, high dynamic range (I suspect), insane high-iso performance... it’s ideal, except for the whole “your subject and camera can’t move at all for three exposures” limitation :)

so similar to a foveon sensor maybe..the FF foveon is supposed to release later this year or early next year

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On 1/26/2020 at 1:16 PM, onasj said:

Indeed—the sharpness of that test photo at 100% was quite surprising.  41 MP,  no Bayer CFA, no AA, high dynamic range (I suspect), insane high-iso performance... it’s ideal, except for the whole “your subject and camera can’t move at all for three exposures” limitation :)


For the M10P version with the orange walls, curious to know if white balancing fixes the issue?

Edited by paulsydaus
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1 hour ago, paulsydaus said:


For the M10P version with the orange walls, curious to know if white balancing fixes the issue?

It definitely does NOT fix the issue—I've tried repeatedly.  The problem is not just that the wall is too yellow—it is also not red enough.  Even adjusting the color temperature and the magenta/green tint by hand cannot really get the color of the wall right without badly missing the colors of the other objects in the room.  To be fair, most of the time I find the M10-P color to be fine, especially after correcting for color temp and tint—this brick/rust-colored wall just happens to be a case where it misses.

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1 hour ago, magixaxeman said:

I can see this camera being useful to astrophotographers, especially those with some kind of tracking mount and a little experience shooting with mono astrocams, Imagine a 123mp image of M-42 (The Orion Nebula).

24 Elmar, f/4, 13 sec, ISO 160.  File was actually overexposed so I underexposed 3 stops in LR and darkened central portion to equal the vignetting.

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12 hours ago, Likaleica said:

24 Elmar, f/4, 13 sec, ISO 160.  File was actually overexposed so I underexposed 3 stops in LR and darkened central portion to equal the vignetting.

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Tim,  I take it this means the "Eagle" has landed?  VERY nice image, and I'll bet this posted version doesn't do it justice...

 

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3 hours ago, FHPdoc said:

Tim,  I take it this means the "Eagle" has landed?  VERY nice image, and I'll bet this posted version doesn't do it justice...

 

Yes, looks better in Lightroom and even printed.  It was just a snapshot, really, to test the astro capabilities.  Since I had to underexpose 3 stops in post this means exposures can be shorter so stars should be better.  Thanks, Scott.

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