Slight monochrome frustration

[fordfanjpn]

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I'm shooting a Q2M and an M10M, and one of the biggest (or only) frustrations I have with them is that Lightroom Denoise and DxO DeepPRIME don't recognize the monochrome DNG files. Does anyone know of another tool that can work the same magic as Denoise and DeepPRIME on the monochrome raw files? I have and use Topaz PhotoLab 7, but it's not the same. 

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[erudolph]

Topaz Denoise and/or Topaz PhotoAI

[250swb]

I don't actually know the specific answer but many apps won't run unless the file is RGB? So if you aren't using RGB (a good idea for monochrome files anyway) save as an RGB .TIFF and see if that works.

[jaapv]

Convert to RGB, not to greyscale for most apps, including Topaz Denoise. However, for grayscale images Topaz Photo AI will work and it is my go-to enhancer for colour images as well. Highly recommended. 

[fordfanjpn]

Thanks for the suggestions. As I mentioned in my original post, I am shooting Leica monochrome cameras, so I have no color or RGB files to work with.

So far I have not been able to find a way to convert a Leica monochrome DNG file to an RGB DNG file.

I have Topaz Photo AI but I have to open files in TIFF format from Lightroom. If I try to open a monochrome DNG file directly I get a completely red image. Apparently it considers the monochrome data in the DNG file to be the red channel. For now, I'm editing in Lightroom, and opening images as TIFF in either Topaz Photo AI or Silver Efex 7. 

FWIW, ON1 Photo RAW 2024 recognizes the Leica monochrome DNG files, and it has NoNoise AI and Tack Sharp AI which work pretty well on some images, but I think that Denoise in Lightroom and DeepPRIME in DxO PhotoLab are better. The search continues. 

[marchyman]

9 hours ago, fordfanjpn said:

As I mentioned in my original post, I am shooting Leica monochrome cameras, so I have no color or RGB files to work with.

There are several ways to create RGB images from monochrome camera output.  I've had to do this to process grayscale images in Capture One as the version I was using at the time didn't support grayscale images (is that still true?).  One of the methods I used was the "convert" option in ImageMagick, a free suite of image processing functions.  But that does make the image file much.

If you are on a mac you can use the "sips" app from a terminal command line to apply a color profile to your grayscale image.

    sips -M /System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/AdobeRGB1998.icc relative "image-name.dng"

and then process the image with software that requires RGB.

[250swb]

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11 hours ago, fordfanjpn said:

Thanks for the suggestions. As I mentioned in my original post, I am shooting Leica monochrome cameras, so I have no color or RGB files to work with.

So far I have not been able to find a way to convert a Leica monochrome DNG file to an RGB DNG 

You do it in ACR, simply set the option for file output to Adobe RGB. It gives you far more control over your image anyway because you can now choose to make it a warmer or cooler colour to replicate traditional photo papers or keep it neutral. You aren’t converting the the dng file to RGB you are converting your output TIFF file to RGB. And don’t tick the Monochrome option in ACR.

Edited August 17, 2024 by 250swb

[jaapv]

16 hours ago, fordfanjpn said:

Thanks for the suggestions. As I mentioned in my original post, I am shooting Leica monochrome cameras, so I have no color or RGB files to work with.

So far I have not been able to find a way to convert a Leica monochrome DNG file to an RGB DNG file.

I have Topaz Photo AI but I have to open files in TIFF format from Lightroom. If I try to open a monochrome DNG file directly I get a completely red image. Apparently it considers the monochrome data in the DNG file to be the red channel. For now, I'm editing in Lightroom, and opening images as TIFF in either Topaz Photo AI or Silver Efex 7. 

FWIW, ON1 Photo RAW 2024 recognizes the Leica monochrome DNG files, and it has NoNoise AI and Tack Sharp AI which work pretty well on some images, but I think that Denoise in Lightroom and DeepPRIME in DxO PhotoLab are better. The search continues. 

Opening in TIFF makes absolutely no difference (except in file size). DNG is a TIFF-based format.

[fordfanjpn]

24 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Opening in TIFF makes absolutely no difference (except in file size). DNG is a TIFF-based format.

That explains a few things. As far as I have been able to tell, trying to convert a monochrome DNG file to anything else, or even another DNG, in ACR or any other way, does not give you a file that Lightroom Denoise or DxO PhotoLab will recognize. 

 

I haven't tried the "sips" command yet. I'll need to put on my big boy hat before I start messing with Linux commands. I think for the time being, I'll just be content processing my monochrome DNG files in Lightroom. 

[250swb]

5 hours ago, fordfanjpn said:

That explains a few things. As far as I have been able to tell, trying to convert a monochrome DNG file to anything else, or even another DNG, in ACR or any other way, does not give you a file that Lightroom Denoise or DxO PhotoLab will recognize. 

Besides changing the colour space from Greyscale to an output Adobe RGB TIFF in ACR (click on the dialogue that appears directly under the photo while in ACR) you can change the colour space from Greyscale to RGB in both Photoshop and Lightroom as simply as changing to any other colour space. Just because the file has no colour doesn't mean it can't be edited in an RGB colour space. The file should be recognised in all programmes that require an RGB file (like Silver Efex) but it's unlikely that Denoise will work as I suspect it requires actual RGB coloured pixels.

Edited August 18, 2024 by 250swb

[jaapv]

7 hours ago, fordfanjpn said:

That explains a few things. As far as I have been able to tell, trying to convert a monochrome DNG file to anything else, or even another DNG, in ACR or any other way, does not give you a file that Lightroom Denoise or DxO PhotoLab will recognize. 

 

I haven't tried the "sips" command yet. I'll need to put on my big boy hat before I start messing with Linux commands. I think for the time being, I'll just be content processing my monochrome DNG files in Lightroom. 

To convert any DNG to a standard DNG you must use Adobe’s DNG converter (free)  However there is normally no need given that Monochrom files meet the Linear DNG standard  

Converting to RGB in ACR ( see Jeff’s post) works 100%. Just click the link ( blue text) right under the image it will give you a choice what type of image file to convert to. It is a sticky link.
LR works differently. It creates Prophoto simulations on the fly  and only converts the DNG when exporting, applying the edit stack.  
Before “ messing with Linux” first learn to use the software you have. The problems you are experiencing are user error.

The mismatch you are seeing are not based on file type but on colour space  choice in DNG conversion  

BTW in Photoshop you can change the colour space as well in the Edit pull down. Use “convert to”, not “assign” that will create no end of mismatches.