Processing in PTGui

[Steven Roque Morales]

Hello:

I save all of my original images on an external hard drive. Is it better to drag those images from the hard drive to PTGui or to process in Lightroom first then drag to PTGui?

Thanks, Steve

[Erik Krause]

Am 18.09.2024 um 22:12 schrieb Steven Roque Morales:

> Is it better to
> drag those images from the hard drive to PTGui or to process in Lightroom
> first then drag to PTGui?

If you shoot raw and want to get the full benefit from it, process in
Lightroom first (but stay away from local adjustments, like Clarity and
Vibrance).

If you are happy with PTGui's somehow restricted raw processing
capabilities, drag them directly to PTGui.

Version 13 (currently in beta) has improved raw processing a lot, but
not to the extent of a fully fledged raw converter.

Also read https://ptgui.com/support.html#3_7

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[Steven Roque Morales]

Hi Eric:

Wow, very quick reply :)

Thank you for this answer. What are the other local adjustments besides Clarity and Vibrance?

Thanks, Steve

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[Erik Krause]

Am 18.09.2024 um 23:05 schrieb Steven Roque Morales:

> Thank you for this answer. What are the other local adjustments besides
> Clarity and Vibrance?

Highlights and Shadows work globally, but change the response curve
such, that PTGui might not be able to correct it. So this should be
avoided for bracketed shots (depending on what you use to merge the
brackets - SNS-HDR has little problems and Exposure Fusion in PTGui
shouldn't have either). Same applies to Tone Curve edits.

Lens distortion correction sometimes causes problems, since it might
introduce aberrations which PTGui can't correct with it's own lens
correction model (which calculates the distortion from the overlap).

All local edits should be avoided of course, and all adjustments must be
the same for all images of a panorama, so use "Select all" before doing
anything. (BTW.: I'm using ACR, which uses the same engine, but the GUI
might be different.)

You can safely (and should) do denoising and chromatic aberration, white
balance and exposure correction and sharpening.

Anything else is better done in the stitched panorama. For this, ensure
that you don't introduce any clipping of shadows and highlights and
convert to a 16bit format to keep all tonal values.

[PTGui Support]

On 20-09-2024 11:53, 'Erik Krause' via PTGui Support wrote:
> Am 18.09.2024 um 23:05 schrieb Steven Roque Morales:
>
>> Thank you for this answer. What are the other local adjustments besides
>> Clarity and Vibrance?
>
> Highlights and Shadows work globally, but change the response curve
> such, that PTGui might not be able to correct it.

This is not true; highlights/shadows (in ACR at least) are local
corrections.

To clarify: a global correction means that when a color X is transformed
to a color Y (for example by increasing the brightness), this exact same
transform is applied to all pixels with color X, regardless of where
they are in the image.

From PTGui's point of view this is a reversible operation. It can
compare the same pixel in bracketed images and reconstruct the original
brightness (to a certain extent). For HDR PTGui needs to know the
original luminance of each pixel.

Shadow/highlight correction is a more complex operation: different
corrections are applied whether the pixel is near a bright or near a
dark area. Once transformed, PTGui cannot reconstruct the original
brightness.

Joost

[Erik Krause]

Am 21.09.2024 um 14:14 schrieb 'PTGui Support' via PTGui Support:

> Shadow/highlight correction is a more complex operation: different
> corrections are applied whether the pixel is near a bright or near a
> dark area. Once transformed, PTGui cannot reconstruct the original
> brightness.

You are right, as a short test revealed. I always had the impression it
is global, but I should have tested.