RAW files - Direct Import vs Pre-processing

[Tim]

Is there a preference for using RAW files (.NEF in my case) directly with Zephyr or is it recommended to pre-process them in Lightroom/ect.?

I'm guessing that WB and such may not be perfectly set, but accurate color reproduction is not so critical for me.

Thanks

[Roberto]

Hi Tim,

at the moment it's not possible to specify the WB or the gamma correction settings during the raw image decoding process. The white balance is automatically set to the one specified by the camera (if any) or a to fixed one if not found.

If color is critical, my suggestion is to decode the raw photos in Lightroom or similar software and save the photos in tiff 16 or 32 bit format, instead of 8bit jpg, if you need to preserve the color depth. All the internal computations in Zephyr are done using float/32bit data and the final texture can be generated in 16bit and 32bit formats as well.

[Tim]

Roberto,
Thank you for the info.
Color accuracy is not critical to me. So it sounds like importing RAW direct is the way to go.

Would you recommend doing any pre-processing to the RAW images?
(for example, delighting or similar)

Thanks

[Roberto]

I would suggest to avoid any preprocessing filtering (like delighting, sharpening, color balance,...). The matching algorithm are already robust to change of illumination and there's the risk to get worse results if you remove some details with filtering. However, you can apply filtering before the texturing/coloring phase and change the workspace images after the 3D processing has been completed (from tools-> workspace -> change images).

[Scott Nebeker]

I know this is blasphemy but I pre-process almost everything.

Just make sure you don't correct for lens distortion or lens abberation and leave the EXIF untouched.

(EDIT: doing this is NOT best practice)