Just wondering if it would be possible to import raw files with adjustments.
Eg If I use NEF raw files, sometimes they can be darker than normal, but because the dynamic range on some cameras is excellent I can push the exposure up quite a bit with minimal noise. Essentially being able to adjust exposure on images would make selecting control points a lot easier. Also the end result can project correct brightness of photos without having to export to JPG etc.
Is the recommended workflow to export JPG/Tiff Images? If I do this, it can increase files dramatically (Tiff) or reduce the bit depth (12 RAW to 8 JPG).
Many thanks
Hi Jon
RAW adjustments…
its best if use some good RAW workflow “develop” sw like DXO Optics where you do all the adjustments to the image before processing in RC. Its because at least for now use use standard Windows RAW settings loader that are not the best when we talk about quality.
So you prepare perfect images corrections in DXO Optics and just then use the data in RC.
Its depend on projects but mostly properly developed RAWs to TIF-JPGs with 8bits are OK
The 16-32 bit image workflow is mostly used in VFX ( games ) workflows… where it can be really used in production. If need orthos, renders and etc then the 8bit are in most cases OK.
Does reducing 16-24 to 8 bit improve performance at all?
Hope that isn’t too much of a noob question… 
Thanks for the tips.
I currently use Adobe lightroom to do the corrections - it has been working for now, I’ve not had a chance to test noise reduction and contrast adjustment to see how it impacts alignment.
This might be a strange question, but if I have an 8bit JPG that looks dark, are there less feature points added?
I’ll attach example which shows an exposure from the camera that tries to make sure highlights do not blow-out.
Ideally a camera would shoot HDR but this would require a tripod.
I have processed this image and reduced contrast / changed the curves to keep detail in highlights, but bring up the shadows.
Ultimately does this affect the RC algorithms? this is certainly the case in photoscan.
Götz Echtenacher wrote:
Does reducing 16-24 to 8 bit improve performance at all?
Hope that isn’t too much of a noob question…
I believe it does not affect performance too much because an 8 bit JPG still needs to be uncompressed internally in most situations.
Maybe memory consumption might drop, but I’m curious about this too.
its a 8 or 16 (32)bit per channnel
for the speed its almost 3 times more data so even recon time get higher processing 16 bit imgs. From our internal testing the 8bit vs 16bit are in most cases with just small improvements. its highly advisable to make more images if possible and some of them edited for better color rendering = play with the contrast and brightness a bit.
@Jon I tested Lightroom, Photoshop and DXO. Of those, DXO seems to deliver, hands down, the best results with the least amount of work. Both Lightroom and Photoshop perform some sharpening that seems to introduce a decent amount of noise in the results. I spent a lot of time testing various settings and the first results from DXO were better than anything from either of those.
I also found that with my camera array, in cases where I had shutter shadow, Photoshop and Lightroom produced different results for those images from the rest in the set. The results from DX0 were very consistent. FWIW