Pentax, Pixel Shift, And Saturation Don't Play Well With Others

[smoke665]

Ever since I got the K3 II I've had problems with darker colors being over saturated when converting raw DNG files in photo software. When I would drop the saturation down, it seemed like I was losing fine detail. I discovered a workaround by converting the file to a TIFF in Pentax's Utility software, then loading the TIFF into my photo editing software. Every thing was working fine until I started experimenting with Pentax Pixel Shift. Suddenly I was seeing this in the Pentax Utility View Window

But When I would open the TIFF file for further editing I was seeing this highly over saturated image in my view window.

I could spend the time working with it to drop the saturation but the end result lacked the luminous quality and detail that should have been in the image, which surprisingly was very much like what I would get when editing direct from the raw file.

After reading up on Pixel Shift and the forums I found a note about saturation problems with pixel shift, and the "motion correction" applied. I found that there was an update to Pentax Utility 5 version released the end of April 2016 that supposedly corrected these problems. I went online and downloaded it at Digital Camera Utility 5 Update for Windows : Software Downloads | RICOH IMAGING .
After downloading the update I found that when you opened a raw file you get what you might expect a raw file to look like prior to any adjustments.

The difference now though is after the file is adjusted and saved as a TIFF the detail is maintained and when opened in photo editing software it looks like this clip from LR view window.

The luminosity, and fine detail still remains in the TIFF. I realize this needs some further editing but I believe it's at a much better starting place.

As compared to an edit direct from the raw file, where in order to get the saturation right I had to drop the luminosity and saturation to the point that it actually changed the true color of the flower.

 

[jcdeboever]

you may want to take it over to the pentax forum if you don't get any help here. http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/

 

[smoke665]

you may want to take it over to the pentax forum if you don't get any help here.

I actually found the solution to my problems in an Adobe discussion. I posted the fix in How To Make LR Show The Same Image As Your Camera View
I was able to resolve the over saturation, some of the loss of detail in shadows and highlights, and some of the problem with sharpness in Pixel Shift. There was known issue as of late April 2016 with LR and the "motion correction" aspect of Pixel Shift. At least for now though I'm back on track. I can work around the problem when I need to .

 

[jcdeboever]

you may want to take it over to the pentax forum if you don't get any help here.

I actually found the solution to my problems in an Adobe discussion. I posted the fix in How To Make LR Show The Same Image As Your Camera View
I was able to resolve the over saturation, some of the loss of detail in shadows and highlights, and some of the problem with sharpness in Pixel Shift. There was known issue as of late April 2016 with LR and the "motion correction" aspect of Pixel Shift. At least for now though I'm back on track. I can work around the problem when I need to .

Super.