OM System OM-1 - Image Processing Engine Expert Guide

OM System Masterclass: Learn how to configure Picture Modes, Art Filters, Sharpening and much more in-camera, unlocking an efficient image processing workflow capable of incredible results.
Spend less time in front of the PC editing, and more time out in the field taking photographs without compromising on image quality.
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Video Content:
0:00 Introduction
1:56 OM System Image Processing
5:34 Configuring the Processing Engine
5:59 Low ISO Processing
7:17 Picture Modes
11:14 Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation and Gradation
17:00 Highlight and Shadow Control
20:37 Color Creator
24:20 Art Filters
26:05 The OM System Workflow
28:52 Closing Remarks
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Article: thomaseisl.photography/techni...
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🎥 OM System OM-1
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#OMSystem #ImageProcessingEngine #OMWorkspace #OM1 #RAWProcessing #PictureModes #ArtFilters #ColorCreator #InCamera #Editing #Demosaicing #MicroFourThirds #Olympus #ThomasEisl #thomaseislphotography

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Please consider supporting the channel, donate a cup of coffee ☕ ko-fi.com/thomaseislphotography

[@albertocugat9689]

Probably this video and the previous ones are the best and most organized guides on OM-System that are available on the net. OM-System should commission you to write their manuals. Chapeau!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much - that is very kind of you and great to read!

[@sergiodonadeo2810]

Dear Thomas, as you announced, what you are explaining is a new mode to use the camera. Revolutionary! Is OM Workspace slow? It isn't a problem. The right mode is not to use it and try to shoot with good parameters and then only refine them. This was the right use of the camera during all the time of photography. All the various parameters of all the sophisticated software suggest us how to correct errors; but, the right choice is: Not to do any error. Come back to the origin of photography. Thank you Thomas, you open my eyes and you remember to me when I started to photograph, fifty years ago. Sergio from Milano, Italy

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much Sergio - also for the Ko-Fi! I completely agree, you should always get it right in camera. With the OM-1, and only refine everything in OM Workspace. My next video will cover OM Workspace - the final piece of the puzzle - I'm really looking forward to that. Best wishes from Vienna - and thank you so much for watching and your contributions!

[@sergiodonadeo2810]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography Dear Thomas, I was wrong when, following your video, I understood that it's possible to manage - in camera - some parameters like high/low light or contrast, modifying the value contained in the raw file (or a .xmp connected to it). No, I can only adjust parameters for the jpg conversion. Ok, that is. So, I have to wait for the next lesson: OM Workspace. I wait .... Many thanks for all your activities. Sergio from Milano, Italy

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes, that was a misunderstanding - the processing info is stores in the RAW file, so it can be read by Workspace. The processing settings at the RAW stage permanently alter the file, though: Low ISO processing, Noise reduction and some computational modes.

[@david_allen1]

Thomas, thanks for putting so much effort into explaining the image processing process for OM System OM-1. I had no idea that it was so sophisticated with so much designed into the process -- I think I just assumed that OM Workspace was the bare minimum processing software with a few bells and whistles that might not be present in other image processing software, like Lightroom. So much was learning for me, but one item stood out more than the others -- the Color Creator! What a gem! If I had known about it in February, I would have used it as I shot images in essentially a dungeon with very yellow color cast (candlelight). So much to absorb from this video -- it's clearer to me now that OM System put much thought and design into the imaging pipeline to minimize post-processing. I think this material is deep enough to have a 2-3 day seminar on it, say, in Vienna! 😊. I look forward to your comments about OM Workspace; you've already convinced me to stop converting ORF to DNG because, as you say, there's no advantage. I'm afraid I fell for Adobe's marketing reasoning early on and didn't look back until now. Thank you! Sorry for the long post! I got excited.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

David, thank you very much for (!) the long post - I very much appreciate that you've taken the time write it - it is exactly feedback like yours that makes a difference. Thanks a million! I'm also very excited, to be honest, as I think that OM System really created something "magical" with this workflow/integration. It is just awesome to start developing images on the way home from a shooting, then applying everything in Workspace and boom - done. Can't wait to get your feedback on the Workspace video when it is done. Good idea with the workshop, btw! Thanks again David, best wishes from Vienna!

[@sergiodonadeo2810]

Color Creator: very interesting function. But, isn't it the same as to select a desired color balance?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

In a way yes, Sergio! But there are more colors to choose from!

[@Ricardo-SW]

Amazing series, the best out there! OM System should include a link with every camera purchase.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you so much Ricardo!

[@2o4II112II26o2]

Thank you Thomas, I agree it is much more rewarding to get the pictures right in camera. David

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for your kind support! Yes, nothing like "editing" on location.

[@peregrineclarke]

Thank you Thomas for another superb and extremely informative video. I thought I know my EM-1x inside out until I found your channel, now I discover & learn something new with each new video you release. Thank you!!!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

That is great to read! The X is fantastic, and very capable. The next video will illustrate post processing in Workspace!

[@TL-xw6fh]

Thank you once again Thomas. This is an excellent tutorial and really opened my eyes on how to use my Olympus and OM Systems cameras properly. I have often dabbled into the settings but simply did not take an integrated view on how to set the camera up for my own style of photography. I'm going to experiment now that you have shown me how to do it!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much! That is so great to read - my next video on OM Workspace will complement this one - I hope you will like that one as well. Amazing to read this, and I really hope that you will like the "new" workflow. I myself had a lot of fun fine tuning and changing these settings over the last year. Thanks again and best wishes!

[@FigleyCreative]

Thomas! This series of videos are so supremely enjoyable and instructional. Your expertise is a treasure. I am learning so much❤

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much, that is great feedback - very encouraging!

[@rudyhulsmans7443]

finally got around to watching this video. but 1 time will not suffice. again a video that is full of challenging tips. sometimes envy photographers whose style you immediately recognize and in this video there are more than a few interesting keys to getting there myself!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much! Yes, with tweaked picture mode, you can get one step closer to a recognizable style. Just a thought: Although a recognizable style is great - monotony is boring as well. Not that easy, right!

[@pjay3028]

What can I say, you have done it again... An absolutely brilliant video, providing absolutely vital information that just isn't available anywhere else! What would we do without you? I am really looking forward to the next video for the icing on the cake. 👍Thanks again.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you so much! I'm having a great time putting these videos together, especially when there is such positive, rewarding feedback. Thank you!

[@metalmick99]

Again, this is an extremely valuable clip, because you've explained clearly and thoroughly your (detailed) understanding of what the OM-1 is capable of. I thank you for the time and effort you consistently put into this channel to the benefit of all photographers. I suspect that only you and OM Systems itself could have provided this information. I need to watch it again with camera in hand and pace my way through it, because I have never investigated many of the settings you've discussed.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Michael, thank you very much for the kind comment - I'm very happy to read that you liked the video and this specific topic! My next video will complement this one - it is about OM Workspace and how to use it efficiently. Thanks for watching and your continued support of the channel!

[@sbeckmesser]

Between Thomas' videos and Rob Trek's the OM-1 is probably the best-tutorialed camera on KZbin! If I already were'nt saving up for one I'd start knowing that any questions I have probably will have been answered in their tutorials.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great tor read! Many thanks. And yes, the OM-1 is a great choice :-)

[@stefanostefani4273]

This is a great school to really improve our OM1 skills. Thanks so much for this valuable information

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much Stefano! Your feedback: always welcome!

[@RobertVE3VPL]

Many thanks for this.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Most welcome!

[@Jswcat]

Thank you for that excellent explanation of these features as it has really changed my outlook on how to use this excellent Olympus camera body.😊😊

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to read!

[@dustinhecker3986]

Tremendous information, as always.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much!

[@baqcasanke]

Thanks for the video!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thanks!

[@sourcebased]

As always, outstanding concise and thorough presentation! Like you recommended, I am shooting mostly with natural color profile. Or monotone if I aim for B&W. I shot only Jpeg when I started out with Olympus some years ago, as the Raw processing possibilities where just too overwhelming and I did not know yet how to get better results from Raw. Played a lot with the in camera options of the engine back then. I also prefer to nail the composition and exposure in camera if I can get it right and want to edit as little as possible in post, aiming for a natural look. I stopped using Olympus Workspace after some years, when I bought DXO PL, mainly for its better overall performance as a program and its outstanding AI noise reduction. But your Video is quite inspiring to give the in camera engine and OM Workspace a second chance.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for sharing that! My journey went the opposite direction - I used third party software with Olympus, and was then always a bit disappointed that it never looked as good as the in camera jpegs. Then after an initial phase of frustration with workspace, followed by two years without an Olympus camera, I went all in regarding this workflow! I'm looking forward to your feedback when I publish my Workspace for Professionals video 📸 Thanks again for sharing that!

[@tapere7277]

Thank you so much for this. As usual a very clear and precise explanation. I was under the impression that many of these settings only applied to JPEG (I usually shoot RAW only) but clearly this is not the case. I have scoured the manual to find a definitive list of what does affect RAW files but it is not that clear. I fully agree with Sergio Donadeo's comment that if you get what goes into the camera right, there is need for much less post processing. Thank you once again.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much! On my website, you can download the chart 📉 , you will see which settings impact jpeg only, and which RAW. Most of them do only affect the JPEG output. But if you use Workspace afterwards, however, the program will read the embedded info and process the file like you set it in camera. If you are using a third party raw converter, only the settings of the RAW stage will matter. Best wishes!

[@kgroue]

Thanks!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for your support!

[@Mir1189]

Hello. I am enthusiast photographer based in Bratislava, currently shooting on E-M1x and using OM Workspace for more than three years. Still learning new things and technical background about the software, still learning how really powerful it is compared to more popular commercial solutions, as it allows edit in POST certain aspects of RAW to Color conversion. Happy to see that there are people who are capable to deliver these information to users.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to read Miroslav! Completely agree regarding the capabilities of Workspace / OM. Really powerful for pro work and for free projects! Best wishes to Bratislava, get in touch when you are in Vienna ☺️

[@Lawman212]

Cutting down post shoot processing time is one of the major reasons why I am considering switching from Nikon. Although my nikons aren't the newest, they have always been excellent. Workhorses. However, the amount of time they require after a shoot is enormous. A late night shoot can keep me up all night because clients often want to see the pictures on their desk the next day. Of course, when I describe this problem to other people, they think I'm being too fussy. But the Nikon simply can't render JPEGs. Well. There is tons of information in the raw file, that never makes it to the jpeg. I don't know why Nikon does this. So I am very glad to hear you specifically talk about this topic. I am also interested in a lighter camera because Nikon professional cameras are as heavy as cannonballs. As a younger person I thought this was okay, but as an older person this cannot continue. I would love to see a video about outputting a JPEG from a raw file in camera. Time and time again. A client wants me to give them a picture that isn't ready for prime time. It's overexposed, it's underexposed, it has the wrong white balance, all because of the speed and changing circumstances of the shoot. I have to talk the client out of this desire, and I have to go home and image that picture as soon as possible. If there is a way to output a JPEG from a raw file, sitting in a camera, and then transfer that file to a phone, that would be amazing. I would love to see that workflow. Thank you for all the exacting detail you share about this camera.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks for this comment (and your other great comments which I will answer in the next days). I've also used Nikon F extensively and our experiences are exactly the same. Although I really like Nikon, the in-camera output was never satisfying for me and I always dreaded the moment when I had to show a client the image on the back screen, let alone deliver it as an unedited JPEG. The OM-1/OM System cameras are really different in that regard. By coincidence, I think I have just the video you might be looking for already, take a look: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2mrYXqImq6tarssi=-TJ5UO93eAz26R3X

[@ivanmarquez6809]

Hello Thomas, this videos are just i needed for me new workflow, i hope can see your last video about OM Workspace soon. THANKS

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to hear - I will hurry up to finish it as soon as possible! ☺️

[@LarsWessman]

You convinced me to give OM Workspace a 2nd look. I had not been using it because it was too slow on earlier Macs, but now I have a Mac Studio! OM Workspace seems to run at acceptable speeds with the faster processor, and with more RAM. I don't know what people's experience on Windows is like. Glad I did. Using the noise reduction AI in OM workspace, I got immensely superior results to the Deep Raw XD in PhotoLab 6 on a high ISO image that had been bothering me. Normally I am quite happy with Deep Prime, but with this particular image, it was not good. I think I will be using OM Workspace a lot more now.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to hear, Lars! If you check out my latest videos, you will find tutorials regarding the software. It is indeed very capable with lots of cool tricks available. Hope you will enjoy the journey!

[@Jwitherow1964]

Glad I found your channel I have only been shooting Om for 5 months, also shoot 4 outher systems, however I am thinking I don’t need all them now

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Honestly, as a person who also owns way too many camera systems, I'm arriving at the same conclusion! Best, Thomas 📸

[@gordonmiller4439]

Thomas, thank you for this excellent explanation of the in-camera picture control settings and the relationship between the RAW and JPEG files. I think many will be surprised that these in-camera settings apply to the RAW file and not just the JPEG file. I am an enthusiast/amateur photographer and shoot about 95% of my captures in JPEG. I shoot with an Olympus E-M5 Mk II and have been using these adjustments in-camera and have been very pleased with my results. OM Workspace is the only photo processing software that I use for my Olympus cameras. All the very best, Gordon

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for sharing that, Gordon - and many thanks for your kind feedback! If you really get it right in camera, JPEG only is perfectly fine. I myself am not bold enough for that - and also, some commercial scenarios require that I have all the options just in case. But we are exactly on the same page here - the processing engine is reason enough to pick up an OM/Olympus camera 📸

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

The problem is if you utilize a third party RAW converter, you miss out on these embedded processing settings - which is a shame IMHO and one of the reasons why Workspace is so great!

[@gordonmiller4439]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography After reading his book (Gordon Laing) and gaining information from his example I set out specifically to get as much correct in camera as a point of learning the capabilities of my cameras. Personally, my editing skills are nowhere near as good as the engineers from Olympus/OM Systems, so I have worked with what is available with the OEM software. I have shot Olympus since the mid 1980s. I also shoot Nikon cameras.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thanks for the reply - I completely agree. Also, the strength of the photographer should be on set, not behind the PC. Completely agree.

[@Jwitherow1964]

Good job

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you!

[@howardrollinson3819]

Thank you Thomas for a very informative video as usual I will give the OM Workspace software again regards Howard Rollinson

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to read - the next video will be about OM Workspace to finish the series! Best wishes and thanks for the comment!

[@KeithStewart-zn8mg]

Great video. A coffee is a small price to pay for such a tutorial. Thanks

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for your kind words and your support!

[@jonerikrolf2029]

Well Thomas - an excellent job revealing the connections between the OM-1 in camera settings and the OM Workspace. However, I use Lightroom/Photoshop image processing and not OM Workspace. Most of the the in-camera settings you discuss are only useful for the jpeg images I record -in camera - but not with the RAW files I will edit in LR. I do see the settings’ effects on the back screen on the OM-1, and I believe that they are also “baked in” to the jpeg files on the SD card and are presented in LR. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) Consequently, I have sadly stopped using the in camera Highlights/Shadows +/- adjustment so I am fully aware via the EVF when I am in danger of blowing out highlights or exceeding the -3 under expose limits for the RAW files. However, I do add a bit of sharpening and contrast to the Natural image algorithm so that I can easily see if the images I have just taken - as viewed with the camera’s back screen and EVF - are actually sharp. This helps overcome their lack of resolution power of the screen and EVF.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes, if you do not use Workspace, most of these tips won't bring any benefits. Maybe my next video will convert you to become a faithful OM Workspace disciple hehe. Thanks for your comment and your kind words!

[@tomrandall6539]

I've got a bit of a love / not so much love relationship with OM Workspace myself. What I do myself is use it as a reference AND a backup. Primarily an Adobe Camera RAW user here (sometimes DxO but only a little) and this is because of the wide selection of masking tools, which is incredibly useful in my favoured type of photography (outdoor, photowalks, so a little landscape and nature). Sometimes however, I find that I just cannot get the colour right in X raw processor, and as such jump back into OM Workspace which by default gives you the OM System colour profiles and rendering - and this in itself is sometimes what I was aiming for to begin with. Now, obtaining this is absolutely possible in something like Lightroom, but it can sometimes take a hell of a lot of tweaking. The two biggest tools which affect Lightroom's colour rendering is White Balance and Calibration. If I shoot at a manual WB of 5800k, and import into Lightroom "as shot" it reads the white balance a few hundred Kelvin up, which a slightly higher amount of magenta in, which is outright wrong for OM System colour rendering. Correcting this helps, but then Adobe sometimes misses some of the colour transitions between certain shades, especially shades of green to yellow to orange. Jump into Workspace and it's there, you don't need to do anything. So a little unsharp masking to bring out the best detail possible and a couple of other adjustments and you've got a great baseline to work with (if you're wanting to do some further masking). My gripe after that is exporting to TIFF - those files are huge. Absolutely huge, and of course if that becomes a regular workflow you're going to be expanding your storage sooner rather than later. Still, I guess it's the final result that matters the most. I certainly have done some in camera processing too, generating jpegs from raw files straight in camera if I haven't felt the need to add some more post-processing in. All depends on what you want doesn't it?!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for sharing that! Completely agree with your observations.

[@richardfink7666]

Hallo, wieder ein überaus gelungenes und informatives Video. Ach, ich gratuliere schon mal im voraus zum !0000sten Abonnenten....kann ja nicht mehr solange dauern.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Vielen Dank Richard!

[@craigb8379]

Thank you Thomas for such a comprehensive and thoughtful explanation. It would be very interesting to see a future video where and how you use these in an actual shoot and then the post processing demo for those images. Applying all these image tweaks would be easier in a controlled studio shoot, but what do you do in a run-and-gun scenario where timing is everything and the conditions are constantly changing? All the best from Australia. Cheers, Craig

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for the comment and question, Craig! Most of the times I will set up a customized look for the situation, and then go on and shoot. For example, when doing street or reportage photography, I'm not tweaking anything during the shoot. The RAW has all the data to perform adjustments later, I'm working with the baseline look (which is pretty close to final, if done correctly). Indeed, I plan on doing videos in the future where I will share different "presets" for this workflow - thanks for bringing this up! Was I able to help?

[@BarryCarlton]

Intriguing. I’m hoping that in your video about the OM Workspace software you discuss how to combine it with a Lightroom/Photoshop workflow. I really like Lightroom, and have over 200,000 images in my Lightroom library. I’m attracted to the features you have explained in this video, but am not keen on having an unconnected workflow for my OM System images.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes, I will dedicate a section to the workflow with more detail!

[@macsprotte1436]

Thank you very much. May be I did not get it right: do you adjust these settings every time before you take a picture? What is the cost to adjust in post only?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thanks for asking - there is no disadvantage in setting them in OM Workspace or in-camera afterwards (as long as you are shooting RAW), but if you set them in advance, you will get an accurate preview of the results before you sit in front of the PC. I really like that! So I set these settings before each shoot, so the images are almost ready straight out of camera.

[@tapere7277]

Hi Thomas, since you started this series on OM Workspace I have been using it to develop my photos from my OM-1. Although I shoot RAW, I have, as you recommend, made the camera settings that I prefer (e.g. sharpness, picture mode etc) in order to make my workflow and processing more efficient. One thing has me a little puzzled: I expected to see the camera settings reflected in OM Workspace edit settings by default, for example if I had Sharpness set to +1 in the camera, I expected to see it set to this in the application under Detail tab/Sharpness. However it is not, all the controls in the application edit section are set to the neutral position. I always connect the camera to my PC (Mac) in USB RAW control mode when I am editing, and the camera info tab in OM Workspace does show what the camera settings were for a given shot. Do you know what the relationship is between the camera settings and the OM Workspace editing settings?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks for the comment - the answer is pretty straightforward: All editing settings made in-camera carry over and are applied in Workspace. However, most tools in Workspace display the default settings. So here is the thing: you apply sharpness +1 in camera, the tool in WS stays like it is. The preview and all RAW processing will be at +1 unless you change it to a different parameter in WS. It seems a bit counter- intuitive first, but it makes sense why they programmed it this way. Hope this helps?

[@offtraildog701]

Hi Thomas - interesting and informative video. When shooting Raw ..... the EVF preview is a generated jpg based on the Picture Mode selected in-body. What Picture Mode do you find gives the most accurate representation of the resulting Raw image? I am currently using Muted, 0/-2/0/Norm . Realize there is some variability depending on the PP software used since they all seem to process the Raw slighlty different. Thx , Bill

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes, I also use the same settings if I want a flat preview. When using OM Workspace, the preview will match the RAW converter rendering. I can really recommend that! Btw, here is a video about the EVF / Live View: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXaQipaaa5yCb9k Best wishes!

[@tkarlmann]

I got quite a bit out of this video, as I just began to use these settings. One area that is not clear is where you mentioned taking results from OM Workspace and putting it into the parameters in-camera. Do I take the OM Workspace numbers, for example Sharpness, as absolute numbers, and place them into the camera? The OM Workspace number range is far greater than the in-camera range, so this is unlikely. Was this section another 'Teaser' for an upcoming video? Thomas!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

That is great to hear. So, the RAW-settings are exactly the same in terms of numbers - an ORF can be set from -2 to +2 in OM Workspace, for example (same goes for all the other processing options I mentioned). Some editing/processing features are not available in camera, but only in OM Workspace. You cannot transfer those. If you sharpen a JPEG in OM Workspace, you will get different settings. It is a different kind of sharpening, then. It is not really the algorithm I talk about in this video. It is a bit of a teaser, but mostly it is intended to lay the groundwork for the OM Workspace video - as it is important to understand how the processing works, before you can go on an tweak it in Workspace, I think. Stay tuned, hehe :-) Thanks for the comment and watching!

[@GerKortenbach]

Hi Thomas, thank you for this extensive video about the OM-1 Image Processing Engine. Starting from 17:00 you are explaining Highlight & Shadow Control, which as such is clear to me. However, in your video there is this image with the curves and the histogram. On my OM-1 can indeed find this image, but the histogram is missing. My initial thought was that the histogram must be set to be displayed, but I cannot find any setting in the menu to display the histogram in this image. Can you please tell me how to setup the camera to display the histogram as well, along with the curve?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hello Ger! What you see there is the regular Live View Histogram. In this video, I explain how to set it up: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYjOipiVbcdgbq8 Once you've enabled it, you just have to press the Info button a few times to display it. Then, just access Hi&Sh and you've got both on the screen. Hope this helps!

[@stehlealexander]

20mm 1.4? Thanks for the Video

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you! Unfortunately, it is a different lens - a zoom lens hehe 😉 A bit of foreshadowing of videos to come

[@francoisleger287]

Hello Thomas, Following our previous discussion on the value of camera specific raw editiors, i beleive your hints are really valid and valuable. However, I still think that some professional raw converters (I am really biaised toward Capture One) offer very nice capabilities not present in camera specific raw developpers. This include keywording, support for multiple camera, exoteric functions such as luma based curve adjustments, panorama stitching of very high quality… all of this at a non negligeable cost. On another side, does the usage of the camera as a image co-processor still works with the OM-1 when using OM Workspace? You didn’t mention that and this is usefull when processing images on the go with a slow laptop.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and experiences! I think my video on OM Workspace will be of interest, as I will cover exactly how you can work very efficiently with it. One of the aspects will be: using the OM-1 to speed up processing - so yes, it works (very well). Thanks again for taking the time to write the comment - I'm not against using third party software at all! It really is a matter of preference.

[@lindy3007]

Hi Thomas, thank you for your video. I have only used OM Workspace for editing and converting raw files, never tried LR or PS. I do wish Workspace had a magic healing tool, so I could remove stray branches etc from bird photos, or masking so I could blur the background without affecting the subject. Do you think OM Systems will add these options in time? Lindy

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hey Lindy! Thanks for the kind words and thanks for asking! I would not bet on it as this is a feature that is usually found in specialized editing software. I know some RAW Editors have those as well, but usually Affinity Photo does a better job. Because of that, I use Workspace and then Affinity Photo - I have to retouch skin for example. More on that in my next video. I can really recommend Affinity Photo, it is not very expensive, highly capable and easy to learn if you just want to do certain things like cloning out objects. Best wishes, Thomas

[@lindy3007]

Thank you so much for that advice Thomas, I will try Affinity, I would rather not have to subscribe to Adobe

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

I've been using it for many years now - it is a great piece of software. Here is the video btw: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJLKoXZ9fqeFZq8

[@stephenrelf3911]

Thomas, Like others, thanks for explaining the image processing in Olympus. I have a question: Does this processing in Picture mode apply to RAW or to JPEG photos? Thanks

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Most welcome Stephen! The selected picture mode is stored in the RAW file, but is only read by OM Workspace. So if you process the file in non-OEM software (which I do not necessarily recommend), then the setting will be irrelevant as the RAW converter will apply the color Profile, and the original OM colors will be discarded. The picture mode will always affect the JPEG and the RAW preview in-camera. Hope this helps!

[@pokeypop99]

Thank you, Thomas! This is very helpful, and I'd like to try this. Your explanation of workflow, and transferring settings to the Raw files in-camera could be a huge time savings! My question: I've been shooting (Canon) raw for 20+ years and post processing in Lightroom. I can see the potential benefits of processing in-camera and with OM Workspace. I also use Lightroom for cataloging my files. How would you recommend combining OM workflows and Lightroom cataloging? Thank you!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Awesome, thanks. I think using Lightroom cataloging like you normally would and then just navigating to the folder on the hard drive, accessing it via OM Workspace and getting straight to editing is a good idea. Note that Workspace is not a must, but it can really help cutting down post processing time, as you've said. Best, Thomas

[@dtravisphd]

This is an excellent video Thomas. My understanding is that the histogram is based on the jpeg preview. That's why I always use the 'Neutral' setting. If you make extreme changes to the processing engine in camera, could this give you a misleading histogram?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for your kind words and your question. Yes, the Histogram will reflect all settings of the image processing engine, including Art Filters. On the one hand, you could consider this as misleading - on the other hand, if you set the look in camera, it will be very accurate as it will give you the Histogram of the final, processed image. I've got a separate video on the Histogram and exposure preview, it might be of interest to you. Thanks again for the kind comment and relevant question!

[@RoderickJMacdonald]

This is a fairly challenging class. At the beginning I was thinking “I know all this.“ That quickly changed to mental fatigue because in a sense you are covering everything in photography, except for field of view and composition. I stopped to rest after 20 minutes. However, I already have one request for you. Could you further discuss “sharpening“? I am not certain of the difference between: 1. sharpness 2. micro-contrast 3. resolution and 4. level of detail.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for the feedback, Roderick. I hope the video is useful nonetheless. I will tackle these topics a separate video - thank you very much for the input! Those are indeed important aspects of a photograph/sensor/camera and often mixed up. I'd like to give you a very practical answer here: The sharpness setting of the corresponding picture mode will apply a sharpness algorithm, that will increase or decrease the perceived sharpness of the photograph. It will bring out more or less details - although the "amount" of detail in the RAW file won't change, a higher setting will produce a photograph with more perceivable details. I encourage trying different settings and finding a personal sweet spot, in line with your creative vision.

[@RoderickJMacdonald]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography Thank you Thomas. The video is great and your practical answer also very helpful.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Ah, great to hear! Thanks!

[@cristianogiani702]

Hi Thomas, I follow you from Italy and I congratulate you for your videos, very clear and concise. I have a question for you: I have recently owned an Olympus OM1, and I'm used to using Lightroom for image development. Now, does it make sense to develop the raw in OM Workspace and then transfer the tiff file to Lightroom for cataloging, and the final work to Photoshop? I hope I was clear, and I thank you for the time you want to dedicate to me.....

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Good evening! Thank you very much for your kind feedback, I am very thankful! As you suggested, you could transfer the TIFF file for cataloging and then continue with Photoshop. Another idea would be to catalog the .ORF files in lightroom just like you did before, but when you develop the RAW files, you use Workspace instead and continue with Photoshop. My workflow is (1) Selection in Photo Mechanic (this would be Lightroom in your case) (2) Workspace RAW to TIFF then (2) Affinity for retouching, etc. (this would be Photoshop in your case). I only develop the selection in Workspace, not the whole shooting. I also keep most RAW files, should I want to make a different selection later on. What do you think, would that work for you as well? Best wishes!

[@cristianogiani702]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography ...Optimal. However, I don't understand how to import selections into Workspace. When I download the camera memory card, Lightroom imports it into its catalog. I don't know of an option to import into Workspace. How should I do?....

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

With Workspace, you just have to put everything in a folder. I will show how to import with Workspace in a future video. In my latest video, there is a neat trick for quickly accessing a folder in Workspace: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJLKoXZ9fqeFZq8

[@alandimery3379]

Exvellent presentation as usual. Although this one threw up more questions. Would it not be prohibitive to reset the camera image output settings to suit every shot. Rather than pulling over the RAW file on it's own and doing the adjustments in software on the bare RAW file?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much! Regarding your question: In practice, I do not set up every image - but I set a desired look that I will utilize for the shoot / project. For example: "Natural" with deep blacks [Shadow] -7 and [Sharpness] +1. Then, I shoot the whole session and bring everything into Workspace. There, I only have to apply finishing touches and I'm done. I take notes on what I changed (for example [Midtone] +1 and then I transfer these settings to the OM-1 for the next shoot with the same look. If I was shooting landscapes, adjusting every image can be worth it, though. It really depends on your shooting style, the time you have on set and whether you prefer doing all of this in the field or rather in post. The great thing: Even if you set a specific look, you can always change it in Workspace afterwards, as long as you shoot RAW. It sounds cumbersome at first, but actually the opposite is true. This workflow is probably what I like best about the OM-1!

[@alandimery3379]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography thank you for your complete reply. I will be very interested to see how you put this into practice. Thanks again.

[@subliminallyinc]

what lens is that you have on the OM1 you have on the left side of the video?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

It is the 14-45 FourThirds 😉 a bit of foreshadowing

[@stehlealexander]

🙏🏻😊

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

☺️

[@davidredfearn6065]

Interesting - I installed OM Workspace to my two Macs and will take another look - but it seems many/most critical edits can be accomplished in camera settings for the jpegs. Do these picture mode settings (and sharpness, contrast and saturation) also apply to the focus stacked jpegs that the camera can produce? I use focus bracketing and stacking for my orchid photography - and I don't know how these settings would affect the images. The camera is set to Natural now with sharpness, contrast and saturation set to 0) - do I just have to experiment and see how the settings affect the image?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hey David! When using Focus Bracketing, you can use all the settings/processing options I described to customize the in-camera stacked JPEG. Only exception: You cannot use the Art Filters. The OM-1 will give you a preview in live view before shooting the stack, just like if you would take only a regular image.

[@davidredfearn6065]

Thanks - these adjustments are hard to see on the rear screen or the viewfinder. I think I would have to shoot with a variety of settings and then look at the jpegs to see if I could see the difference.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes - once you've found your "preset" you can apply it to all future work!

[@davidredfearn6065]

When doing the testing, what subject(s) do I use? I mainly shoot two types of subjects: (1) My orchid flowers; and (2) Landscapes (Desert and Mountain). These image subjects are very different in their colors and different colors are more important (e.g., greens for landscape) and red/purple for orchids. I am guessing that colors that I like for the orchids might not look as good for the desert landscapes. Right now I have the OM-1 set to neutral - and haven't been unhappy with the colors. If I want to be compulsive, do I need to do the testing twice? Ugh! That is a lot of work! The alternative I can think of would be to shoot neutral and post-process to get the colors I want - but I like to use the out-of-camera jpegs and I don't like to spend a lot of time in post.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

I would just try a different picture mode whenever you feel like it. No need to run a series of controlled tests! Also, if you are already happy with what you got, don't change a running system ☺️

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

BONUS QUESTION: Which lens is on the OM-1 on my table? 😉

[@sourcebased]

Adapted Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:4-5.6? 😂

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

No way! You almost (!) got it! Can't believe it! It is a FourThirds kit lens! Buuut a different one

[@sourcebased]

OK, then it is not the Tokina either, LOL 😂 Probably 14-45mm 1:3.5-5.6? I narrowed it down by looking at the overall writing patterns on old lenses on eBay. It is just a bit too blurry in the video to read!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yep, you got it! Haha, can't believe it. It is a surprisingly good lens, but more on that later 😉

[@sourcebased]

@@ThomasEisl.PhotographyI just looked in my bag what I have in that regard - so far only a Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm 1:3.5-5.6 that I got with adapter and 1.9x TC as a bundle with my e-pm1, basically for free. That was a quirky combination, with the TC the image circle gets too small and the focusing was very odd. Maybe I should play with it some more? Looking forward to your video regarding adapting old lenses 🙏

[@ingehelbig4877]

Grosse Bitte !mit deutscher Überserzung

[@johanmarnfeldt5262]

I think the PEN-F had something similar to Color Creator.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes, the PEN F had both the color creator and color profile, which is called "Adjust Color" in OM Workspace!

[@stewartlogie]

I'm glad you are happy with OMWorkspace, but I cannot trust it due to the very basic errors that it gives me. I occasionally go back to it (like now after I watched your video) but it always frustrates me. The latest annoyance is the crop tool, a tool so simple that its coding ought to be trivial. But no. When trying to crop to, say 5:4 ratio, it jumps around, going from portrait to landscape and changing its size drastically when I move the handles. I'm just going to stick with RAW and Lightroom and not put my trust in OM software.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

There are few things which you should not do it in Workspace - more on that in the upcoming video! Btw, Lightroom is perfectly fine - so nothing against that at all! Thanks for sharing your experiences, very much appreciated!

[@stewartlogie]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography I'll certainly watch your upcoming video. They are all so clearly put together. Many thanks for doing this for us!

[@ingehelbig4877]

Bitte in deutscher Überserzung , wenn irgedwie mäglich.❤ 13:50

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hallo Inge! Vielleicht kannst Du die Auto-übersetzten Untertitel nutzen - du findest auch einen Artikel auf meiner Website, auf Englisch - aber der lässt sich leicht per Google translate übersetzen. Liebe Grüße aus Wien!

[@RoderickJMacdonald]

The answer to the bonus question is so clear in the video because there is no blur with M43. 😂

[@stehlealexander]

?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Haha 😆 good one Roderick 😁

[@RoderickJMacdonald]

@@stehlealexanderSome people say that M43 has inferior image quality or insufficient background blur. In thus video, the lens labeling is blurred. I have often had too narrow depth of field with the 45mm 1.8, with the subject’s ear or some hair out of focus. I was being ironic.

[@timothygeorge2811]

Thomas, thanks for the most informative, clearly and logically presented, comprehensive, and practical material available on the OM-1. Like many others, I’ve avoided Workspace because it was slower and less familiar than Lightroom. But now that its performance has been improved and impressive noise reduction has been added I’m ready to reconsider, so I look forward to your video on Workspace. (I’m also looking forward to my first visit to your fair city in a few weeks.) Aloha from Hawai’i!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to read - feel free to get in touch when you are around, Timothy!

[@gyugyu1yt]

Dear Thomas, yet another enlightening and extremely well presented tutorial about the image processing with the OM System. As many others observed, I have not yet discovered those depth of the software that you have now revealed. I'm learning a lot from each of your videos, this time I was practically impressed by the color creator which I have not even noticed so far. Well, in the meantime I have been "taming" the OW Workspace and with my strong graphics card I don't find it slow at all. I also continue experimenting with other software and in my new video I compared results with OMWorkspace, DxO Photolab 6 and Gigapixel. I'm sure I have not used the WOrkspace well enough, nevertheless I'd be interested in your opinion: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZCZlGuQnrJjgqc. Many thanks for your attention in advance. PS: I can imagine you being overwhelmed when you get 100+ comments in just a few days. All best!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for your comment, great to see you back here on the channel! I agree, with my fast graphics card it is the same. Workspace needs some computing power, but when it has it, it works fine! I'll check it out, thank you!

[@LuisAFlorit]

OM software? Bad luck for Linux users like me. :(

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

I'm sorry to hear to that - you can use the quite powerful in-camera editing, though. It is quite feasible!

[@sourcebased]

Yep, like with a lot of proprietary software, little love for the Linux desktop. I am glad that it is available for Mac OS. Did you try running it with wine or crossover? The performance would probably be quite underwhelming if you get it to run, it is quite slow running natively on Win or Mac already, unfortunately.