OM Workspace - White Balance and RAW Color Correction Expert Guide

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

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[@smkunder1]

Wow, this workspace is really starting to impress me. Well done!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Glad to hear that!

[@markusbolliger1527]

Wieder eine hochkompetente Vorlesung über einen wichtigen Aspekt Thomas! Du scheinst ja richtig begeistert zu sein von der OM-1, und damit hast du mich auch schon angefixt. Ich spiele ernsthaft mit dem Gedanken meinen umfangreichen Nikon Z- Krempel gegen ein kompakteres OM-System einzutauschen, mein Rücken wird es mir vor allem auf Bergtouren danken.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Oh wirklich! Also, das Z System ist sicher sehr gut - in Sachen Mobilität und Vielseitigkeit ist die OM-1 allerdings tatsächlich nicht zu schlagen. Das gesamte System ist wirklich sehr ausgereift, die Objektivauswahl ausgezeichnet. Ich bin, um ehrlich zu sein, wirklich begeistert von der OM-1. Mit Abstand meine meist genutzte Kamera, nicht zuletzt auch wegen des Workflows den sie mir ermöglicht. Enttäuscht wirst Du mit Sicherheit nicht sein. Vielen Dank auch für das tolle Feedback!

[@markusbolliger1527]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography Davon bin ich überzeugt! Denn Vielseitigkeit und Tragbarkeit/Mobilität sind doch das A und O für fast jede Fotosparte, ausser man fotografiert im Studio oder im Stadion. Meine Z- Ausrüstung habe ich schon zum Verkauf ausgeschrieben. Denn gestern habe ich eine OM-1 RAW Bilddatei aus dem Netz heruntergeladen, die mit ISO 51'000 (!!!) aufgenommen wurde, und in DxO Pure Raw 3 entwickelt - und oh Wunder, das Bild schaut noch gut aus, wundersamerweise. Also was will ich mehr 😇

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Na wow! Ziemlich super - ich bin gespannt was Du dann sagst!

[@markusbolliger1527]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography werde mich gerne melden wenn ich die Kamera habe. Weil mein Hauptschwerpunkt Natur und Landschaft ist zunächst mit dem 8-25 PRO und dem 40-150 PRO.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Bitte mach das Markus! Das würde mich sehr freuen! Tolle Objektiv-Wahl übrigens!

[@sweden_ove2074]

Very good lesson. Thank you.❤

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Glad you liked it! Thanks!

[@philosynth]

Excellent! Thank you.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

You are welcome!

[@Yotengri]

Great video!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thanks!

[@manolinvalen]

Thank you very much! I have learned a lot!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Most welcome!

[@peregrineclarke]

Thank you again Thomas! These videos are an excellent reference and learning tool for using OM Workspace. I have followed your examples and achieved far better edited images than I was getting when editing ORF files in Lightroom or Photoshop.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Ahh, that is really awesome! OM Workspace is very capable and I'm glad you are able to use it to its full potential.

[@sergiodonadeo2810]

How impressive are your suggestion about manage colours! I tried to do something else with colour negatives but, if you didn't suggest to use SilverFast software, I never whould reach a acceptable result. Now you demonstrate that all correction could be done: the tool is OM Workspace (and some time dedicated to learn...)

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Awesome Sergio! Many thanks!

[@Swaggerlot]

Vielen dank. I have explored/used many of the settings, but you have contextualized them very well and increased my undestanding.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

That is great to hear! Most welcome!

[@pjay3028]

This is going to absolutely transform my enjoyment of photography, thank you so much ❤❤

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

That is just great to read! Awesome!

[@RobertVE3VPL]

Thanks very much for these videos about OM Workspace. I downloaded but then rarely used it but I may have misjudged its capabilities.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Most welcome! It is my no. 1 choice for OM RAW files!

[@mladenerak]

Thanks!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks for your support!

[@451804]

Thanks!

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks for your support!

[@lincrane6219]

Thank you Thomas! I love this series of videos

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Glad to hear it! There will be a short break with new topics, but there will be more OM Workspace videos in the future!

[@tapere7277]

Great video again, thank you.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you!

[@howardrollinson3819]

Hello Thomas another great video I am learning a lot of info about the OM workspace software thank you very much kind regards Howard Rollinson

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks, Howard! More videos are on their way. Best wishes!

[@jonhingley]

I only discovered your videos yesterday and I have subscribed to your channel, as your instructions are clear and precise. Regards OM Workspace, I save my imports to an external drive , however, I would like to save second backup to another drive (as is possible with Lightroom), but I cannot figure how to do this. Do you know how to do this with OM Workspace. Regards

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks for subscribing and welcome to the channel! Regarding your question: unfortunately, you have to do that manually by copy-pasting the imported files. Alternatively, you can just import twice to the desired locations.

[@lvca.avellino]

Interesting metod for color cast. Is it comparable to the LAB method in Photoshop? Thank you and great job

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you! I'd say it is comparable - but the PS method allows for finer control. My recommendation is to remove the strong cast in Workspace, and then refine in Affinity Photo or Photoshop if needed.

[@sbeckmesser]

Thanks so much for this. I'll probably be able to save many of my drag-queen photos I had given up as hopeless because of the mono-color stage lighting.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Ah great that you watched it - I remember you making a comment about that a while ago, that's why I included that in the video in great detail!

[@malcolmpaterson8737]

Very well explained Thomas with just the right amount of explanation. Definitely going to have a look at this. I have been settled on using lightroom which I am comfortable with - are there situations where you use both on one image? Robin Wong,a Malaysian photographer and prolific on his youtube, has indulged and explained lots of Olympus detailed workings in the past and he has been a great exponent of Olympus cameras, speaking highly of the older version of workspace and how it maintains the colours from om cameras and lenses too.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Thank you very much for the kind feedback! I personally do not use Lightroom at all, but I have a variety of other RAW converters like Silkypix, which is excellent for Nikon and Pentax files. My workflow with OM Cameras is 1) OM Workspace and then 2) further editing in Affinity Photo (e.g. retouching). I've got a separate video describing the WF in greater detail - See the OM playlist.

[@marklaurendet1861]

Looking forward to this series as I have never used the software apart from camera updates But admittedly on my imac it runs pretty slow

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Great to read! I recommend using the OM-1 as a processor via USB RAW. I will talk about this feature in an upcoming video. It will greatly speed up the workflow!

[@ivanmarquez6809]

Great thanks

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

🙂🙂🙂

[@dustinhecker3986]

Great as always. I need to spend time with Workspace. I default to LR Classic and also use Topaz Denoise. Trying to decide whether to buy DXO Pure Raw 3 as for some reason Workspace refuses to upgrade to the AI capability. Not sure why it says my new Dell computer isn't compatible.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks! Strange that it does not work. Maybe your GPU is not compatible? Even if that is the case, I would use Workspace nonetheless. I never utilize the AI feature TBH, even at high ISOs, as the results I get are just good enough. I would try that instead of DxO. Some structure is not a bad thing.

[@ReinholdFriedrichAuer]

Hi Thomas, do you think the raw processor in OM-Workspace is better than the one which is used by Adobe LR/PS?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Very interesting question! There are many layers to that - I've tried to cover those in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXqnd2l8mrWbqbM Apart from that, I use Workspace every time to develop my OM RAW images - it is just so convenient and I can get exactly the look I want. Additional editing is then done in Affinity Photo. Hope I was able to answer this one - you should really check out the video I added above and get in touch if there are any questions left. Best, Thomas

[@griffith500tvr]

Hi, I write in English so most people will understand. I have a question that you might not be able to answer. I have been looking for a wide angle lens, around 14mm for full frame. Recently I looked at the Irix 15mm f2.6 cine, f2.4 for stills, both exist, same optics. Most lenses around the same size and f-ratio have huge front lenses, the Irix hasn't but it is supposed to be optically very good. I am an amateur astronomer, I know that larger front elements catch more light. How is it possible that the Irix front lens is small but still f2.4 (2.6) when other lenses with the same specifications are like a large octopus eye in size? I don't get it.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hey there! Many thanks for the question - indeed, it can be explained and I've talked about that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIerhX98ecRqpZo Watch the part about depth of field and equivalence. It is not the size of the front element that determines the light collection but the entrance pupil. Hope this helps!

[@griffith500tvr]

Hi, I write in English so most people will understand. I have a question that you might not be able to answer. I have been looking for a wide angle lens, around 14mm for full frame. Recently I looked at the Irix 15mm f2.6 cine, f2.4 for stills, both exist, same optics. Most lenses around the same size and f-ratio have huge front lenses, the Irix hasn't but it is supposed to be optically very good. I am an amateur astronomer, I know that larger front elements catch more light. How is it possible that the Irix front lens is small but still f2.4 (2.6) when other lenses with the same specifications are like a large octopus eye in size? I don't get it.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hey there! Many thanks for the question - indeed, it can be explained and I've talked about that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIerhX98ecRqpZo Watch the part about depth of field and equivalence. It is not the size of the front element that determines the light collection but the entrance pupil. Hope this helps!

[@davidredfearn6065]

Another great video! Two questions: (1) I notice that when I look at focus stacked images from the camera, the Preset WB menu setting is missing - shouldn't it reflect the WB I set for the component focus images that are combined? (The Custom WB controls are at 0.) (2) For my orchid photography, I use LED lighting and have measured the WB of the lighting (5000K) and set the camera to that value. If I use the eyedropper to measure color temperature of the images, I get a slightly different value - around 5300K. That is probably not a significant difference, but I wonder why it is different at all - maybe the white point in the images isn't completely white. (The OM-1 using Auto WB works pretty well, but I have found that setting the camera lighting color temperature gives me the most accurate flower colors.)

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Many thanks David, also for your continued support! Regarding your questions: (1) The in-camera JPEGs that result from the stacking do not exhibit these subsettings in Workspace. The WB settings I get in the RAW images from the stack have all the options. Maybe you are looking at a JPEG? (2) How did you measure the WB? With a spectrometer? There might be a slight difference regarding calibration and so on. Also, the WB picker has a very small "tip" while a spectrometer utilizes an incident dome. That can also cause differences. The white point being not completely white should not necessarily matter - as a perfectly balanced light source should have the same values for R G B. But nothing is perfectly "balanced" in practice. (3) And yes, setting the camera lighting temp is the way to go - as well as utilizing pre-sets. Every decision that you hand over, from WB to exposure means that it can lead to undesired results.

[@davidredfearn6065]

Yes I was looking at the jpegs output from the focus stacking. I measured the color temp with the OM-1. I was using a DataColor SpyderCkr color chart with big "swatches" of the various colors - no danger of not pointing correctly! I checked the images with several other image editors, and they all come up with different color temperature values - sometimes the differences are substantial. I also today shot the target with the Sony A7RV, and the same differences show up - with most editors showing a significantly higher color temperature than 5000K. You just have to look at the images and adjust to taste, I guess. (A long while ago, shooting my orchids with the A7RIII and Auto WB I had lots of problems with color accuracy - and it was very hard to adjust manually. Thankfully, the new cameras are better at this.)

[@bublt4me]

You've mentioned before that all of the JPEG settings are baked into the RAW. Will those settings be automatically applied upon import or will I have to enable it separately?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Yes, they will be applied automatically. The file you see in workspace is the essentially the RAW with all JPEG settings applied. That's what's so great about WS!

[@bublt4me]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography All this time I've been editing on top of the RAW as if nothing was applied that's good to know; I've always thought it looked overcooked. What if I don't want the settings and I wish to start off fresh? How do I clear the slate after import?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

For this purpose, I've created a neutral editing preset that will apply certain base settings e.g. Natur picture mode and so on!

[@jonbarnard7186]

How accurate do you think "auto wb" is? Would you say that using the white balance picker, you get results similar to auto white balance? Of couse it depends on what you choose to pick as neutral, but if you actually manage to pick a neutral sample, would that be close to what the camera or raw engine would set with auto? Any thoughts? I ask because these two tools (auto and picker) are the ones I've always used. I shoot in auto, and correct if necessary with the picker in post, if the wb appears off.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hey Jon! Auto WB uses relatively complex algorithms and is really quite different compared to the picker. But as you've noticed, in most cases it as good as a photographer who is deliberately setting the WB with the picker. I myself rarely use it, I prefer a manual approach especially when I need perfect consistency on set for a series I have to show to the crew during the shoot. However, I really like the way you do it - great approach as well!

[@patrickhin4301]

when i download my raw pictures to om workspace, the picture dims! the picture looks fine on the camera playback. why is that so ? my computer settings? windows?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

That has to do with the calibration of your monitor. It is most likely not properly calibrated.

[@patrickhin4301]

Thank you@@ThomasEisl.Photography

[@EdwardBartel]

I've had a problem with OM Workspace crashing whenever I scroll through an image folder on my external SSD. Are you familiar with this issue and how to fix it?

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Pew! I've never had that problem. I'm sorry to hear that. Be that as it may, as a rule of thumb, I would not really edit or work with files stored on an external drive. I really recommend moving files to an internal drive when you want to work with them.

[@tkarlmann]

***** UPDATE *****: I now see that Thomas is holding the color reference card himself. That presumes he has the same light at arm's length as the subject -- this is not always the case. There are still TWO remaining issues that OM Workspace has not addressed. 1) The Color Pickers, apparently, only sample 1 pixel at a time. This is insufficient for a Bride's 'White' Dress -- because as you zoom-in, you discover that Bride's dresses are not pure white, but the threads have different colors thus making "single-pixel" color picks extremely frustrating. Photoshop has features that allow you to change to small patches. Using a Reference card of some sort, is often inconvenient during the Wedding Day due to time constraints -- see "Update" above. 2) The color tools only allow ONE setting for color correction. Affinity (and PS) allow changing the Color Balance for Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows separately. If my Bride is in a park, under a tree, I must decide whether or not I choose to remove all of the green cast from her Dress, or not -- often spanning more than one of the three ranges mentioned.

[@jonastruemper637]

You may want to re-watch the last part of the video, where Thomas shows exactly that - impacting only certain luminance levels through the tone curve.

[@tkarlmann]

@@jonastruemper637 Yes, I re-watched it. This workaround presumes you know the color cast; and it does not seem quite as clean as Affinity's solution. In Affinity, I might Create a simple mask for the LEDs, invert the mask, then go on to correct the Color Chart. In Real-World photos, things are not quite as simple as that -- you typically do not KNOW where the color cast came from, or its color. In Affinity, I am able to create multiple points in RGB numbers, and try and make them even for the three regions (albeit overlapping) mentioned earlier -- for a neutral color (Bride's Dress, for example).

[@jonastruemper637]

@@tkarlmann thanks for elaborating - I can see where OM Workspace is falling short.

[@ThomasEisl.Photography]

Hey there - thanks for the great discussion everyone! Let me contribute a few things, as I had very similar thoughts when I started using WS professionally a year ago: Regarding the Pickers The WB picker / Gray Point Specification sample a very small area. This seems rather limiting, but it actually works perfectly fine in practice. I've started with various workarounds in the beginning, like calculating the WB in Affinity and then transferring it to Workspace etc. only to find out that it is - in practice - no issue at all. Regarding WB Targets In the past few years, I've always managed to take a WB target shot at some point. When I shot a wedding, I was able to take the reference shots during breaks. I find this absolutely necessary if you really want 100% consistency. Everything else is more or less guesswork - which is not necessarily a dealbreaker, but I really don't like that. I'm Mr. Precision haha - probably like you from what I read. Regarding Color Balance The trick is to fix everything with tone curves, working with all the RGB channels / color filter / Color Creator in Workspace - then, I transfer the file to AFP where I develop a gradient map or something like that (almost never necessary, in my experience). This GM can then be pasted onto all shots under similar circumstances. With the 16-bit TIFF exported to AFP, the results are perfect I'd say. To conclude: Workspace is not the one stop shop - its true power is "unleashed" when used in conjunction with AFP or PS. It really is a classic RAW converter in that way, and I love that.

[@tkarlmann]

@@ThomasEisl.Photography It is difficult to believe your statement regarding the Single Pixel color-picker-point as not being a limiting issue! Those single pixels on a Brides dress can vary in color considerably -- __requiring__ the use of a reference color card -- that is why the PS-designers did away with that exclusivity years ago! It is true that I could do more with OM's tone curve; but you can also get into a lot of trouble with that! I think the key is, as you ably illustrated, is to make SMALL changes to the curve. I think that entire 'curves' graphic should be re-designed to ease the user to make these smaller changes -- when you need to. I like AFP's Color Balance Adjustment, where I can pick highlights, shadows, and midtones individually --- but wait -- I just reviewed my latest troublesome file, and I found my best Result was done using curves! BTW: I DO like OM Workspace very much; especially the ability to compare multiple images! GM's are new to me -- I'm still learning how to use them.