Photographing the city of Prague with my EM5 II...

 Last update:- 22nd August 2023

Specifying a new PC, social media feedback, and finding information felt like a sailboat tacking back and forth to its destination. Knowledge and experience helped me to spec my "photography" iMac and create a basic diagram to help me evaluate the different iMac options and configurations.

I also benchmarked my existing iMac to my Mackbook Pro M1 while editing some of my images and video clips of Prague. My current iMac is 10 years old and the same one I used to process my Prague photos in 2015. I am preparing a new article to review the process of upgrading my iMac. This article focuses on Prague and the software I used to re-edit my Enhanced Raw Files in 2023...

The images in this article were taken with the Olympus EM-5 II and the MZuiko 12-50mm f3.5 - 6.3 EZ kit lens.

I was stunned by the added flexibility of processing my EM5 II raw files in 2023. I recall editing them in 2015 and the frustration of having reasonable results. The question is, what changed in 2023? Did Workspace, the Enhanced Raw Format, or editing software like Photoshop and PhotoLab improve enough to make a difference? How much was my personal growth over the past 8 years?

This is the jpeg image from my Olympus EM5 II with the Pop ART II filter.

Are 10 years of editing enough to bridge the hardware limitations of my iMac? I never experienced my iMac as outdated because it worked well every day. The most recent update to Workspace V2,2 reminded me that my iMac was 10 years old. What followed were questions like, should I consider a new iMac for the next 5 or 10 years, and should I get a new or secondhand iMac...

I couldn't stop thinking about these raw files and the good results of the past two weeks. How did the EM5 II manage this level of data with an older sensor? The low noise levels of the night or blue-hour scenes surprised me the most. Are these levels of image quality possible with an older M43 camera or a reason why the EM5 II continues to be an excellent mirrorless camera in 2023?

My Exif data showed I used an exposure shift and/or compensation of up to +0.6EV. This benefitted the saturation level of the EM5 sensor. More Exif data revealed that my ISO was often at ISO200. I recalled having a tripod ready when I discussed this with my wife. This explains the good EM5 II results. I used a steady tripod platform, and ISO200 helped me to saturate the sensor. The only thing left was to purposely improve the tonal data of my images. If I only knew more in 2015...

Saturating the sensor simply means flooding the sensor with light...

For more on this subject, study this article.

Live COMP, BULB, or COMP would have been interesting for this scene...

My knowledge of digital cameras was limited to a short list of marketing filters in 2015. For example, I never tried to improve the tonal data of my recordings and never used the High-Resolution function of the EM5 II. Just imagine I had 40MP available and never used it...

Editing the Enhanced Raw Files from Prague left such a positive impression that I decided to spend more time with my EM5 II. Yes, my focus is shifting back to older Olympus cameras...

The above image is an example of three bracketed raw files. I benefitted from having a steady tripod platform and processing my HDR shots with Photoshop. See this interesting article...

Workspace works best with accurate WB and Exposure measurements. My editing sequence starts by converting my Enhanced Raw Files with Workspace and editing the converted 16-bit Tiff files with Photoshop. I use PhotoLab for the more challenging cases and Photoshop for my HDR or final editing steps. I applied all these editing options in this short article about my photos of Prague.

An example of replacing the sky with the 2022 version of Photoshop CC.

The combination of Workspace and skilled photographers is powerful. No other editing software uses the same Image Processing as your Olympus camera or enables us to edit our camera settings. This is why the combination of Olympus cameras and Workspace is so fascinating. I still have some older Four-Thirds E-Series cameras from Olympus, and they all benefit from Workspace and the Enhanced Raw Format. This is one of the biggest unknowns of OM-System and its future vision...

I remember being a little frustrated as we landed in Prague. The skies were filled with clouds, and I typically avoid diffused conditions like this. I didn't know much about managing my image sensor's performance and decided to use ART Filters in Prague. The disadvantage of diffused conditions is having weaker shadows. I like the 3D effect one gets from stronger shadow contrasts.

It was a pleasant experience to re-edit these Enhanced Raw Files in 2023. The Enhanced Raw Format enabled me to deselect the Pop Art Filter in Workspace. The rest was a simple process of re-living my stay in Prague and converting my raw files to the way I remembered the city of Prague.

Another sky replacement with Photoshop...

I converted the 3 raw photos below with PhotoLab 6. DxO PhotoLab is one of the best applications for rescuing difficult or incorrectly exposed raw files. Workspace is not a recovery service. 

XXX