Aperture black and white filters making images blotchy

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Aperture black and white filters making images blotchy

Hello All!

I'm having some odd issues with Aperture and using the black and white filters: mainly red and orange filters. I have tested this with different cameras (all raw) including Nikon D700, Olympus E-M5, Canon 5D mk3, Nikon D800; all exibit the same issue. I have also had a friend test this on Lightroom and the problem did not appear.

Picture a landscape with a blue sky. Upon adding a red filter, and sometimes orange, the dramatic dark sky one would expect with such filters becomes blotchy. It looks somewhat like bad JPEG compression or noise from high ISO images but these pictures are all generally ISO 100 or 200. Sadly, this prevents me from printing these images so I've had to find other ways of processing them. Even when exported as a 16-bit TIFF, the problem persists.

Anyone have any thoughts? Experienced this themselves? Thanks for any thoughts!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 4, 2013 12:20 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 4, 2013 12:29 PM in response to AdrianGalli

Just quickly -- have you adjusted the sky so that no color channels are blown?

Something similar came up a while ago ... let me make some espresso.

A screenshot may help.

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Answer 2

AdrianGalli Author

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Sep 4, 2013 12:41 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Thanks Kirby... I have checked the channels but perhaps there is something I'm missing. Here is a screenshot of a random image I have but it shows the issue well. These are at 100%, ISO 200, red, orange, no filter (respectively). The histogram is from the original. No other post processing done. The red is the worst offender... the orange isn't as bad but it can be worse on certain images.

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Answer 3

léonie

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Sep 4, 2013 1:08 PM in response to AdrianGalli

If you are looking closely at the original raw image, you'll see, that your original raw contains that blotchy background texture. The blue sky is tufted by tiny white clouds and the red filter emphasizes them. I the color image it looks not like a random noise, but more like a regular grid, more like a mosaic. So the filters are working perfectly. I'd try, if different settings in the raw fine tuning can mitigate this.

Something similar came up a while ago ... let me make some espresso.

Kirby, did the espresso stimulate the gray matter? I remember seeing similar patterns overlayed on Canon and Nikon raw images, but I could not find the posts again.

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Answer 4

AdrianGalli Author

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Sep 4, 2013 1:50 PM in response to léonie

Yes, I suppose I do see it. There were zero clouds however that day. The concern I have is that I do not see it when the image is processed the same way in Lightroom. (I have no desire to switch either) I've played with the RAW fine tuning but it does nothing to change things.

I suppose my next question would be, if these filters are working properly, what are the setting people are using to get cleaner images? With the many RAW files I've done this with (Canon, Nikon, Olympus, etc.) and from many different camers, the problem is the same but I certainly see images that appear, from others, to have no signs of said "noise" or splotches.

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Answer 5

léonie

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194,767 points

Sep 4, 2013 2:07 PM in response to AdrianGalli

As a work-around you could try a strong blur-filter applied to the sky, but it would be better to find out, where the raw processing is going wrong. Have you tried to change the settings for the raw fine tuning in the Adjustments panel? For example, when I pick a high value for "Hue Boost", the background of my Canon EOS 5D Mark II photos will look like a bad case of measles.

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