Mar 30, 2018

Olympus Viewer 3 Basic Post-Processing Workshop

Tomorrow, I will be conducting my first ever post-processing workshop for Olympus RAW files using specifically the Olympus Viewer 3 software. I am both extremely excited and nervous at the same time, as I have not done this before, and I am showing my own RAW images in the live demonstration on how I achieve the "Robin Wong" look for the first time to an audience.

Selected RAW images for the Post-Processing workshop demonstration


I acknowledge the Olympus Viewer 3 is not the most user friendly software and it is so sluggish that it makes any grown man cry after using this software just for a little while. I would not recommend Olympus Viewer 3 for serious professional use, as it is resource hungry and it is just too slow for anything productive, especially dealing with a huge batch of images (wedding/event or sports shooters). I am not sure why Olympus could not make it any more efficient, it is surely just some programming optimization and even the fastest computer now will struggle with the use of Olympus Viewer 3, doing something so basic such as white balance tweaking.

So why the post-processing workshop with Olympus Viewer 3? The software ihas basically the same JPEG engine built into Olympus cameras, the Truepic engine, which renders the magical Olympus colors which I have worked with all these years, producing beautiful, life like colors and pleasing skin tones. Furthermore, having fully automated lens technical flaw controls (CA, distortion, etc), sharpness and details optimization as well as excellent built in noise reduction for high ISO images, I have not really found any other software that can get so much out of Olympus RAW files. The magic sauce that everyone is asking me all these years, how to achieve the kind of look in my images? The answer has always been openly obvious, I did most of my post-processing work with Olympus RAW files on Olympus Viewer 3.

If only we can somehow get Olympus to significantly improve the Viewer 3's operational speed and performance, at least good enough for commercial use.... One can only dream.


10 comments:

  1. Yay! Yay! Yay! Wish I was there. Can someone make a video cast? All the best for the presentation. Use a machine with SSD - in Melbourne this has become normal but the vibe I got when I was in KL was that SSD was perceived to be for gamers, not the average user.

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    1. No videos allowed! Or else no one would attend and I will be left with no jobs

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    2. Maybe after polishing the presentation a few times, you could bring it to CreativeLive—or similar marketing venue. Or get Olympus to spring for it as a marketing/training video...

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    3. I'm in the training business myself too as you know Robin. There is a fine line - it aids our standing to have a free video (curated by us) to display a narrow facet but of course not to rob us of our income base. I also keep reminding people that watching a video is only one method of learning and it is not interactive and it is not able to deviate and follow a discussion which adults find useful. It also cannot get to the point, it is a linear delivery so if you are only wanting one point, you have to sit through 30 mins of video. 😀

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  2. Nice! I also use OV3. Yes I agree that it could be annoying for new users in terms of performance. Especially if there is a large set of files to be processed. I've been using OV3 only for raw processing. So may be I'm used to it now.☺️ (I haven't used lr or ps or any other software much) i really like the JPEG output producing nice Olympus colors. I also like to play with different filters available in OV3. Though you can use them in camera, i find it preferable to check them on monitor using OV3. I think OV3 runs well on Windows 10. Looking forward to get some tips on using it, if not the video.😊

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  3. I have used many of the editing program from Adobe & others & after your comments about OV3 on one of your past blogs I tried it. With the other programs I was never pleased with the colors since they changed the wonderful Olympus look. When I use OV3 the shots retain the look plus I believe it also shows more dynamic range & detail. I like you wish Olympus would speed it up but I can't go back to the others for raw processing given the results with OV3. I also have started using Affinity Photo after the raw processing & have stopped using Lightroom & Photoshop. I really like this workflow except for OV3's slow processing.

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  4. Yes, I still use OV3 for editing my Oly files. From time to time I'll run a file through PS and OV3 and put them side to side, and I always come back to Oly. ;)

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  5. Lightroom's "camera natural" setting matches Olympus colors very closely that can be easily tweaked with LR adjustments.

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    1. Not close enough, but the natural setting is very good. Olympus has that special sauce that lightroom doesnt.

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  6. So how do we get Olympus to pay attention in order to help their customers get the best output to promote their products? Sometime ago I did contact Olympus about the quality of OV3 and was told a new version was coming, it came and I don't know what they changed but it certainly wasn't performance or usability.

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