IR Workflow - Channel Swapping

I am a soon-to-be MacBookPro owner- making the switch from PC to Mac. My computer and Aperture are on the way. On my PC, I use ACDSee Pro to manage my photos and do 90% of my editing. I'm sure Aperture will work for most of my needs save one: channel swapping.
I do a fair amount of IR work. My workflow currently involves switching out of ACDSee Pro into GIMP to do the red-blue channel swapping necessary to get the false color results I like in my IR images. Is there a better alternative for me as I move to Aperture on my Mac? I am not going to pay for something like Photoshop just to do channel swapping and some (rare) layer work. I was wondering if there is any Mac-oriented shareware like GIMP that would play nicely with Aperture? Or, is there an Aperture plug-in that can do channel swapping?
I also, but only occasionally, have need to work with layers and again rely on GIMP. If there is an affordable alternative that would work well with Aperture, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Ideally the solution would be able to handle channel swapping and layering.
It seems I could stay with GIMP for my needs, but I've seen some posts indicating GIMP doesn't play well with Aperture so am hoping for a decent alternative.
Thanks

Thanks, DLS. I was planning on giving GIMP a try and if it works for me, I'll stick with it. I saw some folks had problems and others didn't so I was just planning for the worst case by coming up with a backup.
I didn't consider Elements because the latest PC version I have does not have a way to swap channels.
Will keep Pixelmator in mind. Downloaded the manual and it certainly does look like it will swap channels. Does layers too so I'll give the trial version a whirl if GIMP gives me any problems.

Similar Messages

Is there an easy way to batch process channel swapping?

I'm creating a IR time-lapse, and I need an easy/effective way to swap the red/blue channels and do a few other things in Photoshop before I transfer the work to Lightroom to finish. I know that you can batch process for resizing and whatnot, but it would be really helpful if you could batch process basically all the actions you did in the history of one image in a set of 300+ and hit "go". Anyone know if this can be done, and how?

Make an action that uses the channel mixer adjustment to apply the channel swap, then use the batch command to apply it to your folder of images.

PDA DAQ channels swapping

Hi everyone.
I'm experiencing problems with a PDA based app collecting analog data from 6 channels. All advice appreciated.
Hardware is a Juniper Allegro CX, running Windows CE.net 4.20, Intel ARM X-scale processor, 128Mb RAM, NI DAQCard 6024E in expansion pod.
Development platform is LabVIEW 8.6 with PDA module.
DAQmx base has 6 channel continuous acquisition set up, channels 0 to 5, 100Hz scan rate, 1000Hz conversion rate, as task 'readg' (see code)
Acquisition seems to be running perfectly well for a while, then channels switch around. e.g. all channels grounded, except for channel 2 with 0.1HZ sine input from a sig gen and channel 3 hardwired to 3V. After 30 seconds or so the channels all move around by 2 positions, Ch2 readings move to Ch0, Ch 3 to Ch1 etc. After another 30 seconds they move again by 2 steps, and after another 30 seconds or so they move two further steps (so they are back where they started). This continues until app is stopped.
This thread suggests something similar, but doesn't run to conclusion so no solution there... http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=250&message.id=12209&query.id=3315#M12209
(side issue - can anyone tell me how to post a thread in a neater way than this?)
Struggling here. 100Hz per channel is fastest required by my app, it's needs to run for up to 15 minutes, and channels need to stay put!
I'm posting code from a calibration routine that's doing this. The routine is part of a larger application. Upper loop is handling user interface and sitting in part 2 in the idle mode, so shouldn't be interfereing with anything.
Thanks for any assistance you can offer.
Bandit.
Attachments:
Do cal.vi ‏41 KB

Hi All
Sorry about the delay in getting back to you, I was out of office for a while. In the meantime though, a colleague of mine has been trying to replicate the issue using a PDA we have here at the office. Unfortunately though, whenever he tried taking measurements, he was unable to see any evidence of channels swapping in this manner.
Thanks a lot for posting, Mike. Funnily enough, Sacha still remembers that problem and I spoke to him about it as we sit nearby in the office. He described to me the way that your SCXI channels were swapping due to a nearby radar system and it does sound very similar to this issue. Bandit, could you be experiencing similar interference in your location? Are there any RF sources in your area? Could you try taking the PDA to another location and trying it out there to see whether that makes a difference. I would expect that what we are seeing is due to something in hardware, rather than software, since all the drivers do is assume that the first sample will be from channel 1, second from channel 2, third from channel 3 etc. Therefore, there must be some kind of hardware glitch that is causing this. Could you give us any information about the expansion module you are using to connect your DAQcard to the PDA? There may be a possibility that this interface is somehow causing a glitch in the data.
In terms of dealing with the channel swapping, one suggestion could be to pass a known reference voltage down one channel and detect when this reference voltage has been switched to another channel. This will tell you when the switching has occured so then you could tailor your other channels accordingly. I believe this is the type of thing that Mike did to get round the issue. Can you confirm whether this is the case, Mike?
Kind Regards
Jeremy T
Technical Marketing Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland

Channel Mixer in Aperture?

I'm curious, is there a channel mixer in Aperture 3... a hidden feature somewhere? I'm starting to do infrared photography (color) and currently I have to do the channel swap in Photoshop.

They say that the Hoya 72R is similar but not tantamount to an IR conversion but only with some cameras. The camera makers have gone to great lengths to filter out IR because of the problems it causes with visible light. I almost went that route but decided to buy an 830nm converted 10D. It's B&W, but I only ever shot one roll of color IR film. Mine stank, but my friend got a really cool shot of a purple cow in red grass. (Now, there are people who know nothing about Photoshop who would say, "That's just Photoshop" if they saw it.)
If you want to go BW, you can find a custom white balance on your camera that will make it look BW, but you'll still need to do a BW conversion to make it right.
If you're really interested in IR, you should read Kodak Publication #M28 Applied Infrared Photography. You can get it used on Amazon so cheap that shipping will cost more than the Publication.
I have an article on true IR vs software IR that's almost ready. I'll post a link on this thread when I have it up. Any questions you have about IR, hit me up, and I'll answer if I'm able.
!http://dlsphoto.com/IR.jpg!

Keying with an alpha channel

I have a client that needs some footage that we shot over green screen delivered to them with the green keyed out and an alpha channel already in place. The end deliverable that they are looking for is the talent over an "invisible" background that they can simply drag and drop into FCP without having to key it themselves.
So my question is, how do I key out the green and an add alpha channel to preserve the "invisibility" of what was once green?
I hope that question makes some sense!
Thanks!

The most straightforward solution is to export your keyed sequences
to Animation, PNG, or JPEG 2000 using millions of colors +.
Make sure the sequence is NOT RENDERED before you export.
(In other words, if you want to render and preview to make sure it's good,
do that, but delete your render file before exporting.) The only problem
is that the resulting files are huge and will really bog down your client's
edit.
Another solution is to export two files per clip, with the second file
being a black-and-white version of the alpha channel.
To create the second clip, add the Channel Swap filter with
red, green, and blue all coming from alpha.
Then your client places the two files over each other, with
the "alpha" clip below the regular version, and the Composite
Mode of the upper clip set to Travel Matte - Luma.
In fact, if your client already has the clips, you can just
send them the alpha versions.
The big advantage of the second solution is that you can
stay in the same codec, which should make your client's
editing go a lot faster.

Problem with Lightroom and Infrared Photography

This problem is specifically related to using LR & PS to process Infrared images. I apologize if this forum may not be the correct place to ask this question. I am having problems processing Infrared Images when using LR & PS. I take my IR images with a 530 IR conversion to a Canon G12 camera. I learned early on Adobe products don't play well with IR images (they come in magenta when importing ) so I bring IR images shot withmy G12 into my computer with Canon Digital Photo Professional and then work in LR & PS from there.
If I then directly open this imported image from my hard drive into Photoshop and try and do adjustments such as blue sky adjustments with a red/blue channel swap, it works fine, just as I would expect.
(If you are not familiar with IR processing, I understand this introduction and question will not make sense)
But when using Lightroom, I sometimes have issues. I always import all my images into LR. Even with IR images, after using DPP to bring them to my computer, I import them into LR for cataloging purposes and to make other potential adjustments. Then my usual workflow is to move photos from LR to Photoshop via the "edit in" command. This opens a dialog box giving a choice of "edit a copy with LR adjustments" which is the default option and the one I always use, or "edit original".
Here's the interesting thing I finally discovered.
If I send the photo from LR to PS using the "edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments" option, I get a bad blue sky effect, where the sky is green and the foliage is pink instead of the sky being blue and the foliage yellow. But if I send it to PS using the "edit original" option, the blue sky effect works fine.
So there appears to be an issue when tring to send IR images from Lightroom to Photoshop. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Matthew Kraus

Thanks so much for working on this.
I fear the behavior you noticed was just due to the fact I cheanged the
file from 16 bit to 8 bit so the size was smaller and I could easily email
it. When I open any of my regular 16 bit files, whether I send them to PS
as "edit original" or "edit copy with lightroom adjustments", they both end
up as 16 bit and as far as I can see, seem the same, though obviously they
are not.
I don't really have a preset, but I'll walk you through the process.
1. Choose Channel Mixer from the Adjustment Pannel
2. Make sure the output channel is red, change the red channel slider from
100% to 0% and increase the blue channel slider from 0% to 100%. You can
type in the values.
3. Change the output channel to blue. Increase the red channel from 0% to
100% and the blue channel from 100% to 0%.
This is supposed to change the sky from brown to blue and the foliage from
blue to yellow and is what happens when you use the "edit original"
option. When you use the "edit copy with lightroom adjustments", the sky
turns green and the foliage pink. So you get 2 different behaviors,
depending on which option you use to bring the image from LR to PS.
That's my question, why do you get 2 different behaviors?
Thanks,
Matthew Kraus

How do I make a new file that will not have to be rendered again?

This is a little complicated but I've tried everything and still can't find a solution.
Here's what I'm doing:
1. Record footage with my Canon HV 30 in 1080 30p mode.
2. I import it into Final Cut Studio 6. Plays back fine.
3. I add chroma key and garbage matts to get rid of green screen. Now it has to be rendered to play back at all.
4. So, I'm trying to make a new movie out of the footage with the chroma key so that I can then import it and play it back without having to render every time a move something.
I know it has to be exported in the same format as the FC file in order to do this, but when I do that I don't get an alpha channel so the places where the green screen was is now black instead of see through.
I tried saving in animation and "no compression" with the alpha channel but then it won't play back without the rendering again.
Am I asking to do the impossible?
Thanks. And I'm sort of new to this so please keep it simple.

Hey there, wireduck! There are two ways to render out keyed footage.
If you export to animation codec (choose millions of colors + ),
I believe you need to export from an UNrendered FCP sequence.
So make sure your sequence has the little red or orange lines, then export.
This should produce a file with a good alpha channel.
The problem is that the animation codec is big and processor-intensive,
as is your other HDV footage. So it might work, but you'll get bogged down
at some future point.
A cool trick is to convert the entire sequence to the DVCPRO HD codec.
It's really easy for your computer to digest, and it looks great.
Now here's the trick to export the alpha channel as a separate file.
On your keyed clip, after the other effects (color smoothing, key),
add the Channel Swap filter, and set red, blue, and green from alpha.
By doing this, you are making the RGB channels display your alpha channel.
Export this (DVCPRO HD) and name it the same as your clip,
but with something like "-alpha" at the end so you can keep track of it.
Import it.
In your sequence (sequence settings DVCPRO HD, yes?), place the original
footage--with all the keying and channel effects disabled--on V3.
Set its Composite Mode to Travel Matte - Luma.
Directly below that, on V2, perfectly aligned to the original clip,
place your -alpha clip with normal composite mode.
Now put your background on V1.
You should see the composite working, and three tracks of DVCPRO HD
should play on your computer OK without needing to render.
Just keep the original clip (on V3) and its alpha version (on V2)
perfectly in sync, and you can edit and add other effects.
This should work for you. Good luck!

I can't export to QuickTime, it gives message "Codec not found."

I have long sequence, in which I have some Channel Swap effects. I get an error message saying it can't be rendered for a sequence this long (72 minutes) with my hardware (2009 iMac running OS 10.6.8). When I try to export to QuickTime, it tells me "Codec not found." I'm trying to export to Apple Pro Res HQ. What should I do? I took out the Channel Swap effects and didn't get the message anymore in the sequence, but I'm afraid the codec issue will crop up again, even though I changed it to Apple Pro Res in the Render Options tab under Sequence settings, rather than just "Same as Sequence". Eventually, I will have to export to HQ, and I'm not sure this codec lets me do that. Help!

You don't give any details about your format or sequence settings, so I'll be general here.
Just a couple of observations...
The only time limitation messages I've seen (in the last decade) have been resource-oriented, not NLE constraints so if your system doesn't like a 72-minute sequence I'd be looking at drive space or something like that. Have you tried outputting two 36-minute pieces?
I don't understand your logic in using the sequence codec option (which is limited to two specific formats) to control output of the sequence rather than the output "same as sequence" dropdown) options. Personally, I don't use either, I output the sequence as is and transcode in Compressor.
Simple as it sounds, "Codec not found" generally means exactly that, so I'd be looking at whether the codecs need to be re-installed.
Hope this helps

MacBook Pro DVI-Out and FrontRow Color Anomalies

ok, so i've got one of the first generation MacBook Pros 2.0GHz processor, 2GB RAM, etc. i want to use the DVI-out to connect to my Sharp Notevision projector, which has a DVI-input. i have a standard DVI cable and when i connect, everything is fine. i can display at the projector's 1280x1024 native resolution and finder and other application windows look just fine, color-wise.
however, when i jump into FrontRow (or play any Quicktime movie or use iTunes to play movies), the color shifts and looks horrible. the glow around the icons in FrontRow are oddly red, and other nuetral colors look greenish or otherwise. its almost like you've got a component cable connected with two of the channels swapped.
the same projector works fine and displays accurate color with my AppleTV and if i connect the laptop to one of my Cinema Displays, the colors for movies are all accurate. i thought maybe the DVI cable was bad, and bought a replacement and the new cable produces the same off-color results.
any help or guidance here would be greatly appreciated!
thanks,
scott

Another update, I did some research and it seems that ATI are cagily admitting to the fact that there might be a problem with the X-series;
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questio nID=26586
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questio nID=21266
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questio nID=25682
You'll notice that ATI tell you to contact the manufacturer of your computer if the graphics are integrated into the motherboard. Like with Apple. Much joy to be had there.
I phoned their technical support and got talking with a specialist who was mystified and suggested 'turning off the airport'.
Also, it seems that Apple rather significantly "underclocked" the GPUs in their macbook pros;
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/19/applemacbook_pro_gpuspeed/
http://www.maconintel.com/news.php?article=178
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=306024
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=194647
Could be running the GPUs are running on a lower voltage and maybe they're not working right, or the signal isn't stable enough to pick up an EDID? It seems to be quite a mystery. Perhaps the osx86 community will have some tricks up their sleaves for twisting the x1600's arm. Still doesn't explain why the monitor worked that one time.
This probably isn't an issue for anyone who doesn't want to plug their laptop into an external display, but I suspect it's a widespread problem just waiting to rear its ugly head, especially as HDTVs become more ubiquitous.
Anyone else struggling with external display devices, or with solutions, I'd appreciate your input.

Rounded corners

Hi there,
I'm developing a report in BI Publisher 11g's Layout Editor. I need to have a text box with rounded corners. I would also like to have the same functionality in tables.
Is this possible in the layout editor?
Thanks,
Tiago

found this over on the cow, curiously coincidentally:
[Jim Johnson] "1. Draw a rectangular mask on your image.
2. Apply Gaussian Blur, set the Amount to 50.
3. Apply Threshold filter, set the Smoothness to 0.0.1 and the Threshold to 0.8-ish.
4. Apply Channel Swap and set the Alpha to come from the Red channel. "
We used to do this in After Effects back in the olden days. so long ago I forgot it could be done this way.
bogiesan

Add realistic shadow to keyed person?

FCS 2
Motion 3
Hi all,
I'm doing a chromakey in Motion of a person; the background plate is the interior of a room.
What do I use to add a realistic shadow to her? Couple factors:
1. The talent is not stationary; she moves throughout the entire screen width
2. The floor & ceiling meet 2-3 feet (visually) behind her
3. She sits on a bench at one point, if that needs to be figured in
Is there a way to do this in Motion? Or do I have to use a third-party plugin/filter?
I've searched but am probably not using the right keywords; I find lots of posts about regular drop shadows for stationary objects.
Any help is very much appreciated!
Brett

1) Duplicate the layer
2) Use the Channel Swap filter to switch all channels to Alpha - this will make your keyed subject all white
3) Add an Invert filter - this will make it all black - your shadow
4) Right-click and select the Four Corner tool, distort to tast
5) Blur as needed (you might want to group the layer and blur the group)
6) You can duplicate this whole thing, remove the blur from the original, then use an image mask with a gradient to have the blur fall off as the shadow gets closer to the subject.

6330 LE3 - ata mode vs performace problems

note: see sig for specs.
alright, so here a little while back, my main hard drive (the 10gig)
has started to perform like it's in PIO mode, yet everything i run to test it says it's using ata(/dma)66 mode. my secondary is using ata100 and runs fine. the primary is getting 1.8mb/sec max secondary gets ~30mb/sec
both are hooked to the same _new_ cable (replaced it, without effect) on the primary ide channel. swapping to the secondary ide channel does nothing more than make win2k look for my cdrom drives.
hooking up a single drive yeilds normal performance.
i know this board is capable of running each drive at it's rated speed/tranfer rates because it was doing so not but a few weeks ago, yet it's refusing to do so now.
anyone got any insights into this little problem?
-Tsuki

swapping the second drive onto ide2(without cdroms) gives me full performance off both drives
but i shouldn't need to stick my drives in some funky hdd/cd+hd/cd config just to get full performance :\

How to install missing kaleidoscope effect

I'm trying to edit a Final Cut project created by a friend who has the same version of FCStudio that I do: 5.1.4
I copied the project and media files onto my computer, but when I try to render it I get the message:
"The following effects could not be loaded:
Kaleidoscope
Membrane
These effects will not be applied. Please install the appropriate effects and re-open the project."
I took a look at the FCP install instructions on the install disk, and there was a custom install, but it didn't appear to offer selections of effect groups, just the whole FCP or not.
The only difference between my install and that of my friend that jumps out at me is that she installed Motion and I didn't. Would FCP effects be installed with Motion?
Otherwise, how do I "install the appropriate effects?"

"Would FCP effects be installed with Motion?"
Kaleidoscope and Membrane are FXPlug Plugins installed with Motion.
FCP 5.1.2-5.1.4 has access to Motion's FXPlug Plugins.
If you didn't install Motion, you will be missing the Kaleidoscope FX plugin (which is found in the FCP Effects "Tiling" folder) and Membrane FX plugin (which is found in the FCP Effects "Render" folder) as well as the following FXPlug Plugins:
Directional Blur
Prism
Soft Focus
Channel Swap
Insect Eye
Refraction
Stripes
Target
Twirl
Light Rays
Overdrive
Color Reduce
Gradient Colorize
HSV Adjust
Threshold
Matte Magic
Color Emboss
Extrude
Indent
Lens Flare
Line Art
Noise Dissolve
Slit Scan
Slit Tunnel
Vectorize Color
Vignette
Kaleidoscope
Random Tile
Time Scrub
Time Strobe
Time Trails
Color Solid
Cellular
Clouds
Membrane
Noise
Swirly
But you say you can't install motion:
"which I can't do on my computer because of the video card"
Then you are out of luck, sorry.
But if you did have an approved card and you wish to install Motion now to get these effects, you need to follow these instructions from Apple.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304456
"If you install Motion 2.1 after installing the Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 update, Final Cut Pro may subsequently fail to open."
G5 1.8 DP (PCI-X) Mac OS X (10.4.9) ATI X800 XT, 4GB RAM, 20" & 23" ACDs, M-Audio Revolution 5.1, Fostex D15 DAT

Mummy sand effect

I am working on an effect but I'm not sure if motion does this kind of effect. I am trying to turn an arm that I shot on green screen in to a smoking arm. Much like the Mummy sand effect when the face comes out of the sand and trys to eat the plane. I have keyed out the green. I then used the Stencil Luma Blend Mode to fill the arm with smoke but you can tell it's deffinitly an arm filled with smoke. What can I do to get the smoke to look like an arm but not an Arm thats filled with smoke.
15' MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM

I'm not really good at Motion, but here's how the effect was done in The Mummy (paraphrased - but if you have the DVD, they show how it was done):
A 3D particle system was used to generate the sand cloud. Then, a displacement effect was added to the particle system; the displacement map being generated from the face of the actor.
In Motion, I'd think you'd use some particle emitters to make a smoke cloud that is roughly the size and shape of the arm. Then, I'd use the arm that you've keyed out as the displacement source in applying the Displace filter. You may even want to experiment with using only one channel in your arm image/movie, as certain channels may give a more effective displacement. The Channel Swap filter might be useful for this.
However, Motion is still a 2D particle system with a 2D displacement filter, so your results won't look as good as what was achieved in The Mummy.
Please also note that I haven't tried any of the above steps; I'm just giving you my idea of how I'd go about trying to achieve this effect in Motion (and like I said, I'm not very good with Motion in the first place - I'm more of an After Effects fan).

Poor WiFi since upgraded from an AEBS

I used to have a AEBS, It was the N version but not dual channel. Since I was backing up seperate I decided to get a TC. The TC I got wasn't the newest but it is a N 1Tb dual channel.
I put it in the exact same spot as my AEBS, set it up, but I've definitely noticed that the WiFi performance isn't as good. I use WiFi for it in my house for my iPad 2 and S3, BB playbook.
What could be wrong? Why poor performance, in that the signaliisn't as strong and I get drop outs and very very slow performance, so much on my S3,I just use 3G (H+) as it's faster.
Any help or suggestions please
Thanks

Both Gen 1 and Gen2 AEBS I think should be Marvell wireless. But they had 3 antenna..
The Gen 4 AEBS A1354 and the Gen 3 TC A1355 should also be Marvell wireless but are dual band with only 2 antenna for each band and I think one is shared.. I don't really like shared antenna.
It means orientation is more important.. so keep the TC front led (think of it as a laser beam) aimed directly at the clients.. the antennas are in the edges.. on the 3 faces.. nothing in the back.. nothing top or bottom.
I would do the setup of the TC again. Start from a factory reset.
Is it the correct model for your region?? Make sure the wireless is set to your country.
Make sure power levels are set to 100%.. it should be by default.
To stop the auto band swapping and auto channels swapping set SMB names to 2.4ghz and 5ghz.. which are different. Lock the channels for 2.4ghz particularly .. try channel 1,6, 11 in turn..
Use WPA2 Personal security.
Gen 3 should be ok power supply wise.. they tend to blow the board which you will know because it will stop working.
If it is still bad.. and you don't want to trade it off again.. buy a set of antennas.. I see on ebay you can buy these sets.. get a decent set for 2.4ghz and leave the 5ghz as it doesn't transmit that well anyway. You only need therefore two decent, say 8dbi antenna..
A little bit of drilling you can make it look like a gothic chair or a NASA space antenna. But you will get far superior performance from it.
Tell me if you want to know more.

IR Workflow - Channel Swapping

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