PL2 preview sharpness sufficient for culling RAW files?

I’ve been using PL2 for culling my RAW images. After going through this thread (PL3 does not read lens sharpness correctly), I’d like to ask the forum whether the “resize to sharpen” is unique only to PL3? I am worried now that I may be deleting images which may be sharper than what PL2 has been showing me.

To verify sharpness, I’d set the upper part of the library window to display the image at 100%.

Nevertheless, DPL2 and DPL3 seem to have different algorithms that calculate the previews.
Images look sharper in DPL2 , but DPL3 looks closer to what I get after export.

I propose you use the DPL 3 to compare what you get and then decide.

  1. display image in DPL2 with NoCorrection
  2. display the same image in DPL3 with NoCorrection
  3. crank up sharpening so that tje image in DPL3 looks almost equal to the one in DPL2
  4. create a preset and apply to all images in DPL3
  5. compare all the images you selected for testing
  6. decide!

Note: On my 2019 27 in iMac, I do NOT get sharpness differences if I run the two DPLs in low resolution mode. It looks like the two versions handle HiDPI settings differently.

I stopped culling with PL because it takes to long when going through, lets say hundreds of photos. You will find a lot of posts here about this topic. I am using for example FastRawViewer for this and can recommend it. But there are of course a lot of other apps for that, which are also preferred by the members here.

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Thanks for the suggestion :slight_smile: Yes the preview generation time is a pain.
The only reason I’m using LR or PL for culling is - sometimes I underexpose (bad technique) and it helps to view in PL2 or LR to see what is feasible though the default settings.

…then it’s not about sharpness?

I believe there’s an opportunity for DxO to create a Culling Mode in DxO.

A highly optimised and fast preview parser for raws. Perhaps even by not using the raw but the embedded jpeg instead.

I don’t want PL to be everything as it often tend to be “not good enough” but being faster in culling could perhaps be worth it.

i use Power Mechanic for culling and in the same time filling my EXIF data, renaming the files en placing the files in a directory based on what i have defined in the import settings

No it is about sharpness, but to evaluate sharpness, I need to first bump up the exposure, and I like what DXO does with the uniform smart lighting in most cases. However, once DXO has applied that, my question is whether the preview that’s rendered can be used as the basis for rejecting the image if it appears a bit soft?

To put it differently, are the “fill frame” previews softer than what one would see at 75% in PL2 ?

DPL images look the same in both views (Library and Customize) if set to the same zoom ratio.
Note that DPL3 has a known issue: sometimes, images are rendered less sharp, the workaround is to press the key twice… I’d not consider the light table/film strip images to be good enough unless an image is really blurry.