OMD EM1 RAW Files

I have been shooting with my new camera for two weeks now. I have my camera set to neutral and RAW. I am finding when I try to work them in Lightroom I don't have the range I do with my canon files. The colors are too vivid and saturated and don't seem to have a lot of room to tweak my WB balance. Maybe because it's a 4/3 issue but anyone have any work arounds or similar issues? Maybe it's just my Lightroom skills since I've only processed canon files since LR4. Thanks.

I used to have the EM-1. I don't know exactly how to put it but I always found the RAW files very 'thin'. Like yourself I found the RAWs didn't offer a lot of latitude for processing compared to Canon files. I found it important to get the exposure right with this camera which was easy most of the time. I found the metering very good.

As for the colours, etc. whatever picture style you have the camera set to will not translate to LR. Upon import the calibration is probably set to Adobe Standard. You can go down to the calibration section in the develop module and pick one of the calibration setting there. You might find it better than the Adobe profile. Hope that helps.

"I have been shooting with my new camera for two weeks now. I have my camera set to neutral and RAW. I am finding when I try to work them in Lightroom I don't have the range I do with my canon files. The colors are too vivid and saturated and don't seem to have a lot of room to tweak my WB balance. Maybe because it's a 4/3 issue but anyone have any work arounds or similar issues? Maybe it's just my Lightroom skills since I've only processed canon files since LR4. Thanks."

I use the E-M1 and I don't have this problem. Quite the opposite, I found the E-M1 color palette more attractive and subtle than on my Canon 5Dii. I can think of some reasons you may be experiencing this problem: (1) Check the camera calibration tab pull-down menu in Lightroom. Choose a muted or natural calibration from Olympus rather than Adobe Standard. This will allow you to dial in your preferred amount of saturation. (2) Make sure you are giving your images full exposure. Correct brightness with the exposure slider in LR. (3) Try decreasing the contrast.

Let us know how it goes.

Or create your own profile to suit your taste.
I find that a well exposed .orf has plenty of room for adjustment, WB, exposure, color ... you name it. Problems occur when the shots are underexposed. That is indeed a 4/3 tiny pixel thing, but you will run into that on a 7D2 as well. Will be interesting to see how they managed to "improve" the DR and noise on the E-M1 II, with even tinier pixels....

DanC.Licks wrote in post #18166187
Will be interesting to see how they managed to "improve" the DR and noise on the E-M1 II, with even tinier pixels....

I think the general consensus is that there isn't much improvement at all in terms of image quality between the 16MP sensor and the new 20MP sensor.

That said, I agree with Dan. I think there's enough latitude in the ORF files for most scenarios. Metering is pretty good. The only gripe I had was clipped highlights when I wasn't careful.

Also, Lightroom is not very nice to ORF files on import. I ended up buying a set of Huelight profiles for my E-M1, PM2 and E-M10. I also would knock the default sharpening down a bit as that would generally increase noise characteristics.

I shoot E-M1 and E-M5ii and have no problem with LR post processing or color fidelity. I made a preset for uploading .orf raw files to lightroom that sets the camera calibration to muted instead of the Adobe profile. The Adobe profile is not terrible but I like to dial in the amount of saturation and presence to my taste. Good exposure is important for optimizing images, regardless of camera brand. My jpeg settings are neutral with low contrast and little sharpening, to obtain a reliable in-camera histogram. This is the key to everything that comes later, a full and proper exposure, with enough exposure to put the high end of the histogram far to the right. I often set the exposure bias to + 1/2 or + 1 stop and monitor the result on the live-time histogram. Setting the contrast too high or strongly reducing the blacks can make the color harsh.

The color pallet of the E-M1 and M5ii is very subtle. A few years ago Michael Reichmann (now deceased) published photos made in Cabo San Lucas with the E-M1. The subtlety he achieved in those photos drew me to the M43. Persevere!

Hello everyone, I am brand new to the Micro 4/3 world. I am only contemplating getting into the system by getting the EM-1 Mark II.

Quick question: I use PS CS6 on a Mac. Will I be able to open and process the RAW files from the Olympus?

I don't think you'll have a problem although I don't use PS. I use Lightroom and affinity and don't have a problem. I have had some success using the tips above and there is a "warm setting" buried in the OMD EM1 that I found a turned off. Once I turned that off I got a lot more flexibility with working the raw files. While I love the size of the camera I do not know if I'd purchase it all over again. Maybe it's me but I still think higher ISO files have too much noise.

i just got em1 m11 and my version of lightroom will not open the files. i have to convert them which is a pain. maybe its my old version but as of today it won't open the files.

Thanks. That's good to know. Are you converting using oly conversion software? If so is it any good? I've never used it.

if you are using photoshop, then you test out the metaraw plugin to load the olympus ORF raw file

http://thepluginsite.c​om/products/metaraw/

Another raw converter is DxO Optics Pro.

Version 9 is free until Feb 28:

http://www.dxo.com/us/​digitalcamerauk

this is an older version and does not support the mark II.

(PDF File -- http://media.dxo.com …d-by-DxO-Optics-Pro-9.pdf)

The current release is v11

Current versions of LR/PS will open the RAW files fine with the exception of the 80M pixel hi rez format.