This site documents a modern RAW photography workflow built on open standards, file-based metadata and open-source tools – and the tech that makes them possible.
An Extreme Field Test of the OM-1 Mark II and OM System 50-200mm f/2.8 PRO The article I published on June 1st generated quite a few comments about cropping., sensor size, and how far a modern file can be pushed. While interesting, that was never really the point. The crop was simply a tool. What... Continue Reading →
How big is enough? And who are you publishing for? For years photographers have been told to keep images small. Otherwise they get stolen, storage fills up, bandwidth costs rise, and websites become slow. The advice is repeated so often that it has become accepted wisdom. But accepted wisdom is not always the same as... Continue Reading →
There are pieces of photography software that simply refuse to die. The original Google Nik Collection is one of them. Back in 2016, Google made the entire Nik Collection free before eventually selling the software to DxO. Development stopped, time moved on, operating systems changed, Adobe changed everything three times, yet somehow version 1.2.11 is... Continue Reading →
One of the most common arguments against shorter wildlife lenses is simple: they don't have enough reach. Fair enough, a 200mm lens will never magically become a 400mm lens, although Micro Four Thirds photographers might smile at that statement. The more interesting question is how much detail remains once the bird is still a little... Continue Reading →
6 minute read time Some gear purchases are exciting. Others are simply practical.This one sits somewhere in between. I recently ordered a new lens coat from Chasing Birds for the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 PRO, once again in their Green Leaf camouflage pattern, mainly because after enough years outdoors you start realizing... Continue Reading →
5 minutes read time Updated 28/5/2026 Simple Metadata Copy Script for Linux (Win & macOS below) For years, photographers have argued endlessly about metadata. Some see EXIF as an essential part of digital photography, others strip it from every image they upload as if it were some kind of privacy risk. And honestly, somewhere along... Continue Reading →
5 minutes read time Updated 28/05/2026 Why LUTs Are Slowly Replacing Traditional Film Presets One of the biggest reasons film simulations became popular again is undoubtedly Fujifilm. Their in camera simulations brought atmosphere and character back into digital photography, and many other brands soon followed with their own interpretations. Fujifilm has its recipes, Nikon its... Continue Reading →
With the new OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO in my hands, I suddenly started thinking, maybe it is finally time to stop improvising everything in full manual mode and actually make proper use of custom modes once in a while. So I started digging around for OM-1 and OM-1 Mark II... Continue Reading →
6 minutes read time Funny thing is, if you had asked me a few months ago whether I’d buy the new OM System 50-200mm f/2.8, I would probably have said “absolutely not.” Too expensive, too much overlap with the old 40-150 PRO, and honestly, I already owned more gear than I really needed. Back then,... Continue Reading →
A few years ago, Fujifilm recipes were everywhere. YouTube channels exploded with them, blogs published endless lists, and photographers spent evenings searching for the perfect Kodak, Portra or Classic Chrome look straight out of camera. And honestly, I understood the attraction immediately. Photography had become increasingly technical and often exhausting. Endless RAW editing, endless sliders,... Continue Reading →
Apparently there’s still a place for film simulation LUTs that don’t try to look “perfect”. Closing in on 150,000 Downloads Still climbing fast… the race for #1 is on. PictureFX Cinestill 800T (download) quietly climbed into the FreshLUTS Top 3, even overtaking BMP4K Peaky Blinders, and that probably says more about what people actually want... Continue Reading →
The bushcraft woodworking event may be over, but life certainly is not slowing down around here. A move never really ends at carrying boxes, there’s always lamps to hang, plumbing to fix, electrical connections to sort out, and twenty other little jobs waiting around the corner.…and then there’s our own life at home, shopping, cooking,... Continue Reading →
Linux users can access the good stuff without installing Adobe at all. If you are using Windows or macOS, installing the Adobe DNG Converter is straightforward. Download it, run the installer, done. Linux users often have a different goal entirely.Many of us do not actually need the converter itself, we just want access to Adobe’s... Continue Reading →
3 minutes reading time One thing I hear regularly is, “I don’t have that problem,” or “I use product X and it works perfectly here.” Some even claim everything runs automatically and flawlessly, as if modern software and hardware have somehow reached a magical state of perfection overnight. And yet, the internet is full of... Continue Reading →
3 minutes reading time Robin Wong and Matti Sulanto recently showed that the OM-3 monochrome profiles can be transferred to several newer Olympus and OM System cameras through OM Workspace. According to Robin, older cameras are excluded because OM Workspace only supports profile transfer on more recent bodies. But there is another route entirely, one... Continue Reading →
5 minutes read time A while ago I wrote an article about manually downloading Olympus and OM System firmware files, mainly because Linux users were already running into walls with OM Workspace. At that moment there was still a spreadsheet floating around online with direct firmware links, and with a bit of patience you could... Continue Reading →
The coming weeks will be rather busy here, with all sorts of things on the agenda, including a woodland overnight stay, a bushcraft event, family gatherings and the usual chaos that somehow always seems to arrive in May. So yes, that will probably have some effect on the publication rhythm here at OSP, but we... Continue Reading →
From Control to Convenience: How Five Open Source Tools Approach RAW Editing Differently 7 minute read time RawTherapee remains my main RAW editor, simply because it fits the way I work and gives me the level of control I want over the long term. At the same time, RapidRAW is being praised almost everywhere lately,... Continue Reading →
6 minutes read time Beyond Professional Editing Well, slowly but surely we are starting to get somewhere with OSP. We have been trying to restore some balance to the endless sensor format discussions, and perhaps not everybody is fully on board yet, but many photographers are beginning to see it. Full frame may be excellent,... Continue Reading →
3 minute read time Upscayl, first look The header is meant to illustrate the idea behind Upscayl, not to represent a typical real-world result. AI upscaling can improve structure, reduce softness, and make heavily cropped images more usable, but it does not recreate perfectly accurate detail, especially in complex textures like feathers or foliage. In... Continue Reading →
Looking back at yesterday’s article and the responses that followed, mostly through the contact page, this was exactly what I expected. In a way, that’s a good thing, because it reinforces the point. Some responses clearly came from a place of resistance, not because the arguments were wrong, but because they touched something people already... Continue Reading →
5 minutes read time + 3 minutes references and links A bold statement, but can I defend it? That’s where it usually gets uncomfortable. One of the things I’ve always tried to do with Open Source Photography is keep things open, by offering options instead of conclusions. Yes, I have my preferences, but you won’t... Continue Reading →
5 minutes read time This article started as a simple exploration of sharpness, pushing things a bit further using wavelets and refine in RawTherapee. But it quickly became about something else as well. Because just like with sensor size, there’s a narrative that keeps coming back, RawTherapee is too complex, too slow, too difficult. Say... Continue Reading →
Something a little different this time, stepping away from still photography, though not entirely, because in the end it is still about light, timing, and instinct. This video was shot handheld with the Olympus E-M1 Mark III, paired with the versatile 12–200mm lens, a combination that makes it easy to react quickly and simply follow... Continue Reading →
It’s been a while, February 2023 to be precise, since I came up with a workaround to start darktable in a sort of “light” mode. Quite a bit has changed since then, both in the software itself and in the way it behaves, so this feels like the right moment for an update. Most readers... Continue Reading →
