C1 Dynamic Range and PS vs. CS

Found a few interesting threads on Rob Galbraith's site last night.

First, with the recent (somewhat confusing) change in C1 curves,
http://www.pictureflow.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2634

the new "Film Standard" curve is a high contrast conversion, which has an effect similar to adding an S-curve in PS. Here is a plot of the various curves:
http://www.lashier.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=27967&gal_col=1
(RIC = FVU, ACR = PS7 ACR)

The result - loss of dynamic range.

Although the old "Film Standard" is still available (as "Extra Shadow"), several of the members there are suggesting using the old curves.

Second -
The entire thread is worth reading:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB29&Number=203021&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=all

While Ethan Hansen has a balanced discussion (drycreekphoto), there is a very interesting post with backup testing:

(very sophisticated test: http://www.lashier.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=14477&gal_col=7

"Aside from workflow, the biggest reason I favor C1 is because of C1's superb tonal treatment (at least with the old curves ). I found ACR most frustrating in this regard, inferior to even Canon's converter. Adobe takes an image-processing approach while C1 takes a film-processing approach. In particular the contrast controls behave entirely differently, Adobe doing the digicam point-and-shoot S curve type of thing while C1 maintains a straighter center mimicing a higher/lower contrast film. For more typical shots the difference may not be evident but as soon as you get into wide dynamic range shots the Adobe rendering and adjustment tools start to seem very primitive compared to C1's. Of course you can fix all this with curves in PS, but then to some degree you're defeating the benefits of raw, plus you've got to have enough understanding about what's going on under the hood with tonality to know how to fix it or even that it needs fixing. Even if I'm going to do final tonal adjustments in PS, a C1 conversion produces an even unbiased tonality that is the best place to start with in PS.

• DL

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Don Lashier
http://www.lashier.com "

--
Paul

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