Workflow / Post Processing (tutorial) ...long...

gonzalu said:

DISCLAIMER: This is a VERY LONG tutorial. I apologize for its size
but I wanted it to be as complete and detailed as possible.

I wanted to put together a tutorial on how I take a picture from
its original form as a RAW file all the way up to the finished
product. This is only but one of a thousand ways it can go, but I
believe it covers a lot of ground in producing better images from
your captured originals.

In this case, I am working with a picture shot back in the summer
on a trip to Las Vegas of The Venitian Hotel and Casino. The
original was okay but I wanted to improve the details in the shadow
areas and overall color balance and saturation changes.

We start with the RAW image in Nikon Capture 4.1.0

Here is the original picture which has been converted from NEF in
NC with no adjustments, pushed over to PSCS and resized. No
adjustments have been made up to this point. All images have been
resized for the web.



The first thing I like to do is improve on the overall look of the
image. BEfore trying out various combinations, I like to try out a
few of the numerous excellent custom curves that are vailable out
there. In this case, I settled on the Fuji Reala Digital Curve.

On the Curves palette, click on the menu icon and select Load...



Now navigate to wherever you have your custom curves saved and
select the one you want to use.



Look at the bottom of this tutorial for more references on Custom
Curves

[CONTINUED ON NEXT POST DUE TO LIMITS ON POSTING SIZE]

Click to expand...

gonzalu said:

You can save to web two different ways:

-Save As..
-Save for Web...

They are similar but Save for Web is more efficient. The cost is
that all EXIF is stripped off. Save As.. retains the EXIF data. It
is also not as effecient at compressing. Use your own favorit
method.

Now, we save for printing. I will use my workflow for saving to
print on a Noritsu MLVA 2xxx series printer used at Costco and CVS.
I use Costco near me... here goes. I use the DryCreekPhoto.com
profiles.

Select the previously saved Snapshot to go back to the full size
image.

Now, time to convert the image to the right profile for soft
proofing. Select View ~ Proof Setup ~ Custom... In the dialog that
comes up, chose your profile from the drop down. In my case, the
Costco Lustre profile (I like that finish better) I change the
Intent to Relative Colirometric. You can chose whatever rendition
looks best for you.



You will notice your image change a little or in some cases a lot!
This is normal. This is due to the different ways your printer and
monitor display colors and the gamut ranges they can display.

Make adjustments as necessary here. I will boos the curves a bit to
compensate for the lack of detail in the shadows that the local
Noritsu I use exhibits. I am still experimenting.

Now we need to CONVERT THE IMAGE TO PROFILE. This is a critical
step. So, choose Image ~ Mode ~ Convert To Profile...



Now we adjust the size of the image and the canvas size for the
output the Noritsu likes. This is all adapted from the
DryCreekPhoto Web Site. Links at the bottom.

First image size. We see from the table at the DryCreek site that
the printer likes 400 DPI files. So we convert our image to the
closest setting for the size we want. In this case, 3220x4830 at
400dpi for a 8x12 print. Let's adapt this to our image.

Bring up the Image ~ Image Size... dialog. Then we set the DPI from
300 to 400. Click Ok.



Sharpen for printing. Use your judgement. For this image I chose
USM 500,1,25



Next we move the Canvas size to the size the printer "sees" The
image ratio does not fit into this print size. I also like to have
a lot of room to play with when mounting and framing. So instead of
trying to fill the paper I will enlarge the canvas and let the
image fall in the middle UNCROPPED by the printer. This is much
better than having the printer go nutso on our image and clip an
edge... no no no...

Image ~ Canvas Size... Set the dimensions to fit the numbers from
the DryCreek site: 3220x4830. Be sure to notice Relative is
unchecked. Use caution on that step or else



This is what it looks like with the canvas adjusted



We have to convert the file into a 8bit file for output as a JPEG
since JPEG does not support 16 bit image data. So, go to Image ~
Mode ~ 8 Bits/Channel...

Now we need to save the file to take to the kiosk at Costco. Select
File ~ Save As..., pick JPG as your file type and chose MAXIMUM
quality, Baseline and click OK

Name it something easy to figure out. I usually put the print size
in the name.



When you take it in, make sure to tell them to turn off all auto
adjustment settings on the consol and "Real Size" printing... no
cropping, Bordered, no cutting of the paper.

That's it... take your print to Costco and enjoy your print. Also,
post your resized image to the web... to DP Review D70 forum of
course...

Cheers!

REFERENCES

Links about Curves

http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/custom_tone_curves.html
http://members.aol.com/bhaber/D70/mycurves/bh_filmcurve1.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dltucker/nikond70/curves_download.htm

Links about Dan Margulis and Plate Blending

http://www.ledet.com/margulis/

Dry Creek Photo - Custom Printer Profiles

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

--
Manny
FCAS Member - http://manny.org/FCAS
http://www.pbase.com/gonzalu//

Click to expand...

gonzalu said:

DISCLAIMER: This is a VERY LONG tutorial. I apologize for its size
but I wanted it to be as complete and detailed as possible.

I wanted to put together a tutorial on how I take a picture from
its original form as a RAW file all the way up to the finished
product. This is only but one of a thousand ways it can go, but I
believe it covers a lot of ground in producing better images from
your captured originals.

In this case, I am working with a picture shot back in the summer
on a trip to Las Vegas of The Venitian Hotel and Casino. The
original was okay but I wanted to improve the details in the shadow
areas and overall color balance and saturation changes.

We start with the RAW image in Nikon Capture 4.1.0

Here is the original picture which has been converted from NEF in
NC with no adjustments, pushed over to PSCS and resized. No
adjustments have been made up to this point. All images have been
resized for the web.



The first thing I like to do is improve on the overall look of the
image. BEfore trying out various combinations, I like to try out a
few of the numerous excellent custom curves that are vailable out
there. In this case, I settled on the Fuji Reala Digital Curve.

On the Curves palette, click on the menu icon and select Load...



Now navigate to wherever you have your custom curves saved and
select the one you want to use.



Look at the bottom of this tutorial for more references on Custom
Curves

[CONTINUED ON NEXT POST DUE TO LIMITS ON POSTING SIZE]

Click to expand...

gonzalu said:

DISCLAIMER: This is a VERY LONG tutorial. I apologize for its size
but I wanted it to be as complete and detailed as possible.

I wanted to put together a tutorial on how I take a picture from
its original form as a RAW file all the way up to the finished
product. This is only but one of a thousand ways it can go, but I
believe it covers a lot of ground in producing better images from
your captured originals.

In this case, I am working with a picture shot back in the summer
on a trip to Las Vegas of The Venitian Hotel and Casino. The
original was okay but I wanted to improve the details in the shadow
areas and overall color balance and saturation changes.

We start with the RAW image in Nikon Capture 4.1.0

Here is the original picture which has been converted from NEF in
NC with no adjustments, pushed over to PSCS and resized. No
adjustments have been made up to this point. All images have been
resized for the web.



The first thing I like to do is improve on the overall look of the
image. BEfore trying out various combinations, I like to try out a
few of the numerous excellent custom curves that are vailable out
there. In this case, I settled on the Fuji Reala Digital Curve.

On the Curves palette, click on the menu icon and select Load...



Now navigate to wherever you have your custom curves saved and
select the one you want to use.



Look at the bottom of this tutorial for more references on Custom
Curves

[CONTINUED ON NEXT POST DUE TO LIMITS ON POSTING SIZE]

Click to expand...

gonzalu said:

This is what it looks like on Pbase



Thank you all for looking...
--
Manny
FCAS Member - http://manny.org/FCAS
http://www.pbase.com/gonzalu/

Click to expand...

gonzalu said:

After much ado about the Custom Curves portion of the tutorial
discussed here, I wanted to make an addendum to the tutorial to
clear up some confusion I may have introduced and set the recoird
straight.

I know VERY LITTLE about the custom curves functionality inside the
RAW files from Nikon. While I know what the curves are and do,
there is a whole world that can be devoted to discussing it and may
take much more time than I can give to it.

So, please note that the step above was designed to shortcut the
process of getting a better look out of the pictures. In no way did
I intent to insinuate that this is a way to circumvent or cheat out
of taking the pictures with the actual curve loaded in the camera.

A member much smarter than me has enlightened me a bit about the
way the Nikon Software processes the instructions in the NEF file.
The fact is that the RAW data is indeed raw. But, NC will apply a
default curve before applying the curve thorugh NC. If shot with
the curve itself, the instructions to NC in the NEF are to do so
immediately without the extra step.

There are other more subtle advantages that I will not cover here
and has been discussed further elsewhere.

Suffice it to say that I never meant for the tutorial to imply that
if you do not shoot with a custom curve, you can just change it in
NC and be done. I don't think the text says that or implies it but
I see how someone could be misled.

Regardless of the actual functionality, there is a CURVE editor in
NC as well as in PSCS. It is there and it CAN be used and fiddled
with. Loading a curve just makes it easier and it is far better
than not using it at all in my opinion.

My sincere apologies if someone misinterpreted my intentions.

Cheers.

--
Manny
FCAS Member - http://manny.org/FCAS
http://www.pbase.com/gonzalu/

Click to expand...

northflyboy said:

gonzalu said:

DISCLAIMER: This is a VERY LONG tutorial. I apologize for its size
but I wanted it to be as complete and detailed as possible.

I wanted to put together a tutorial on how I take a picture from
its original form as a RAW file all the way up to the finished
product. This is only but one of a thousand ways it can go, but I
believe it covers a lot of ground in producing better images from
your captured originals.

In this case, I am working with a picture shot back in the summer
on a trip to Las Vegas of The Venitian Hotel and Casino. The
original was okay but I wanted to improve the details in the shadow
areas and overall color balance and saturation changes.

We start with the RAW image in Nikon Capture 4.1.0

Here is the original picture which has been converted from NEF in
NC with no adjustments, pushed over to PSCS and resized. No
adjustments have been made up to this point. All images have been
resized for the web.



The first thing I like to do is improve on the overall look of the
image. BEfore trying out various combinations, I like to try out a
few of the numerous excellent custom curves that are vailable out
there. In this case, I settled on the Fuji Reala Digital Curve.

On the Curves palette, click on the menu icon and select Load...



Now navigate to wherever you have your custom curves saved and
select the one you want to use.



Look at the bottom of this tutorial for more references on Custom
Curves

[CONTINUED ON NEXT POST DUE TO LIMITS ON POSTING SIZE]

Click to expand...

Click to expand...