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Poll - What is your curve of preference?

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After loading a curve into my cam, if I want to turn back to the built-in, could someone please advise the steps to go back to use the built-in curve.
Many thanks and regards,
Pravute
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Even though I created many curves floating around out there, I only use one, Provia, and only in high contrast situation or for portraits. But for everything else, I too use the normal tone with EV compensation. I've tried other curves and they all alter color, mostly in skies (loss of saturation).

None of the current curves I have created alter saturation except for the v3.4 ones, which I have just erased from my website because after using them awhile, while they hold highlights better than any other curves out there, they do so at the price of color saturation.
pixel-pusher said:
The curves were nice for some instances but as a whole didn't
satisfy me for varies reasons. As mentioned by Photobug I also just
tweak the EV's based on what I see on the camera's histogram.

If I need to adjust anything, I just do it in NC.

Just my experience with it.

mc
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
 
Your problem was that the exposure was off for the curve you used. Most curves assume that whatever you meter will be medium gray. Your background is darker than medium gray. This is not a problem with curves, but rather, with how you metered.
Stephen Simpson said:
I loaded one of the curves advertised around here, and was using it
happily without any further thought, until earlier this week. The
Heron shot I got in very poor light (1/10th second, ISO 1000)
looked completely washed out - but the background was fine, which
seemed strange.

I used NC to replace the curve with the standard medium-low tone
compensation - and it was instantly much better. I'm now running
with this, and will re-evaluate the usefulness of curves another
day - they often help, but not all of the time. If I could load
several, and switch around - depending upon the subject and the
light - then I think that they would be much more useful.

Before:



After:



--Stephen Simpson
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
 
White Wedding curve does not blow highlights unless you would've blown them even without the curve applied. At most, you may lose only .17 stops of information.
jberth said:
I find White wedding and AllInOne blow out too much personally.
kitgard said:
http://www.pbase.com/kitgard/test_curves_d70

best rgds
---
kitgard
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
 
fotogenetic said:
Your problem was that the exposure was off for the curve you used.
Most curves assume that whatever you meter will be medium gray.
Your background is darker than medium gray. This is not a problem
with curves, but rather, with how you metered.
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more. However, this was a snapshot - I came around the corner of a canal, and saw the Heron, so had no time to prepare (1/10th second wasn't a clever exposure time, either!). All I am saying is be aware of the implications of using a specialised curve: built-in tone compensation may offer a better general-purpose setting.

--Stephen Simpson
 
Pravute said:
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
See this thread:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=8857654
 
what reasons ?. i tried white wedding and found that pics were more washed out (but better hilites as advertised). you find that too ?.
pixel-pusher said:
The curves were nice for some instances but as a whole didn't
satisfy me for varies reasons. As mentioned by Photobug I also just
tweak the EV's based on what I see on the camera's histogram.

If I need to adjust anything, I just do it in NC.

Just my experience with it.

mc
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
The term "washed out" is a misleading term and innaccurate in describing the effect of the White Wedding curve. The White Wedding curve is exactly the same as normal w/ +0.5 EV. If colors are "washed out" it is because the image was overexposed. The only thing the White Wedding curve does is increase midtones by 1/2 of a stop to make whatever the camera meters end up as middle gray in the final image. But this assumes that you expose for medium gray. If you are metering something darker than that, you will overexpose. It's just a shift in what you meter.
steve rudolph said:
pixel-pusher said:
The curves were nice for some instances but as a whole didn't
satisfy me for varies reasons. As mentioned by Photobug I also just
tweak the EV's based on what I see on the camera's histogram.

If I need to adjust anything, I just do it in NC.

Just my experience with it.

mc
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
 
I also use the provia curve exclusively... I bump up sharpness, saturation and ev sometimes... but it has been the best all around curve for me and I am very happy with the pics they finally started looking like I wanted them to... the D70 is a great cvamera in that although the pics were a bit bland for me out of the box the D70 can be customized extensively to produce pictures that will make most any photographer happy...

BTW a big tanks to photogenic for the work on the curves and provia especially!
fotogenetic said:
None of the current curves I have created alter saturation except
for the v3.4 ones, which I have just erased from my website because
after using them awhile, while they hold highlights better than any
other curves out there, they do so at the price of color saturation.
pixel-pusher said:
The curves were nice for some instances but as a whole didn't
satisfy me for varies reasons. As mentioned by Photobug I also just
tweak the EV's based on what I see on the camera's histogram.

If I need to adjust anything, I just do it in NC.

Just my experience with it.

mc
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
--
My Gallery:
http://www.voodoo.smugmug.com
 
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
--
Lew Dunham
 
How funny it is!!!

I am doing exactly the same thing as you.

After going in circles from built-in-> Provia-> built-in-> Oldskool v3, now I'm back to built-in curves (normal or medium-low contrast) for most of the shots.

And again I plan to load Provia in D70's custom curve memory.

I agree with you- there is no custom curve that doesn't modify color, tone linearity, and/or highlight intensity. So, I'm back again to Provia as the custom curve to deal with exactly what you mentioned- high contrast scenes and certain portraits. For such conditions Provia has done great in the past for me.

However, Provia did alter color saturation. Due to brightening of mid and low-mid tones most colors are less saturated. But for certain scenes this is preferred and why I keep it there.

Photobug
fotogenetic said:
None of the current curves I have created alter saturation except
for the v3.4 ones, which I have just erased from my website because
after using them awhile, while they hold highlights better than any
other curves out there, they do so at the price of color saturation.
pixel-pusher said:
The curves were nice for some instances but as a whole didn't
satisfy me for varies reasons. As mentioned by Photobug I also just
tweak the EV's based on what I see on the camera's histogram.

If I need to adjust anything, I just do it in NC.

Just my experience with it.

mc
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
 
If you shoot your images in raw you can open the images in NC and adjust the curves based on the individual image. And I use both LCH & Curves to get were I want to go. At least for me each image needs a little different adjustment. Maybe I'm anal or just not that good, but that's the way it is for me.

Also if shooting raw and using a specific curve you can open it in NC and if you don't like what you see you can remove it and use one of the other default curves. I use the medium low contrast curve and just use that as a starting point and adjust the images based on what I see & read with the densitometer. It makes processing a bit longer but I feel the results are better.

Obviously if your shooting .jpg your options are a bit more limited.

Just my 2 cents,

mc
fotogenetic said:
steve rudolph said:
pixel-pusher said:
The curves were nice for some instances but as a whole didn't
satisfy me for varies reasons. As mentioned by Photobug I also just
tweak the EV's based on what I see on the camera's histogram.

If I need to adjust anything, I just do it in NC.

Just my experience with it.

mc
Photobug said:
Just for the last few days I tried Oldskool's v3. It's one of the
best custom curves that preserve highlights while don't affect
color saturation or tone linearity much. However, I just decided to
come back to built-in normal or medium-low contrast with EV
adjustment when needed. Such setup gives me the most continus skin
tones and least compressed highlights.

Just sharing my experience but keep in mind that my tastes and
shooting conditions may not suit yours.

Photobug
Nickn90 said:
Just out of curiosity. I am wondering (those who have a custom
curve loaded) which is your primary curve of choice?

I have used white wedding for the last month but just loaded the
all-in-one curve yesterday. I am going to give that a try. White
wedding seemed slightly on the bright side for my taste.
--
Nick
USA, OHIO
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
 
Well, this is just what I think after comparing a NEF in NC4.1 with Provia and with normal curve.

However, I believe 99% of the time when I use Provia, it will be for certain portraits.

In this landscape shot with Provia, from my experience, if you are willing to sacrify some shadow details with normal curve, the mountain likely can be greener (more saturated green) and the sky can be bluer- more similar to what we see with our naked eyes. Do you agree?

I actually found that for a shot like this, normal curve plus DEE (or whatever similar) in NC gave the best results- saturated color and details in shadow.

Photobug
fotogenetic said:
Photobug said:
This is what I'll use for wedding shots (don't like the stronger
White Wedding). Its effect is like a brighter scene with a thin
sheet of whte satin in between. Good for wedding or certain
portraits but I don't use it for other shots.
Click to expand...
It is also great for landscapes and high contrast outdoors photos:



--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
 
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