Critique requested

[Darlene Goff]

Thanks, Stan, I appreciate your comments and I feel too that I was not getting the WB right on some of these. Will explore the other suggestions.

--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[Anthenius]

Hi Darlene;

I think the shudder action is ok and your curve is good too. I tried the sReal but I find it just washes out and removes too much contrast on most of my pics. Is your curve just a simple S?

I am using a combination of shudders action and the lab sharpening.

Try running the first part of the action only "Haze removal" then either try your curve and/or a combination of a lab adjustment.
Here is the link to the first four chapters of the lab book in another forum.
You will have to scroll down and find the individual chapters.

http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10

Happy PP'ing
Cheers
Tony

 

[stdavid]

I have seen you here a lot and enjoy your posts. I have a question that I think Darlene may want to ask as well.(an assumption Darlene) If you shoot Raw..what is the point in using curves? Raw allows you so much flexability in PP why not make your adjustments there that suit the image? The same with WB. You can set it so much easier in PP when using Raw. I think fooling around with curves in camera is a lot of work especialy when your new to DSLR. No one curve ever seems to suit all shooting siuations. Whats your thoughts?
Thanks
David

 

[DStan]

Unlike shooting in jpeg, when you shoot in RAW the curve is embedded in the NEF file, it is not used by the camera to render the bitmap. When you use NC (Nikon Capture) or NV (Nikon View) or ToneUp that's when the curve is applied. In NV you have no options. In NC you can dump the curve and revert to any of the in camera curve/tone settings. You can also use CSP (Curve Surgery Pro) to change the curve or apply one when one was not there in the first place. I use CSP plenty, it lets you see the effects of the curve or compare different curves so you can shop around for the curve that works best for your image. Unlike the curves you can use in the NC palletes or in PS or PSP the D70 custom tone curve is applied before gamma correction in the RAW conversion process, these other curves are applied afterwards. The effects are very different and using the pregamma curve allows you to better take advantage of dynamic range and compress or expand different portions of the images tone distribution and levels. For example you can bring up the midrange and fiddle with hilights, typically done to get more pop. I do use CSP. ToneUp is started to get there as well. The down side of this is that it takes more time to process images. I'd rather take less pictures, take them more carefully and play more in the digital darkroom. Each person has their own choice, if it becomes a tedious bore then the fun is gone. I like fiddling around, digital means no chemicals and enlargers, timers etc. So to me this is an improvement, plus I can do more than ever.
--
Stan ;o()
I'll misquote Donald Rumsfeld when I say,
'You go take pictures with the glass you've got.'

 

[DStan]

Thanks, Stan, I appreciate your comments and I feel too that I was
not getting the WB right on some of these. Will explore the other
suggestions.

Darlene:

Since your taking pictures in RAW, you should really get CSP (Curve Surgery Pro) it's very cheap and you can take one picture and apply different curves to it. This is great for experimenting/learning as you are using the exact same image but applying different curves. Saves alot of time since you done have to go back to the computer to upload a new curve to the camera and then got back to the same area/scene. The lighting can change during this process and that throws off the control of your experimentation.

Raw MagicK makes CSP as wel as Lite which is a complete RAW processor that also does curve substitutions as well. Only it's perpetually in BETA - lol. Their prices are very reasonable.
http://www.rawmagick.com/

You can also look into ToneUp, but that isn't quite there yet, Todd who is developing it is heading in the right directions and if he get the 16 bit tiff conversion working, he'll have something hot. His proces are very reasonable/affordable. Tone up lets you upload curves to the camera, substitute curves (like CSP) and it also renders your RAW image into jpeg or tiff files.
http://www.oxfordeye.co.uk/software.aspx
--
Stan ;o()
I'll misquote Donald Rumsfeld when I say,
'You go take pictures with the glass you've got.'

 

[Darlene Goff]

Thanks I will try what you have suggested.

I agree on the sReala. I always used it with enhanced saturation and that helped some, but I really liked it at first, but came to realize the same thing you did in playing around with it in Capture. I am now going to try Fotogenetics P&S curve, but also I was surprised at how well the in-camera medium-low contrast setting looked. So I am going to work with that also. And what you suggested as well.
--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[Darlene Goff]

It is pretty basic, Tony. I just brought the shadows down a little till there was more color in the trees, then adjusted very slightly the midtones and highlights. I actually played around so much with that photo and did so many curves and overdid so many of them that what I finally ended up with was a very, very slight S. I think I also ran Fred Miranda's shadow recovery PS plugin on it also. (SR Pro) It is real inexpensive. I had bought it for my 8800 because there is such a limit on what you can do with the contrast with that camera.
--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[Darlene Goff]

Thanks for that explanation. Also, curve surgery pro sounds like something I really need. I do like to tinker and never tire of it. I don't think I have yet produced a real good D70 photo but it is more important for me to learn right now. Thanks for your help.

Do you recommend going in full sun with Daylight or auto -1 or cloudy -1 WB?

--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[commonloon]

This might be b/c of my eyeball only calibrated monitor but here is my take.

I like the 2 Shudder's Action images the best hands down. Not sure which of the 2 I prefer. Perhaps without the "it's sharpening" (maybe with your own USM).

Then my Own Curve although the color seems off compared to some of the others. However, the' my own settings' might best it with a little pp tweaking since the color is more pleasing to me.

To me on my monitor the SReala looks way too washed outbut image might respond well to a couple quick adjustments.

 

[RussAZ]

I did a little PP of your SReala image in PWPro. IN PWP the WB looked dead on so I only expanded the tonal range a liitle on the black side, upped the saturation a little and used a little USM. What do you think

Yours



Modified



--
RussAZ

Please view my pictures at:
http://russaz.smugmug.com/

SReala

 

[sothys]

Hi Darlene,

I really liked your own adjustment. The greens seemed more vibrant to me than Shudder's without seeming out of place. Shudder's looked a bit unreal to me but more dramatic. Hope that helps. I'm just learning as well and I do think it takes much experimentation to get it to look right.

Suzann

 

[Darlene Goff]

Thanks, Common. There was something about the water I really liked in the Shudders and I have not been able to reproduce that. Thanks!
--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[Darlene Goff]

That really came out good, Russ. I had never heard of PWPro so I had to lgoogle it and read about it. Interesting that it does not use layers. Will have to read more.. Thanks for taking the time to adjust the photo.
--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[Darlene Goff]

Thanks for the comments. I think dramatic is a good word for Shudders. It does get your attention. I especially liked the water.
--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

 

[Luigi De Nardis]

Hi Darlene,
linked shots shown Your love for natural sight, Ok?

I suggest a few of simples rules to get the very best photo message, apply when on the field:
-. select whit "eyes and heart" the frame area before to point camera;

-. select the subject of scene (people, animal, object etc... to have captured Your emotion);
-. set camera in P mode, metering and focus in SPOT mode;
-. eye on viewfinfer: point the subject;
-. when Your heart pulse: SHOOOOOOOTH!

-. vary dimension, perspective, subject position ... P(rogam) and other parameters ... & SHOT;
-. to repeat .... and SHOT!
-. to repeat .... and SHOT!
-. to repeat .... and SHOT!
-........... You understand ?

When return at work table, to examine all shots and finally select only one, which? No problem: Follow the heart pulse rate .....

Reserve post-processing for "old age" (same as my own!)!

The moral of the story: Any shot is a our "touching" visual memory to share whit other people.

Personally, I love add the light touch. This is another argument!

Excuse for my english, ... my mother-tongue is Italian, second is French, thirt German, last -but not last- Spanish.

If interested, please see my samples here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ludena2005/

Regards.

Luigi

--
Eggs can't teach nothing to Hens

 

[Anthenius]

Thanks I was just curious about the curve.
I am finding that I am going back to using the slight S curve as well.
I do some highlight and shadow adjustment in CS2.
Cheers
Tony

 

[Anthenius]

Darlene;
Here is an example of Shudders Haze reduction only plus Lab color tweek.
Slight shadows/highlight tweek.
Some neat image NR and Smart sharpen in lab mode.



Cheers
Tony

 

[DStan]

Thanks for that explanation. Also, curve surgery pro sounds like
something I really need. I do like to tinker and never tire of
it. I don't think I have yet produced a real good D70 photo but it
is more important for me to learn right now. Thanks for your help.

That's the nice thing about this forum, people helping and sharing. Sometimes a little banter as well.

Do you recommend going in full sun with Daylight or auto -1 or
cloudy -1 WB?

Some people like to use Cloudy-2. Since I shoot in RAW so I can always tweak the WB in NC, so my main concern is to get the exposure right than having to radically fix it in NC or PS. You loose dynamic range and effective granularity (resolution in real steps) in the channels when doing radical fixes in exposure or levels.

By the way you should try the free 30 day trial of Corel PaintShop Pro X, it's getting pretty good and has improved on it's 16 bit channel editing mode. It has some features that PS CS2 doesn't have and NR that actually works. Also the price is affordable. Corel bought out Jasc.

You should check out manual WB, I always use that when taking IR pictures. When using NC, if I don't like the WB out of the camera, which happens often enough, I try to set to anpother preset os have NC calculate or set the gray point myself. I have no fixed way of doing this, I kind of deal with what I see. I do have a hardware (ColorVision) color calibration tool for my monitor, that's worth every penny spent on it.

Stan ;o()
I'll misquote Donald Rumsfeld when I say,
'You go take pictures with the glass you've got.'

 

[Skip2000]

Thanks for that explanation. Also, curve surgery pro sounds like
something I really need. I do like to tinker and never tire of
it. I don't think I have yet produced a real good D70 photo but it
is more important for me to learn right now. Thanks for your help.

That's the nice thing about this forum, people helping and sharing.
Sometimes a little banter as well.

Do you recommend going in full sun with Daylight or auto -1 or
cloudy -1 WB?

Some people like to use Cloudy-2. Since I shoot in RAW so I can
always tweak the WB in NC, so my main concern is to get the

Dstan: I have Curve Surgery Pro and used it for about a year with my D70. Since then I got a D50 body and can't get CSP to correctly display the WB. Since Nikon released the working WB for 3rd party vendors, it would be nice if it worked with the D50 NEF files... Any thoughts on this?
Skip...

exposure right than having to radically fix it in NC or PS. You
loose dynamic range and effective granularity (resolution in real
steps) in the channels when doing radical fixes in exposure or
levels.

By the way you should try the free 30 day trial of Corel PaintShop
Pro X, it's getting pretty good and has improved on it's 16 bit
channel editing mode. It has some features that PS CS2 doesn't have
and NR that actually works. Also the price is affordable. Corel
bought out Jasc.

You should check out manual WB, I always use that when taking IR
pictures. When using NC, if I don't like the WB out of the camera,
which happens often enough, I try to set to anpother preset os have
NC calculate or set the gray point myself. I have no fixed way of
doing this, I kind of deal with what I see. I do have a hardware
(ColorVision) color calibration tool for my monitor, that's worth
every penny spent on it.

Stan ;o()
I'll misquote Donald Rumsfeld when I say,
'You go take pictures with the glass you've got.'

 

[Darlene Goff]

Thanks very much, Luigi. That sounds like an interesting technique very beautifully worded. Will remember that.
--
Darlene
Favorites: 5700, 8800, D70
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom