New Custom Curve +0.7 EV

[Apolinario]

If you want to make sure you have the latest, download the one on my webpage and erase all others:
http://www.geocities.com/kisskissbangbang_97
click on the photo to begin downloading. Use the "less" curve

1. Apolinario-(+0.7 curve)
2. d100-custom-tone
3. d100-custom-tones-settings

When the right one is installed how do you access it.
sorry for being slow. Jeff

I appreciate your comments on my curve. Let me know if there's any
area where it could be improved. I think the thing that remains to
be done is to push the shadow detail to it's limits now as DavidSL
has suggested, and make an "extreme shadow lift" curve to maximize
the theoretical 7 stops of exposure dynamic range the D100 has.
Actually, what I really want to do is take some pictures.

All I can say is that if this does 80+ % solve our issues and since
he has put alot of work into these customs curves, and since his
copy of NC3 is expired - I will be the first to give to the

"Give a copy fo NC3 to the nice guy fund"

Hell a buck a piece from all the posts this has had and it would be
paid for already....seeing i just bought my copy for 99.00...

Just a thought....I know parting with cash is always an issue, but
hell it would have taken me a month to do what he did...

IS: Learn it - Do it - Test it - do it again...

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

--
Jeff B

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[Jeffrey Broder]

Thanks,

Deleted other files. Have the file with "less" inthe file. Will download tomorrow. anything special I need to do after it is downloaded to make it work.

1. Apolinario-(+0.7 curve)
2. d100-custom-tone
3. d100-custom-tones-settings

When the right one is installed how do you access it.
sorry for being slow. Jeff

I appreciate your comments on my curve. Let me know if there's any
area where it could be improved. I think the thing that remains to
be done is to push the shadow detail to it's limits now as DavidSL
has suggested, and make an "extreme shadow lift" curve to maximize
the theoretical 7 stops of exposure dynamic range the D100 has.
Actually, what I really want to do is take some pictures.

All I can say is that if this does 80+ % solve our issues and since
he has put alot of work into these customs curves, and since his
copy of NC3 is expired - I will be the first to give to the

"Give a copy fo NC3 to the nice guy fund"

Hell a buck a piece from all the posts this has had and it would be
paid for already....seeing i just bought my copy for 99.00...

Just a thought....I know parting with cash is always an issue, but
hell it would have taken me a month to do what he did...

IS: Learn it - Do it - Test it - do it again...

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

--
Jeff B

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

--
Jeff B

 

[Brent Burzycki]

Load it into the Camera and you should be ready to go....

My quesiton is why we cannot keep multiple curves in the camera and then select form them when we are out taking pictures.

Thanks,

Deleted other files. Have the file with "less" inthe file. Will
download tomorrow. anything special I need to do after it is
downloaded to make it work.

 

[Jeffrey Broder]

Once in the camera how do you make a change to another curve, or default curve..Jeff

My quesiton is why we cannot keep multiple curves in the camera
and then select form them when we are out taking pictures.

Thanks,

Deleted other files. Have the file with "less" inthe file. Will
download tomorrow. anything special I need to do after it is
downloaded to make it work.

--
Jeff B

 

[nd67]

I've been using the "less" curve since I received my camera back from the FW-upgrade... love it! I noticed a few threads ago that the ability to edit and change curves within the camera is specific to the D100 or D1. Is that correct? If so, this is a HUGE HUGE selling point for Nikon. I took me a while to understand why this is so important but it has really increased the quality of my photos.

Can't D60 and S2 owners do this as well?

My quesiton is why we cannot keep multiple curves in the camera
and then select form them when we are out taking pictures.

Thanks,

Deleted other files. Have the file with "less" inthe file. Will
download tomorrow. anything special I need to do after it is
downloaded to make it work.

--
Jeff B

 

[Ross25784]

Stop! If your only complaint about the D100 is the underexposure
issue, don't sell your D100's yet! I just made a custom tone curve
that simulates +0.7 EV without clipping highlights. I just took
several photos using my new curve. I shot first at the normal tone
setting with the camera's programmed exposure. Then I shot with my
custom tone curve with the programmed exposure. Finally, I shot
with the normal tone at +0.7 and the photo looks almost the same as
my custom tone shot except for that the skies are not as blown out
in my custom shot. I took several other shots to confirm this and
all results are the same. Later tonight, I will post the results.
I think most of you will be pleased.

FYI, I had read the translated French solution to D100 exposure
problems after I had made these curves and found that it explained
in a couple of pages what I had taken 1000 shots to discover, that
the problem is not underexposure, but rather a compression of the
image's tonality towards
the darker values. The trick is to increase the tone of the darker
values without changing the lighter values and without losing
contrast.

Other curves I have seen in the past increase the darker values,
however, they lack contrast. I have two other curves, one is a
+0.0 EV that simply cleans up whites and increases contrast
somewhat, but doesn't have too much effect on overall brightness (I
will post photos I had taken yesterday using this curve tonight as
well). I also have a +1.0 EV that really brightens up the photos
and increases contrast, however, I think it is overkill. I will
upload all my curves to my website as well for anyone to download.

Stay tuned!
--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

Apolinario

So far everyone seems to love your curve. I, for one, do not. I tested it quite a bit this weekend in sun and overcast and feel the color shift to red detracts too much for critical work. When doing any type of nature photography where more-or-less accurate colors are prefered, the results with the curve are too far from reality. The bright green and strong reds change the natural colors too much. I find that shooting without compensation using either auto or norm, I get much truer colors. I can change them in Capture 3 and Photoshop easy enough to extend the dynamic range down into the shadows. If you can change the color bias, I think you would have something. JMHO.
--
Ross Frid
http://users.netonecom.net/~rsfrid/

 

[Jack310]

Hi Apolinario,

I test many shots with your curve, it does very good job of keeping highlight and lift shadow area but it has bad habit of oversaturate red-ness.

I hope u can do some modification and save us all... if you interested in see those image (in NEF) please email me: [email protected]

thanks

Jack

 

[Apolinario]

I did notice in my tests that reds and yellows became more saturated which I've noted on my webpage. However, I just desaturate them a little in photoshop and they're back to normal. I've found this a lot quicker and easier to do than manipulating curves in photoshop where there's an infinite number of curve shapes, but with the saturation slider, all you have to do is change one thing. In fact, I saved my saturation settings in a file I call "color correction for d100 with custom tone" and I use it mostly in portraits. I actually find the red and yellow saturation pleasing when it comes to leaves and soil, but not for portraits.

Unfortunately, in custom tone curves, you cannot change individual channels of color. Also, I've noticed that reds and yellows increase in saturation at a different rate than the cooler colors whenever there is a bend in the curve.

Hi Apolinario,

I test many shots with your curve, it does very good job of keeping
highlight and lift shadow area but it has bad habit of oversaturate
red-ness.

I hope u can do some modification and save us all... if you
interested in see those image (in NEF) please email me:
[email protected]

thanks

Jack

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[Zorpie]

Jeffery ...

The D100 can only hold ONE custom curve. To change it - you simply - load another.

My quesiton is why we cannot keep multiple curves in the camera
and then select form them when we are out taking pictures.

Thanks,

Deleted other files. Have the file with "less" inthe file. Will
download tomorrow. anything special I need to do after it is
downloaded to make it work.

--
Jeff B

 

[Mike Sommers]

Apolinario,

For the images that you choose to desaturate in Photoshop, do you apply the same amount of desaturation for each image? or is it variable?

If it's the same amount, it should be fairly easy to create a Photoshop action, then just batch process all your images at once. (All the ones that you want to desaturate by that amount, that is...)

-Mike

Unfortunately, in custom tone curves, you cannot change individual
channels of color. Also, I've noticed that reds and yellows
increase in saturation at a different rate than the cooler colors
whenever there is a bend in the curve.

Hi Apolinario,

I test many shots with your curve, it does very good job of keeping
highlight and lift shadow area but it has bad habit of oversaturate
red-ness.

I hope u can do some modification and save us all... if you
interested in see those image (in NEF) please email me:
[email protected]

thanks

Jack

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[popapalmer]

I'm anxious to install the curve and take it through the paces this
weekend. It is getting extremely positive feedback in this forum.
Now that I've got a few thousand shots under my belt with my d100,
I feel I'll be able to get an accurate read on what Apoliario's
custom curve does for me. Lots of fall foliage down here in
Northern Virginia!!!

Now, I have a very very silly question...

Would one achieve the same results if they applied Apolinario's
prescribed curves fix AFTER the image was taken (in Fine JPG mode)?

In other words, if I take the shot in manual mode (or full auto
mode) with the in-camera meter saying I was properly exposed...
then open the JPG file in Photoshop, fix the curves according to
Apolinario's prescription, and save it as a high quality JPG (12).

I understand it might save me a little time, but how would these
results be different than loading the custom curve into my camera
with the same settings?

I've uplaoded a simple web page to illustrate the results I get
when making the changes Apolinario prescribes using Photoshop,
compared with a few other tries at getting better detail in the
shadows...

http://www.sinfin.com/curvestest.htm

My results in this test are not very promising for Apolinario's
custom "0.7 less" custom curve. I consistenly get better results by
simply fixing the histogram using Photoshop's LEVELS tool.

Am I missing something? Apolinario's curve doesn't seem to help me
much here. The overall image contrast has taken a big hit, and the
colors don't seem real.

Is this not the proper way to determine how a custom curve is going
to operate once it's loaded into my camera? Does the on board Nikon
firmware apply curves differently than Photoshop 6.0 does on my
computer? If so, I applaud you Apolinario for the amount of time
you must have spent with trial and error, until you finally arrived
at the custom curve that has pleased so many people.

Thanks alot, I'm just learning and still a little confused by all
this technical speak (I just wanted to take better pictures!)

Mike

Thanks Apolinario

Loaded your curve w/contrast and shot all day sunday. I shot
landscapes and arcitecture in a variety of lighting conditions and
they turned out great when I did my part and needed very little
post processing. After reading this thread I am going to try the
curve w/less and see what happens. Custom curves make better sense
to me than the +.7 EV setting.

Best regards

RB

--


HI
I keep on reading all this banter about D100 underexposure, we all know
it happens. Did you expect that you could get perfect exposure in all
situations? lets get real. No camera made does that. Enjoy what you have

today, tomorrow something better will come along (but you will still complain) If you want a curve try this. 2-1.25-255 it works most of the time
Mike*palmer

 

[E. Lee]

Hi Apolinario, I read that NC3 has problems batching with a custom curves attached, have you had any problems batch processing with your curves?
Thanks, Eric

Stop! If your only complaint about the D100 is the underexposure
issue, don't sell your D100's yet! I just made a custom tone curve
that simulates +0.7 EV without clipping highlights. I just took
several photos using my new curve. I shot first at the normal tone
setting with the camera's programmed exposure. Then I shot with my
custom tone curve with the programmed exposure. Finally, I shot
with the normal tone at +0.7 and the photo looks almost the same as
my custom tone shot except for that the skies are not as blown out
in my custom shot. I took several other shots to confirm this and
all results are the same. Later tonight, I will post the results.
I think most of you will be pleased.

FYI, I had read the translated French solution to D100 exposure
problems after I had made these curves and found that it explained
in a couple of pages what I had taken 1000 shots to discover, that
the problem is not underexposure, but rather a compression of the
image's tonality towards
the darker values. The trick is to increase the tone of the darker
values without changing the lighter values and without losing
contrast.

Other curves I have seen in the past increase the darker values,
however, they lack contrast. I have two other curves, one is a
+0.0 EV that simply cleans up whites and increases contrast
somewhat, but doesn't have too much effect on overall brightness (I
will post photos I had taken yesterday using this curve tonight as
well). I also have a +1.0 EV that really brightens up the photos
and increases contrast, however, I think it is overkill. I will
upload all my curves to my website as well for anyone to download.

Stay tuned!
--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[Apolinario]

Stop! If your only complaint about the D100 is the underexposure
issue, don't sell your D100's yet! I just made a custom tone curve
that simulates +0.7 EV without clipping highlights. I just took
several photos using my new curve. I shot first at the normal tone
setting with the camera's programmed exposure. Then I shot with my
custom tone curve with the programmed exposure. Finally, I shot
with the normal tone at +0.7 and the photo looks almost the same as
my custom tone shot except for that the skies are not as blown out
in my custom shot. I took several other shots to confirm this and
all results are the same. Later tonight, I will post the results.
I think most of you will be pleased.

FYI, I had read the translated French solution to D100 exposure
problems after I had made these curves and found that it explained
in a couple of pages what I had taken 1000 shots to discover, that
the problem is not underexposure, but rather a compression of the
image's tonality towards
the darker values. The trick is to increase the tone of the darker
values without changing the lighter values and without losing
contrast.

Other curves I have seen in the past increase the darker values,
however, they lack contrast. I have two other curves, one is a
+0.0 EV that simply cleans up whites and increases contrast
somewhat, but doesn't have too much effect on overall brightness (I
will post photos I had taken yesterday using this curve tonight as
well). I also have a +1.0 EV that really brightens up the photos
and increases contrast, however, I think it is overkill. I will
upload all my curves to my website as well for anyone to download.

Stay tuned!
--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[Jim Cullen]

Apoliinario, do you batch both NEFs and JPG with your custom curve attached?

Stop! If your only complaint about the D100 is the underexposure
issue, don't sell your D100's yet! I just made a custom tone curve
that simulates +0.7 EV without clipping highlights. I just took
several photos using my new curve. I shot first at the normal tone
setting with the camera's programmed exposure. Then I shot with my
custom tone curve with the programmed exposure. Finally, I shot
with the normal tone at +0.7 and the photo looks almost the same as
my custom tone shot except for that the skies are not as blown out
in my custom shot. I took several other shots to confirm this and
all results are the same. Later tonight, I will post the results.
I think most of you will be pleased.

FYI, I had read the translated French solution to D100 exposure
problems after I had made these curves and found that it explained
in a couple of pages what I had taken 1000 shots to discover, that
the problem is not underexposure, but rather a compression of the
image's tonality towards
the darker values. The trick is to increase the tone of the darker
values without changing the lighter values and without losing
contrast.

Other curves I have seen in the past increase the darker values,
however, they lack contrast. I have two other curves, one is a
+0.0 EV that simply cleans up whites and increases contrast
somewhat, but doesn't have too much effect on overall brightness (I
will post photos I had taken yesterday using this curve tonight as
well). I also have a +1.0 EV that really brightens up the photos
and increases contrast, however, I think it is overkill. I will
upload all my curves to my website as well for anyone to download.

Stay tuned!
--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[nd67]

Hey Apolinario,

I've been using your curve for several days now... works great! Can you get to work on this "soft" JPEG issue, it's killing me!

Thanks!

Stop! If your only complaint about the D100 is the underexposure
issue, don't sell your D100's yet! I just made a custom tone curve
that simulates +0.7 EV without clipping highlights. I just took
several photos using my new curve. I shot first at the normal tone
setting with the camera's programmed exposure. Then I shot with my
custom tone curve with the programmed exposure. Finally, I shot
with the normal tone at +0.7 and the photo looks almost the same as
my custom tone shot except for that the skies are not as blown out
in my custom shot. I took several other shots to confirm this and
all results are the same. Later tonight, I will post the results.
I think most of you will be pleased.

FYI, I had read the translated French solution to D100 exposure
problems after I had made these curves and found that it explained
in a couple of pages what I had taken 1000 shots to discover, that
the problem is not underexposure, but rather a compression of the
image's tonality towards
the darker values. The trick is to increase the tone of the darker
values without changing the lighter values and without losing
contrast.

Other curves I have seen in the past increase the darker values,
however, they lack contrast. I have two other curves, one is a
+0.0 EV that simply cleans up whites and increases contrast
somewhat, but doesn't have too much effect on overall brightness (I
will post photos I had taken yesterday using this curve tonight as
well). I also have a +1.0 EV that really brightens up the photos
and increases contrast, however, I think it is overkill. I will
upload all my curves to my website as well for anyone to download.

Stay tuned!
--
You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind

 

[Brent Burzycki]

I do not think he batch processes any photos...

The curve is used inside the camera and then the JPEG is created...

So his out of camera shots already have the curve applied..

Stop! If your only complaint about the D100 is the underexposure

 

[David SL]

I've been using the "less" curve since I received my camera back
from the FW-upgrade... love it! I noticed a few threads ago that
the ability to edit and change curves within the camera is specific
to the D100 or D1. Is that correct? If so, this is a HUGE HUGE
selling point for Nikon.

I agree, and I am glad people (other than me who doesn't have either camera) are finally getting the picture!

I took me a while to understand why this
is so important but it has really increased the quality of my
photos.

Can't D60 and S2 owners do this as well?

Nope. They are stuck with their in camera curves.

HUGE HUGE HUGE selling point.

--