Portrait Help

[akjos]

I only did this because CS3 and it's camera raw would not let me open D300 and D700 raw files. ( open in LR then go to photoshop) . Tiff files are huge .

As much as I love lightroom , photoshop will let you do so much more, but it can be very intimidating and frustrating and long learning process.

now that I got cs5 and my files open straight up into the photoshop, I dont really need the LR becasue I didn't really let it to categorize and organize my photos, etc.

NX2 has the best camera profiles bar none . It is nikon's own raw converter, and it sees your raw file just like your camera does, or did at the time of capture.
But it's interface is atrocious in comparison.

Yes adobe's camera profiles are far cry, but the latest ones are much better then before and with few clicks you can get great results. Also you can save your own profiles as a preset for say portrait, landscape, etc .for your particular camera, in LR or camera raw and apply them to uploaded photos easily.

That will give you nice starting point. I don;t even usually do that anymore , because every photo is different as far as colors, tonality, scene contrast, etc. I just use what looks good to me. Usually with D300 and LR3 I used ACR 4.6 profile, with D700 I tend to prefer adobe standard profile and usually tone down the brightness or highlights a little. I all depends.

one thing I loved about LR was very easy adjustment of individual colors-
sky not blue enough? -bam there it is....
Skin little too orange- go to orange color, and bam, 3 seconds and done....
etc.

I highly recommend some LR tutorial videos by Abobe expert Matt Kloskowski. Your jaw will drop when you see what is possible and how simply.
http://lightroomkillertips.com/category/lightroom-videos/

--
http://www.infiniteartphotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/jps1979/galleries

 

[akjos]

You also mentioned plugins... I have all nik software collection, and honestly , the silverefex is the last one I'd get. You can get very nice BW results many other ways...
I'd highly recommend viveza 2 if you want to splurge on ANY plugin for your LR3.

It is amazing. Like control points in your NX2, if you ever used them , but 10x more effective and fun.

But I really never used it in LR I had all suite installed in photoshop, it seems to kind of work little easier this way.
--
http://www.infiniteartphotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/jps1979/galleries

 

[Kiawahgolf]

BTW the above PS crossing stuff can also easily be done with Capture NX2, look here...

http://dptnt.com/2008/10/cross-processing-in-capture-nx2/

...the author of that from PS converted tutorial also attached a settings file for NX2 which you may can reuse for tryouts.

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. I just read the above link and tried a sample image that turned out a lot better than any I had tried before!

Thanks again!!
--
Jordan

 

[Kiawahgolf]

I only did this because CS3 and it's camera raw would not let me open D300 and D700 raw files. ( open in LR then go to photoshop) . Tiff files are huge .

So LR3 will recognize NEF files?

As much as I love lightroom , photoshop will let you do so much more, but it can be very intimidating and frustrating and long learning process.

Now I'm confused; I was thinking LR3 because I have always felt CS5 will be to steep to learn but should I splurge and learn?

NX2 has the best camera profiles bar none . It is nikon's own raw converter, and it sees your raw file just like your camera does, or did at the time of capture.

Stupid question as I have only ever used NX2, but how do I let NX2 "convert" my files and then open in LR3 or Photoshop? I have NX2 already so why not let it convert?

But it's interface is atrocious in comparison.

Yes, the interface is bad but the freeze-ups, ect. are much worse!

I highly recommend some LR tutorial videos by Abobe expert Matt Kloskowski. Your jaw will drop when you see what is possible and how simply.
http://lightroomkillertips.com/category/lightroom-videos/

I will definitely give these tutuorials a look if I decide to purchase the software!
--
Jordan

 

[Kiawahgolf]

You also mentioned plugins... I have all nik software collection, and honestly , the silverefex is the last one I'd get. You can get very nice BW results many other ways...
I'd highly recommend viveza 2 if you want to splurge on ANY plugin for your LR3.

It is amazing. Like control points in your NX2, if you ever used them , but 10x more effective and fun.

My brother is still in college and I was going to have him purchase the whole software suite for me with his ID
--
Jordan

 

[akjos]

I only did this because CS3 and it's camera raw would not let me open D300 and D700 raw files. ( open in LR then go to photoshop) . Tiff files are huge .

So LR3 will recognize NEF files?

Yes it will.Pretty much from any camera that is on the market today

As much as I love lightroom , photoshop will let you do so much more, but it can be very intimidating and frustrating and long learning process.

Now I'm confused; I was thinking LR3 because I have always felt CS5 will be to steep to learn but should I splurge and learn?

I'd get LR first . But if you have money to spend some things are much easier done in photoshop with less effort, like cloning / healing brush for example. One of the best advantages of photoshop is use of layers. It makes it very easily to go back and change opacity of certain effect of that layer, or use a layer mask a apply the effects selectively ( such as sharpening)

But you can do very similar things in LR with adjustment brushes. You can stack them too, just can;t go back multiple steps that easily if you decide to change something for example.

The photoshop is ultimate tool, and you can do absolutely impossible things if you know HOW. I recommend LR for ease of use. If you have money, get Photoshop too and take it easy on learning it, so it does not become too frustrating, and if it does, just use LR again for few days. I did this approach and got much better in CS over last year with no stress or pressure this way.

NX2 has the best camera profiles bar none . It is nikon's own raw converter, and it sees your raw file just like your camera does, or did at the time of capture.

Stupid question as I have only ever used NX2, but how do I let NX2 "convert" my files and then open in LR3 or Photoshop? I have NX2 already so why not let it convert?

But it's interface is atrocious in comparison.

Yes, the interface is bad but the freeze-ups, ect. are much worse!

I never had NX 2 freeze on me but lagging was bothering me.

I highly recommend some LR tutorial videos by Abobe expert Matt Kloskowski. Your jaw will drop when you see what is possible and how simply.
http://lightroomkillertips.com/category/lightroom-videos/

I will definitely give these tutuorials a look if I decide to purchase the software!
--
Jordan

--
http://www.infiniteartphotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/jps1979/galleries

 

[Kiawahgolf]

I did not realize until today that Color Efex Pro was available for NX2. I downloaded the 15-day trial and it has many of the filters (including the cross-processing filter) that I have been looking for. I have only had a few minutes to play with it but results are pretty neat. How does this program compare to some of the others in the software suite? It looks like my next biggest problem is going to be buying a program like Nik and wanting to use a "filter" on every shot!

Regarding the predefined filters such as the ones in Color Efex...Is it better to apply this filter after I have done the other steps in my workflow i.e. Levels, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpening, ect. or do you just try them on the original file right off the bat and go from there?

Thanks again for all the time you have taken to help.
--
Jordan

 

[markmark]

this is simply an overexposed back lit outdoor image where largest part of the photo is sun light foliage grass and the face is lit by "blue sky"

the face tones are...by my count...c16, m16, y16 where the y should be greater than the m and the c should be much lower than the others.

to fix....

in curves, take out blue (raises the y), add a bit of red(lower the c) and darken it

then desaturate the yellow..because the foliage is overwhelming..

 

[akjos]

I'd strongly suggest NOT to get the expensive software suite for NX2.

Sooner or later you'll want to move to adobe products and the plugins will not be compatible.

A lot of them is compatible between LR and photoshop. I'd check niksoftware website for details. I know for example when I just reinstalled viveza for cs5 , it automatically installed into the LR3 also ( if you have it installed)

Dont be scared, I love colorefex, but I only use about 4-6 filter out of the whole suite on regular basis.
Pro contrast
White neutralizer
skylight filter
polarizing filter
brilliance/ warmth
brighten darken
vignette
ND filter
that is about it...

I always PP the phtoo so it looks decent to start with, - exposure, contrast, sharpness, color, a THEN fine tune it with filters if I want to.

Sometimes if the photo has weird cast to it, I use pro contrast or white neutralizer to give me better starting point.
FOR ME- and this is very personal preference, yours may vary -
in order of usability / benefit

1) viveza- niks U point technology on steroids- awesome...
2) colorefex

3)I LOVED Dfine- it was THE best, until new noiseware professional was recently released and it rocks,it cleans it about the same or slightly better , but preserves more detail at the same time ,so I dont use dfine anymore or hardly ever...
but if you want the whole suite and get it, it is amazing

4) silver efex and sharpener- they are ok but TO ME not worth the money. I feel there are other ways ( simple as well) to get great results for BW conversions and sharpening...

--
http://www.infiniteartphotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/jps1979/galleries

 

[Kiawahgolf]

There were certainly only a select few filters I really liked from the software. Of course, I only tried them on people subjects. I believe some of the filters you mentioned would be great for landscapes.

I have been doing a lot more people/event photography and it seems most of the great shots I have seen from others have some sort of filter or cross-processed look. I really like the antique and cross-processed feel to a shot and I'm just looking for an easy way to get this. NX2 is a really good program I feel with some bugs that need to be worked out for 64bit users. The only thing I REALLY miss from NX2 is the ability to put a watermark on your photo and use various plugins.
--
Jordan

 

[vkyr2]

...

The only thing I REALLY miss from NX2 is the ability to put a watermark on your photo and use various plugins.

Hmm, do a Google search and you will find infos about how to include a watermark into NX2, though most people use other, better suited software for these tasks.

http://www.nx101.com/watermark.html

http://dptnt.com/2009/08/nxsignature-the-signature-tool-for-capture-nx/

The French site, place the link into google translate:

http://totographe.free.fr/index.php?post/2009/01/14/NXSignature-loutil-de-signature-pour-Capture-NX

Filters, AFAIK there only commercial filters for NX2 via NIK available, but instead there are free setting/action files available for NX2, just search via Google etc.

http://www.pixelmotiv.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/filter.rar

 

[tommiejeep]

Jordan shoot RAW. Go to Camera Settings in NX2. Click on SET Color Temp. Click on Set Grey Point. Click on Start. Then use the eye dropper and click on something close to light grey(or white if nothing grey) . Try various until you find one that is what you like. Just keep re-setting and trying different shades of grey in the photo.

Not perfect like getting a gray from a card before you start but I am lazy. Normally happens when I am shooting birds in the monsoon....lots of Green aroundor can hppen with red if shooting in bright sun (soccer) with lots of red/pink ground an red uniforms (most of our youth soccer fields do not have grass!)

Hope it helps.
Cheers,
ps have not read the entire thread
--
Anticipate the Light and wing it when you get it wrong
Tom
http://taja.smugmug.com/

 

[Kiawahgolf]

...

The only thing I REALLY miss from NX2 is the ability to put a watermark on your photo and use various plugins.

Hmm, do a Google search and you will find infos about how to include a watermark into NX2, though most people use other, better suited software for these tasks.

http://www.nx101.com/watermark.html

http://dptnt.com/2009/08/nxsignature-the-signature-tool-for-capture-nx/

The French site, place the link into google translate:

http://totographe.free.fr/index.php?post/2009/01/14/NXSignature-loutil-de-signature-pour-Capture-NX

Filters, AFAIK there only commercial filters for NX2 via NIK available, but instead there are free setting/action files available for NX2, just search via Google etc.

http://www.pixelmotiv.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/filter.rar

Wow, I have never read anything mentioning the possibility of using a watermark in NX2. I will have to sort through the information you posted here when I get home from work. I really appreciate those links!!

--
Jordan

 

[Kiawahgolf]

Jordan shoot RAW. Go to Camera Settings in NX2. Click on SET Color Temp. Click on Set Grey Point. Click on Start. Then use the eye dropper and click on something close to light grey(or white if nothing grey) . Try various until you find one that is what you like. Just keep re-setting and trying different shades of grey in the photo.

Not perfect like getting a gray from a card before you start but I am lazy. Normally happens when I am shooting birds in the monsoon....lots of Green aroundor can hppen with red if shooting in bright sun (soccer) with lots of red/pink ground an red uniforms (most of our youth soccer fields do not have grass!)

Hey Tommy, I appreciate your response but it's not really what I was referring to. I do shoot RAW exclusively but I want the ability to create cross-processed, antique, ect. type images in NX2 but can't use plugins available to photoshop and LR. I'm just wondering what my best options are for obtaining these results. I really want to start trying my hand at HDR and don't think I can do this in NX2 either.
--
Jordan

 

[Shockeyy]

The surroundings are green so there is a green tint.
Contrast is low and so is black point, to the point of looking washed out.
Pretty much it.... if that is what you really want.
--
View my photo galleries here http://www.alloutdoor.smugmug.com
aoboudoirboise.smugmug.com

 

[pocketfulladoubles]

For portait color accuracy, there is no good reason to not use an XRite Color Checker Passport. Not one (ok, well maybe saving a couple bucks, and a few seconds before a shoot, but those aren't good ones...)