glenerrolrd
Workshop Member
OK keep in mind I use LR almost exclusively and what I know about NX2 I learned yesterday on the Lynda tapes . I have no reference point to C1 other than they seem to produce really good profiles that create a finished product look .
To understand color bias you need a scene that includes RGB and varies in tones . It also helps if you have skin tones as they pick up even a sight variation in tint . To understand the color bias WB needs to be set for the light you are viewing ....not to an arbitrary Kevin (thats fine for a starting point in color balancing but not as a reference point). Lloyd showed in his tests that cameras vary by more than 10 percent in reported kelvin . (he matched the files and compared the reported kelvin).
This is why contrary to conventional wisdom ..you can learn from the AWB . (You can always go back and set the temp and tint to daylight or take a reading off a grey card in post ). AWB on my D800E typically gives me a reading of 4600-4800 and tint of 15-20magenta . This reduces the yellow red bias and increases the saturation of the blues .
If I run a raw NEF file into NX2 with a full spectrum of color and use AWB ......I get almost perfect color with no adjustments . I am using the standard settings in NX2 and I believe the full RGB color space .
If I take the same file into LR4 and use the adobe std profile .. I have the over saturated yellow red bias . The custom profile based on a color checker looks almost the same . Skin tones are not awful as a slightly warm bias is ok if the exposure on the face is right . (taste dictates). I am sure there is a technical reason for this . There are plenty of ways to work around this but they all seem to compromise the overall accuracy of the reference color chart . To use presets I favor getting a neutral color chart first which is what the std camera calibration is supposed to do. For now we can t fix this we can only adjust for the bias based on individual color perspectives .
LR combination of Clarity (for mid tone contrast) and sharpening (deconvolution ) is as good as I need . Add in the ability to use local area adjustment brushes to apply the fine tuning .. This is pretty great . I use LLyod s settings to start 50.0.7,70,20 but found with the S2 that having different presets by ISO is better ..you can hammer a ISO200 file but not so much one at ISO1600.
NX2 has significant complaints about its sharpening algorithms being last generation . They aren t as effective and require a lot more skill to optimize. But NX2 really does produce a more detailed rendering with better tone separation than LR ...I see more depth in the images immediately . In fact a D800E file processed in NX2 is stunning . The question here on sharpening is do you forgo sharpening in Nx2 and only sharpen in LR or PS . (we could do an entire topic on sharpening as we are now dealing with vey large files that are often resampled down for output ..this seems to be best accomplished in stages ..but the LR team says they have this covered in their process).
We are back to using a “best of breed” approach . Pick the raw conversion software of choice . Process to a TIFF . Then finish with PS,LR . This leads to a whole rehashing of optimum workflow .
To understand color bias you need a scene that includes RGB and varies in tones . It also helps if you have skin tones as they pick up even a sight variation in tint . To understand the color bias WB needs to be set for the light you are viewing ....not to an arbitrary Kevin (thats fine for a starting point in color balancing but not as a reference point). Lloyd showed in his tests that cameras vary by more than 10 percent in reported kelvin . (he matched the files and compared the reported kelvin).
This is why contrary to conventional wisdom ..you can learn from the AWB . (You can always go back and set the temp and tint to daylight or take a reading off a grey card in post ). AWB on my D800E typically gives me a reading of 4600-4800 and tint of 15-20magenta . This reduces the yellow red bias and increases the saturation of the blues .
If I run a raw NEF file into NX2 with a full spectrum of color and use AWB ......I get almost perfect color with no adjustments . I am using the standard settings in NX2 and I believe the full RGB color space .
If I take the same file into LR4 and use the adobe std profile .. I have the over saturated yellow red bias . The custom profile based on a color checker looks almost the same . Skin tones are not awful as a slightly warm bias is ok if the exposure on the face is right . (taste dictates). I am sure there is a technical reason for this . There are plenty of ways to work around this but they all seem to compromise the overall accuracy of the reference color chart . To use presets I favor getting a neutral color chart first which is what the std camera calibration is supposed to do. For now we can t fix this we can only adjust for the bias based on individual color perspectives .
LR combination of Clarity (for mid tone contrast) and sharpening (deconvolution ) is as good as I need . Add in the ability to use local area adjustment brushes to apply the fine tuning .. This is pretty great . I use LLyod s settings to start 50.0.7,70,20 but found with the S2 that having different presets by ISO is better ..you can hammer a ISO200 file but not so much one at ISO1600.
NX2 has significant complaints about its sharpening algorithms being last generation . They aren t as effective and require a lot more skill to optimize. But NX2 really does produce a more detailed rendering with better tone separation than LR ...I see more depth in the images immediately . In fact a D800E file processed in NX2 is stunning . The question here on sharpening is do you forgo sharpening in Nx2 and only sharpen in LR or PS . (we could do an entire topic on sharpening as we are now dealing with vey large files that are often resampled down for output ..this seems to be best accomplished in stages ..but the LR team says they have this covered in their process).
We are back to using a “best of breed” approach . Pick the raw conversion software of choice . Process to a TIFF . Then finish with PS,LR . This leads to a whole rehashing of optimum workflow .