RAW conversion and pp techniques

[sizifo]

Have created a gallery with all the images at http://gallery.mac.com/vid33#100008&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=0 , so they can be seen side by side. Just an excuse to mess with Aperture web functions really, and not do what I'm supposed to be doing. You have to say the web gallery looks cool.

Now, see that little upload button. Click on on it to upload tho original, it won't take but a few seconds Is there any particular reason I'm missing why people are not willing to do this? Hope I'm not being politically incorrect.

Could actually make this into a useful little page by adding a summary of the pp method to each image.

 

[sizifo]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your comments

Sizifo, thanks for your thoughts... I agree, the sky could be better - perhaps I'll try again.

Kind Regards

Brian

The sky looks good in my opinion, just the bit around the boat looks great.

Incidentally, this is where the photo was taken. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=....544716,9.9981&spn=0.001782,0.004324&t=h&z=18 I was standing on the side of the canal at hollandischer brook.

This is a historic part of the hamburg harbor with old warehouses (speicherstadt). The small house in the photo is from that period. The stuff in the background is part of a huge development project, that's supposed to make this part of city into something like the docklands in London. The other dngs I uploaded are all from the same area.

 

[Maggie O]

Cool gallery!!

One photo, many minds!

 

[thomasl.se]

A slight case of new toy syndrome with Nik and TIffen plug-ins; this one went through a big stack of filters, but it didn't do my usual CS3-Lightroom-CS3 hopscotch.

Thomas

 

[Will]

I like the warmth of your version Thomas.

sizifo that gallery is a really nice idea, thanks for putting it up.

 

[thomasl.se]

Cheers, Will.

For the purpose of demonstrating the possibilities to bring back a sky from white in pp, I should just as well have cranked up the graudated neutral density filter on the sky; while at it, so to speak.

Thanks sizifo for the idea and the gallery; I hope more people will participate, maybe another pic another round.

Thomas

 

[sizifo]

Some final images to prove how much more familiar I'm with Aperture now than when this thread started. I'm beginning to be semi-happy with the results. One can do a lot with this program, even without the ability of local adjustments, just takes some work. Also got photoshop trial. Immensely powerful program, but no results yet that I want to share.

Some points:

Does it matter whether the image imported into photoshop is 8bit or 16bit tiff?

Unsharp mask in photoshop just doesn't seem to do as good a job as the sharpening tools in Aperture. I really like the Aperture controls; they seem to be tied in with the raw processing engine. Any opinions on the sharpening? You can take a close up look by downloading the full sized jpegs of the above photos from http://gallery.mac.com/vid33#gallery.

 

[Maggie O]

Those both look great.

 

[sizifo]

The composition is not what I'm after here, just the conversion from RAW and pp refinement. Composition could perhaps be looked at another time.

Will, what exactly did you have in mind here? Just people posting images, with comments about composition, or something more clever?

Here are some less boring takes on the scene used in this thread, on a different day. Although I've had enough of this particular motif. Wouldn't be bad to move on to some other exercise in the near future.

 

[Will]

sizifo I'm happy enough to have initiated this pp comparison thread which, with your help, has turned out to be really interesting. I'm not sure how we could do a composition thread as easily.

 

[Mitchell]

Sizifo,

It's better to start with 16 bit images in Photoshop. They have more information, a greater range of colors and shades. This becomes important when you make adjustments to the image. The 8 bit images will tend to posterization of color and tone when stretched by adjustments. Some people work with 16 bit initially to prevent posterization and then will save the image in 8 bit to save space on their disc. In the past, some of the tools in PS were not available to 16 bit, but that is no longer a problem. If your computer has enough storage and speed, I'd suggest using 16 bit.
Others know more about this than I do.

Best,

Mitchell

 

[helenhill]

SIZIFO
Lovely.....
Your Second shot PP looks great / Fab crop & colors

 

[sizifo]

Thanks Michell. Does anybody know what the bitdepth of the ricoh raw file is? This piece of information seems to be hard to come by. From what I could gather it's more than 8, but definitely less than 16.

In any case, I thought that difference would be minimal. But from what you say, even if the initial file is 8 bit, upgrading it to 16 bit can make a difference for photoshop adjustments.

My hard drive will need an upgrade soon.

 

[sizifo]

sizifo I'm happy enough to have initiated this pp comparison thread which, with your help, has turned out to be really interesting. I'm not sure how we could do a composition thread as easily.

OK. I assumed from the message that you had something in mind. Absolutely agree that this thread was very interesting and useful.

Maybe a thread meant for critical comments would be useful. People on this forum are very nice, so it's quite hard to get criticized. I've gotten quite worried posting photos which get no reaction. Likely because they are no good, but I really wouldn't mind negative comments - constructive ones of course . On a different note, we also don't have anything like the "Fun time" thread in the Leica M section.

 

[sizifo]

SIZIFO
Lovely.....
Your Second shot PP looks great / Fab crop & colors

Thanks. I'm starting to really enjoy using Aperture.

The day was a bit drab, and there were no clouds like in the pp photo to make the first shot more interesting.

 

[Mitchell]

I'm not sure what the raw bit depth of the Ricoh is, probably 14, but I'm confident it's more than 8.

The bit depth refers to how many different gradations of tones or colors the camera is recording. The higher the number of bits the more colors and tones available in the file.

It won't help converting an 8 bit image to 16 because the wide range of 16 bit tones and colors were simply not recorded on the 8 bit image.

In photoshop, when, for instance, you lighten a dark area of an image, you are actually stretching an area of the information available in the file. With 8 bit you are likely to spread the info so thin that you see gaps between color or tone gradations, i.e., posterization.

I hope this helps. I'm no expert. If your interested I'd search the Leica Forum or Wikapedia for further explanation.

Best,

Mitchell

 

[sizifo]

I'm not sure what the raw bit depth of the Ricoh is, probably 14, but I'm confident it's more than 8.

The bit depth refers to how many different gradations of tones or colors the camera is recording. The higher the number of bits the more colors and tones available in the file.

It won't help converting an 8 bit image to 16 because the wide range of 16 bit tones and colors were simply not recorded on the 8 bit image.

Sorry for the technical nitpicking. Clearly converting 8 to 16 wins you nothing. My point was that when making adjustments there still can be a difference in principle, because the adjustment algorithm could introduce more information than can be held in 8bits. In other words, I assumed that the 16 bit version of the algorithm could be more powerful than the 8 bit version, in addition to the fact that you don't want to lose the extra bits from the raw file by working in 8 bits.

 

[Mitchell]

I see what you mean. I don't know the answer.

I use Lightroom so work only with the raw unless I export as 16 bit tiff to Photoshop. I no longer see the need to use 8 bit.

Best,

Mitchell

 

[7ian7]

8 bit files are half the size, and many key filters aren't available at 16 bit. There are printing issues too. I guess most professional flows I hear about are processing (developing/RAW converting) files at 16 bit then converting to 8 for retouching and output. I just did a job where I converted to 8 bit earlier in the process than usual for me — directly after ACR — and it made a week of retouching and stuff much easier on my system, with no discernible difference in quality.

 

[les]

Bit late to this game but..........a little Lightzoning........