General Workflow and post processing question

[dmabry2010]

Hello,

I am new to this Forum, and I have enjoyed reading the threads.

Two months ago I decided that in advance of my 20 year anniversary cruise I would buy a rangefinder (an M8u), some lenses and shoot in DNG. Before this, my only experience with digital photography was with a Nikon D70 and jpg's.

Two big hurdles ... rangefinder and post processing.

I am fairly ok with the rangefinder now. My wife is tired of posing, I use an expodisc fairly well, I frame and compose "ok" and focus "ok".

So, my weak link now is post processing. Lot to learn.

Presently, I have an Apple system and purchased Aperture 3 to get a feel for a better workflow and more robust editing. I also downloaded the trial version of Capture One Pro and plan to down load the trial for LR, too.

What I noted was the same photos loaded into Capture One "look" better. The colors appear more true. I am sure LR will offer a third impression.

For example, with Aperture, grass in the photos come out looking more yellow, like straw and more drab, while with Capture One, that same photo is has true green color grass.

Now, I can adjust the photo in Aperture to get the same effect, but certainly there is an easier way than photo by photo adjusting. After all, Capture One looked great straght from the import.

Clearly, there is so much any of these programs offer, and I am sure with practice and learning how to do curves and such, they all produce nice results.

So, here is my question:

Do any members, and if so, how do those members use Aperture for workflow and then either Capture One on LR/CS5 for post processing?

The spin off from this question is:

If one was to try to use Aperture as the only editing too, what Profile provides the most true photo color? Or, are there other settings preferred?

Thank you for advice.

Michael
Dmabry2010

 

[Kai Birkigt]

Michael,

I can just tell you that I used LR (for Nikon, later also for Canon RAW files). I was disappointed of the Adobe RAW conversion results in LR (as in PS) and it did not have some things like two monitor support and so.

Since I work on Macs too, I was also testing Aperture for a while but I found Aperture also to be not so good concerning image quality. I had cases where Aperture could not solve some blueish colour problems on a white shirt as I remember while Capture One could.

Awhile I used Phocus from Hasselblad (always with Hassi files of course) but it was way too slow.

I eventually ended up with Capture One. 3.7 was good, the switch to 4 brought some probs but it got going and 5 is really perfect. I am convinced the more because after me C1 has the best skin tone results. I am all in all happy with it and it makes sense with a Phase One back anyway.

I am missing some few things only and of course after correcting the basics in C1 which works pretty well, I am retouching in Photoshop, if needed.

Kai

 

[dmabry2010]

Kai,

Thank you for your input.

That was another thing I noticed with Aperture .. skin tones, when I compared the same photo in Capture 1. I am sure in my case, my inexperience is contributing.

It is just that I was surprised how much more-true, straight from the camera, the Capture 1 photos looked compared to Aperture.

Now, if I can just find that dang Print symbol on the trial Capture 1! It would be nice to see photos before I bought the full version.

Michael
Dmabry2010

 

[Kai Birkigt]

That's one of the (not so important) missing things...

C1 is a RAW converter. It is not a database, a retouching tool, a demonstrating software, a printing tool.

Sorry, but there you have to export the file and print it as a TIFF from Photoshop or so.

Nevertheless I would go for it. :thumbs:

Kai