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Sigma DP2 Merrill shots

Sapphie

Member
What are you guys doing for metering and WB? Just letting the matrix metering do its stuff or adding exposure compensation where necessary and ETTR? WB - auto or selecting Sunlight or whatever?

How many changes are you making in SPP? Very few and other adjustments in LR?

Just wondering really how much PP is being done on the wonderful shots here in general?

Or, put it another way: what are the best camera settings and minimal tweaks required in SPP to render a good starting point (or even finishing point!) for minor adjustments in LR?

Thanks and please keep the images coming!

Lee
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Another pano today, this time using the Nodal Ninja 3 MkII head, which has virtually eliminated stitching errors

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9806585/St_Peters_Pano_Final.jpg

File size is 10,731 x 6422.

The compressed file is around 24mb, but uncompressed, around 170mb ;)

Quite difficult to ensure the alignement is correct because the interior columns are a bit skew in real life, but I think this is pretty accurate.
 

biglouis

Well-known member
Beautiful image Louis with a fantastic sky and that great Foveon detail. A bit less sharpening and a little shadow fill light in SPP would be my only suggestions for improvement.
Thanks, Carl.

I'm still inhibited about turning down the sharpening in the camera. I've never owned a digital camera before which required reduction in-camera but I am beginning to think this is required.

LouisB
 

Sapphie

Member
Honestly, I can't believe myself. I succumbed. Now, it was hard as they are scarce in the UK at the moment but yesterday I noticed Wex had one (they didn't on Weds and Thurs and they are out of stock again today) and they had a next-day (Saturday) delivery option. Even more remarkable, the sun was shining.

First impressions? Remarkably easy to handle. Having to compose on LCD wasn't as bad as I expected - lucky the AF is good most of the time!

Compared to my X-Pro 1? They are *different* and I am so glad about that. I think I have a lot to learn with Merrill and the X-Pro for sure still is a great camera. I am not sure if I can show the 'detail' that others can yet but I am certainly seeing it in some of the shots. Just two from today, and not necessarily ones with major detail!





Lee
 
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pflower

Member
For myself I put it on Aperture mode and use the matrix metering. This seems to overexpose so often dial back a bit.

WB and colour in SPP give me the most trouble, so I have gone back to something I stopped a long time ago with other cameras i can directly import into Lightroom or ACR - I carry a Colour Passport Checker with me which I photograph from time to time as the light changes. I can then set a WB preset in SPP and apply it to various images in a batch process. I process out to 16 bit tiffs and then correct properly in LR4.

I try and do as little as possible in SPP. The biggest problem I have is clipping highlights. There is a surprising amount of headroom in the X3F to bring them back by reducing the exposure slider. There is a highlight slider but I can't see that it does anything useful at all.

What is odd - and I would welcome anyone else's experience here - is that I find I can reduce the exposure a little bit so that the highlights still show as clipped, but if I then increase the fill light not only do the shadows come up but the highlight clipping stops.

I think the best way to use is to get things as close to neutral and possible and then finish off elsewhere ( I use Lightroom). With 16 bit tiffs there is still a considerable amount of leeway to play with in LR or PS. Undoubtedly the best thing is to try and identify similarly exposed photos, create a preset in SPP and batch export them. Going through individual pictures, adjusting them in SPP - even just tweaking WB and exposure - and then exporting them individually is a pain.

What are you guys doing for metering and WB? Just letting the matrix metering do its stuff or adding exposure compensation where necessary and ETTR? WB - auto or selecting Sunlight or whatever?

How many changes are you making in SPP? Very few and other adjustments in LR?

Just wondering really how much PP is being done on the wonderful shots here in general?

Or, put it another way: what are the best camera settings and minimal tweaks required in SPP to render a good starting point (or even finishing point!) for minor adjustments in LR?

Thanks and please keep the images coming!

Lee
 

Sapphie

Member
Ok, as 'Columbo' would say "there's just one more thing ..."



some sort of guided walk party were disturbing the sheep ...

Lee
 
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biglouis

Well-known member
Lee

That is a cracking shot - the one with the sheep. I bet if you dial down the exposure in SPP and up the fill light you will recover more of the sky.

LouisB
 

Sapphie

Member
Thanks Louis. I will give that a try but actually, quite remarkable, I have since thought, is that this was shot into the sun with no lens hood as yet. I didn't really expect to have much of a shot from it at all ... so I don't think much is to be recovered and I did reduce highlights in LR but amazing how 'flare free' the lens is.

Lee
 

scho

Well-known member
Honestly, I can't believe myself. I succumbed. Now, it was hard as they are scarce in the UK at the moment but yesterday I noticed Wex had one (they didn't on Weds and Thurs and they are out of stock again today) and they had a next-day (Saturday) delivery option. Even more remarkable, the sun was shining.

First impressions? Remarkably easy to handle. Having to compose on LCD wasn't as bad as I expected - lucky the AF is good most of the time!

Compared to my X-Pro 1? They are *different* and I am so glad about that. I think I have a lot to learn with Merrill and the X-Pro for sure still is a great camera. I am not sure if I can show the 'detail' that others can yet but I am certainly seeing it in some of the shots. Just two from today, and not necessarily ones with major detail!


Lee
Congratulations Lee and I'm sure that you won't have any regrets. Your first shots are looking quite nice.
 

scho

Well-known member
Thanks, Carl.

I'm still inhibited about turning down the sharpening in the camera. I've never owned a digital camera before which required reduction in-camera but I am beginning to think this is required.

LouisB
Louis,

If you are shooting only raw I don't think it matters what you set in-camera. I just make adjustments as required in SPP when processing raws. Normally I'm using a sharpness setting of 0 to -1.
 

biglouis

Well-known member
Although ... I tried your suggestion (reduced exposure by about a stop and increased fill light to 0.5, in SPP) and, lo:



with a larger version on Flickr here:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/8060493566_c45bd398ec_k.jpg

Thanks for the tip!

Lee
Sapphie - I'm glad it worked.

Prooves that it is a general feature of the camera.

Does anyone else think this camera has excellent highlight recovery capabilities? On all my other digital cameras I have never been able to really do this?

LouisB
 

Sapphie

Member
Thanks Carl. This is just day one. Fiddling with the shots now is interesting. Others are benefitting from reducing exposure in SPP, even when they look Ok to start with. The Monochrome 'WB' setting is interesting. This one also had exposure reduced and fill light increased:



and larger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8178/8060579728_1383b13a36_k.jpg

It reminds me of how some of my medium format FP4 shots used to look ...

P.S. Sharpness could possibly be turned down a notch!

Lee
 

scho

Well-known member
Sapphie - I'm glad it worked.

Prooves that it is a general feature of the camera.

Does anyone else think this camera has excellent highlight recovery capabilities? On all my other digital cameras I have never been able to really do this?

LouisB
Louis,

Yes, I agree and I had to start changing my shooting habits (as first recommended by Quentin) by exposing for shadows and then recovering highlights. Usually works well.
 

scho

Well-known member
I went back to Ithaca Falls today with both the DP1M and DP2M. Here is a two shot stitch with the DP1M and a 6 shot stitch with the DP2M. The DP1M had some strong purple fringing along the cliff edge, but one dropper click in LR took care of that. I used preset "overcast" WB and "landscape" color mode in SPP. Note the slight magenta cast with the DP1M and slight greenish cast with the DP2M. I did not correct WB in either. Stitching was a bit sloppy with the 6 images from the DP2M because of a couple of non-level shots. I may have to get a pano head like Quentin is using so well. Note the flyfisherman in the lower left of the DP2M image. Spawning salmon and brown trout are running up from the lake now.


LARGER


LARGER
 

4711

Member
Which colour settings do you use in the DP2M and in SPP? I use "standard".

Any experience with the other colour-settings-options?

Which member here will make the first step and buys a Sigma SD1 Merrill?
 

scho

Well-known member
Which colour settings do you use in the DP2M and in SPP? I use "standard".

Any experience with the other colour-settings-options?

Which member here will make the first step and buys a Sigma SD1 Merrill?
I've been using "neutral", but with these fall color shots I'm trying "landscape", which is a bit like Velvia. I don't know if there are any lenses for the SD1 that can match the DP2M quality with the 30mm. Also, I would prefer a mirrorless camera.
 
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