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Sigma DP2 Merrill shots

kgelner

New member
Hello everyone. I just joined the club as my DP2M arrived yesterday! I owe thanks to Quentin Bargate and Lloyd Chanbers for making me pull the trigger. I've spent a many hours reading forum threads about the camera. Impressive images posted online by both Quentin and Lloyd show the capabilities of the sensor and lens. Also, thanks to Uwe for some great images and interesting comments and to Michiel for the wonderful Cuba images as well as the facades. I'm going to Italy for a month in June and facades and street scenes are one of the reasons I bought the DP2M.

While reading this thread, I've been taking notes on recommended camera settings and usage of SPP. I have the following shooting tips: exposure: +.3 to +.7 (I have yet to blow out highlights using +.7), ISO: 100 or 200 (400 in a pinch). I believe that, since I'm shooting RAW only, camera settings (white balance, color, sharpening, contrast, saturation) affect only the settings when SPP is entered and can be changed in SPP (although it certainly helps to have a good starting state). I'm hoping someone can verify this.
That is correct, although there is another possible reason to change some of those - the first is that they affect the embedded and in-camera JPG. Some people like to reduce contrast for example, to get a JPG that gives you a better match to the dynamic range the raw file gives you.

The second reason is that I believe changes to those settings affect the default adjustment values in SPP.

I'm planning to use SPP minimally and do most adjustments in ACR and PS (similar to how I process files from my Canon 5DII). I've downloaded the latest camera firmware and release of SPP.
I believe I've learned from various posts that the following are best done in SPP prior to saving the file as a 16bit TIFF:
- Set the white balance in SPP; make only minimal changes in ACR. I've found this part of the interface difficult, although AWB gets me close.
- Set the clipping points for highlights & shadows in SPP.
- Set the working color space in SPP to ProPhoto.
- Do some capture sharpening in SPP. Recommended setting?
- Do some noise reduction in SPP. Recommended setting?
Ideally I'd like to do these settings in a batch mode but I'm not sure it can be done, particularly for the clipping points.
Thanks!
One thing I didn't see mentioned is the color mode you selected - I'd recommend Neutral instead of Standard (which is the default). Standard is mostly just a bit more saturated.

I use a working space of sRGB in SPP even though I export as ProPhoto. That's because on my system at least, the reviewed image does not match the output so something is amiss. Save an image in ProPhoto, open the exported file in Preview or something else color managed, and see if it matches your SPP preview. If not, try sRGB for the working space.

Sharpening in SPP is pretty good right where it is at 0. You would almost never want to move that higher. Some people like to back off the sharpening a bit from 0 as by default some sharpening is applied at 0 already and sometimes that is too much... you may want to experiment. It seems like sharpening may have changed somewhat in SPP from 5.5.0 to 5.5.1 (the most recent version).

Noise reduction in SPP can mostly be turned all the way to 0 at ISO 100, you may want to turn chroma (green/red noise) reduction to 0 and luminance (grainy noise) reduction to 1 if you have a lot of skies, or are shooting ISO 200. For ISO 400 I'd put both at 2, for iSO 800 I'd put both at 3, for ISO 1600 and above I'd put both at three or possibly higher. You can mostly just leave the banding noise setting alone, I don't think it affects image quality much.

As for batch mode, you can't really do clipping points - for the other items the approach I take is to review JPG files first to select the images I even want to work on (you can judge sharpness and composition decently), then move into editing - adjust parameters for images that need changes, and hit the "Save Settings to X3F" button. After that point you can batch export all images in the directory with the "X3F" setting and they will be exported with the parameters that you saved applied.

I also would not be afraid to use the camera above ISO 400. If some of the light in the scene is strong, you can get good results, or also noise reduction can help too. ISO 800 is quite usable, and ISO 1600+ is usable as I said with stronger light sources in scene, or if you want to shoot B&W.

As an example, a pretty sharp ISO 800:

Opening Doors | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


An OK ISO 6400 shot with some editing and noise reduction applied (shot about +1.0 ev):

Captain Jack | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


And an ISO 6400 shot converted to B&W using the SPP new Monochrome conversion (not mono white balance):

Guster In Dallas | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 

PaulO

New member
Kendall - Thanks for all the useful information. I've changed camera settings as you recommended and will experiment with the SPP settings. I'll also experiment with higher ISO. I looked at your images on Flickr (some at high ISO) - very encouraging. I see Weird Al is still performing! I'll also try pushing ISO even higher for B&W - Your shot of Guster in concert at 6400 shows what is possible. The grain has a film like quality. Once again, Thanks!
 

kuau

Workshop Member
Is it true that the new DP3M as it stands today has a different color response the the DP2M?

Example, shot both cameras side by side in Standard color mode, would one get a different color response?
 

kgelner

New member
Is it true that the new DP3M as it stands today has a different color response the the DP2M?

Example, shot both cameras side by side in Standard color mode, would one get a different color response?
I think it depends on the light. Outdoors in Neutral, from a few images I have with similar subjects they don't seem to vary much. Using flash in Auto WB they vary more. Using a custom WB they are nearly the same.
 

adsf

New member
I think it depends on the light. Outdoors in Neutral, from a few images I have with similar subjects they don't seem to vary much. Using flash in Auto WB they vary more. Using a custom WB they are nearly the same.
Second that.
There are also images of the dp3 out there that have banding, magenta/cyan patches and strange shadow-rendering.
 

mezzoduomo

New member
Just a quick note to say:
* I enjoy this forum quite a lot, especially the images.
* I wish everyone a Happy Easter/Passover.
* I'm sorry about all the Foveon Classic Blue images…..:D
 

The Ute

Well-known member
A couple shots in Yosemite. One with DP2M one with DP1M. One DP2M 6 frame stitch.
Great shots Steve. Nice to see some more color landscapes.

Next time please consider placing them on the DP color landscapes thread.

I can use some help over there.

;)
 

stevew50

New member
I have to look for the thread. Love seeing the images also. After seeing all the Cuba colors, I would love to get back to the Bahamas were I lived in the 70's. I have some old 2 1/4 negs I will have to scan, wonder how the colors are after 40 years.
 
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