Post Process

[nwoods]

My wife gave me her artistic input and we modified the crop to only show smaller view of the blue sky, desaturated the color a bit in the ocean and added more black to the storm clouds.

And she wants to know which "Garland version" is better. :sombrero:

You already have been married long enough to know that the wife is always right. And i have to agree with her. I cropped out the blue sky altogether in my comp, so naturally I agree with you're wife's advise to minimize it as well

 

[Tucson T4R]

You already have been married long enough to know that the wife is always right. And i have to agree with her. I cropped out the blue sky altogether in my comp, so naturally I agree with you're wife's advise to minimize it as well

So true. Of course she is right. What was I thinking. :jump:

Actually I do like her version better.

 

[Michael Slade]

The settings in LR3 for the B&W conversion are in the following image - it is not in sRGB but a screen grab so the color will not match the image above which is tagged to be displayed correctly on the web.

This is beginning to be a common approach to saving images for the web. The only way the tagged image will be displayed correctly for the internet is if the viewer is also using a browser that is color managed and respects the embedded profile you are preserving.

This ought to be part of our post-production as well..after all most of the people that see our work will see it on the web.

I have been following that process for several years now, but I am starting to use and teach a different approach.

I am promoting the use of un-tagged images for the web.

If you read this article it might make more sense...

Be prepared to spend some time understanding this page. There is a LOT of information here and it takes a while to absorb and implement these thoughts.

I will also post some RAW images if anyone would like. I have samples from a dozen or so different cameras.

 

[Pathfinder]

Michael,

I did not make reference to sRGB to debate its merits or lack there of, I merely mentioned it to explain any difference in tones between my B&W image ( which was sRGB tagged ) and my screen capture which I recently found is NOT tagged as sRGB when saved from Preview on my Mac. (I use Safari, CS5 and Lightroom3 all on a calibrated monitor in OS X.) I feel that most newer monitors that are highly saturated and glossy black are very poor choices for editing and refining images in Photoshop, but those are the monitors that captures most purchasers eyes in the store. Gamers love those monitors. I think, I would too, for gaming.

I do indeed understand the difficulties inherent with presenting color images on the web with browsers that may or may not be ICC aware, and monitors that more likely than not are not calibrated appropriately, and operating systems that may not even be color space aware either.

I can see the merit in Firefoxes approach, to treating all untagged files as sRGB, but do not feel the need to strip my images of their sRGB tags at this time.

The stepped Koday grey scale is a great tool that only seems appreciated by a small portion of graphic and photographic artists. I find it invaluable.

 

[Lost Canadian]

Really great read Michael, thank you. After going through a number of Gary's tutorials though, I'm still not sure what side I fall on. I'm going to need more time to consider some of his points. I wonder what his thoughts would be on the ever expanding viewing environments like those found on mobiles and tablets.

Edit: I'd love to look at a few medium format files if you have any available.

 

[Michael Slade]

Lighten up Pathfinder...I'm not trying to pick a fight.

 

[Pathfinder]

I thought I was just being informative.

No desire for fighting here, sorry if it seemed so.

 

[Michael Slade]

Edit: I'd love to look at a few medium format files if you have any available.

I'm making a folder on my server that will hold a bunch of MF raw files. Some from Hasselblad H3D camera with the 39mp back, some from the Mamiya 645 camera with the Leaf 29mp back.

These files are quite large and will take a while for me to upload. For example, the Hassy raw files are over 50mb.

If you would like the name of the folder, send a message and I'll point you to where it is.

Clearly all copyright is retained and this would solely be an educational exercise. I know I don't have to say that, but I *need* to say that.

 

[Tucson T4R]

PM sent. I want to play too. :sombrero:

 

[Tucson T4R]

Trevor, do we get to see your rendering of the sail boat image?:coffeedrink:

 

[Michael Slade]

Here's what I've uploaded.

The .3FR files are from the Hasselblad, the .mos files are from the Leaf.

Both file formats are read easily by LR3. The Hassy files are also readable by their own software called Phocus. It's a POS as far as I'm concerned, but it is free to download.

I'll give you an idea of what is in each file.

A0003076.3FR

This is a very soft gentle monochromatic detail shot of some mud and some rivulets of water moving through the mud out on Great Salt Lake. WAY dirty sensor. Long lens.

A0003173.3FR

This is a high-contrast portrait that is very back-lit. The model is wearing a dark jacket and a dark fur hat. Shot with a longer lens, so not a lot of DOF. You can see the texture on the back of her tongue on this shot.

A0003280.3FR

This is part of a panorama that I was going to stitch together. This shows a section of the causeway that crosses Great Salt Lake. I am standing on some machinery as a train goes by, blur from train, sharp, high-contrast middle-of-the-day kind of light. Holy crap that sensor is dirty. Wide-angle lens.

A0003297.3FR

This is a low-angle shot of a pile of burnt out mattresses on the shore of Great Salt Lake. Nothing but pile of crap and sky with wispy clouds. Slightly back/side lit. You'd think that by now I'd have cleaned the sensor. Wide lens.

slade_000636.mos

This is a typical studio set-up shot for me when I get a new camera or lights or whatever. A Gretag-Macbeth color checker, a Sonic drink cup and a bottle of Windex shot on a white sweep gives me enough information to know what the camera is going to do. This shot is from the Leaf, which I really do not like b/c the white-balance controls are NOT intuitive and don't give you the ability to control via degrees-Kelvin. Hence, the need for the controlled test shot. Fairly clean sensor. Long macro lens.

sladem_000454.mos

This is a shot of from a funeral I attended last fall. Shot underneath a dark-ish canopy, some shilouetted heads in the foreground, casket out in the open in the back-ground. Grey, rainy very flat day. Finally a half-way clean sensor. Shot with a normal-ish lens.

 

[Lost Canadian]

I was more interested in seeing how these files looked up close and in person then I was in actually converting them, and to be honest I wasn't blown away. Don't get me wrong, the files are very nice, the level of detail and smooth tonalities of that 16 bit color from the Hassy is sweet. But I really have to tip my hat to some of the smaller sensor DSLR's out there. They can certainly hold there own next to $20000+ camera systems. I think the medium format camera makers need to pull up their socks a bit because some of the 35mm and APS-C crowd out there is pretty close in terms of IQ, and they come in at thousands less.

That said I really do like these two images Michael provided, the sand image in particular is really wonderful, but damn, did you empty a vacuum cleaner canister out on it, LOL. Thanks again though Michael. One thing I will note about converting these files is that working with 16 bits does seem to give you more headroom in conversion, especially when trying to pull detail out of the shadows. I didn't notice as many "ugly" things happening when I was playing around, being somewhat aggressive with the file.

 

[Lost Canadian]

Trevor, do we get to see your rendering of the sail boat image?:coffeedrink:

Oh yeah, this is what I did with it. I remember that day, it was windy, but it was nice. Even with the rain in the distance it didn't feel heavy to me and I think my conversion somewhat reflects that.

 

[Tucson T4R]

Oh yeah, this is what I did with it. I remember that day, it was windy, but it was nice. Even with the rain in the distance it didn't feel heavy to me and I think my conversion somewhat reflects that.

No way! I say it was a hurricane coming in and it was nearly the end of the world as we know it.


You just don't remember. :elkgrin:



OK fine. Based on your being there, your rendering is probably more accurate and appropriate. :sombrero: But it was fun making it look foreboding.

 

[Pathfinder]

Isn't it amazing how our perception of the subject, OR lack thereof, influences how we each perceive, and hence, edit an image?