What are the RAW file advantages
To better understand what these magic RAW file formats are, you must understand how the majority of today's digital cameras work. All new digital cameras capture color photos, right Well, you ultimately get color prints, yet most modern digital cameras use sensors that only record grayscale values the Foveon X3 sensor, digital scanning backs and multi-shot digital backs are exceptions . Assume you want to photograph a box of Crayola crayons 1 Figure 1.1 Full colored sample target A gray scale...
B W with Capture One DSLR
We recall that Capture One DSLR Capture One allows displaying images in grayscale, by activating the U button top right .This is acceptable, but not real exciting. Figure 12-7 Capture One in grayscale display mode click for this Capture One can also convert to grayscale on output. Figure 12-7 Capture One in grayscale display mode click for this Capture One can also convert to grayscale on output. Capture One provides a generic grayscale profile. Capture One provides a generic grayscale profile....
Visualization of color spaces
Color spaces are actually three-dimensional L-, A-, B-axis . The profile shown in Figure 2-5 is that of sRGB, using the ColorSync utility of Mac OS X. The gray outer space shows the gamut of Adobe RGB 1998 and allows comparing these two color spaces. As can be seen, Adobe RGB is a superset of sRGB. Figure 2-5 3D diagram of sRGB color and Adobe RGB 1998 gray shape Figure 2-5 3D diagram of sRGB color and Adobe RGB 1998 gray shape The industry also uses some form of 2D charts to display color...
Heal purple fringing
Here is a real example we got from a Sony F828. We show how to make useful images from such files. First get a free version of Panorama-Tools. You have to search the web where to find it, as we have no right to distribute this free software. A good start will be 40 . There you find a user friendly front end to Panorama-Tools as well. The following is working on the original file that was not sharpened 1 Fig. 7-12 Original with strong CA 1 Because we are using layers we create a new layer with...
Camera profiling using InCamera
InCamera is a Photoshop plugin allowing users to create camera profiles. We recommend InCamera mainly for studio profiles in which you control the light consistently. 1. Convert your RAW file with a RAW converter e. g. RSE in the mode required for creation of camera profiles see the documentation 2. Open the converted file into Photoshop do not color manage . 1 Figure 11-7 Ignore Color Management for this image at the time beeing . 1 Figure 11-7 Ignore Color Management for this image at the...
Shooting for a neutral gray
When shooting in abnormal lighting conditions, often the case when shooting outdoors or outside a controlled studio with well controlled lights, an ICC camera profile is of little use. However, there are some ways to work around this problem. One reason for profiling is to achieve a correct white balance not always what you want, e.g. when setting up soft or colored lights within a studio to achieve an intentional special mood . In this situation, there is an easy and universal solution, though...
Batch Processing with Adobe Camera Raw
To convert a number of RAW files efficiently with Photoshop CSi you must create your own Photoshop action. This action should open a file in ACR, apply all settings for the ACR workflow selecting output Resolution, Depth, color Space, Size, start the conversion, make the setting for the target format, and finally save the file using the appropriate preferred image mode. Important in file saving is selecting an output file format and various settings for that specific file format. The following...
Batch Processing with RawShooter
Batch processing setup in RawShooter remains relatively simple. We prefer RawShooter in its film-strip-mode. The settings for processing are grouped under the Batch convert tab. After applying the proper conversion settings Correct tab , select the file or files you want to process, check your workflow parameter using the tab Batch convert and click Add. This create job tickets for the batch conversion and adds them to the batch queue. The processing will only start when you click Go . Once you...
Metadata for Photographs
Metadata provides descriptions with data. Using digital photography, metadata describes an actual photo taken. Metadata may be embedded in the actual data file or may be stored separately -either in a discreet file or in a database. With RAW files, TIFFs and JPEGs, we actually find several types of metadata - RAW conversion settings e.g. embedded in XMP , - Preview icons and preview images, - Classification data etc. partly stored in an image database . File attributes The file system stores...
Advantages and disadvantages of converting to DNG
Adobe's DNG converter runs smoothly and fast. However if you already have dng files in your source folder, DNGC converts them as well, which usually makes little sense. When we tested the converter, dng files could be opened by Photoshop CSi aka PS 8 and Photoshop CS2 aka PS9 . As of this writing, Ci and Raw Shooter, Nikon Capture 4.1, Canon Digital Photo Professional and Bibble did not support DNG. Many Viewers and DAMS Digital Asset Management Systems supporting RAW files did support DNG e.g....
Batch Processing with Capture One Pro
Capture One Pro was one of the first RAW converters providing advanced batch processing, thus improving workflow with RAW files. We prefer to use Capture One in film-strip-mode while batch processing. Principal settings for batch processing with Capture One are made in File rPreferences rProcess Settings see figure 8-8 at page 8-14 . It allows including a copyright note into the output files without calling up of the ITPC metadata dialog. The main section for actual processing are found under...
Camera profiling using EyeOne Photo and ProfileMaker
Figur 11-1 GretagMacBeth MiniColorChecker GretagMacbeth 15 offers Camera, a package consisting of a camera target and a software module called ProfileMaker 5. Camera is sold as a standalone package or as part of different Eye-One packages - e.g. Eye-One Photo. Gretag's Camera - supporting Windows as well as Mac OS - including a small 4 x 5 Inch camera target MiniColor-Checker. For serious camera profiling, however, you should consider ColorChecker SG, which may be ordered separately. It is...
Metadata usage in Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge
Adobe applications are making increasing use of metadata. Both Photoshop file browser or Bridge display some metadata as part of the image icon list and even more as part of the metadata preview window. The almost complete range of metadata is displayed, when you call up the File Info window. Using Bridge or the file browser of Photoshop CSi, you may customize which metadata is displayed with the preview icons of the browser and what kind of metadata is visible at the metadata panel of the...
Sample Rpk
The crab photos seen have incorrect white balance. This was expected because the photo was shot in the shade. Few automatic camera's WB will correct for this situation. RS displays the As Shot WB settings As Shot WB settings in RS As mentioned earlier, If possible a mini ColorChecker may be photographed. In this case, however, we will use other means to correct the WB. Because white balance for these kinds of photos is highly subjective, no serious problems are encountered . We have chosen to...
Sample Amr
Figure 4-16 Default tonality settings Figure 4-16 Default tonality settings This image requires further minor tweaks Avoid small aggressive highlights Figure 4-17 Tweaked tonality settings Figure 4-17 Tweaked tonality settings In addition to these changed parameters, the Tone Curve was set to linear
Color working spaces
It is a bit tedious to work with a large number of different device dependent color spaces. This is why virtual, standardized color spaces were defined. These do not describe a gamut of a real device but for an abstract virtual device. There are several different such spaces for each of the color models RGB, Lab, CMYK . They range from narrow to broad gamut. For example, for the RGB color model, there is from narrow to wide sRGB, Apple RGB, Adobe RGB 1998 , ECI-RGB and Pro Photo RGB and several...
Curves tab
J Adjust Detail Lens Curve 1 Calibrate In theory, you could control the entire tonality using this curves control, however, correcting using curves often is not terribly intuitive. We use it only for final fine-tuning. Some presets are provided that improve the contrast some weak S-curves mostly . Officially, there is no support to create your own permanent presets. Fortunately, the developers allowed a workaround. You can save an ACR setting-subset to a file. If, at that time, you only select...
Usage of the Adobe DNG Converter
The Adobe DNG converter DNGC for short may be downloaded free of charge from Adobe's Internet Home Page 45 . It has multiple functions, outlined above. ijj Adobe Digital Negative Converter f Select Folder DA_tmp multiple_raw I Include images contained within subfolders Select location to save converted images Select Folder DA_tmp multiple_raw_dng N ame example MyD ocument. dng J Document Name N ame example MyD ocument. dng J Document Name Compressed lossless Preserve Raw Image Don't embed...
LAB color model
The CIE-LAB color model often spelled Lab, LAB or L a b separates colors chroma, A B from the detail and brightness luminance, L in images. As in RGB, Lab uses three basic components to build or describe a color L for Luminance , ranging from Black 0 no light to white 100 , and two color axes a and b. The a-axis is a Green to Red and the b-axis, Blue to Yellow.
Sample Uvd
Normally avoiding tools with an attribute auto, for tonality we select the ACR Auto Adjustments not yet available with ACR 2.x to provide a solid headstart. You can easily toggle Auto Adjustments on off using Auto adjustments are signaled by the check marks in Exposure, Shadows, Brightness and Contrast. Let's start with Auto Adjustments ON. We fine-tune Exposure, Shadows, Brightness and Contrast manually. In this situation, we were actually pretty close to the Auto-Adjustments. The goal is to...