Digital Light & Color

There has been quite a bit of conversation on some other sites about the best way to capture an image to retain maximum data in the photo file and then retrieve it in processing. I would like to hear from the forum members here on what they do and how PWP helps get to a quality file using the tools available. Thanks is advance!

For me... the best capture technique and needed PWP processing of a scene's data seems to occur when I can picture in my mind what the print [or web display image] will look like before I press the camera's shutter button...

bbodine9 wrote: best way to capture an image

the luminous landscape explains how and why to 'expose to the right'
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutor ... sure.shtml
but, what do I know? I still shoot jpgs . . .

bbodine9 wrote: best processing tools

why, PWP, of course ! Search or browse this forum for many hints & tips to improve your pics. And Mr Den, msg #2 has web pages with many PWP techniques and 'how to's. Click on his name to go to his profile where you will find the web url.
boB

"To retain the maximum data in a photo file" would be a no easy task.
First of all you need to get the most data inside the camera, means using a excellent lens, lowest possible ISO to reduce noise, stable tripod to avoid camera movements, biggest possible sensor, correct exposure, saving the file in a losless format (RAW or TIFF) etc.
Ok, I guess not many here will have a large format camrea with digiback, but you have asked for the optimum ;)

From my point of view its essential to use a good lens and to get the exposure right.
Of course one can correct a lot when using a RAW file, but as explained in the Luminous Landscape article posted by Bob it's essential to expose correct for best quality.

Bob, "expose to the right" and storing the pictures in Jpeg do not exclude each other, do they ?
I normally use Jpeg too, RAW just for cases where the extended possibilities of editing bring advantage.
Call it old style, but i have learned photography with slide film, so to "hit" the exposure just right (or make more pictures with different exposures ;) ).

Ref: http://www.better-photos.co.uk/2010/10/ ... al-camera/

Implicit in my previous post is the admonition to double check your camera settings for the type of photography [outdoor nature landscape/animals; events -wedding; sports -action; day; night; black/white; infra-red; portrait -studio -casual; flash -fill -main source; multi light sources; product/catalog; etc] being considered before pressing the camera's shutter as each of the photography types and your own personnel style for them, will have different camera settings for the "Best capture technique"...

...so "S.W.I.P.E." your camera...

I have added my own comments to the reference author's based on my preferences for 'outdoor nature landscape/animal' photography and Canon's EOS-350D and PowerShot S45 cameras...

Here is S.W.I.P.E. explained:

S Style and Size of the picture files. Which picture style setting do you intend to use? Style (e.g. vivid, landscape, portrait) size and quality of your Jpeg settings, or RAW size settings.

With today's size/speed of memory cards, there is really no reason not to shoot "RAW + JPEG" with the maximum possible resolution (size) and the in-camera JPEG processing parameters (contrast, sharpening, saturation, hue, etc.) set to neutral settings or manufacturer's defaults... as well as multi-frame sequences with single or multi-point Auto Focus.

W The White Balance setting. Which WB is appropriate for your environment or your creative vision for your images?

With PWP5's exceptional Color Balance, Remap, Color Correct, Brightness Curve, and Color Curves transforms, the camera's auto WB setting results can easily be modified to preferences and corrections made for multi-light sources... I have observed that for 'long view landscapes', that color balance for near, middle, and far distant details can take on multi-source lighting characteristics... so except for consistent studio-like lighting sources throughout a scene, a camera profile or shooting a near distant 'reference card' for tone/color/WB may not be all that beneficial.

I ISO settings. Which ISO setting is required to capture images at the best quality that conditions allow?

Initially set to the lowest ISO setting for least noise. Adjust to a higher setting when the shutter speed is lower than [1 / (lens focal length)] or use a tripod.

P Priority Mode Settings: If Aperture Priority Mode which F number setting?, or if Shutter Priority Mode which shutter speed setting?

For maxium Depth Of Field and to minimize softening due 'lens diffraction', shoot in Aperature Priority Mode with a F number generally between F8 and F11 [depends on one's lens/camera sensor characteristic's]...

E Exposure Compensation: As per camera or with plus or minus exposure compensation dialed into your camera?

Exposure Metering method [multi-zone, center weighted average, spot] is especially important when shooting JPEGs only. For generally photography and 'camera ready', I will use 'multi-zone' metering.

"Expose to the Right" is an important consideration when shooting 'JPEGs only' if the scene allows the time for its set up but it can also generate dark midtones/shadows with loss of detail and contrasts when shooting a single exposure... for proper exposure of the midtones, consider sacrificing high highlight detail or shooting multiple exposures.

If the scene has a dynamic range greater than is possible with a single exposure and is essentially static, use the camera's plus/minus compensation with a tripod and Aperature Priority where the lens focal length and f-stop are not changed.

For non-static scenes, consider creating virtual plus/minus exposures from the best single exposure image.

Combine and tone-map multi-exposures: (1) manually: 2or3Tone Methods @ http://www.ncplus.net/~birchbay/3tone/3tone.htm; or (2) PWP5's Stack Images transform; and/or (3) 2or3 Zone Adjustment tranforms; or (4) 'SNS-HDR Lite' and PWP @ http://www.dl-c.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=398.

Next time that you take out your camera remember to S.W.I.P.E. it.

Hope this precis [howbeit biased towards 'outdoor nature landscapes/animals' and Canon's EOS-350D and PowerShot S45 cameras] is of some help... Books on 'digital photography' written for specific camera/lens systems and by accomplished photograhers abound and are useful to expand one's knowledge both with artistic awareness and potential of a scene as well as the technical aspects of its capture and post-processing to preferences... I enjoy visits to my county library!!! Sometimes the books help more than the abundance of information on the internet because one can better qualify the 'source'...

Any mistakes here are my own and I am not above corrections... Ask if there are questions.

I won't attempt to make general recommendations as that's been covered thoroughly by others, but, for what it's worth, here is my own (highly?) idiosyncratic workflow.
Important Note - my current obsession is macro photography of bugs using a manual flash.
1. I use RAW only.
2. Given my subject matter I use M(anual) controls to set the aperture to provide reasonable depth of field, and to set the speed for the highest available flash sync speed. Light exposure is by adjusting the flash output. Very occasionally I lift the ISO from it's lowest setting if I'm after the briefest possible flash duration to freeze movement even more than usual.
3. I use the camera feature which identifies blown highlights by 'pulsing' the blown highlights in the picture review, and adjust the flash output to ensure little or no blown highlights on the bug, and not too much near the bug.
4. When I get home I just leave the camera switched on near the computer and the magic Eye-Fi card copies the files to the computer.
5. I 'triage' the images using FastPictureViewer.
6. GPS. I switch my phone's GPS on when I leave home for my bug hunt and record my route using Google's MyTracks. Copy the GPX file to the SD card and that file to my computer.
7. I use GeoSetter to marry the GPS data into the EXIF of the RAW files to record where each shot was taken.
8. Then, using cPicture, I create a folder for that date and a sub folder labelled RAW and move the GPS marked files to the RAW subfolder.
9. I use Silkypix to batch convert the RAW files to 48 bit TIFF. Silkypix came 'free' with my camera (Panasonic GH2) and offers some automatic lens related connections not available in PWP (though one can make the adjustments manually in PWP). Mostly I sue Silkypix defaults except I up the contrast slighty and the sharpening slightly. The same settings for all the images. The only individual adjustment is to overall exposure.
10. All else in PWP. Orientation, alignment, cropping. Then usually I mask the bug and apply Local Contrast Enhancement (LCE) and Bilateral Sharpening only to the but to bring out detail and to make it stand out from the background a little bit.
11. Depending on the image I occasionally run it through SHS-HDR which can give the image more impact. If I go this route then LCE and sharpening with PWP is generally not required.
12. Finally - save as jpeg. After a while - days, weeks, I delete the interim TIFF files, but retain the RAW files.

As you probably gathered - I'm retired!

In my experience taking RAW images will always give the best results. There are a couple of stops of exposure available to work with which is lost when using JPG. With RAW you can change the white balance and take advantage of extra bits of data captured by some cameras. Most cameras have 12-bit sensors but more cameras are coming out with 14-bit sensors.

To get a larger dynamic range from RAW you can process the same image twice, one for highlights and one for lowlights and then composite in PWP.

I try to keep things as simple as possible and the one that works best for me is to use P mode on the camera. My camera allows me to adjust the apperture and shutter without changing the exposure by simply rolling the dial near the shutter relase button. This allows quick and simple control of depth of field etc without having to worry too much about exposure. If you are not interested in adjusting these settings then the camera is setup for quick point-and-shoot.

A final note on 'expose to the right'. I came across this article: http://chromasoft.blogspot.com/2009/09/ ... wrong.html which disputes the whole notion of exposing to the right. Food for thought! My thoughts are to expose to the right but don't over do it!

Thought I would throw in a couple of comments, after reading Bob's initial post and the very good replies:

My process of capturing and squeezing the last drop of quality from an image file is:

1. Use the best capture routine as possible - using a sturdy tripod, remote cable release, mirror-up mode, manual and live view focus, and use the lowest ISO for the circumstances. I even go so far as to wait 7 - 8 seconds after pressing mirror-up to wait for vibrations to cease, before pressing the cable release for the shutter.

2. Always, always shoot Raw. Jpegs are a "baked" result, based on the camera manufacturers opinion on what looks good. Raw allows the shooter to make the decisions on what type of processing is appropriate. Typical jpeg is also a lossy compression and is sRGB (a smaller colour space) so they are not conducive to post- processing to any degree. Out of all the things I do, I consider Raw the most important for quality results. I wouldn't even know how to shoot jpeg on my camera (actually, I don't even know how to shoot auto anything on this camera). By the way, ETTR, as discussed by others, is really only applicable to Raw. The idea is to capture in Raw and expose the histogram as far to the right as possible without clipping (over-exposing) anything. You would then dial back the exposure towards the shadow end if warranted and get the cleanest file possible as a result. If you are committed to shooting jpeg and accept the manufacturers rendering of the image, presumably, you are not planning to do any post editing so ETTR is unnecessary. As an example, if you were shooting a foggy scene, for jpeg you would expose for the mid-tones like the film days and get a histogram/exposure that is close to the middle (as most foggy days are), while with a Raw, you would have your histogram over to the right (and the image would look real bright) then you would dial it back in post editing. (or you may like a brighter foggy scene and may leave it as captured). Each time you work on and save an 8 bit jpeg image, the file degrades a little bit and jpegs can only handle so much saving and re-saving.

3. Import the Raw images into Nikon NX2 for Raw conversion. I do exposure, white balance, colour etc in the converter. I do not allow the Raw converter to sharpen the file so turn off all default sharpening.

4. Export the Raw images from NX2 as a 16 bit TIFF in the ProPhoto or Adobe RGB colour space. ProPhoto has one of the largest colour spaces, with Adobe close behind and sRGB is even less that both. 16 bit allows the user considerable headroom in post capture editing so is recommended, however, it results in a larger file. (Once the image is finished as far as any further editing, there is no problem saving the final file in 8 bit, although a minute bit of quality is still realized if you send 16 bits to the printer rather than 8 bits. For web/computer only viewing, 8 bit is quite fine and an sRGB jpeg is only 8 bit anyway).

5. Import the 16 bit TIFF into Photoshop to use the Focus Magic sharpening plug-in for capture sharpening. I compared various capture sharpening programs and found I like the deconvolution sharpening of Focus Magic best.

6. Once the file is capture sharpened, import into your image editing program of choice for further tweaking. I use a combination of PWP and Photoshop. I use PWP for the following: First - Crop if desired. Second - Levels and Colours to ensure the dynamic range is the greatest possible (this is image dependant of course). Third - Curves and/or 3 tone adjustment. This is image dependant and I often find adjusting the mid-tones only, with the use of a mask, quite adequate for some images. Fourth - I also only use PWP for printing (at home). I may use the other various transformations in PWP like Composite etc or some of Photoshop for l*a*b etc. Much of what I use, beyond the basic 4 as noted, is dependant on what I want for the result and is image specific. I also may use Photokit Sharpener (a Photoshop plug-in) for creative sharpening (sharpening only parts of an image).

7. Re-size and save the image for web use if it will be used as such (which comes with a whole new workflow). If it is to be printed, depending on the expected size, I may use Genuine Fractals or PWP/Photoshop to enlarge. Once at the desired size for printing, I use Photokit to sharpen for output.

Hope this helps,

Marv

Dieter Mayr wrote:Bob, "expose to the right" and storing the pictures in Jpeg do not exclude each other, do they ?

Dieter -- my poor camera only saves the jpeg, so I am not the one to ask. But the above post from Marv, item #2, indicates that the ETTR will not be so helpful for jpeg.
Bob

Bob... I would be willing to discuss with you "JPEG only" as well... see: http://www.ncplus.net/~birchbay/ for contact info and Canon PowerShot S40/45 sRGB Jpeg image examples at bottom of page. Much can be accomplished with "camera jpegs" post-processed with either 8-bit or 16-bit tiff workflows and truth is that for the most part, with normally available consumer medium quality/price monitors/printers... ...at normal viewing distance and common lighting conditions, ...side by side 8x10 inch prints derived from either JPEG or RAW starting files, will be virtually in-distinguishable to the un-aided eye... then too, many notable sports/event photographers will still shoot jpegs to minimize post-processing times.

...but remember the OP's question re "...best capture method...and tools..." There is no question that RAW and its post-processing to the extent described by Marple or someone's else's preferred "large print - fine gallery quality" post-process workflow, will provide the "best".