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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Shooting in Raw - does Camera Settings Matter?
Daniel Brayack, Photographer
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Charleston | WV | USA | Posted: 6:44 PM on 04.14.08 |
->> Ok - here is a question - I have looked around, but have not really found a definitive answer.
I'm shooting a Nikon D3 and I'm shooting Raw.
Does it matter if I choose "Vivid" or "Neutral" or set my own color scheme?
Basically, can I do all of these tweaks in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop in post processing (note I didn't say Capture NX)
Capture NX does from my limited use of it (I'd prefer to not add this program to my work flow - I always convert to DNG and I could not open a DNG file in Capture NX)
Granted I have exposed the photo properly; not clipping any highlights or darks - etc.
It would be nice if Lightroom could mimic "D2x Vivid" or say "D200 standard" that sort of thing.
Of course, I am going to spend time working with the in camera settings, but will I be losing quality on images until I make it throught he learning curve?
I've noticed a drastic difference between D200 vivid and D3 vivid.
Thank you in advance for your time.
Daniel Brayack |
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Chuck Steenburgh, Photographer
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Lexington | VA | USA | Posted: 1:29 AM on 04.15.08 |
->> I'm shooting the D300, not the D3, but I would think experiences are similar.
With D300 RAW, ACR sucks. Images come out awful and take far too much tweaking to look OK. Of course, Nikon planned it that way...
I have to use Capture NX and export a TIF to PS with the D300. With the D200, I preferred ACR.
But that's why I shoot almost exclusively JPG. D300 out-of-camera JPGs look beautiful to me with almost no PP required. |
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Mark Scheuern, Photographer
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Grand Blanc | MI | USA | Posted: 7:46 AM on 04.15.08 |
->> Except for the camera histogram display and the embedded JPEG, no, the settings don't matter. RAW files aren't color files. Here's a nice article by Thom Hogan on the subject:
http://www.bythom.com/qadraw.htm |
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Daniel Brayack, Photographer
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Charleston | WV | USA | Posted: 8:19 AM on 04.15.08 |
->> Thanks Mark and Chuck - I figured as such, but wanted to ask just to make sure.
-Dan |
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Wesley Hitt, Photographer
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North Little Rock | AR | USA | Posted: 8:52 AM on 04.15.08 |
->> I shoot nothing but RAW and if you get the exposure correct, the camera records all the information that you need. Everything else can be adjusted with Lightroom or Camera RAW in Photoshop.
I have had the same experience with ACR that Chuck has seen. I switched to Lightroom because what I was seeing with Photo Mechanic and what opened up in ACR were two very different images. The ACR image sucked. It has slowed down my workflow but my images look so much better. It makes me want to go back through old files. I shoot RAW because I do not always know the end use of my images and because of future programs. Can you begin to imagine what we will be able to do with photos in the future. It would be best to have an archive of RAW files.
Wesley |
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Landon Finch, Photographer
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Colorado Springs | CO | USA | Posted: 10:19 AM on 04.15.08 |
->> In ACR (I'm using v 4.3.1) you can create a camera profile and use that profile for all your images. You adjust contrast, saturation, color hues/saturation, etc., etc., then "Save settings" from the little menu icon just below all the tabs in ACR (see the screen shots below).
Then open all the images you want to use that profile for and use a batch to apply the camera profile to all your images. It's 3 clicks once you have the profile set.
Here are two screen shots. I have two profiles set, "D300" and "TEST".
http://www.finchfotography.com/acr1.jpg
http://www.finchfotography.com/acr2.jpg |
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Landon Finch, Photographer
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Colorado Springs | CO | USA | Posted: 10:24 AM on 04.15.08 |
->> "Then open all the images you want to use that profile for and use a batch to apply the camera profile to all your images. It's 3 clicks once you have the profile set."
Sorry, it's not really a batch process, you simply select all your images in ACR and apply the settings.
If you're using the same camera for all your work (or if you always want to use the same ACR settings as a starting point), you also have the option of setting the ACR default settings so that it automatically applies your settings to all images. |
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