Best settings for D70 shoting Raw + Adobe Camera Raw 3.2

I recentely bought a nikon D70 as a start camera in digital world. I was shooting with a

Fm3a and a Hassel 503cw. I'm Reading Bruce Fraser's book "Real World Camera Raw with

adobe photoshop CS2" and woud like to know from you the most optimized raw

configuration for my D70, since i read somewhere that for best results when using ACR,

you have to put all your image optimizations in the minimal value. So, In Optimize image

menu i'm currently using : Custom

none sharpening

0 Normal Tone Comp (Here i'm in doubt in maybe using -2 low contrast)

Adobe rgb(98) color space

Moderate Saturation

 

I thought that if it is a Raw file, this pre-conf. doesn't metter since i will be using ACR later

in conversion. Maybe nikon put this extra config. in nef files?

 

Thanks.

Rodrigo - since digital is new to you you know but not really gotten used to it: taking images is for free :-)

 

So feel free to try - experimenting is among the best part of digital. You will see that what you read "somewhere" is not true. Your intuition is right: Take images in raw and forget about in camera settings of white balance color settings etc. Essentially everything you can adjust in the import menu in PS can be changed right there and former adjustments in camera can be modified in PS. The original data are stored and the adjustments only affect the way you see the data on screen. Similar to using slide film the D70 has a more limited dynamic range compared to many negative films. This is one of the more stringent factors to watch when shooting in high contrast conditions. So watch out for blown highlights. Compensating "exposure" on import into PS can not give you information like underexposed areas or blown highlights back that is lost due to false exposure! Still in PS you can pull out a lot e.g. from dark areas in the image when using RAW files since these contain more range than 8bit ( not really 16bit, more like 10-12bit depth). I think reading up on the topic like you do is an efficient way to go and adding experiments to play around with the new concepts will be very helpful. Have fun.

 

Cheers

Walter

 

 

PS: I am not 100% certain about the sharpening (I think it does not affect raw) but I keep that switched off anyway all the time even if I (rarely) do jpegs. Sharpening should always be the last step in optimization and depends very much on the individual output device and size of the image.

Rodrigo- I've had my D70 since May and used JPEGs until my son's wedding in June. I shot RAW only and thought everything was OK but I was disappointed that in Camera Raw, the images looked darker than those I'd grow fond of in JPEG mode. I just figured it was me- as I'm a very inexperienced amature. I guess I assumed that CR was using information from the camera to give the default rendering of the photo data.

Then, this last week, I did some photos at a church gathering and used the RAW+jpg mode. The JPEGs looked fine but the RAW was again darkish.

After your post, I looked at the settings but I'm more confused than I was before. I know that CR does come up with certain defaults for sharpening, etc, but I've heard several knowledgable people say that it's better to let Photoshop do the sharpening as the algorithm there is better.

This is a very interesting issue for me and I was glad to see that someone else has the same questions.

Mel

First, regarding the fact that JPEGs out of the D70 often look "better" than RAW images: The D70 applies saturation enhancement, sharpening, and other augmentation to the image before it writes the JPEG, so of course it looks "better." It's basically generating a "finished" image.

 

Second, RAW images can easily be made to look at least as good as D70 JPEGs. You get to apply staturation enhancements, sharpening, white balance adjustments, etc. **yourself**. You get complete control.

 

The only D70 setting that gets carried over into (and used by) Adobe Camera RAW is the camera's white balance calculation (whatever you have it set on; auto, a specific mode e.g. Daylight, or a specific temperature). The camera-calculated white balance setting is represented by the "As shot" item in the Adobe Camera Raw white balance drop-down. All other in-camera image processing settings are only relevant for JPEGs.

Thanks Walter! That was my doubt.

Mel, the raw files looked darker because you have to adjust all the variables in ACR(Adobe

Camera Raw), unlike shoting in jpeg, where your camera convert the RAW file into jpeg

using your pre-conf. options. I recommend the Bruce Fraser book about Adobe Camera

RAW, i 'm getting pretty nice results. Right now, i'm using an Apple Powerbook 12'' and my

next purchase will be a color calibration tool like Eye-one Display. Well, PROFESSIONAL

Digital Photography is not that practical anyway...But i'm enjoing the control it gives to all

your workflow. I Just have to be pacient...

 

Thanks,

 

Rodrigo Aguilera

Belém-PA

Brazil.

Rodrigo- Yes, I know I have complete control. I know I can make it look better than the JPEG that is the alternative. My angst is at the fact that the CR add-in doesn't default to the way that the JPEG is processed. I know, I want everything. The problem with complete control is the fact that you have to completely control it. Too many times I've got the perfect shoot but the WB or color is a bit off. Instead of just adjusting that, I'm forced to start from scratch (almost) with the NEF file so it takes a little bit to just get to where you are already with the JPG. Then, on the 90% of the shots that only need cropping, I'm also forced to do everything.

A word of caution about laptop screens. Keep the nef files for later times when you might have a good monitor (crt or good tft) available. most laptop screens are not good enough for image adjustment. I would not even pay the money for a calibration tool. Rather save the money for an external monitor and get that eye one later for this monitor. with siome practise you can manually adjust the screen (if possible with your laptop) using test images that can be found in the WWW. A laptop is a great companion for a digital camera and i use it a lot , especially on trips, but many times i run into problems if I try to adjust images on the laptop - gestimating adjustments using the internal screen.

Walter, i agree with you. Maybe a 23''cinema display would fit nice. What about using the DVI

output from my Powerbook for this monitor, would be the same thing(quality) as using a

non-laptop output?

Thanks.

The in-camera JPEG and the ACR default are different because they are processed by two

completely different programs, using different settings: the former by Nikon, and the latter

by Adobe. If you want an NEF converter whose default matches the in-camera JPEG (more

or less), the easiest thing to do is to use Nikon Capture.

 

You can also tweak the ACR defaults to get something more to your liking, but a 100%

match w/ Nikon is probably impossible.

Regarding calibration of laptop screens: Use Adobe Gamma. Comes free with CS2. In Winders, it's installed as an applet in your Control Panel.

Rodrigo I know too little about the technical details of the apple laptops. Better ask this at an apple forum or here in PN in the digital darkroom forum. Some "windows" laptops use very good graphic cards and have good output for external monitors. However I know that some had problems in the way that the graphic cards would not allow color correction profiles.