Help! dull images from D70

[thomas_hardy1]

I have a friend who bought a D70 last year who thinks the images are dull.

What Raw converters and tutorials can you recommend?

 

BTW, she is comparing the digital images to photos taken previously on Velvia

50.

 

 

Thanks

[brandonhamilton]

Did she do all her own post shot work when she was shooting with velvia? did she do all the dark-room, chemical, and printing steps on her own?

 

A digital negative, especially a RAW file, requires similar adjustments before they are finished. The unprocessed negative is what you get, You still may have to fine tune white balance, color, overall exposure/brightness, sharpeness, saturation, etc.

 

She needs to get into photoshop, and spend a great amount of time reading online through some post production techniques.

[stephen hazelton]

I was just going to suggest pointing the camera in a more interesting direction...maybe that's not the problem?

[dave_powell2]

Hi Thomas,

 

Others can recommend RAW converters (I simply use the converter in Photoshop). But your friend may also want to read the Photoshop Help file about using the Levels Histogram. Many images come out of even the best digital cameras a bit "dull"...and a few quick Levels adjustments can work wonders!

 

Sincerely,

 

Dave

[leicaglow]

Thomas, I sort of liken the problem to that of NASA images. They're pretty lousy until you post-process them. The interesting thing about RAW NEF files is they really do contain the data, but you have to coax it out sometimes with tools like the saturation filter in PhotoShop.

[robert_hooper1]

Try these settings:

 

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID86/15189.html#0

[elliot1]

Are the pictures on your screen dull, or when you print them or send them out and have them printed.

 

Depending on how you have the settings on your camera, computer monitor and printer, you can end up with less than perfect pictures.

 

There are numerous post processing programs that can make your pictures look their best, but depending on how you print them, they still may not look the way you want.

 

I have had excellent results using Nikon View (free software direct from Nikon). For post processing, I use software by DXO (www.dxo.com). They offer a free 30 day trial. I was never truly happy with my images until I started processing my pictures with their software. I generally never print a picture without processing it through the DXO software.

 

Good luck.

[thomas_hardy1]

Elliot, that is a good question about monitor versus print. I saw some uploaded pics she made while on a trip which looked good. She thought the printed pics looked dull when mailed to her. I figured a better online printer was all that was needed. That was last year. I thought she had figured it out until she mentioned it today when we had a conversation about photography.

 

I'll relay this info, and give her a couple of DL'd Raw converters, but I have a feeling she doesn't really like RAW. (files too big)

[les_barstow]

Hmm... One possibility that no-one's pointed out yet is that the camera might be set to Adobe colorspace, but the files are being opened in sRGB space. That's a sure way to dull your images.

 

Other than that, if she's comparing to Velvia 50, she's going to be disappointed with the out-of-camera settings. Even using Enhanced Saturation, it's not going to punch the way Velvia does. Pull it into Photoshop, fix up the Levels, and possibly up the Saturation. There's a series of PS scripts you can purchase that you apply to make your digital image "look like Velvia" or other film, but to my mind it's just as easy to learn the actual PhotoShop steps so you can customize the look yourself.

[CharlesBecker-Toronto]

Dave Powell is quite correct-using levels usually perks up a digital image back to where you saw it in the first place cb

[briany]

Les beat me to it. Is she sure she's saving in sRGB? A print is also just never going to have the punch of a slide on a lightbox, but I'm sure she knows that.

[patrick_viebey___orlando__]

Using RAW, all the previous comments apply most excellently. I'd also check and make sure you have a good exposure (using the histogram).

 

Yes, digital requires processing just like film. I just don't have to use noxious chemicals in the dark <grin>...

[david_h._hartman]

<em>BTW, she is comparing the digital images to photos

taken previously on Velvia 50. --Thomas Hardy<br>

</em><br>

This sounds like a job for the Curves Pallet in Photoshop. Try

pinning or dragging down the quarter tone slightly then drag up

the three-quarters tone a bit. This will increase the mid tone

contrast and also the mid tone saturation at the expense of shadow

and highlight contrast. Velvia 50 is not only a high saturation film

but also a high contrast film. Im sure this will give your

friend the look she wants. For best results shoot NEF.<br>

<br>

Regards,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.

[cjfraser]

Some suggestions: Calibrate your monitor using an Eyeone, Spyder, or similar device. Shoot raw, not jpeg. Buy a book or use Google to learn how to use "Levels" and "Curves" in Photoshop. Google the phrase "local contrast enhancement" and try it out (run Unsharp mask with radius = 15 and amount = 60 for starters). If still not satisfied, bump the saturation up a bit (maybe 8-12%, not too much). And if you want to get that beautiful glow of early morning sunlight shining on wet pebbles on a beach, which Velvia renders so heart-achingly well, then... shoot Velvia.

[cappoldt]

I've found that the Photoshop Action located here: http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/Digital-Darkroom.htm

 

Does a darn fine job of emulating Velvia.

[anis]

Hi,

Before trying a lot of things, I suggest you have her download

picasa (free download from google) and just have her try the "I feel lucky" option. For the most part, it will get you very good results (yes, it works directly on NEF files).

 

Use the heavy weight Photoshop for more control etc.

 

Thanks

Anis

[hique]

Velvia 50 was making your friend to overestimate her pictures.

 

If your friend thinks that the D70 is dull, probably its because her pictures are not interesting enough.

 

I would bet that her images are high dependable on the unreal colors that Velvia offers. I like Velvia too, but I am aware that there is a whole world of photography beyond that.

 

So, it's not really a D70's fault...but it's easy to achieve the Velvia look. There is a plugin from Fred Miranda that does just that.

 

If you want to do it manually, increase saturation a lot, specially the blue and green. Change the color balance to a more yellow/orange tone. Increase contrast a lot. Bring gamma down a little.

 

And to make it clear, a D70 has a much better color response than velvia, if you compare it with the real scene.

[frans_waterlander]

Most of the time when people complain about dull images from dSLR's it is because they haven't learned to properly post-process the images. As a minimum you need to use Levels, Curves and sharpening. Other tools like Hue/Saturation may be needed as well. How versed is this person in post processing?

[anis]

Hello,

 

I used to shoot velvia and then got the D70. Therefore I have experience with what Thomas is asking about. Even though I expect that the quality to differ, D70 "out of the box" pictures are quite dull if you are using Auto white balance.

I recently went on a photo trip with my friend and he had Canon 20D and his picture had highers contrast/color when we reviewed on site.

 

But, after post processing, I could easily recover the color/contrast information from NEF. As most have already posted, any photo editing that can help modify the histogram will take care of this. Picasa's "I feel lucky" button has very nice preset adjustment which is what I recommended earlier.

[andrew_kendall]

To be honest, if you want zippy images out-of-the-box-brownie, wait till the sun is out. Otherwise, unfortunately, there's no avoiding post-capture tweaking on the pc. But to save time, don't bother with big ol' bloated PhotoShop, use the fast and user-friendly Picasa, which allows you to fairly whizz thru all your pics and give them a contrast boost as required. I may have misgivings about Google taking over the world, but I have to admit, Picasa is neat.

[jon e]

Thank you for that helpful link to the suggested D70 settings.

[peter]

I found all of my images to be dull when I first got my D-70s. First step is set the camera to overexpose by one third stop. Also I saw somewhere on one of these forums a list of custom settnings to use to improve image quality out of the camera (ie sharpening etc.) Do a search and then use these settings they work.

 

These steps helped a lot as there appears to be a consensus that the D-70 does underexpose slightly. But no photo is perfect straight out of camera - all need more work.

 

Esepcially I Photoshop all of my "keeper" images.

 

Step 1 boost saturation to give it more punch.

 

Step 2 Use Curves to tweak contrast (usually this means giving it more contrast)

 

Step 3 Use the sharpening tool to sharpen the image.

 

Usually those steps are enough but sometimes I will also use various other pluginis to tweak the image further. For example, sometimes photos have a lot of JPG artifacts if they have been oversharpened or if they were too dark and then over brightened. In these cases I use a tool designed to fix any such problems. Alternatively, if dealing with a a portrait shot, a slight dose of softening may be needed to provide the requisite amount of "glow" to the face. Sometimes I also use the "replace color" tool to boost or lower the saturation or tone of specific colors in a shot to get a better overall result

 

All digital images need this sort of tweaking in my view - Although I think the out of camera images from the D-70 are excellent once it has been tweaked as described above, a modest amount of photoshop tweaking is still essential to get the best out of the photo.

[fourfa]

Try reading the following threads:

 

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1034&message=15332691

 

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=12241566

 

The gist is that you can calibrate a camera by shooting carefully controlled pictures of known targets, then run a script that manipulates the color correction variables in Adobe Camera RAW to match. Try the following numbers for photos shot outdoors, see what looks good. My D70 (sold before I discovered this process) really came alive with these corrections, turns out I was lacking green saturation in almost everything which really killed my outdoor photos. With these corrections, things really came back to life. I usually also apply a "strong" contrast curve with my D70 files, and with a little global saturation boost you're getting close to Velvia territory.

 

Shadow Tint-2

Red Hue -6

Red Sat +10

Green Hue +11

Green Sat +20

Blue Hue +11

Blue Sat +1

 

or

 

Shadow Tint: 0

Red Hue: -22

Red Sat: +29

Green Hue: +10

Green Sat: +19

Blue Hue: +10

Blue Sat: +12

 

Tungsten light:

 

Shadow Tint -2

Red hue -10

Red Sat +7

Green Hue -43

Green Sat +55

Blue Hue +9

Blue Sat -29

[stephen_platell]

Yeah I'm sure that's just the advice she wants to hear. "Oh just shoot everything in RAW and apply these ten fixes in Photoshop and it'll be great". Excuse me I think these things are supposed to make our life easier, not harder.

Surely it is possible to configure the camera itself to take photos that she is happy with *out of the box*. Maybe you guys think Ken Rockwell is a joke (do you? i don't know) but his site has a wealth of down-to-earth information, including exactly how he sets up his D70 to give him the results he wants (and his preferred film is Velvia 100). I found his opinions on RAW files refreshing also. http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70/d70-settings.htm - check it out.

[fourfa]

suit yourself. Type those numbers in once, one time, save them as defaults, along with your preferred settings on all the other settings. RAW conversion (cutting and pasting edits to giant blocks of photos all at once), outputting to JPEG through a batch photoshop action, is a lot quicker for me than opening each and every goddam JPEG in photoshop and repeating the same edits over and over.