Camera Labs

First off all I want to send greetings to everybody on forum, since I am new:). I’m into photography for about 3 years (started with Canon A510 then moved to Sony H1 and now enjoying 400D). Thanks Cameralabs.com on excellent reviews. It was VERY helpful to me a month ago when I was in dilemma what to buy.

My question…
I shot all in raw and having a trouble when comes to converting. I read a lot on this issue and agree that DPP gives best color and, as I like to say, “live scene”. When I use DPP as converter, sharpening, saturation, etc., pictures are looking very very naturally.

So, what’s my problem? DPP is excellent but is lacking of some very useful tools like recovery and ACR 4.2 have it along with many others. So, is it possible in any way to tune up ACR (presets or something…) so that open RAW files look like those open with DPP?
Biggest problem arrives when I shot people. If I open RAW with ACR skin is just not right…looking kind of yellow. DPP doing mind blow job on this.

Hope I was not ask already asked and if is it so, please just post me link to that early made post.

Thank for your help!
Drazen

Cheers!

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

Hi Drazen, welcome to the Cameralabs forums!

You're right, there are differences between the RAW files converted with different programs, and it's a case of finding one which produces the picture you want and works the way you want it...

I'm sure you can tweak the colour in ACR to match DPP, but if not, why not convert in DPP into a 16-bit TIFF, then continue to work on it in Photoshop afterwards?

Hi Gordon! Agree with you. Some times I doing that, but in terms of “Taking as less time on post processing as possible” that option doesn’t suits me best. Never the less thank you for help. If I find out magic combination of matching DPP with ACR when comes to colors, I`ll shore post it here!

Have a nice day!

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

Small example of ACR/DPP work.
PS:


DPP:

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

Were those using the default settings on each program? It's quite a different result! Maybe the white balance or levels were different?

Everything I have done in DPP is setting WB on Daylight, sharpening on 10 and resize.
In ACR the same. WB to Daylight, resize and sharpening with smart sharpen.
Picture style used in 400D was faithful.

Cheers!

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

I prefer the PS edit, the sky has less detail but the foreground is better.

_________________
Canon 40D - EFS 17-85mm IS - EF 50mm 1.8 II - EF 70-200mm f.4 L - Speedlite 580EX II - GF Lightsphere Cloud - S.I.L.K 300DX PRO Tripod - Manfrotto 679 monopod - LOWEPRO Trekkar Backback - Adobe CS3 -

Thanks for comment Wonda Boy. Glad U like PS. My favorite is DPP because it looks like almost as I saw the scene with my eyes before taking a picture.

Greetings!

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

Hi Drazen

Its a great shot, I have not started raw as I do not like the tedious work after the fun in shooting... for now.

my 2cts

On 1st look the PS was better because of the bright contrast from the pic , however on 2nd look the DPP was better - a little tone down and 'looks natural'

DavidL

_________________
Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Hi David!

Glad U like the photos. I know that RAW asking for spending some time after the shooting on post processing, but it is worthwhile. I recommend that U start with RAW ASAP!

Cheers!

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

I too am shooting RAW and CS3 is a great tool. With the tutorials in all the mags it covers the basic in no time.

I have also just bought a CS3 book so the learning starts now.

_________________
Canon 40D - EFS 17-85mm IS - EF 50mm 1.8 II - EF 70-200mm f.4 L - Speedlite 580EX II - GF Lightsphere Cloud - S.I.L.K 300DX PRO Tripod - Manfrotto 679 monopod - LOWEPRO Trekkar Backback - Adobe CS3 -

I've used (or tried to) just about all of the editing programs out there. Photoshop is the best. Period. I would say there are certain areas in which another program might tackle any given problem easier than doing it in Photoshop, but overall it's by far the best. I was getting so frustrated with it and my lack of knowledge about it. What I knew was patchy at best.

I went back to college! As well as doing an HNC in Computing I have one evening per week at an "Introduction to Photoshop" class in the local college. Wow! I can do some amazing things now that I couldn't do before and I feel I've barely scratched the surface. I'm only four weeks into a twelve week course. I can't wait for it every week. It's so much easier (for me at least) to pick it up when there's a real live person to interact with. The class atmosphere adds to the fun too. Photoshop is truly an awesome piece of work and well worth persevering with. It's going to college that did it for me though.

Just some thoughts.

Zorro.

_________________
http://zorrofox4.deviantart.com/



Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Agree 100% with U zorro! CS3 is far best when comes to post processing. Although I use DPP in most cases, CS3 is something that U just must to have!

Cheers!

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall