Ask Dave, June 11th - Raw Conversion

Ask Dave, June 11th
I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and I might just answer them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From... Justin and Todd
How do you convert your RAW images?
What do you use to be sure your camera/monitor/printer all look the same?
What are your RAW conversion settings?

Answer:
Well first off I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, on Apple computers, with color calibrated monitors.
Now to what you want... my settings.
The easiest way is for me to just publish a version that folks can download and use at will (if you like it, remember where you got it). The file is .zip, so you will need to uncompress it and then import the file, "toShare.lrtemplate," into Lightroom. I did not include "White Balance" or "Calibration;" because they vary greatly depending on camera/ISO/the actual scene/etc.

Often I need to warm an image from what the camera gives me, and I also choose the appropriate calibration (weather that is eyeballing it or using a ColorChecker Passport).

Almost every image gets a few tweak from those basic settings, and at this point I can almost edit by numbers when I first look at a RAW image, and even in the field as I am shooting the shot. I have sharpening and noise reduction presets for different cameras/subjects/ISOs; but the included settings are good (ish) for something like a 7D @ISO400 for wildlife.

Occasionally I will adjust individual color saturation and luminance to mimic certain films; but that is not the "norm."

I have posted it on my LiveBooks Site FTP:
Please click on the link below to have it download through a web browser window.
(If clicking on it doesn't launch a browser window, then you must select the URL, copy and paste it into a web browser address bar, and tap the Enter or Return key on your keyboard. The file should then begin to load.)
http://www.daveshumway.com/toShare_lrtemplate.zip

Enjoy

Ask Dave, March 12th

Question from Adam… What is your editing technique, as everyone has their own style and really "morals" when it comes to editing? How much or what kind of editing do you think is appropriate and or do you use on your images? Also, I am trying to create my own workflow, do you have any tips or suggestions on a digital workflow?

Answer… I think it is easiest to start with my published artists statement:

My photographic aesthetic is the “Wilderness Sublime.” This term is a modification of the term “Landscape Sublime” used by the photography greats Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. The “Landscape Sublime” furthered the idea of “straight photography” by Alfred Stieglitz with his popular “291 Gallery” in New York in the 1900s-20s, which was created in response to the pictorialist movement. My belief is that the principles of the “Landscape Sublime” can encompass all things grand or minuscule in the wilderness of our great planet.

I adhere to many of the ideals of the straight photographers. For my images I strive to be able to call them “non manipulated” which means: A single uninterrupted exposure. Cropping only to taste (no drastic crops, always keeping 3500 pixels on the long end, or more). Common adjustments to the entire image, such as color temperature, tonal curves, and sharpening. The only local editing I do is dodging and burning; but that is used sparingly. I strive to make my images as technically perfect as possible, from the beginning. Shooting an image incorrectly and fixing it later is for “Photoshoppers.” This belief dictates that if I am looking for a "creative effect" I need to think of a way to do it even before the image is captured.

Becoming more proficient with my camera has allowed me to branch out into new ways to render images that can stir emotions in a way that only the wilderness can. With the common acceptance of High Dynamic Range Merging (HDRM) to merge different exposures of multiple identical photographs, the ability to match what the human eye can see, in regards to color depth and dynamic range, is finally possible. The allowance for multiple exposure images merged to one final piece of art makes it possible to display what the human eye is able to see and perceive when the image is captured. This is something I use sparingly, and when I do use it I clearly label the output image as such.

If an image is anything other than what I have outlined above, it will be clearly labeled as such.

I photograph wild, non captive, creatures. I avoid approaching too closely and causing stress to the animals. I am a firm believer in "Leave No Trace" ethics and try to live by the following mantra: "Take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints."

By capturing the traditional, non-manipulated images of the wild, and at the same time looking for the "straight beauty" that can be made with "creative capture," I am able to push myself into new realms of photography. The “Wilderness Sublime” is what I find inspiring, what I seek to capture, and share. My goal is to, with every release of my shutter, create an image that allows others to briefly glimpse inside nature at its most sublime.

NANPA has a few other general guidelines that I follow, they are presented at the following links:

Ethical Field Practices

Truth in Captioning

Now for a shorter answer; if I can do it in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, I'll consider doing it. Occasionally I will use Photoshop CS5, and tricks within, to enhance an image; but even then I do not bring new elements into an image. My star trails are single exposure, and my HDRM work is all that is creations from 2 or more exposures. I teach students how to do all kinds of editing "cheating;" but for myself if I knew how to do it in the darkroom, it is probably something I fell good about doing in the "lightroom."

Lastly to your question on digital workflow; buy and use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 and/or Apple Aperture 3. Use of these applications, once trained/familiar, makes life as a digital photographer significantly better/easier/faster/more efficient. All of my images go through Lightroom 3 and the "keepers" live there, referenced on my external raid (Drobo).

If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

UPDATE... I should mention that before I used 18/21MP cameras my crop guide was 3000 pixels on the long end I also use the same standard when cropping to 6:6 and when turning a landscape into a portrait, or vise versa. I also should note that I do create panoramic images, though I prefer to use T/S lenses so as to create stichless panoramas much as we did with film. After chatting with some professional bird photographer friends, in regard to this post, I have been advised to leave myself room to crop bird images to 3000 pixels on the long end. I also fully realize that in the future I might need to start baiting/calling/staging for some species of birds, when/if I decide to do so, I will disclose that with the image.

Yellowstone & Grand Teton, September 2nd & 3rd, 2006

Canon 20D with 17-40/4.0L at 21mm, set in aperture priority mode at f/8.0, ISO 100, and 1/160th of a second. Exposures bias of +1/3, mounted on a cheep tripod.
PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

This was another one of those great, early, trips to YNP and GTNP for me. I only had a 20D and 70-200/4.0L and 17-40/4.0L at this point, and had only been shooting digital for a year. Unfortunately, I was shooting mostly JPG files; but luckily I was shooting my better landscapes in RAW. This trip I was focusing on a project for an Environmental Ethics course where I was shooting litter, pollution, and the destruction of nature at the hand of man. I took the pair of sunrises and sunsets off, so I could shoot some classic landscape scenes, and still managed to get an "A" on the project.

Enjoy

p.s. Until this point only two or three of the images posted here have seen the light of day. The images for the project served their purpose well; but did not need to be shared here.

Yellowstone & Grand Teton, October 20th & 21st, 2006

Canon 20D with 70-200/4.0L at 81mm, set in manual exposure mode at f/8.0, ISO 400, and 1/320th of a second. Mounted on a cheep tripod that did little more than aid in keeping a straight line for the panorama. 8 images merged in PS CS5 then converted to B&W.
PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

This was one of those great, early, trips to YNP and GTNP for me, and one that got me hooked on the area. I only had a 20D and 70-200/4.0L (and maybe a 1.4TC by this point). I had been shooting digital for about a year, and was shooting mostly JPG files, unfortunately; but fortunately I was shooting my better landscapes in RAW. I shot quite a few panoramic images on this quick two day trip, and the image featured about (now re-edited and much better), is one of my better selling fine art prints, and an award winner. As you can tell from the images day two brought with it a beautiful snow storm.

Enjoy

p.s. Until this point only five of these images have seen the light of day.

Yellowstone & Grand Teton May 12th & 13th, 2007

Canon 20D with 70-200/4.0L at 70mm, set in aperture priority mode at f/8.0, ISO400, and 1/125th of a second. Exposure bias of -1/3, shot from a cheep tripod.
PHOTOS NOW ONLINE (again)

As I continue the process of editing all of my images again I am continually amazed at what a difference 4 years makes in the world of photo editing. I also keep reminding myself how foolish I was to ever shoot JPG images, luckily by this point I was smart enough to shoot my landscapes in RAW. My suggestion to you is to always shoot RAW, and take a second (or third) look at your older images.

Happy shooting

Topaz Adjust

More tweaking to my most recent Yellowstone trip photos today.

I decided to play with the new sensation that is Topaz Adjust:
http://www.topazlabs.com/adjust/
Save $10 with coupon code “newadjust” good through the 15th of March. (Thanks NSN)

I have nothing to do with Topaz other than purchasing one of their Photoshop plug-ins today and briefly playing with it. I will not claim to know the full potential; but I have played a little bit and see that this is a nice little tool to go along with great shooting and good editing.

If you go through my gallery and see two versions of the same photo you can see Topaz in action.

If you do take a look be sure and let me know what version you like best.

Aperture 3

Apple has announced a new version of their popular Aperture software. Aperture 3 has over 200 new features including face detection and brush control of many settings.

I use Adobe Lightroom, Aperture's main competitor; but I am glad to see Apple come up with a new version. Competition is a good thing.

What all is new you ask... you can learn more here.

7D Users Rejoice

Adobe now has full raw support for the 7D in both Lightroom and Bridge/PS.

I have updated; but not played yet.

Here is the link:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

Lightroom 3

Adobe announces a Beta of Photoshop Lightroom 3

You can read more about it and download it here.

It looks to have promise. I'll have more to share about it after I get to play with it a bit more.

Camera Picture Profile Settings

Beat to the punch.

Outdoor Photographer, this month, ran an article about Lightroom and using camera picture profile settings. I had this same topic on my list of things to blog about. Well they saved me the time of having to write it out.

This article could of been written by me. It is my story as well, I have been playing with camera picture profile settings for a while and loving them. I have found the Landscape setting most useful (with Standard as my default).

Those of you using Lightroom should take a minute to read the article then play a bit. See what elements of your nature photography benefit from it.

The article is here.

Enjoy