R-D1 Workflow, Image Processing, File Storage Questions

edhohoho

edhohoho

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I finally have time to familiarize myself with the refurbished R-D1 I bought at around Christmas time, and am grateful for this site because so far I've been able to adjust the vertical alignment of the rangefinder patch and get rid of a lot of hot pixels and noise with the pixel correction and noise reduction features of the firmware upgrade.

I'm having a lot of fun taking pictures and informally learning about photography, but now I have a few questions about the nuts and bolts of how to make the most of my images:

1. Are there any other good yet simple ways to change color images to black and white aside from using the grayscale mode in PS? I read a thread about using a plug-in or a "duotone layer" thing (that I really don't understand as I am only on hour 3 of my Photoshop in 24 hours book), but I'd be interested in hearing what other methods there are. I think I also read about people using Epson RAW to do the conversion because it gives nice results. Don't get me wrong though, the "duo-layer" thing looks really good, but I think it's over my head at this time.

2. How do you apply sepia tones to an image in PS? One of my books doesn't cover this, and the other doesn't explain it very well.

3. Do you shoot JPEG or RAW or RAW+JPEG? I have just been shooting JPEG so far because I wanted to test the camera out and not have to worry about using the RAW converter that I don't know how to use yet. I like that this gives me the ability to take quite a number of shots on my SD card, but to my dismay I recently found out that by saving my images as JPEGs using PS, I continue to lose information compared to the original file given the serial use of lossy compression. Doh! The thing is, I like having the JPEG thumbnails available right away when I plug in my SD card to my computer as opposed to converting everything from RAW first. But if I use RAW+JPEG, what do I do with all these files, especially when I start editing them on PS? How do you handle and organize the storage of all these pictures? And what's the best way to work--always start from the RAW file and convert to TIFF or PSD to prevent repeated lossy compression?

4. Where do you like to post your images and why? Any advantages or disadvantages with Flickr vs. RFF vs. other sites?

Sorry for all these really basic questions. Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
Shoot RAW+JPEG!! You can use Epson RAW to go back & forth from b&w to color and even sepia. It's a very simple program to use, just about totally self-explanatory.

OK, that's about all I'm qualified to answer.
 
Shoot raw and use the Epson Photoraw converter - very easy to use - and save as 16 bit Tiffs if you are going to do more post processing in PS. The black & white from photoraw is very good - much better than any other method I have tried. I am gradually getting all of my images catalogued in Adobe Lightroom and I also use this for all of my other cameras raw image conversions.
 
Another excellent option for Epson raw files is Capture One combined with the JFI B&W Profiles. Sean Reid highly recommends this approach on his review website. The JFI profile sets are inexpensive ($16-20) and offer a wide variety of B&W filter and film styles. Though Capture One is expensive, the LE version is moderately priced and produces the same high quality raw conversion.

I prefer Capture One to Photo Raw because the raw conversion produces a better looking image to my eyes, and the programs' interface is more controllable and better designed than Photo Raw.

http://jfilabs.com//

http://www.phaseone.com/Content/Software/LESoftware/ProductOverview.aspx

http://www.reidreviews.com/reidreviews/
 
Another vote for PhotoRaw here. I shoot RAW+JPG if I'm away from home or need to get proofs to people quickly. I use the jpgs to quickly select the keepers and then process those when I'm back on a more powerful PC. Quite often though I end up being lazy and keeping what the camera has given me :)
 
The b/w conversion in PhotoRaw is indeed very good. Anyhow I vote for Lightroom which supports R-D1 RAW files. It is a very complete solution for digital photography even if you don't process your images very much. The database and catalog mechanisms help keeping an overview over your files, you can create instant slideshows and web galleries and publish them on the web. Therefore I never felt the need to shoot JPEG or RAW+JPEG.

You could use PhotoRaw to create b/w TIFFs from your RAW files and later on do further processing in LR although the b/w capabilities in Lightroom are also very good (If you like Sepia, it comes with a preset). I've tried C1 but I didn't like it for many reasons (my personal opinion), although C1 also produces very good b/w and color conversion.
Adobe offers a non restricted trial for 30 days, in my opinion it's worth a try. With C1 it goes even better: If you buy a 2GB SanDisk card (I think the Extreme III version) you get a licence for C1 LE for free (I hope this is still valid) so you could use it too to create TIFF files for further processing in whatever solution you may choose.

I'm preparing a comparison of different RAW converters. This comparison only focuses on the amount of detail each converter is able to pull out of R-D1 files. The comparison isn't complete yet but my first findings are that PhotoRaw doesn't do the best job here. If the results are complete, I'll post them on RFF, but don't expect it to be tomorrow;).

Currently I don't plan to publish my photos on Flickr or other sites. RFF perhaps is an exception. I'm preparing a personal website for my photos but that will take some more time. So I can't share any experience about that so far.
 
Like most everybody else I shoot RAW’s. I’ve also been using Lightroom. I like the development it give me with the RAW files, and I really like the file management. I would suggest that you get an external hard drive to store the files on (something large) so you don’t clog-up your computer’s internal drive with a mess of images. The Epson developer, while free, was just too slow for me

Lightroom’s black&white conversion is right good also, and is what I use. In PS there are a bunch of ways to take an image to black & white. One of the PS books by Scott Kelby or Martin Evening might be of help. Go to Barnes & Nobel, or similar book store, and look it over before you buy. Evening’s book are a bit more “advanced” than the Kelby books.

For the simplest sepia toning in Photoshop (vCS2) -- just add a “photo filter” adjustment layer, and set it to “sepia.” Then on the layers pallet you can adjust this adjustment layer’s opacity to fine tune things to your liking.

As for web posting, I use my RFF gallery only for images taken with a rangefinder camera. Strange as it seems, some folks post images in the gallery taken with non-rangefinders. Also, I don’t heavily modify/enhance the image that go into the RFF gallery. No more PS work than I would, or could, do in a wet darkroom. That means I don’t use any cloning. I once had a comment on an image of a building that had large power lines attached to it. The comment was, “The cables are ruining your picture (a little bit of PS work?).” Now if this photo had been destined for a commercial project I would have agreed with the commentator and cloned the image clean, but it wasn’t -- I only had to please myself. That firmed thing in my mind that for images that were bound for RFF would have no Photoshop magic applied to them.
 
Thanks very much for the responses! They were all very helpful. I guess I knew it was inevitable, but I will certainly start shooting in RAW from now on and put an external HD on the "to buy" list.

mn4367, I'd be interested to see your review and comparisono of various RAW converters available.

Unfortunately I'm still using PS 6.0...still trying to learn about all this stuff, not to mention earn more funds to support this new hobby.

Software is so expensive. Know of any good places to buy authentic versions at a discount?
 
im thinking of learning to use lightroom, but its a little overwhelming, i never like giving my files to a computer to manage but it usually what works best (i was reluctant to start using itunes too). a lot to learn, and i feel like i need a 30" monitor for this software...
 
edhohoho said:
...
Software is so expensive. Know of any good places to buy authentic versions at a discount?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if Adobe give discounts elsewhere, but in the US they discount the software a whole lot for students.
 
edhohoho said:
Software is so expensive. Know of any good places to buy authentic versions at a discount?
Click to expand...

Students and teachers can often buy software legally on the cheap. Check out with any nieces, nephews, cousins in the student age range. :)
 
einolu said:
im thinking of learning to use lightroom, but its a little overwhelming, i never like giving my files to a computer to manage but it usually what works best (i was reluctant to start using itunes too). a lot to learn, and i feel like i need a 30" monitor for this software...
Click to expand...

I'm also eager to have that 30" thing but 20" or so is also sufficient;). Lightroom can import files from their current location on your harddisk, leaving them where they are. That is one of the options for importing files. This way your own folder structure stays untouched. Everything else is held in a database where only pointers to your files are stored. So if Lightroom dies gets uninstalled or you decide to use another tool your files are still there, they don't disappear somewhere in an inaccessible database. That is the way I work with LR, but there are also others ways to import files, it simply depends on how you wan't to work. Apart from that Lightroom isn't dificult to learn.
 
24" would better choice. my 19" seems to be too small. 30" sounds nice but it requires special cards what I know. Hope Im wrong :D
 
tomasis said:
24" would better choice. my 19" seems to be too small. 30" sounds nice but it requires special cards what I know. Hope Im wrong :D
Click to expand...

That is correct, I'm writing this on a 23" display:D which works great with LR. Unfortunately you are not wrong. AFAIK every current 30" display needs a graphics adapter with a Dual-Link-DVI output. At least this true for the Apple 30" Cinema Display.
Maybe it is better to specify a resolution, on 1680x1050 Pixel and more working with LR is really OK.
 
yeah, working on a 15" laptop feels very very cramped. and this lcd is awful. I will probably get a 20" monitor because i am afraid my laptop graphics card couldn't handle a 24" even though it can output at that resolution.
 
I recently upgraded monitors and felt I was going to need to back away from a 23" monitor for me to be comfortable (YMMV). I decided to go with 20" and it works well for me. One comment - the 16:9 format is (again, for me) a big plus when working multiple windows or when using Lightroom (with panels on either side of the actual work area).
 
edhohoho said:
Unfortunately I'm still using PS 6.0...still trying to learn about all this stuff, not to mention earn more funds to support this new hobby.

Software is so expensive. Know of any good places to buy authentic versions at a discount?
Click to expand...

I now use Photoshop CS2, but Photoshop 6 is still a more than capable program and will do B & White conversions perfectly well.

There are a number of ways to do B & W conversions in Photoshop 6 other than the limited 'convert to grayscale'.

Try converting to Lab colour mode and then delete the A & B channels in the channels pallate. Then boosting the contrast in Curves or Levels.

Try 'Channel Mixer' - tick the monochrome box and adjust the RGB sliders, which will act like the same colour filters on B & W film. Default is 100% Red, but adjust to taste. Try to make the sum of the slider amounts 100%. It should be covered in your book somewhere.

A method that offers even more possibilities is Russel Brown's using two Hue & Saturation layers one above the other.

With either of the above you may still find that you will need to adjust the image contrast using 'Levels' or 'Curves' for the best result. All these (and other methods) offer slightly different results.

There are plenty of free photoshop actions and plugins you can also use with Photoshop 6 around the net.

There is a Free Photshop B & W action in Adobe Exchange here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&extid=1044825

Some more info about B & W conversions (free & paid for) and plugins for Photoshop here: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/bwfromcol.html

Photoshop 6 has a prebuilt in photoshop action for Sepia in the Actions pallate. If you dont like the default result you can fine tune it further.

Adobe Exchange has other Free Sepia actions/plugins here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchan...&num=25&startnum=1&event=search&Submit=Search
 
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