What's your GRD III workflow?

[nightfly]

Ordered a GRD III after pouring over the forums here. Think it will probably work out nicely as travel/street cam for an upcoming bike trip to Italy. The E-P2 was just a little too big/heavy.

However I've never shot RAW before and it seems like you really need to with this camera to get the most of the images, particularly in color. Ideally I'd like to have both RAW and JPEGs so that I can post vacation shots quickly on the web and then take more time to work on the keepers. I think it's impossible not to do this as the Ricoh needs the jpeg for it's own previews.

So what's your workflow? Guessing I'll have to cave and give Adobe some more $$ for Lightroom, since my usual workflow is scanning film directly into Photoshop using the Epson TWAIN driver. But that's fine. Will probably do my digital image management in Lightroom rather than keeping it separate in Photoshop and iViewMedia Pro which I sorta do now with film.

 

[__--]

The first posting, under the heading "Postscript: Processing GRD3 files", of my review of the GRD3 has a description of how I process the files.

—Mitch/Bangkok
Paris au rythme de Basquiat

 

[DougK]

Mitch, great review and workflow description. My GRDIII is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so this was a timely thread!

 

[andrewteee]

I prefer RAW Developer for processing my Ricoh files. It does great with color, but more importantly to me it makes great B&W conversions. And the deconvolution sharpening is really effective.

Otherwise, I use LR and Silver Efex Pro if I want to process a more creative B&W image.

Have fun.

 

[Archiver]

- Turn off all camera noises
- Set focus to centre, metering to Multi, WB to Multi-P, Auto ISO to 400 or 800
- Set capture to RAW + jpeg (I use the smallest resolution as I never, ever use the jpegs)

- Plug SD card into the computer, download using Breeze Downloader Pro, which sets the Date Modified as the shooting date so I can easily put all photos and video into chronological order

- Import into Lightroom 3, using one of my general presets that does the following:

- Auto WB, Auto Tone
- Increase Clarity, Saturation, Contrast
- Recover Highlights, Fill Light for shadows
- Sharpen using LR3's landscape preset's sharpening settings

I arrived at my preset by adjusting a number of photos to see what changes would create more pleasing images. I find that LR3's Auto White Balance usually does a good job, although there are times when it is way off. Watch out for that.

I batch export full resolution jpegs, and store the raws and jpegs in separate harddrives. I look through the jpegs and see if there are any that I'd like to work on individually, then do so if required. I have also downloaded a lot of interesting presets that emulate film, both black and white and colour, so there's always lots to play with.

Oh, and get a nice case. I use a Lowepro neoprene case with velcro flap and belt loop. It's a tightish fit, but it's great.

 

[nightfly]

Thanks Archiver.

I've had the camera a bit and have come to just about the settings you recommended. One thing I find really nice is the "Full Press Snap Mode" setting. Half press auto focus, full press snap mode is perfect for me.

Breeze Downloader Pro is Windows only I guess. Photomechanic seem similar on the Mac but it's like $150. Have to wait till they put it on sale again.

I still haven't used the custom settings since the defaults I've established seem to do everything I'd need. They seem more useful if you're not shooting RAW and need the in camera color settings instantly available.

Ordered Lightroom and am waiting for it to come. So far I've been using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop to play with the raw files a bit.

Can you give me some pointers about your presets that emulate film? This is definitely my next thing to check out once I've got Lightroom installed. I was thinking about getting one of the plug ins like Silver EFX and Color EFX or Alien Skin Exposure but would rather take care of this sort of stuff in a non-destructive way within Lightroom itself if the presets do a good job. Also the price tag on those plug ins seem pretty high to me. Played with Exposure on a friends computer and it does do some nice things. Not too heavy handed and very film like.

 

[Archiver]

I enjoy using these presets for colour film:

http://www.presetsheaven.com/2008/11/04/18-free-color-print-film-emulation-lightroom-presets/

and black and white film

http://www.presetsheaven.com/2009/02/13/lidf-fuji-ilford-bw-collection/

The creator of these presets did a fair bit of work to produce a film-like look. They are good as they are, and give you a useful basis for further experimentation.

I'm a big fan of Alien Skin Exposure as well. Big fan.