Another PS SC2 raw conversion question....

[Seb]

Hello,

Following MJS question on Camera Raw, I started to give a closer look at the Camera Raw
features and noticed that there is a setting in the preferences where you can choose to apply sharpening to "all images" or to the preview image only... Now, I am wondering, what does this mean??? Is Camera Raw systematically applying some sort of unsharp mask to all images all the time before they are opened in CS2 or what?? From what I have seen, this setting can't be totally disabled.

thanks in advance

Seb

[OldSchool]

Hi Seb,

Do you have Nikon Capture? It has it's detractors, but what I really like about it is that you can change all the in-camera settings and see the results on the fly. These settings include: exposure, white balance, sharpening, tone curves, color mode, saturation, and hue adjustment. I find this super-useful for tweaking the RAW file before I start any editing. Note that there is a button that will open PS with your current image in Nikon Capture. Also, there is a bunch of other stuff that Nikon Capture does. But I only use NC for basic corrections. I use Paintshop Pro for any images that have become projects.

At first I totally grumbled about shelling out the $100 for Nikon Capture. But after the fact, it is well worth it to me for the fidelity and control over the RAW conversion.

I don't use PS. So, I have no insight to your PS CS2 question. But, I'll do my best if you have any other questions about NC. One reason why I personally would not use PS (or any other program) to convert RAW is that they don't apply many of the in camera settings. And one in-camera that I find so useful is the tone curves. You can download custom tone curves to your D70 for tweaking the "style" of the image.

Also, fyi, get Nikon View if you don't have it. It is free. And it does a great job rendering the RAW images applying all in-camera settings.

Cheers,
Tim

[Seb]

Hi Seb,

Do you have Nikon Capture? It has it's detractors, but what I really like about it is that you can change all the in-camera settings and see the results on the fly. These settings include: exposure, white balance, sharpening, tone curves, color mode, saturation, and hue adjustment. I find this super-useful for tweaking the RAW file before I start any editing. Note that there is a button that will open PS with your current image in Nikon Capture. Also, there is a bunch of other stuff that Nikon Capture does. But I only use NC for basic corrections. I use Paintshop Pro for any images that have become projects.

At first I totally grumbled about shelling out the $100 for Nikon Capture. But after the fact, it is well worth it to me for the fidelity and control over the RAW conversion.

I don't use PS. So, I have no insight to your PS CS2 question. But, I'll do my best if you have any other questions about NC. One reason why I personally would not use PS (or any other program) to convert RAW is that they don't apply many of the in camera settings. And one in-camera that I find so useful is the tone curves. You can download custom tone curves to your D70 for tweaking the "style" of the image.

Also, fyi, get Nikon View if you don't have it. It is free. And it does a great job rendering the RAW images applying all in-camera settings.

Cheers,
Tim

Hello Tim, thanks for your imput. To answer your questions I never bought/used capture. I have been using View during a year (it came with the camera) mainly to browse pictures. At that time, I only had PS Element 2 which didn't handle raw files nor 16 bits files and I was mainly shooting jpeg fines. I would sometimes shoot raw anyway. In that case, I was using Nikon View to convert the raw image in an 8 bits tif file that was usable in Element 2.

In may 2005, I was buying CS2. Soon after, I was moving to OS X 10.4 and I decided to reformat my hard drive at the same time. I never reinstalled View since then... The thing is, I found View to be highly inefficient. I did what it had to do but it used insane system ressources to do so. CS2 is so much faster (for me), comparison hurts. I never heard really good comments on camera companies softwares (be it Nikon, Canon, Olympus...). It appears that they are all slow.

Adobe Camera Raw served me well so far. The automatic adjustments that MJS was reffering to (which are meant to avoid clipping once working in CS2) can be totally disabled. Now, I might be wrong but I believe that all the features from Capture you are reffering at exists in Camera Raw (anybody feel free tocorrect me if I am wrong on that one). I don't mean to sound like the close minded guy that doesn't want to give a try to Capture but my next DSLR will most likely be a Canon so I am not really enthusiastic to the idea of spending some more money to try Capture....

I probably told you much more informations than what you wanted to hear lol! Sorry for the rambling. I'll do some search on Capture to get a good comparison betwen Camera Raw and that one...

then again, thanks for your support

Seb

[OldSchool]

Hi Seb,

Just curious as to why you will move over to Canon. I sure like the 20D.

Also, just in case you were curious, the latest version of Nikon View works pretty nicely. In fact I now use it as my main perusing tool. The latest versions of Capture are also much faster and less of a resource hog. ... Well, that's all true for the PC versions.

I also totally appreciate your desires to stay away from camera vender software. Once you learn how to do everything in PS CS, why bother.

Cheers,
Tim

[Seb]

Hi Seb,

Just curious as to why you will move over to Canon. I sure like the 20D.

Also, just in case you were curious, the latest version of Nikon View works pretty nicely. In fact I now use it as my main perusing tool. The latest versions of Capture are also much faster and less of a resource hog. ... Well, that's all true for the PC versions.

I also totally appreciate your desires to stay away from camera vender software. Once you learn how to do everything in PS CS, why bother.

Cheers,
Tim

Tim, It's interesting to hear that Nikon softwares involved positively since last year. About my desire to eventually switch to Canon, it essentially comes from the fact that I believe in full frame and that this is what I want to have in my next DSLR. I will quite certainly wait nearly 2 years before making the switch, the 5D is quite expensive for me and prices on full frame will keep dropping significantly over the months to come.

If Nikon was going full frame, I'd stick to them but they made a strong commitment on their DX (aps size) format and there is no evidence that they will get back on that decision.

regards

Seb

[OldSchool]

Word on the full frame CCDs. Did you read the following thread?

Full-frame CCD vs. the rest: Any difference?

Cheers,
Tim

[Seb]

Word on the full frame CCDs. Did you read the following thread?

Full-frame CCD vs. the rest: Any difference?

Cheers,
Tim

Thanks for the link, I missed that discussion. I must say that I am somewhat surprised at the way it turned. I mean, the only reason for aps size sensors as I see it is that the sensors cost of production was extremely high not so long ago, making full frame DSLR's very expensives. That being said, the cost of production keep dropping all the time, DSLR's are made more affordable everytime a new model comes along. Soon enough, the difference in price from aps to full frame will be irrevelant and Canon will have a significant advantage over the rest of the industry.

We'll see how things turns out in the months to come, I have a feeling that some camera makers will run into troubles...

Seb