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Welcome to the 498th issue of SnapShot! Hello,
Be part of something special! BetterPhoto's unique Masterpiece Membership program evolved out of the inspiring goal that Ansel Adams once had: Create a masterpiece every month! As a Masterpiece member, you'll receive assignments, recognition, private newsletters, great discussions ... and ongoing motivation. How cool is that!?! Check out the details on Masterpiece Membership... ... In this issue of Snapshot, don't miss the contributions of two top instructors: Peter Burian ("Featured Article: What are the Best Compact Digital Cameras?") and Deb Sandidge ("Weekly Photo Tip: Discover HDR's Artistic Possibilities!"). And you'll also want to read the update item, "BetterPhoto Member's Tip: Forget Your Password?" ... That's it for now. Have fun with your photography! Kerry Drager
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Most photo enthusiasts use a digital SLR system, but a smaller, more portable digital camera is also worth owning. Read BetterPhoto instructor Peter K. Burian's review of the best compact digital cameras... Our online photography school offers personal interaction with top professionals! Learn more about these photography and Photoshop classes... We've all done at least once. In this Team BetterPhoto blog, tech expert Jeff Moore tells - and shows! - how to recover your BetterPhoto password...
Photo Q&A
1: Which Color Space to Shoot In? I have a Nikon D700. I have chosen to shoot in 14 bit Raw. Now which color space is the best to shoot in - sRGB or Adobe RGB? - Joan E. Herwig
ANSWER 1: Joan, sRGB is much more limited in colour scope than Adobe RGB. If you're taking the trouble to shoot in RAW, I'd strongly suggest Adobe RGB. You can always save a version of your image in sRGB later in Photoshop (if posting online, for instance), but you can't go from sRGB to Adobe. - Kay Beausoleil
ANSWER 2: Thank you so much, Kay. Then in Raw Conversion would you process in ProPhoto because it is the largest color space? Would you, after the Raw Conversion, then process in Adobe RGB in Photoshop? I think Lightroom processes in ProPhoto doesn't it? - Joan E. Herwig
ANSWER 3: "I have a Nikon D700, I have chosen to shoot in 14 bit RAW" General rule of thumb is if you shoot Raw, then the minimum ought to be Adobe RGB. However, if you use any Adobe products like Photoshop, Lightroom, etc., you should seriously consider ProPhoto. ProPhoto, as stated before, is the largest colour space available. It is also starting to be the colour space of the future meaning it won't be long before you can get printers that with 16 bit can produce the full scope of ProPhoto. ProPhoto also maintains the orginal Raw file so at any time in the future you can go back the it. There are lots of opinions on the Web regarding ProPhoto. I have yet to find one that says the colour space is not warranted or creditable. Just my comments.
ANSWER 4: Thanks a lot, Christopher, for your good advice about ProPhoto! I really appreciate your help! - Joan E. Herwig
ANSWER 5: Most printers will require sRGB. So if you have to convert anyway, why not just shoot in sRGB to start? Here is an article given to me by a professional photographer.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm
hope that helps :) - Pamela R. Frost
ANSWER 6: Pamela
With respect, the Rockwell article is 2006 and many things have changed. Go to the printer sites themselves and see what they say. If you print yourself, your processing software should control the colour management. It is not a good idea to to let your printer set the colour management. - Christopher R. Gray
ANSWER 7: Joan, you hadn't asked about ProPhoto, so I didn't mention it, but my camera is set to ProPhoto and so is my workspace in PS (I don't use Lightroom). I save copies of my ProPhoto originals in other colour spaces (AbodeRGB, sRGB) if and when needed only. And shooting in Raw allows you to use any format later, whereas JPEG doesn't.
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2: Raw Workflow Anyone want to share their Raw workflow? I shoot only JPEGs now and use Adobe Bridge to upload photos and Photoshop CS4 to adjust. Would I need to purchase something additional to process the Raw photos? How does one go about tweaking and converting the Raw photos? Thanks!! - Tara R. Swartzendruber
ANSWER 1:
Hi Tara,
You already have Adobe Camera Raw with CS4 but it will only launch when you open a Raw file. I took a Raw workflow class here at BetterPhoto a few years ago, and it is a quick learn. When you double-click a Raw file in Bridge, it will automatically launch in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), and just work the sliders from the top down to the bottom to your liking and then maybe click the Curves tab and make an adjustment there, and this suffices for 90% of my editing. I don't like the clone tool in ACR so if I do need to clone, I usually save the image as an uncompressed .tif file and open that in Photoshop and use the clone tool there.
ACR will do just about everything, though, even converting to black and white, split toning, selective colors, etc.
The sliders are also in order from White Balance/tint - Exposure - Fill light - Brightness - Contrast then Clarity, Vibrance, Saturation at the bottom. Then you have additional tabs going across the top in which you can do further edits.
Hope this helps.
- Carlton WardSee Sample Photo - ACR screen capture
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=10508058
ANSWER 2:
Thanks, Carlton. At what point, do you convert to JPEG?
I have some actions I like to use in Photoshop. Can I run these on a Raw or TIFF file or just a JPEG? I hear a lot of people talking about Lightroom. Is there a reason to use it instead of ACR?
- Tara R. Swartzendruber
ANSWER 3:
Hi Tara,
You can actually re-size and save a .tif file as a JPEG straight from Bridge - go to Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor - and select the folder, size & JPEG - then run...
You can also save the images from ACR as JPEGs or TIFFs or other type. I only tinkered with Lightroom and I never really took to it very well since I am so comfortable with PS.
A lot of Photoshop you can figure out by playing with it. Using ACR is very efficient and I do recommend you learn it - Charlotte Lowry teaches a 4-week course on Raw processing you may consider :)
Carlton
- Carlton Ward
ANSWER 4:
In response to using actions: Actions are only available inside Photoshop and not ACR. When you are finished in ACR, if you click "DONE", it saves a small instruction file for the Raw image, so if it's opened again in ACR, it applies the changes then to the image at that time for further use. If you click on the "OPEN IMAGE" button instead, it applies your ACR adjustments to the image and brings it up in Photoshop. You can then run your actions and make any adjustments you want. That file is then a "PSD" file. That is the native file for Photoshop and is a lossless file. You can save that or you can pick to save as a .jpg or a .tiff file. To preserve quality, I recommend .psd or .tiff files. I only use .jpg for smaller stuff that I send out by e-mail or enter here on BP.
Lightroom does a lot of things e xactly like ACR but I know people that swear they get a better print when printing from Lightroom than from Photoshop. There is a lot more to Lightroom but I won't go into that now. It's mostly about key words, indexing and file management.
I use Nikon Capture NX-2 to process my raw files, then finish the images up in Photoshop. I like the adjustments I can make in NX-2 better than what I can do in ACR, but it's not a big difference. Good luck.
- Randy A. Myers
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