al606
4th of January 2004 (Sun), 17:28
Hi. I take a lot of pics at minor hockey arenas, notorious for crappy lighting and poor sightlines. I have a G1 and frequently use a Kenko 2x lens to get a little closer to the action.
Generally I shoot in Tv mode, @ 250 with ISO 200. I find ISO 400 intolerably noisy. For some some reason, I've never had much luck with RAW files from hockey (tried just about every setting in Breezebrowser, but it NEVER seems to look as good as JPEG). I can't say I understand that.
The pictures always start off with a reddish tinge, no matter what white setting I use (See sample #1 below).
Here is my workflow, along with a sample of my final output. They are all reduced a little to make them more palatable for the forum.
1. read into Photoshop 7
2. Apply "levels" and move the right slider to the last discernable level. Sometimes I move the middle slider slightly to the left to adjust the "gamma". Note I have never liked what "auto levels" does, it's way overblown.
3. (normally) apply "auto color". While this is slightly washed out, it's result is the closest to color I can get. Endless toying with the sliders in various other adjustments just doesn't seem to get it as close as "auto color". Is there any way to tell what it's done so I can more accurately duplicate it?
4. I save the image and then run neatimage against it, using one of a couple of G1 profiles I have for ISO200. I've tried Fred Miranda's plugin, don't like the output as much but that might be subjective. I haven't brought myself to paying ~ $100 canadian for the Neatimage PRO in order to get the plugin, IMHO that's too much for what I use it for.
5. I read it back into PS and then apply either Unsharp mask or Intellisharp, I generall try both and choose the one I like best.
6. Finally, and unfortunately, I save it to whatever percentage gives me closest to but not over 100k, because the site for our team mandates pics are less than that.
If anyone has some ideas/suggestions on any of the above, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks in advance!
Sample #1 - picture as shot (and resized)
http://members.rogers.com/allacroix/temp/scramble_original.jpg
Sample #2 - after my workflow
http://members.rogers.com/allacroix/temp/scramble_filtered.jpg
Generally I shoot in Tv mode, @ 250 with ISO 200. I find ISO 400 intolerably noisy. For some some reason, I've never had much luck with RAW files from hockey (tried just about every setting in Breezebrowser, but it NEVER seems to look as good as JPEG). I can't say I understand that.
The pictures always start off with a reddish tinge, no matter what white setting I use (See sample #1 below).
Here is my workflow, along with a sample of my final output. They are all reduced a little to make them more palatable for the forum.
1. read into Photoshop 7
2. Apply "levels" and move the right slider to the last discernable level. Sometimes I move the middle slider slightly to the left to adjust the "gamma". Note I have never liked what "auto levels" does, it's way overblown.
3. (normally) apply "auto color". While this is slightly washed out, it's result is the closest to color I can get. Endless toying with the sliders in various other adjustments just doesn't seem to get it as close as "auto color". Is there any way to tell what it's done so I can more accurately duplicate it?
4. I save the image and then run neatimage against it, using one of a couple of G1 profiles I have for ISO200. I've tried Fred Miranda's plugin, don't like the output as much but that might be subjective. I haven't brought myself to paying ~ $100 canadian for the Neatimage PRO in order to get the plugin, IMHO that's too much for what I use it for.
5. I read it back into PS and then apply either Unsharp mask or Intellisharp, I generall try both and choose the one I like best.
6. Finally, and unfortunately, I save it to whatever percentage gives me closest to but not over 100k, because the site for our team mandates pics are less than that.
If anyone has some ideas/suggestions on any of the above, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks in advance!
Sample #1 - picture as shot (and resized)
http://members.rogers.com/allacroix/temp/scramble_original.jpg
Sample #2 - after my workflow
http://members.rogers.com/allacroix/temp/scramble_filtered.jpg