Too technical

[henkbos]

Hi all,

OK, I've bought a D60 after running around with a S10 for 2 years. Now the fun starts. Selecting the software and processing the pics. Read a lot on the web; downloaded several and now run Adobe 6. Tried Pekka's plugin, Roger's (both give almost white pics on 16 bits JPEG -must be me-)and my own.
After being home for 2 weeks from holiday I hardly have 1 pic done. To make a long story short: are we getting too technical? My wife doesn't even know the difference between red and blue and wants results. I'm moaning about a wrong pixel or 2, a little more of this and a little more of that.
I don't want a PhD, just good pics with fast processing. Am I the only one?

Henk

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Henk,

I know what you mean. It takes mean 10 minutes every time I want to record a video. :D (This really is true.)

I suspect your problem with LinearSharpen and LinearSharpenMenu is that you are not converting to 16-bit linear TIFF. Whichever conversion software you are using, there will will a little check box or list somewhere: on BreezeBrowser it's in the "Convert raw image" window - first option labelled "Conversion Method". With YarcPlus, it's on the main screen left-hand side, in the "Output Format" section, there's a checkbox labelled linear. With RIC2, there's a similar checkbox under Preferences>Raw Image Settings.

When you convert to linear you will get a very dark image. DO NOT BE PUT OFF BY THIS. This is correct; the image has not been adjusted by the camera for sharpness, contrast, colour, gamma. All this is taken care of by LS. You should get a similar end result using LS and LSM, although I have added a few more options than the original.

Be warned, however, that the linear sharpen method was not designed for the D60 and the colours may not come out OK. Some people are happy with them, others are not.

Regards,

[henkbos]

Ty Roger,

Will try again. Used it on 16 bit JPEG only. Didn't want to experiment with RAW during my holiday and coming from 2.1m pixels of the S10 anything was an improvement. Will give it another go.

Still curious to know how others feel about this science.

[Pekka]

henkbos wrote:
Still curious to know how others feel about this science.

Although I've made my own tools for D30, I really wish Canon would really put some time into making import software which has all the capabilities to bring the absolute most out of the imported photo. After all it's just software and software writers can be hired. All the knowledge about histogram evaluation, color spaces, sharpening, linear sharpening, curve editing and how it should be done etc. have been available in web some time now. All Canon would need is to adapt that info to an easy-to-use killer application (or buy one already made and improve it) and it is not even a big investment compared to what camera manufacturing and design costs.

I see people who buy 1D or DX0 look for third party software just to get a better picture out of the camera - only because Canon import software does not meet the reasonable expectations demanding customers have. I find that pretty strange a situation.

Pekka

[mikeysbistro]

Let your wife select the pictures she likes, then print/post those pictures ASAP - just get them done.

If something really bugs you about one of those photos then you can worry about fixing it after = without the pressure of getting it out of your computer system.

Don't get trapped by the technology, it's like you're trying to write a book with Microsoft Word and you're busy futzing around with the spelling checker so that it can fix ALL the words ... instead of just writing the story.