well, thank you very very much for the tips, I read quite a bit about Judo (I almost check wikipedia on every of my subject, because understanding is key to produce meaningful pictures, especially when you focus on details !), but here I got several ideas from you and also a good place to start my contacts !
The dojo is located in Tokyo (that you now even better than I do, at least for Judo !), and looks great, but I will also try to find a more classic building dojo, maybe in Kyoto some day
thanks again, there will be something of you in my judo pictures
I keep my process as simple as possible. All shot with neutral settings and I am extremely careful about the background and aperture control. I will immediately reject a picture if the background is not pleasant (I do not cover events like you do, so I can trash what I want more easily I guess). I put a lot of money in some bright glass (the 70-200 2.8 IS is my darkest one after all ...) and a lot of effort carrying this weight around !
I copy the files with plain windows explorer. I sort my RAW files with faststone because it is quick to do the job. I almost never select an image after the shoot, I leave it on my computer and come back to it some weeks or month later, then do my selection with a fresh eye, and try to select the image that fits best my overall feeling during the event. This is important, I do not rush and take some distance.
Sometime I spend the whole day shooting but will never publish any image on my website actually. Or I just select one out of hundreds. I am free.
When I select a file to process, I just open it in photoshop with latest camera raw, select the "1D mk3 / standard" color profile, adjust the white balance if needed ("auto" or "normal" is usually almost perfect).
- I crop the top and bottom for my 16/9
- in a very few cases use the "shadow/highlight" to get back a few details,
- in a few cases use the curves tool to add "linear contrast",
- in most case I "smart sharpen" as follow : 50% with a 0.5 radius
- save the image, launch the scripts to make my web versions, put them on the web, and voila
as you can see even if the camera setting is neutral, this is very little retouching - the secret is to pick well dressed subjects in good light, and big apertures makes the rest ...
Yep. I am here and I love it. I can't wait to return to this island as a regular person vice a military member.
The heat is nice, but the humidity is yucky. But I am from Texas/Mexico so I love warm weather. In fact, when it comes to winter here, around 60 or 70, I'm dying!
Anything below 80 is extremely cold to me.
Alain, just found this thread three days ago and finished looking. Your photos are absolutely amazing! I hope to find a style one day, but until then I'll just keep shooting EVERYTHING!
Thank you, Alain, very much for the detailed reply.
"When I select a file to process, I just open it in photoshop with latest camera raw, select the "1D mk3 / standard" color profile, adjust the white balance if needed ("auto" or "normal" is usually almost perfect)."
Have you ever tried Canon's Digital Photo Professional software to process your RAW images? If so, what was the result? If not, why?
With Photoshop, Adobe uses software code to read, interpret, and display the results of the 1D Mark III's in-camera settings, including, but not limited to, white balance. Clearly, the results of such code-application to your 1D Mark III files are excellent; your work here is ample proof.
But, could the colors be 'better-represented' by Canon's own DPP?; in other words, could DPP improve on PS here?
Richard > I tried it when I got it with the 20D but did not find it very convincing at the time, and I was already used to photoshop.
Because I wanted to keep a simple workflow I just stayed with PS and concentrated on the (then beta, now final) camera profiles to get proper color.
As said my retouching is extremely light and quick, most images take only one or two action, save and export for web, so I kept it simple.
I haven t used DPP since, because I never found the need to, especially with mark3 standard or neutral (the only difference is default sharpness). If I get a good image, the camera/lens will make it justice, and the software after will be as non-existent as possible.
The real key is just to concentrate on the light when shooting, that is the only way to get the colors I want. Yesterday I have been to a day-long festival, today I will go there again, but I know my only good shots will probably be from 30 mins before and after the sun goes down, because there is no clouds today and no shade on the stage I will focus on.
I have no commercial pressure on my images because I do not rely on them to eat, so I can focus on the light and forget the rest ...
I went back today and had some great clouds, I could shot a lot, the lighting was still quite difficult but I got a few good ones, I am very happy (and exhausted !)
by the way I have a "small" surprise coming on the gear side, it will help for sumo in September, and for some Judo also
