Mark Metternich
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That’s awesome! Thank you!
Before long I’m going to include a very short addendum to my new full course ”The Ultimate Quality Workflow - Lossless Adobe Raw Layer Workflow” that is going to have a really great tip about that very first gama curve adjustment. This is that most critical re-distribution adjustment #1 of the linear data. I have been testing this rigorously for about a year or more now (and I have friends that have been testing this for over 20 years ) and I see profoundly better results using a much more aggressive gamma curve than 2.2.
In fact, I’ll just let you know now that I think one of the best tricks to getting the data to look it’s very best is to push that very first gamma curve to the point where your Blackpoint is about 1/3 of the way to the right, of the left side of the histogram! Yes this far.
This critically re-distributes much more of the robust upper data down into the shadows, darks, dark middle tones, and middle tones… of the image which results in much higher quality (less noise, much better detail and color fidelity - essentially driving more bits of information into the areas of the image were our eyes are the most sensitive) shadows all the way up through the image.
Then, 2. when I go to the end points as the second adjustment, I just set the white point close to the right side of the histogram but not clipping, and I usually pull up the black end point lighter by just five more points.
Now, 3. when I adjust the middle tones down to get the overall best look for the image, it is amazing how awesome it can be, without clipping on either side! With this third, middle tones adjustment, I still want just a little bit of room on both the black end and the white end. This helps leave just a little bit of room for the last tone shaping (contrast) curve adjustment.
Then lastly, 4. when I begin to add the global contrast curve (slight custom S-Curve) very carefully and subtly, the image has room to lighten the lights a bit, and maybe darken the darks a little bit. And, of course, if we have a more difficult image with a more wide dynamic range, like a really bright sky, and a darker land, I might apply another more local tonal curve targeting that area. More often than not, that would actually be my first contrast curve adjustment.
The main thing, though, is pushing that very first gamma curve adjustment further (brighter in the darks) than just a generic 2.2 that Adobe uses often (according to my research and testing, Adobe usually uses either a 2.2, 2.0, or a 1.8 gamma curve, which are really generic) Really filling up the data in the shadows, the darks, the dark middle tones, and middle tones.
This has been a secret weapon for a great many of years with some processing experts. As an example, with the older Canon files (that had really nasty blotchy noisy shadows) this was a secret weapon of some guru types to really boost the overall quality in those areas.
When those simple 4 adjustments are done with excellence, generally speaking, this only takes me about 2 to 5 minutes, so often the image is dang near DONE before even a single slider has been adjusted in Lightroom or Camera Raw! It just ends up being micro fine-tuning from there on out. This is UNPRECEDENTED quality power at our fingertips in Lightroom and Camera Raw now!
To me, nothing makes more sense than taking control of those 4 most important quality influencing adjustments that any raw file goes through (but now, in a totally custom manner) and not letting them be done wrong via generic adobe profiles.
Also, just hitting “auto” on a linear profile (which has been recommended by some people online) can never do this!
I also find that people who have not had great results with the linear raw profiles, now get spectacular results.
I hope the above makes sense. It might sound quite technical to some people, but for those reading along that are not very technical, it simply means applying 4 quick custom curve adjustments to the linear raw data to make our images look FAR better than they ever could, and this is just the starting point! 👍🏼
Next, when we do go to the Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw sliders, they work so sensitively and wonderfully well it is a total paradigm shift for quality.
Cheers! 🥂
Oh wait, addressing your comment about the Sony A7R2 and the Canon 11-24… I bought two of those cameras at the same time that the Sony A7R3 came out. Only later to find out that the Sony A7R3 is a much better camera. In fact, when coupled with great glass, I believe it incontrovertibly beats the quality of the A7R4 and the A7R5. I process files from all of these cameras full time every day (in fact, that’s what I’m doing at this very moment) for top class, gigantic fine art gallery enlargements, and for me, it’s not even debatable.
I do not shoot Sony anymore. I shoot with the Panasonic Lumix S1R 👍🏼🙏🏼 (and still use the Canon 11-24 with an optical adapter) but if I had to shoot Sony, it would be the Sony A7R3 or the Alpha 1.
mike reid wrote:
Nothing fishy...just amazing. I think I’ve worked out the process.
Also love your a7r2/canon 11-24 combo
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