tone mapped RAW vs Negative

[pellicle]

Hi

I had (until today) felt that RAW with my (APS sized sensor) digital SLR gave me cleaner but smaller images than my scans of 35mm negative film. I still find negative useful for the capture range of scene brightness. Normally I think of tone mapping stuff as being garrish, but today I was playing with Photomatix (which I recently purchased) and was surprised how closely it could match the tones of negative (well ... on a soft light day).

Detail is on my blog page here.

I was really pleased just how quickly I could use that software to pull out a great image from the RAW.

Aside from my remaining rolls of HIE I'm wondering if I've got much use for my35mm bodies (well, OK a 5D will be quite a hit on this hobby photographer).

sigh

[Don Bryant]

Hi

I had (until today) felt that RAW with my (APS sized sensor) digital SLR gave me cleaner but smaller images than my scans of 35mm negative film. I still find negative useful for the capture range of scene brightness. Normally I think of tone mapping stuff as being garrish, but today I was playing with Photomatix (which I recently purchased) and was surprised how closely it could match the tones of negative (well ... on a soft light day).

Detail is on my blog page here.

I was really pleased just how quickly I could use that software to pull out a great image from the RAW.

Aside from my remaining rolls of HIE I'm wondering if I've got much use for my35mm bodies (well, OK a 5D will be quite a hit on this hobby photographer).

sigh

IMO you can and will get better results processing your RAW files with a RAW processor rather than Photomatix. Once the RAW processing is complete convert to a TIF and tone map with Photomatix if you wish.

Don Bryant

[pellicle]

Hi Don

IMO you can and will get better results processing your RAW files with a RAW processor rather than Photomatix...

I've tried that path way (so that I can correct chromatic aberration for instance, but I simply couldn't get the same results. The closest I could get was by:

1. open raw in photomatix
2. identify desired settings
3. process to jpg
4. open raw in ACR
5. process and save as tiff
6. in PS open TIFF and JPG
7. use as a basis for colour match for the TIFF

but I'm still learning this (well, I feel that way about everything really ;-)

[Don Bryant]

Hi Don



I've tried that path way (so that I can correct chromatic aberration for instance, but I simply couldn't get the same results. The closest I could get was by:

1. open raw in photomatix
2. identify desired settings
3. process to jpg
4. open raw in ACR
5. process and save as tiff
6. in PS open TIFF and JPG
7. use as a basis for colour match for the TIFF

but I'm still learning this (well, I feel that way about everything really ;-)

Well first of all why don't you save your file as a TIF from Photomatix? And you really have me confused about step 7.

Second render the RAW image in ACR and then process in Photomatix if for no other reason than to do capture sharpening. But use Photomatix for tone mapping not as a replacement for ACR or PS.

IMO, you really have your wires crossed with this work flow. One can do a lot of things in ACR if you understand the controls you have; don't discount it's power and fleibility not the least of which is being able to open the rendered file in PS as a Smart Object. And you can render a file multiple times and have multiple Smart Objects in PS to get extended range from an image file.

Don

[pellicle]

Hi

Well first of all why don't you save your file as a TIF from Photomatix?

I guess we're not following each other here ... I think you missed the branch and second go. I do save as a TIFF and use the first JPG as the source of colour balance only.

I've used ACR for some years now and I like it a lot. I've recently started working with Photomatix (opening my series of RAW files or JPG) and like it too.

thanks anyway

[Don Bryant]

Hi




I guess we're not following each other here ... I think you missed the branch and second go. I do save as a TIFF and use the first JPG as the source of colour balance only.

I've used ACR for some years now and I like it a lot. I've recently started working with Photomatix (opening my series of RAW files or JPG) and like it too.

thanks anyway

So why bother with a JPG to begin with? I don't follow that.

Don

[sanking]

I don't follow. Why would anyone wast their time shooting .jpeg files if the aim was to tone map with HDR?

That just makes zero sense to me.

Sandy King

So why bother with a JPG to begin with? I don't follow that.

Don

[Don Bryant]

Hi




I guess we're not following each other here ... I think you missed the branch and second go. I do save as a TIFF and use the first JPG as the source of colour balance only.

I've used ACR for some years now and I like it a lot. I've recently started working with Photomatix (opening my series of RAW files or JPG) and like it too.

thanks anyway

So when you shoot are you shooting RAW + JPG or extracting the JPG from the RAW file to allow you to compare the in camera rendering that will be displayed in the JPG file?

If so I guess I can understand that methodology though it's not one I would choose. But if it works for you then who's to say what is right or wrong.

Don

[pellicle]

Don

So when you shoot are you shooting RAW + JPG or extracting the JPG from the RAW file to allow you to compare the in camera rendering that will be displayed in the JPG file?

its clear that my order above is confusing you (did you re-read it carefully?) in the interests of clarity I created this graphical view with the numbers and flow in a chart.



for additional clarity I use ACR version 2.4 on photoshop CS, the functionality of this version of ACR is limited to lens chromatic aberration corrections. As I asked in my original post if there is some reason why ACR will work better for me then I would be pleased to know, but as I have found it Photomatix will not perform tone mapping work as well on a TIFF (even linear conversion in dcraw) as it does on the RAW. As I understand it the process of Demosiacing the RAW into a TIFF will in fact perform tone mapping.