UniWB – A good tool for good HDRs
Well, I must first admit that this topic is neither new nor my own finding/tip. I did however find out about it a while ago, and have been using it for a while now. This along with the other tips on HDR and Skin tones will bring out the best from your RAW image…
A thing or two about Dynamic Range…
This is not an another post about what is Dynamic Range, introduction to HDR and other such things. There are several articles on the Internets for that.
This article is about the usability and practicality of Dynamic Range of a DSLR (D700 for example), and some tips on shooting for HDR.
The DXO Mark list D700’s (or D3) reference dynamic range of 12 stops (1 stop = 1 Ev) at ISO 200. So, what does this number mean? This is the maximum dynamic range that the sensor is capable of capturing in a 14 bit RAW image. For all practical purposes, lets assume that really good RAW processing wizards are able to extract about 10 stops of dynamic range from these RAW images. Default settings of most RAW converters (ACR and NX) can get you about 7-8 stops dynamic range in an image. Read more
Skin tones…
Lightroom (LR) plays a significant part of my work flow. A few years ago, I had tried the approach of using Nikon’s Capture for the process of RAW conversion, however since LR 2 came out, I have given up on using Capture. I choose LR for its DAM capabilities and the batch processing capabilities (and most importantly usability and speed factors). In any case, since its version 2 release, LR has had major changes in its RAW conversion capabilities – especially since it started using DNG profiles.
I however admit I have never been happy with ACR’s (LR) conversion of NEF images - especially when it comes to skin tones. In my quest to find a better conversion for my new D700 – I recently tried several converters – RAW converter, dcraw, Perfect RAW, Capture One, View NX/Capture NX2 & RAW therapee (via Parallels on Mac). Read more
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By N2H
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