The analog to digital trap, no... you can't run before you walk..

Sean said:

Instruction manual? I don't need no stinkin' manual, I've been shooting photos for eons how different can it be!? Well, I've finally crashed out now and realised I don't actually know what the heck I'm doing in this digital realm, regardless of how many analog years I have under my belt. I've ignored too much and am now forcing myself to slam the brakes and face the reality ..I'm a newbie again. It means being honest with myself and taking on the learning curve, as there is no real way around it if you want to achieve your end goals.

The relationship between camera settings and editing tool settings is not to be trifled with (I underestimated this big time). It is VAST, highly symbiotic and unforgiving, which I have ignored for too long, in a typical 'don't have time for this, just shoot and move a few sliders' and be done. This has caused me more harm than good and it has finally come to a head. I must get my head around this and obtain a deep understanding of it all.

So where to from here? I basically wiped my Fujifilm x100vi settings and started rebuilding them from scratch, relying on the advice of pro users and a bit of back and forth with various ais. I am running Capture One and also started rebuilding my configs there from scratch, based on the same interactions. I have uncovered numerous settings that were way way off both on the camera, in capture one and when the two are combined. For example 'your x100vi baselines are x,y,z and these settings in capture one are going against them and causing issues'.

It's not nice to feel like you're starting over, a newbie with a long journey ahead, but it is getting easier by the day. I will surely need to re-visit some old RAW files and do right by them.

So, my advice to those incorporating digital, do a lot of crawling first and save yourself some pain.

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Carnie Bob said:

I would advise to start with Photrio.

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runswithsizzers said:

Your comment, "the relationship between camera settings and editing tool settings" is "VAST, highly symbiotic and unforgiving" is somewhat puzzling to me. I would be curious to know more details about what you consider to be the most significant stumbling blocks, whether with your Fujifilm x100vi settings or with Capture One.

When I got my first digital camera, I do remember being overwhelmed by the complexity of the menus and the large number of settings. At that time, I was shooting JPGs (only). I also remember having difficulty getting the colors and white balance right, avoiding blown highlights, banding, etc. The only solution seemed to be switching back and forth between various camera settings, depending on the light conditions.

Later, I switched to shooting RAW (only). For me, it was much easier to set the camera for a very basic capture, and concentrate on doing all the fine adjustments in Lightroom. I think those who want finished JPGs straight out of the camera are going to have to fool around with various camera settings a lot more than those of us who prefer to shoot RAW and then making adjustments on a computer.

Now I am using a Fuji XT-1, and I rarely, if ever, bother with changing the camera settings for White Balance, Film simulations, etc. because it is easier to make those adjustments in Lightroom. All the camera settings for sharpness, noise reduction, shadows and highlights, etc. I leave set to the default or the lowest settings. Again, those settings affect the JPG, only -- and I have a lot more control over those adjustments when editing the RAW in Lightroom. I use the dials on my XT-1 to change Aperture, ISO, and Exposure Compensation. (I love those dials!) I usually let the camera set my shutter speed. All the other many camera settings are mostly "set it and forget it" so I rarely need to go into the camera menus.

In about 2000 I started digitizing forty years worth of slides, so by the time I got my first digital camera in 2010, I had already been using digital darkroom for ten years. It worked out to my advantage that I did not have to overcome the learning curves for both post processing software and for a digital camera at the same time.

I started learned post-processing on Photoshop, but soon switched to Adobe Elements. Elements was said to be easier to use than Photoshop -- but I remember Elements as being very frustrating to learn. In 2017 I switched to Adobe Lightroom -- another struggle for the first year -- but now I really like it. I have never tried to use Capture One, but I have seen a lot of posts by users who are having difficulties figuring it out. Either way, someone who is just starting out with photo editing software should be prepared to spend a lot of time learning how to use it. I don't know any substitute for spending time alternating between banging your head on your computer desk and searching for answers to your questions. But hang in there, it does get easier with time.

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Carnie Bob said:

you are a smart guy I am sure you will figure it out, there are good resources for questions , I would advise to start with Photrio.

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Sean said:

I've been shooting RAW and think what eventually caught me out was not realising the dance between the x100vi settings and capture one inbuilt automation on imported files. I also set things up on the cam via an earlier guide that turned out to be less than ideal, and that with capture one automatically blowing out various settings (sharpening), hdr issues, curve issues, base characteristics settings.

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Carnie Bob said:

you are a smart guy I am sure you will figure it out, there are good resources for questions , I would advise to start with Photrio.

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Sean said:

I spent considerable time today trying to build the foundations of a good 'street photo' workflow RAW/Capture One. I feel like I learned a fair bit but still have a way to go. This was about 3hrs of learning on a test shot from earlier today. More about digging into the software and methodically editing according to some workflow advice. I pooled advice, techniques from various humans and some ai interaction to help me 'find' things a bit more efficiently. Below is the "before" raw file and next is the after. I probably dove into at least 5 areas I had not before.

A Dubrovnik street cat, I'm on a 2017 macbook pro/retina while we travel, so can't say for sure these would hold up on a calibrated screen.

Open to any feedback thanks!


Before (RAW)

View attachment 414132

After:

View attachment 414133

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Alan Edward Klein said:

. Note that your adjusted picture is too dark.

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koraks said:

No it's not, and you've blown out the highlights on the fur. Rookie mistake, but not the first time I see you do the exact same thing. There was an identical incident some time ago when you argued "too dark" and then maimed the photo. Honestly, you killed that cat. It's *yuck* now.

Also, you state as if with authority that it's too dark; it really isn't. It's @Sean's photo; it's his interpretation of the scene. There's no objective right or wrong (although the blown highlights are an objective fact alright). Personally I really like the toning on his version. Both of your edits look crude, mundane and unpleasant to me. @Sean's version I'd print; yours I'd dump into the digital garbage can.

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