Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/07/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I doubt you're missing anything Peter. All these software approaches lead to similar numbers. As far as I can tell each one of these tools manipulates the pixels in similar (often identical) ways. They may attach different names to their sliders. But in the end whether you adjust the contrast and relaltive shadow, midtone, and highlight values using curves, levels, fill light and black point, or some presets or plug ins it comes down personal (and economic) choices of software and workflow. In the early days of "pro" digital many technical and aesthetic discussions occured comparing and laying claim to the "best" RAW processor. I'm not aware of such discussions having much varacity anymore. Although I imagine that some software is optimized for specific sensor systems. PhaseOne/CaptureOne, Canon, Nikon, etc. Without doubt, in my mind, PhotoShop remains the most versatile and powerful. I don't think it has any competition. It can do pretty much anything that is possible to an image file. It's an extremely deep program. That said - A number of software companies have allegedly studied the characteristics of many silver film types and taken the time to set up algorithms to "simulate" the films spectral response and grain structure; then offered their work to us for consideration and comparison, with one click. Quite a wonderful offering; as I do not want to do that work for 20 different films. After playing with a couple images over the last few days I'm not even sure that I want the majority of my digital prints to "look like film." These become aesthetic decisions. My own "grain" journey began with one particular image which seemed to call for "grain." It may end with some other treatment or never be seen by anyone other myself. And yes, as always, the difficult bit remains pulling a "Fine Print" with whatever software and printer you have at your disposal. Regards, George Lottermoser george at imagist.com http://www.imagist.com http://www.imagist.com/blog http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist On Jul 9, 2009, at 7:06 AM, Peter Dzwig wrote: > Am I really missing > something? I find that the real difficult bit is being satisfied > with the print.