Capture One frustration

[M Zorin]

Here's the thing; if I take pictures in DNG + fine JPEG selecting black and white, with maximum contrast and sharpness, when I import into C1 the JPEG looks far, far better than the DNG.

I cannot, despite hours trying, find DNG settings that come close to the contrast, luminosity and film-like sharpness of the jpeg.

Has anyone found the magic combination?

[jaapv]

Umm.. DNG in a RAW converter will always come in colour. The trick is to convert the colour image into Photoshop and make it an optimal image. That you can convert, either manually if you are an expert, or otherwise, using for instance Alien Skin software.
C4 is far too limited as it will not allow you to apply things like curves and levels, or change the gradient, burn and dodge, etc. Similar to choices you would be making and techniques you would apply in a chemical darkroom.

Having said that, the standard M8 B&W jpegs are rather good for images that do not require extensive dodging and burning or contrast manipulation.

Simply desaturating which I suspect you are doing now is emphatically not the way to get acceptable B&W images.

[delander]

You can do curves and levels and other stuff in C1 and then desaturate. You can also choose a B&W profile in place of the M8 profile, but I think only two are available within the product. Look under profiles/effects. I often use the yellow filter profile which I think is rather good. There are also jfi profiles which you can download for a small fee for use in C1. I also find the three film settings useful.

But having written all that I have never used dng+jpg with the M8.

Jeff

[overgaardcom]

I've had good luck with b&w style that I liked in FlexColor from Hasselblad. You can make outrageous contrast in that, and that was what I was looking for

[M Zorin]

Yes - I'm using the Panchromatic B&W setting, but no matter how much I adjust contrast and curves, the in-camera jpeg still seems to be doing something magical that's difficult to reproduce with the DNG.

[coup de foudre]

JFI Profiles for different b&w looks -- cheap, easy, and gorgeous.

[MacAulay]

How do you use the JFI profiles in Capture One?

[scaryink]

I find the jfi files work well. It just loads under profile options other. or something like that.

[Jamie Roberts]

Originally Posted by M Zorin

Yes - I'm using the Panchromatic B&W setting, but no matter how much I adjust contrast and curves, the in-camera jpeg still seems to be doing something magical that's difficult to reproduce with the DNG.

K--there's no magic whatsoever--C1 can do pretty much anything the in-camera processing can do--but you have to remember a successful BW look is usually a mix of colour values.

So if you're picking film high contrast and panchromatic and still not getting the tonal balance correct, then pick one of the other BW looks.

If that's not working, then I'd start playing with the tint dialog and white balance sliders, because the colour blend will affect how the BW tonality actually looks.

If you want to make your DNG and JPEG available, I'm sure we could come up with the right mix of settings in C1 to duplicate the JPEG.

Use YouSendIt - Send large files - transfer delivery - FTP Replacement to send a link to yourself, then post it here (though this should go in the post-processing forum).

[efftee]

I kinda like the options and control Silver Efex Pro (PS plugin) offers. High Structure or push process may give you that 'contrast, luminosity and film-like sharpness' you're looking for.