Ivan Muller Posted November 27, 2012 Share #1  Posted November 27, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) Just got my X1 back from Solms to fix flash & dust...while it was away I used my 5d2 with the new 40mm pancake and having got used the the massive increase in image quality..started to explore options for optimal processing of my 12mp X1 files.  I like my images to have a bit of 'kick' and have been using LR3 to convert raw and then fine tune my B&W in Nik Silver Efex...With a bit of increase in grain via Nik S Efex and mild to heavy use of the clarity slider (with a decrease in contrast to balance the increase in clarity a bit) I sort of got the look I wanted and the grain helped with the 'appearance' of sharpness..  The drawback with the Nik Silver Efex 'clarity' slider of course is an increase in halo affects..not always...some times the affect is nil, sometimes a bit here and there and sometimes it is just not useable at all...especially in landscapes with cloudy scenes where the darker areas adjacent to the clouds look unnatural...  So enter Topaz-Detail 2 plug in for Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6..  I have been going over older files and have tried a few with the 'B&W Contrasted' preset in Topaz - Detail 2...  ...so far I like what I see..with careful activation of all the detail sliders...there are many for detail, medium and bold etc etc...I can get a satisfactorily 'contrasty' file without resorting to the (sometimes) over use of the 'clarity' file as before in Nik Silver Efex and I don't add much grain anymore. After working in Topaz, I save it and then I can still useLR to process the file a bit more...here I usually use LR for sharpening with 'radius' set to a minimum, and 'detail' to 'zero', to keep the sharpening artifacts low..  Enclosed a reworked sample of a fisherman in Mozambique from which I have made a satisfactorily sized 46x 65cm print on my Hp Z2100 44 inch printer on 'average' heavyweight matte paper with quality set to maximum detail...  The X1 still has life in it although as a 'sorted' camera it falls far far short against a totally 'sorted' camera like the 5d2, especially when they cost virtually the same...there is just no comparison...except size, but as they say 'size is not everything'...  The other thing that is very apparent is that the X1 is not really suitable for distant landscapes...the resolution is just not there...but it works well as a close up to mid range people tool where the quality is still good enough for reasonable size enlargements...and where its smaller size and more importantly quiet shutter can have advantages...  So the Topaz detail 2 is another nice to have plug in that can give me the 'look' I want without introducing too many new undesirable artifacts...  Many more of my images and some thoughts and techniques here at....Greylingstad, Mpumalanga | Ivan Muller  Regards, Ivan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 27, 2012 Posted November 27, 2012 Hi Ivan Muller, Take a look here My B&W processing technique... I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
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