What happens to your images when they leave the camera?

[DaveNC]

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I used Photoshop for many years scanning my film before we had digital cameras.  Then, I was hardcore Lightroom.  The pricing scheme drove me to look at other tools.  I tried several.  To me, Luminar 4 is the easiest and fastest way to simply use folders on my MacBook to manage and creatively edit my images.  I shoot with an M-D and an old Nikon film camera.  I like printing with Qimage because it is very easy to use.  The new Topaz Labs plugins work amazingly with Luminar 4.  I use DeNoise and Sharpen on most images now because they are wonderful.  I can shoot my M-D at 6400 and Topaz cleans them up splendidly.  Sharpen AI really does take an image that is somewhat out of focus due to movement or just not in-focus, and make it sharp.

Edited December 1, 2020 by DaveNC

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[MikeMyers]

50 minutes ago, DaveNC said:

I used Photoshop for many years scanning my film before we had digital cameras.  Then, I was hardcore Lightroom.  The pricing scheme drove me to look at other tools.  I tried several.  To me, Luminar 4 is the easiest and fastest way to simply use folders on my MacBook to manage and creatively edit my images.  I shoot with an M-D and an old Nikon film camera.  I like printing with Qimage because it is very easy to use.  The new Topaz Labs plugins work amazingly with Luminar 4.  I use DeNoise and Sharpen on most images now because they are wonderful.  I can shoot my M-D at 6400 and Topaz cleans them up splendidly.  Sharpen AI really does take an image that is somewhat out of focus due to movement or just not in-focus, and make it sharp.

I wish I would have realized what Jeff S wrote recently.  I used both 'raw' and 'jpg' for a while, but most of the time I was satisfied with 'jpg'.  Then I discovered what most of you already know, and unless I'm shooting "throw-away" photos, I use raw in all of my "serious" cameras.

Photo Mechanic now has a new release, Photo Mechanic Plus, which adds "DAM".  I never heard of DAM before, but now that I understand it, I have no more need for Lightroom, once I extract all my previous work to a new storage system organized by PhotoMechanic.

 

Then there's the question of which image editor.  There are so many, most of which I've bought, then stopped using.  Nothing I have will replace PhotoShop for other purposes, but for image editing I'm now down to Lightroom (on its way out), Luminar, and PhotoLab.  I use Luminar for "trick" stuff, like completely replacing the "sky" in photos of a model railroad.  It does a lot of neat things, many of which I think are most useful for Photo Illustrations, rather than Photographs.  To me, "photographs" means the image should remain "real".  

For getting rid of noise, people can download trial versions and test.  From comparison tests, Lightroom can get rid of noise, but turned up too high, the details go away.  PhotoLab 4 gets the best noise reduction, but keeps all the detail.  Don't take my word for it - watch the comparison videos, or try it.

 

 

DaveNC, I still have much of my film gear, sitting in a drawer and getting dusty.  I do have a good Epson scanner, but what I would benefit most from is finding a lab that could develop my film, and create high-quality scans, preferably for a reasonable cost.

[DaveNC]

Greetings Mike.

Film is not inexpensive, for sure.  I'm sending mine to TheDarkroom.com in CA.  They are the most reasonably priced I've found and they can do very good scans.  I enjoy film because I tell myself not to dare press that shutter unless I mean it, while with digital I throw away a lot of stupid shots.  You may want to check out Jim Nix's Youtube Luminar 4 videos.  He demonstrates how Luminar 4 can do the basics as well as the creative stuff.

[MikeMyers]

Dave, I think I'm not really wanting to "shoot film" as much as I'm wanting to go back into the past when my whole life revolved around film - and darkrooms, and printing, and all the rest.  I'd love to use my "real" cameras again.

Earlier today, I thought I would go for a walk and shoot maybe a dozen photos, carefully composing and shooting each one, as I would have done with a 24 exposure roll of film in the camera.  My walk was prefect, and I was on track to do just what I wanted - until I came upon a drawbridge with pelicans on both sides, flying around, quite low, looking for fish, and then diving at the water to catch something.  All my good intentions went out the window.  I don't think my Leica is my best camera for doing this, and I know my 50mm lens isn't long enough, but once I got caught up in the photographing, I kept wanting to "get a better image".  Oh well.  I don't know what I would have done many years ago, but I'm sure I would have been much more careful.

That's where this thread comes in.  I will open everything in PhotoMechanic, and it could be 30 images, or 300 - no big deal.  Keep deleting until what's left is what I want to go into my filing system.  Had I been walking around with my M2 or M3, it would be weeks later until I got my images, and I'd cringe at how much money I wasted.  No, if I'm going to go back to using film, I'm going to learn how to develop it myself, and buy a better negative scanner.

 

Thanks to this horrible virus, I have all kinds of potential free time.  I will start shooting and process the images in Luminar, and in a week or two, decide how it compares with PhotoLab 4.  If Luminar has "local corrections", or the equivalent, this should go smoothly.  Maybe I'll do the best I can with Luminar, then with PL4, post both here, and see what difference there is, if any.

Edited December 1, 2020 by MikeMyers