laurence2
Well-Known Member
I'm quite excited! In fact, I am rather awestruck.
I am showing this rather mundane image from the SD-14 because it is a great baseline image with its very difficult contrasts and shadow details. The initial
image out of the camera was way too overexposed to my eyes. The sunlight was VERY harsh!
I want to say right now that Klaus' suggestions on RAW processing using the Sigma software works WONDERS. I frankly have never received
results like this before, where the beach cobbles look EXACTLY how I perceived them with my eye. Just look at the shadows.
To me, this is a revelation.
I followed these steps in taking the picture and in processing the image:
I tried out the Auto correction feature, and while it gave a very nice output, it didn't quite match what my eyes perceived. Might be very useful in future images though.
The SPP program seemed rather sparse when I first looked at it. But, with corrective results like these, it appears to be extremely efficient. The "processing" is a bit slow,
but who cares when you can get such finely tuned results?
This is not a "beauty shot", it simply a difficult shot to "get right" - and the Sigma camera and software passed with flying colors!
Here is the shot of the beach cobbles, first shot out of the camera, second shot out of the SPP software. No sharpening used:
I am showing this rather mundane image from the SD-14 because it is a great baseline image with its very difficult contrasts and shadow details. The initial
image out of the camera was way too overexposed to my eyes. The sunlight was VERY harsh!
I want to say right now that Klaus' suggestions on RAW processing using the Sigma software works WONDERS. I frankly have never received
results like this before, where the beach cobbles look EXACTLY how I perceived them with my eye. Just look at the shadows.
To me, this is a revelation.
I followed these steps in taking the picture and in processing the image:
- Shot with SD-14 using histogram, pushing highlights up to, and slightly over, the right hand "blow out" edge of the histogram.
- In RAW X3F, used the overexposure indicator and adjusted back down into the histogram window. The Green Channel was the "big player" here.
- Used the Fill Light function (I love it) to gently tone down the highlights.
- Used the Highlight and Shadows slider VERY sparingly to bring the image to where I wanted it to be, to reflect what I saw.
I tried out the Auto correction feature, and while it gave a very nice output, it didn't quite match what my eyes perceived. Might be very useful in future images though.
The SPP program seemed rather sparse when I first looked at it. But, with corrective results like these, it appears to be extremely efficient. The "processing" is a bit slow,
but who cares when you can get such finely tuned results?
This is not a "beauty shot", it simply a difficult shot to "get right" - and the Sigma camera and software passed with flying colors!
Here is the shot of the beach cobbles, first shot out of the camera, second shot out of the SPP software. No sharpening used: