Thanks James,
it can be quite frustrating at the beginning of the learning curve with these backs and the software.
Especially with skin tones - they come out so different and react very differently than when shot on film.
It's very generous of you to give this out as a basis for working with the Aptus backs. Leaf could certainly use these kind of tutorials (more!) for demonstrating how the software can be used to its fullest potential and where third party software can help ease some of the problems with digital capture & workflow.
Thanks again and all the best for the new year,
Kipling
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I see a project in three parts.
1st is the display when shooting and obviously I want this as close to the "film look" and as pleasing as possible. No green backgrounds, no magenta faces, just skintones that are moveable and wardrobe that is accurate to the genre in which I'm shooting. Obviously a very cool image will effect the wardrobe, same with a very warm image, but skintones should be smooth, pretty and not green or bright red.
The second part is the proof stage which for me is web galleries and contact sheets. Once again as close to the original vision as possible but these don't have to be exact, (thouigh exact would be good).
The third is final delivery of the files, either retouched or ready for retouching, I guess this is the transparency stage if put into film terms.
With the Aptus, part three is not difficult, but parts one and two are.
V-8 is stable for tethering, but not near controllable or moveable enough. You can get to "kind of pleasing," but that's where it stops. LC10 is better, but still doesn't offer much control and of course the achiles heel is it's not stable for a large volume of images, at least a large volume that takes correction.
What is needed from Leaf, other than a temp/tint slider is bettter input profiles that more mimic the curves I presented.
Also the ability to save these select receipes.
Steps one and two in workflow are brutal and always on a time crunch and this is where C-1 is about 42 miles ahead.
Personally I like lightroom, but it's still a PTA. Maybe because it's beta, or maybe because it takes a whole lot of move and wait corrections, but regardless of why, it's still slow to react and takes a lot of up and down the correction trail to get to a good skintone.
I've found the easiest and fastest way (today) to get to good jpegs for web and contact sheets is to just process out all the raw in pscs with only exposure corrections and then run a photoshop batch process on the jpegs to my "own" receipe for skin.
JR