Optimizing images and Color Mode

[AlexD70s]

Camera: D70s

1) For those of you who use custom settings, what do you set your camera to?

Sharpening: Auto/Normal/Low/Medium Low/Medium High/High/None

Tone Comp: " "

Saturation: .......etc

2) And for Color Mode, what do you set your camera to? For everyday stuff I always do jpeg but for more important events I do RAW+jpeg b/c im still learning RAW.

Ia(SRGB) - default
II (Adobe RGB)
IIIa (SRGB)

3) Any other settings that I need to adjust?

Thanks for taking the time to read this....any advice is greatly appreciated.

-Alex

 

[EOS_JD]

I shoot RAW so sharpening contrast etc settings don't matter if you do this.

Default settings should be fine and editing on the PC is more recommended.

Colour is set to aRGB 1998 which has a wider colour gamut than sRGB however if you save images to the web you need to convert to sRGB as the web is optomised for this color space.

 

[gmarquez]

This is on a D80:

Image sharpening: Auto
Tone Compensation: Auto
Color Mode: IIIa
Saturation: + (enhanced)
Hue Adjustment: 0 degrees

(I shoot JPEG for most things, and I like to be able to print straight from the camera.)

 

[EOS_JD]

This is on a D80:

Image sharpening: Auto
Tone Compensation: Auto
Color Mode: IIIa
Saturation: + (enhanced)
Hue Adjustment: 0 degrees

(I shoot JPEG for most things, and I like to be able to print straight from the camera.)

Shooting in IIIa (sRGB) will not get the most from your image as you are restricting the color gamut somewhat. Fine for posting on the web but if you want to print you may be better with as much info as possible.

Probably not a massive difference but always worth considering.

 

[Garbz]

I always shoot in Colour Mode IIIa. It gives me a slight bump in saturation and contrast and an all around more pleasing effect in photos. As for being as much colour info as possible? If I wanted that I'd shoot in RAW, take the AdobeRGB files to a professional lab etc. But colour Mode IIIa for JPEGs is just fine.

I also find my Nikon D200's sharpening to be a bit on the light side so I bump this up to +1.

 

[AlexD70s]

Let me see if I understand...

II Adobe RGB is for RAW (full control post processing)

IIIa sRGB is for jpeg (little to zero post processing)

Ia sRGB is for jpeg (little to zero post processing) but doesn't have as much contrast as IIIa sRGB

Please correct me if I'm wrong

Thanks for the feedback

-Alex

 

[Garbz]

Nope colour mode has nothing to do with RAW files. RAW is the full sensor data. The colour mode is converted when you move to another format.

As to which is better, in THEORY, Adobe RGB can display more of the colour gamut IF and only if, the files are processed in AdobeRGB, saved in AdobeRGB, the software on the other end supports AdobeRGB, and the printer has an AdobeRGB colour profile. If any of these conditions aren't met you will be left with even less colour information as with using sRGB. In reality though I question as to how relevant this even is.

As much as I HATE Kenrockwell:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm

 

[gmarquez]

Off topic, but I don't quite get why people hate Ken Rockwell so much...is it because he sometimes comes across as arrogant?

He tends to have good information on his site, and I like his photography.

 

[Garbz]

Sometimes the info is good. Sometimes the info is bad. He does come accross a bit arrogant, but what ticks me is if you are going to write a review then write one properly. His site is fully of them. Some reviews are of products he hasn't even used yet. I mean what kind of a review is that? Then there's things like not recomending products because it has features that "no photographer ever uses" He uses that line in a few reviews for things that I find sometimes are very important like moddling preflash function on the SB-800, or RPT mode on the SB-800. DOF preview on cameras. It's alright if he doesn't use them but he's just an allround bad reviewer. The article above is technically accurate though if you read through it again he comes across as if AdobeRGB serves no purpose at all, despite having great use in things like medical imaging etc.