This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Afternoon Snooze

Well, for the first time in assignment history, the judges have managed to make my job SO MUCH FUN! We have a tied first, a tied second and a third place… So, we actually have FIVE winners today from our assignment : sleep.

Tied in first place, we have “Afternoon Snooze” and “Bokeh Dreams” Second place went to “Street Sleep” and “10 More Minutes” And third goes to “Sleeping baby” Five very different images with certain different appeals to our various judges! Thanks guys for entering – Well done all of you.

Hot Threads

Transforming a mediocre self portrait into an ICE PRINCESS: Teewinot (One of my favourite self portrait buddies) has posted an image she shot of herself and then turned into an Ice Princess! Check it out..
“How you doin’ ?” – Then and Now: Here’s another way we can see how DPS members are doing – and how you’ve done so far. Compare yourself to yourself, posting something old and something new. They can be the same subject, but mainly add anything with time in between the taking. Adding the span of time makes it more interesting..
Never shoot in raw?: I’m reading a book by Tom Ang and he states never to shoot in raw. everything I have read by Scott Kelby says you have to be crazy not to shoot in raw. other than file size is there any reason not to shoot in raw?
Has anyone else ever felt..: …so frustrated of your photographic abilities that you just want to scream? Maybe I am just being too hard on myself and expecting too much. Now, I realise that I have only been serious about photography for the last year but I thought I would catch on by now. I feel like I take more bad shots than I do good. I guess I really need to analyse each shot better and learn from it. I don’t know. I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening.

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10 Responses to “This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums” - Add Yours

Mark Jaquith Says:
January 25th, 2009 at 5:40 am

I don’t shoot in RAW anymore. My photos are better, and I spend less time getting them to where I want them. The problem is that RAW conversion software isn’t there yet. RAW isn’t a format… it just means raw. Unprocessed. Aperture and Lightroom don’t know how the camera normally processes JPGs, so they can’t process them the same way. They have to guess. And their guesses aren’t as good as Nikon or Canon’s intimate knowledge of their own cameras.

If cameras standardized around a RAW format and published their processing algorithms as open source software, we’d be in business. But without that, you’re better off letting the camera do the processing as only it knows how, and taking it from there with a JPG that every post-processing software application will read the same way.

I can see maybe shooting JPG+RAW to have the maximum number of options down the road. But shooting RAW alone is going to take a lot more work to get the same results as shooting JPG.
Teewinot Says:
January 25th, 2009 at 7:29 am

Gosh, thanks for mentioning my little tutorial!
Lilia Says:
January 25th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

hey, am I missing the runner up thumbnail photos showing? Or is it purposely just links to the images?
Would be nice to keep that feature of thumbnails (maybe because it’s 5 they couldn’t fit?)
Sime Says:
January 25th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Lilia, Sorry – I couldn’t get them to all fit nicely.

Sime
JE Says:
January 26th, 2009 at 12:19 am

You can actually make lightroom “develop” a RAW file just that same as if the camera is developing a RAW file by installing your camera’s profile into Lightroom. (Nikon and Canon profles are available) Check out Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom Killer Tip:

http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2008/presets-updated-camera-profiles/
Kirstin Says:
January 26th, 2009 at 9:57 am

When is next week’s assignment going to be posted? Usually it’s posted at the end of “This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums”… or am I just missing it??? I always need time to plan my next DPS shot…
Sime Says:
January 26th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

Hey Kirstin, I dropped you an email. but for everyone else, you can always find the current assignment in our forum section…

http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=22

Hope this helps!

Sime
Mark Jaquith Says:
January 27th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

You can actually make lightroom “develop” a RAW file just that same as if the camera is developing a RAW file by installing your camera’s profile into Lightroom.

No, you can’t. Those profiles are guesses. Someone may have worked very hard making it as good as they can, but it can not, and without Canon and Nikon’s help, never will produce an image the same as the camera would have produced.
Peter Says:
January 30th, 2009 at 9:50 am

For Nikon you can use Capture NX2. It processes RAW in a manner like the camera’s hardware does. Capture NX has controls for RAW files that are not available for JPG. It’s completely possible to get the same JPG or other variations that are based on camera defaults (e.g., Vivid). The downside is the time to generate a JPG (even using defaults) is huge when compared to the time it takes the camera’s hardware. On the other hand if you have bad or mediocre file, post processing the RAW gives you more data to work from than a JPG. I found this useful for pictures taken in the snow where the twilight caused a strong blue tint in the native JPG of my D40. By setting the neutral grey for one RAW I was able to get good balance for one that didn’t have the blue tint and then copy the settings to other pictures in the series.
PRH Says:
February 8th, 2009 at 9:40 am

x verses y debate continually irks me. “I use x! X is the best therefore EVERYONE should use x. No sane person would ever use y”.
Canon vs Nikon
Mac vs PC
Raw vs JPEG has become just another fanboy phenomenon.

Use whatever suits your workflow and skill set and stop complaining about what everyone else does. AAARRRG!!!