"It's the workflow that kills me!" I can't tell you
how often I hear that comment by a digital photographer. We all
know digital photography is fun and rewarding, providing almost
instant confirmation that you've either captured some semblance
of what you expected or that you did not. That's the fun part.
It's the after-the-fact image processing that can be a real time
sink and can make digital editing anything but fun.
Notice, I said 'some semblance of what you expected,' because
the LCD monitor on the back of your camera cannot be trusted for
critical image editing. An image may look well-composed and correctly
exposed but may be too soft, either blurred or out-of-focus, to
be useful. Even with cameras offering a magnified view of the
LCD screen, true sharpness cannot really be determined. You need
to do this on a computer monitor where you can see the image at
100%, the actual pixels.
Caption: Photoshop CS's File Browser with an enlarged Preview
Window. Although gross editing decisions can be made with the
Preview Window, an image cannot be judged for critical sharpness
and focus in this way.
Critical editing for sharpness is one of the most tedious tasks
of the digital workflow because most software programs will not
preview with a 100% view. Let's not confuse a 100% pixel display
- where a portion of the image is displayed on the screen at full
resolution - with a display of the entire image. Many programs
provide a large preview window which shows the full image, including
Photoshop in the File Browser, but these programs do not provide
a 100% view of the actual pixels. This is analogous to editing
slides by projection, where an image may look sharp on a screen
but is definitely not when studied under a slide loupe. In the
digital age, the 100% view, the Actual Pixel view, replaces your
old slide loupe.
In Photoshop, to see a 100% pixel display, you have to open the
image. If it's a JPEG file, the image opens immediately and you
can click on 'Actual Pixels' in Photoshop's drop down View Menu.
If it's a RAW image, you must open the file in Photoshop's RAW
converter where you can zoom in to 100% using the zoom tool, or
by selecting 100% in the drop down menu in the lower left corner
of the display window.
Caption: The cobra head enlarged in the RAW converter
window of Photoshop CS. In the background the entire image is
displayed in the Preview Window of the File Browser.
Either way, it is a time-consuming task because it takes a
couple of clicks and a few seconds to open up the image to see
the 100% view. If you shoot in the RAW mode, as I always do, the
time involved in checking for sharpness in Photoshop is extensive.
There's got to be a better way
and there is.
Phase One's Capture 1 RAW conversion program (http://www.c1dslr.com)
is an absolute time-saver for editing your RAW digital files.
Capture 1 resembles the File Browser of Photoshop CS in many ways,
with a window of thumbnail images and a larger window that displays
the currently selected image. Just as with Photoshop, this large
preview window does not provide sufficient resolution to discern
critical sharpness. However, you don't have to open the image
to check for sharpness.
Caption: Capture 1's layout is similar to Photoshop CS's File Browser, with the exception of the Focus window which displays a 100% view that is used for discerning sharp focus.
Caption: The focus window has three display sizes. Large is illustrated here.
To use the Focus window, click on the Focus tab. I generally
keep this tab active until I've edited all of my images. Now,
move your cursor over the Preview Window. An Eyedropper icon appears.
Click, and the Eyedropper icon changes to a white rectangle that
frames the area that appears in the Focus Window. You can move
that box around the image to check for critical sharpness in several
areas.
If an image is sharp, hit the Down Arrow on your keyboard and
scroll to the next image. If the image is soft, click the Delete
button and the image is sent to the Trash. Granted, there are
some clicks involved - selecting the area for sharpness and clicking
to advance to the next image, but the process is fast and editing
goes swiftly, far faster than going through Photoshop's Raw conversion
window.
Capture 1 is designed for use with RAW files. It is not much use
if you only shoot JPEG files. But should you? I'd suggest you
did not, unless your primary concern was getting as many images
as possible onto your memory card, since a RAW file is generally
about three times larger than a JPEG file.
So why shoot RAW files? RAW files capture all the data available
without interpretation or compression, similar in some ways to
how your eyes record a scene. With a RAW file you can adjust the
color temperature and the white balance and to some extent exposure.
That's not to say that an incorrectly exposed image can be made
perfect, for you should always remember the adage, 'Garbage In,
Garbage Out,' but an exposure that's off by a stop or so can generally
be salvaged quite well during a RAW conversion. I think of the
RAW mode as an insurance policy - if I make an error in exposure
or I have the wrong white balance I have a good chance I can correct
my mistake. Also, in RAW, I'm working with a 16 bit file which
contains far more information than a JPEG file can offer.
Capture 1 is more than a RAW editor. It is also a RAW converter
that will convert, or develop as it is called in Capture 1, an
image to a TIFF or to one of three file sizes of JPEG. Exposures
can be tweaked by 2.5 f-stops in either direction, and color corrections
can be made in several ways. Images can be batch renamed and batch
developed as well, at least in the Pro version of the program.
There are three versions of Capture 1 with increasing levels of
sophistication and added features. The stripped down and least
expensive version is Capture 1 SE. More advanced features are
included in Capture 1 LE. Both can be upgraded to the souped up
version, Capture 1 Pro. All offer what I consider the most valuable
feature, the focus check I just described, and all offer exposure
control and conversion to usable files.
My Digital Darkroom Workflow begins in Capture 1 where I check
focus and cull the images that are poorly composed or out-of-focus.
The images I know I'll want to convert to a TIFF are tagged. If
necessary I'll tweak exposure for the tagged images in Capture
1's Exposure window by moving the exposure slider and I'll adjust
contrast in the Levels and Curves box. Unlike Photoshop, where
I'd have to wait to proceed to the next image as the one I'm working
on is converted, in Capture 1 I can make my adjustments, click
on the Develop tab and process the image while I work on the next
one. Capture 1 processes images 'behind the scene,' so you're
free to work on more images while the conversions are taking place.
In Photoshop, it's one image at a time.
Capture 1 remembers the changes made to each image so if I
wish I can wait until I've tweaked an entire group before selecting
several images or an entire folder for a batch conversion. After
the images are converted, I continue my workflow in Photoshop
CS, but often there's little left to do except adding some final
resizing, sharpening, and cropping of the image for my intended
use.
I didn't realize how dependent I was upon Capture 1's editing
capabilities until I bought my EOS 1D Mark II before it was supported
by Capture 1. For a couple of weeks I was forced to edit my RAW
files in Photoshop, after pulling my hair out trying to use Canon's
proprietary conversion program. Fortunately, I received the upgrade
that supports the camera in Capture 1 before I made a two week
trip to Brazil's Pantanal where I shot as many as 10 gigs of images
a day! With Capture 1 I had the entire collection edited before
I returned home, working during the mid-day siesta or after dinner.
I'm sure I'd still be editing if I was using Photoshop.
I was lucky enough to have a friend tell me about Capture 1 when
I was whining about how difficult it was to edit my RAW images.
I downloaded a two-week trial version and I've been hooked ever
since. As my friend did for me, I'm compelled to pass on the news
if you shoot RAW, you must try Capture 1. You will love
it.