Last summer’s monsoon in the Sonoran Desert was pretty much a complete bust. Rains were so paltry that it’s widely referred to as a “non-soon.” In late May this year, these clouds developed over the Catalina Mountains at sunset, and they reminded me of the monsoon clouds that sometimes happen during monsoon season. Unfortunately, there was no measurable precipitation associated with these particular clouds. Everyone’s hoping this year’s monsoon is substantially better than last year’s, but it’s not happened yet.
Specific Feedback Requested
Technical Details
This is an early experiment with a fully manual RAW file conversion using a linear profile
I just read the article, it sounds very interesting…I’m interested in how it has changed your processing…When you say you feel like you are getting better results, do you know what you can attribute that to? Do you feel like the colors/tones are more natural? Im intrigued…
I also just read your article. Would it be correct that a linear profile is particularly useful in an image such as this where the clouds have such bright areas? It would seem that the bowed profile would increase those highlights.
It’s been extremely hot here in Oregon as well. I’ll bet those monsoons feel really good when they appear in the summer months.
Not that I’m super experienced with any of this…but I loaded the profile for my camera to see what it would look like. Images come up significantly darker and significantly flatter.
Auto button
Linear
Not to hijack the thread, but hopefully these provide some context. Seems like the auto renders a slightly better image. @Igor_Doncov I think you are right, the highlights should be able to be maintained better. It would take some getting used to for sure, but I typically start by pulling the exposure down to control the highlights, this may remove that step and lead to better highlights in the end…I’m intrigued enough to test it for a while.
Tony, to follow onto Igor’s point, would you be willing to show the original “unprocessed” raw file, both with a linear profile and the Adobe Standard “bowed” profile? Like Igor I’m particularly interested in in seeing the relative difference of how the two profiles handle the golden highlights in the clouds.
And thanks for sharing your knowledge with the NPN community, it was an interesting article.
@David_Wallace, @Igor_Doncov, @Ed_McGuirk–the results of using “Auto” option will vary considerably from image to image when it’s used after applying the linear profile. I’ve seen images that still look underexposed and also images that have blown out highlights after using Auto. The point of using Auto with the linear profile is to make the image look more “normal” compared to just applying the linear profile, which always makes the image darker and flatter as explained in the article. I’ve found that often with a linear profile + Auto, simply adjusting Contrast and Exposure goes a long ways in getting the image to a better point than I could get with the other Adobe Raw profiles. If additional slider adjustments are necessary, I also find the sliders “better calibrated” (as described by my friend Eric) after applying the linear profile so that moving them gives more predictable results. And I especially like how the image responds to the sliders in the HSL/Color (Color Mixer) panel.
Tony thanks again for sharing this technique with us. I downloaded your free profiles and played with it. The starting point looks worse, but after doing “Linear + Auto” and then tweaking the sliders, everything went well and I think I got to a finished product faster and easier. It’s hard to describe specifics, but it just felt like I wasn’t “fighting” the LR sliders as much as usual. And the sliders produced more predictable and pleasing results as you said. If you are trying to maintain more shadow and highlight detail in a higher contrast image, this technique has some nice advantages.
One thing I think I noticed is that when using the blue primary saturation slider on the Camera Calibration tab to add a little pop to color, I was able to get more pleasing results with a Linear Profile. When using this with the Adobe Standard or Adobe Color profiles, it’s very easy to get garish saturation quickly, but it was more restrained with the Linear Profile.
It just felt like I wasn’t “fighting” the LR sliders as much as usual. --@Ed_McGuirk
That’s certainly another way to put it. I personally find I can get closer to my final image when converting the RAW file using a linear profile than I could before with an Adobe profile. I used to reach a point where the Camera Raw sliders just weren’t getting me where I wanted, so I’d quit and move over to Photoshop. The linear profile seems to make the sliders more appropriately responsive, and, as a consequence, it’s easier to fine-tune the image during RAW file conversion.
I’ve not experimented with the Calibration sliders yet, but given how impressively performant the Channel Mixer (HSL/Color in Lr) is with a linear profile, I’m not at all surprised that you got some good results.
Beautiful image as is. Really beautiful. And thank you again for sharing your information about post processing. Over the years you have made a big difference in my post processing.
Gorgeous image and I’m sorry no rain was forthcoming.
I read the article about the linear profiles and it looks like I’d have to make my own. Right now I use a camera matching profile during RAW conversion. Depending on the mode I’m in, the G9 is usually in standard or natural in terms of what it produces. It would be interesting to see what a linear profile would accomplish, but it looks like more work than I want to get into right now.
Tony, thanks for the informative and detailed article. I appreciate your knowledge and the time you have taken to make this available. I look forward to trying the linear profile. Do you have a linear profile for Nikon D750. I notice it is not listed. I like the vibrance, detail, and color in this image. The yellow/orange in the clouds bring my eye into the mountains while the blue in the sky speaks to the lack of rain. Many thanks.
As an additional resource, the link to Tony’s article also provides you with information on how to use the Adobe DNG Profile Editor to create your own profile for any camera model, if it is not one of the pre-made profiles already available on Tonys website.
I’m wondering, not having had a ton of experience with it yet, if you have found additional noise being introduced as a result of having to pull exposure up vs what I am used to doing with generally pulling exposure down.
I’ve not specifically looked at noise issues, but, theoretically, without the contrast increase in the dark tones (that’s a normal part of the standard Adobe profiles), noise might actually be less with linear profile. However, you’d have to experiment to see if there is any noticeable difference.
But just to be clear, I am trying to develop a repository of linear profiles that other photographers can quickly download and use. So if you’re camera isn’t listed, please contact me and I’ll add your camera to the list. I just need you to send me an un-adjusted, straight-out-of-camera RAW file.
