I bought an old Sony F707 just to mess around with, and to keep in the car for those shots I keep seeing on the way to work (three miles each way and I still see three or four photographs a week, just never had a camera with me).
Anyhow, there are a couple of things about this camera that I'll have to work around:
I'll shoot in JPEG because the largest card I can get is a 128 mB and that would only hold a handful of TIFFs.
It apparently records in sRGB.
Questions:
Should I convert to my working profile (Adobe RGB) when opening and adjusting these files in Photoshop?
Is it best to save works in progress as .PSD files?
Is it ok to leave files I haven't worked on as JPEGs, or should I convert them?
I await your advice with bated breath.
Pete D.
Posted by David Bostedo on September 22, 2006 at 12:39 AM
Pete - I use an EVF Digicam myself, and actually have a couple of the same questions. But here's my two cents....
If you convert to Adobe RGB, you'll be able to adjust the colors into the wider gamut provided. However, I've only played around with this. I'm not sure, but since the camera takes sRGB, pushing the colors around to be noticably different from what you'd get with sRGB seems to take some work, and some over-adjustment at times.
If you are working with layers, you should always save your work in progress as a PSD. Otherwise it gets flattened and you can't undo decisions you made before. That being said, if you are making simple changes, and care about file size, saving as JPG is not bad. Don't re-edit JPGs if you can help it, though, since they tend to degrade with more edits.
And there's really no point in converting the un-worked files from JPGs, since you'll be reading them into PS anyway to edit them. The "conversion" will take place at that point, when you save the file. (But it's a good idea to edit a copy of the original, so you don't accidentally save over it.)
Perhaps someone a little more knowledgeable can shed more light on these issues - especially with regard to the color space.
Posted by Guy Tal on September 22, 2006 at 9:46 AM
Pete,
If you're shooting JPG, the color space is not your biggest concern - it's the bit depth (limited to 8-bit). By converting an 8-bit sRGB JPG to a larger color space like Adobe RGB you run the risk of banding in areas of fine transition (like skies). The reason is the limited available color information is stretched across a much larger gamut, creating gaps between points of actual data vs. data that need to be manufactured between them. If you're set on using JPG, I would leave it at sRGB.
It's not necessarily best to save in PSD, but it is convenient. You can also save layered TIFFs (which are not flattened). I use PSD.
Yes, it is good to keep your unworked files as JPGs. They won't lose any more information than was already lost in their creation, and the compressed format is smaller than TIFF or PSD.
Discussion
2 repliesAnyhow, there are a couple of things about this camera that I'll have to work around:
I'll shoot in JPEG because the largest card I can get is a 128 mB and that would only hold a handful of TIFFs.
It apparently records in sRGB.
Questions:
Should I convert to my working profile (Adobe RGB) when opening and adjusting these files in Photoshop?
Is it best to save works in progress as .PSD files?
Is it ok to leave files I haven't worked on as JPEGs, or should I convert them?
I await your advice with bated breath.
Pete D.
If you convert to Adobe RGB, you'll be able to adjust the colors into the wider gamut provided. However, I've only played around with this. I'm not sure, but since the camera takes sRGB, pushing the colors around to be noticably different from what you'd get with sRGB seems to take some work, and some over-adjustment at times.
If you are working with layers, you should always save your work in progress as a PSD. Otherwise it gets flattened and you can't undo decisions you made before. That being said, if you are making simple changes, and care about file size, saving as JPG is not bad. Don't re-edit JPGs if you can help it, though, since they tend to degrade with more edits.
And there's really no point in converting the un-worked files from JPGs, since you'll be reading them into PS anyway to edit them. The "conversion" will take place at that point, when you save the file. (But it's a good idea to edit a copy of the original, so you don't accidentally save over it.)
Perhaps someone a little more knowledgeable can shed more light on these issues - especially with regard to the color space.
If you're shooting JPG, the color space is not your biggest concern - it's the bit depth (limited to 8-bit). By converting an 8-bit sRGB JPG to a larger color space like Adobe RGB you run the risk of banding in areas of fine transition (like skies). The reason is the limited available color information is stretched across a much larger gamut, creating gaps between points of actual data vs. data that need to be manufactured between them. If you're set on using JPG, I would leave it at sRGB.
It's not necessarily best to save in PSD, but it is convenient. You can also save layered TIFFs (which are not flattened). I use PSD.
Yes, it is good to keep your unworked files as JPGs. They won't lose any more information than was already lost in their creation, and the compressed format is smaller than TIFF or PSD.
Guy