Of course you’re right, but doing so is at the bottom of a very long list right now. I’ll try to get around to it later this week.
Actually, I was thinking of “presets”. I haven’t had time to even start to mess around with FilmPack Presets.
You’re right though - instead of selecting a PreSet, I feel like it’s my job to find the appropriate tools within PhotoLab to do it on my own.
Why don’t I just send my images to @Joanna, let her make them look the way she prefers, and then post them? That’s what using a Preset means to me, using someone else’s idea of how a photo should look. I’ve had access to them forever, and more so with Nik Collection.
Perhaps “cheating” is not the proper word, but I haven’t yet thought of anything better.
Why not put my camera in (A)auto Mode, and let the camera make all the appropriate adjustments? Same concept, as I see it…
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
302
@mikemyers
Still you have the option to use one or two as a startingpoint that you can tweak a bit a create a new one to your own liking. What´s wrong with that?
It suddenly struck me that we may be talking at cross purposes.
There are presets and there are presets…
Some are known as “full presets”
These take over an image completely and can be used as a starting point to achieve a pre-determined look and feel for an image. They should only be used as the first step in processing an image as they can wipe out any previous changes you have made.
Some are known as “partial presets”
These are akin to macros, which can make one or more adjustments in a single click. Applying such a preset will only change the adjustments involved in the “macro” and will not overwrite anything unexpected.
But whatever the type of preset, the “Presets” button on the top right of the PL window is only there to show you previews of the effect a preset will have before you choose it.
The “out of the box” presets supplied by DxO, whether they be full or partial presets, tend to do more than one thing to an image. Let’s start with an image that has absolutely no adjustments, as can be seen by selecting the “Active Corrections” button on the top row of the palettes sidebar…
In this case, the word “preset” is possibly misleading and the only reason it ends up being called that is because it appears on the Presets preview dropdown. Unless you want to see a preview of a given film, you can simply choose it from the Colour Rendering tool in the FilmPack palette…
So, all “presets” are not equal and you are not losing control of what you are doing by applying FilmPack presets, which Mark and I have constructed to one and only one thing - allow you to see a preview of what effect various colour renderings will have on the image if you were to select one of them.
Only if you use the presets that DxO provides, most of which are intended for use as “filters” or “effects”.
Personally, I don’t use them at all, but I do use the previews of Mark and my FilmPack presets to easily see which FilmPack Colour Rendering I might like to use.
Not forgetting that you can create your own presets if you often want to always make the same few adjustments to many images. This is why I created the “Optical Corrections only” preset, for use as the default preset applied to all new RAW images.
Hmm, until now, I didn’t know, let alone understand, any of this. Perhaps DxO should provide a message as to what the “preset” does, if I right-click on it?
I didn’t know that, but since I know nothing of any of these films, I’m unlikely to use them, unless I click through them, one at a time, to find an effect that I like, but chances are I won’t be using them. I guess I’ve never been a big fan of “presets” in the past, and to be honest, I mostly ignore them. I can’t recall ever wanting to change my photos to look like they were taken differently. I prefer that the photos look like they came from whatever camera I was using to take them. Or to be completely honest, maybe this is more than I feel capable of dealing with. Obviously other people will feel differently, so if they enjoy using the presets, great!
Sounds wonderful, but again, since I never heard of those films to begin with, the presets are not “re-creating” an effect for me. I think I’ll drop out of this discussion, as I have nothing to add, only ignorance.
I would rather spend my time with PhotoLab learning to use the basic tools more effectively, and not to over-use them. I feel like I just stepped into a classroom where they are teaching calculus and analytic geometry, as in lost. Maybe I’m just too old. It’s as if I remove my glasses, and everyone else can see things that I can’t.
I’ve got a “toolbox” which contains what I remember of all the basic PhotoLab tools, and no more. I stay away from “presets”, and never change my “workspace” from what you have helped me create. I’m obviously no “expert” at this, but I think I mostly understand things - although every time I post an image, you show me how I could have done things better. So, I learn what you show me, and that too goes into my toolbox. But just as with my mechanical hand tools in my small workshop, after not using something for a couple of years, I forget things, and need to re-learn. It’s like picking up a mechanical micrometer, and I need to re-learn what all the tiny lines are and mean, to be able to take a measurement. Years of using a digital micrometer have cost me my understanding of how to do it “the old way”. Oh well. Maybe when I was 28, not 78, I learned new things better.
Or, you could just try the presets yourself and actually see what they do. That is what most of us do. You still seem overly cautious when it comes to experimenting with things outside of your comfort zone. The only way to master PhotoLab is to try everything available to see the impact on your images especially when tools are used in conjunction with each other. Once you understand everything that is available you can focus on mastering what works for you.
In additional, occasionally participating in threads other than your own on this site might give you greater insight on getting the best from PhotoLab. There is a a lot of information being shared here.
I know that people use different approaches. One way is to read and think, which is quite alright if one wants to become a surgeon. For creative work, trial and error seems to be a more promising approach imo.
It’s been a while, and I haven’t really thought much about new photos of Biscayne Bay. I would look out my window every morning, say “yuck!!” and forget about yet another “harbor photo” as someone called them. Then I got involved in my old photos from India and Nepal, and stopped thinking about Biscayne Bay.
Until this morning. As I was getting ready to go out for the day, someone called in the Kodak Gods and presented me with as perfect a photo as I ever remember seeing. The air was crisp, and clear, no hint of fog. The sky was a bright Kodak Blue, with fluffy white Kodak clouds all over.
So, I put everything else on hold, and went out on the balcony with my D750 #1 and captured several photos at 70mm, 300mm, and in between. They looked great on the viewing screen, but I packed the camera away, and haven’t even ingested the images yet. I’ll do that over this weekend.
Currently, in my mind, or whatever passes for a mind, the whole idea of beautiful photos of the city and cruise ships and boats doesn’t sound as appealing as looking over my old photos from overseas.
I guess I’ll get around to processing and posting something in the next few days, but now that I feel so excited about photos from overseas, the whole deal of getting a great photo of Miami feels like it’s all leading to a “postcard” that tourists can mail back home.
I’m also searching for reasonably priced tickets to go overseas again, if the virus doesn’t disrupt my plans again. Oh well… by Monday I hope to have an updated “perfect” photo of Miami ready to post, but unfortunately, “perfect” isn’t good enough any more. I feel so much more involved in my overseas photos, even the ones taken on very old and not very powerful cameras.
Don’t take this the wrong way but I would say it’s time to move on to new images and adventures. You can only take the same image from the same location a few times before it becomes pointless. You are lucky to have such a nice few from your home. Enjoy it, but I think you’ve taken more than enough photos of it. Let’s see some of the overseas photos.
Dave
…and don’t forget that we’re in a forum focused around DxO PhotoLab. We’re glad to help with (peripheral to this forum) aspects of technique, composition etc., but there are more proficient platforms for sharing your photos. Post a link if you do have a portfolio somewhere.
My thoughts - the best way I’m going to get better at PhotoLab is by taking photos, editing in PhotoLab, posting my results, and getting constructive feedback. Then others posted their edits of the same image, and I could learn from how they did their editing - by opening up their Virtual Copy.
Biscayne Bay is both the same, and different, every time I capture a photo there. Each image is different from the previous images, as I (sometimes) struggle to create the edits that others do.
Don’t worry - I won’t ever take anything the wrong way, and if you want to spend half an hour describing all the faults that you become aware of, please DO go for it.
My point wasn’t to post a zillion photos of Biscayne Bay. Instead, it was to learn from the feedback, and do better the next time(s).
A huge number of my photos are in my web gallery, Mike’s’ Gallery
You can look at as many as you want, full-size, and leave as much feedback as you wish. I’ll probably turn off the full-size option eventually.
I posted several of my old images here, because I was asked to. It also shows I can take photos of other types of scenes. Unfortunately, because I was so wrong to shoot in ‘jpg’, not ‘raw’, I can’t properly post the originals here, to ask for advice in editing.
Now that I can edit my LEICA M8 and Fuji photos in PhotoLab, that’s the only editor I use. But I don’t expect to get much feedback on these old overseas images, unless I post the original ‘jpg’ and the ‘.dop’ file.
What I really need to do, is find new things to photograph, in “raw” and try using the PhotoLab tools I’m least familiar with. I guess I just don’t use them very often. Maybe I’ll even try out Filmpack…
Notes: 1978 6x4.5 negative, shot with red filter, conversion settings as shown in the screenshot above. Image should be flipped horizontally, but DPL can’t do it yet.
I hope to return to Colorado in April, and yes, the steam trains are something I find fascinating, along with railroad museums. On my last visit, I had my Fuji X100f with me, and by then, I had learned my lesson, shooting only in raw. But back then, PhotoLab didn’t work with my Fuji RAW “.raf” images. Now it does, so I can rediscover my old images again! The following photo was taken at the “Georgetown Loop”: Georgetown Loop
I used to love going to the villages and “ordinary” areas of India, which I found fascinating. I have most of these photos on my gallery at Mike Gallery
Overseas, I love capturing “candid” photos like this, where the people involved are so involved in what they’re doing that they ignore the silly foreigner taking photographs:
Seeing what your local adjustments did, one at a time, I certainly do prefer your changes. I thought the railroad car at the left was distracting, but now I think it adds to the image. The other changes all add to the overall image, and your version is what I “see” in my mind - but when I turn your changes off, the image suffers - a lot! I hated the automobile at the right, but I was stuck with it there, and right after this photo, the person in the foreground left, removing what I felt was a strong part of the image.
I need to spend some time this coming week learning how to “mask”.
I always loved this image - and with your improvements, I love it even more!
