On Apr 7, 2006, at 4:46 PM, Shel Belinkoff wrote:
... The question was about what a photographer
might want, which may be different in many ways from what the
program(s)
may offer. ...
The question
"What are some typical things you'd want to
do if you had a RAW file and you wanted to
make sure everything was okay before you
saved it in the other format? "
is about what ought to be done with a RAW file to be sure that is is
both usable and safe from inadvertent modification prior to working
with it. It's not about how to render a RAW file into the photograph
you have in mind, it's about what to do with the raw materials before
you start working on them. That's the question I provided an answer
for. My full answer also included sketching out a conceptual workflow
beyond that, as typical of what a photographer might want to do
through the entire process of developing RAW file into Photograph.
... A photographer may have a perfect understanding of raw
conversion, but s/he may ~want~ something more or different. ...
This statement is something of a non-sequitur. If you have a perfect
understanding of RAW conversion processing, what does "wanting
something more or different" mean in the context of the technology?
If you have a RAW file and have performed a RAW conversion and "want
something more or different" from the resulting image, the ONLY
things you can do are to either try doing another RAW conversion with
different parameters or start working on the RAW converted image in
RGB space to edit it further into what you are after. That's an
aesthetic evaluation which is beyond the discussion of how the
software tools for image processing work and how to use them best
from a technical perspective.
It moves into the misty realm of "What should this photograph be?"
and "How can I get the tools to deliver that, knowing how they work?"
Bruce's book addresses the questions of "What are these tools? How do
they work? What can they do? What's an example/recommendation of a
good way to use them?" and stops there, leaving further development
of use to the users.
Godfrey
