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daughter and husband return from their Mediterranean honeymoon*~ (embiggenable)
FROM THIS ENTRY FORWARD YOUCAN ASSUME, UNLESS otherwise noted, that all pictures have been made with PRORAW.
Now that I have programmed the RAW processing process into my muscle memory-I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts-it has become obvious that that process is actually less involved / time consuming than working with jpegs. That’s cuz I do not have contend with circumventing the iPhone picture making AI that wants every picture to look like a bright, sunny-like Kodachrome day.
Amongst other things, I no longer have to soften, aka: reduce contrast, highlight values. The shadow values require less work to reveal detail and the color values, re: saturation, are much more realistic / natural. Although, I still reduce, but to a lesser extent than when working with jpegs, contrast in order to achieve a smoother tonal transitions.
My image file processing is based around the idea of achieving a file that, when printed, has the look and feel, of what some might call it, an old-timey C print (on Kodak Ektacolor paper-although Agfa color paper was very nice-made from color negative film). To my eye and sensibilities, that look and feel has a very satisfyingly “gentle” appearance that is the polar opposite of what I consider to be the retched excesses of the digital realm-i.e. fetish-like obsession with sharpness / resolution, max dynamic range, “punchy” colors and saturation, and the like.
That written, digital prints are very capable of replicating the look and feel of a C print when the originating file has the “right” look and feel. And, FYI, when I was talking with Joel Meyerowitz-I received an invitation to the NYC opening of a gallery exhibition showing the work of Meyerowitz, Shore and Eggleston-we both mentioned our surprise that, when we scanned our 8x10 color negatives, how much additional information-detail and color range-was to be had from a color negative and was subsequently revealed in a digital print.
me looking at a Meyerowitz after my conversation with Meyerowitz ~ (embiggenable)
* no, they did not take the train back from Europe. Instead, they flew from Europe to Montreal-only 50 miles or so from where we live-and rode the train, The Adirondack, to home where we met them at the station. The Adirondack runs daily-both directions-between Montreal and New York City. The route, along the very edge of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River has been voted as one of the top 10 picturesque train trips in the world.