RAW

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Aperture 3 – Nikon NEF Files

I have had about 9 dozen conversations with Nikon shooters over the past week regarding Aperture 3 and Nikon NEF RAW file rendering. Most of them are extremely frustrated with Apple and Aperture and “CoreImage” – I just wanted to go on record stating my feelings on this. First of all if you have been reading my posts for more than a week you have probably picked up on my own personal frustration with this situation. Actually frustration is not the word – maybe bewilderment, rage, disdain, hopelessness, anger,...

16 February 2010 | Apple Aperture, Articles | , , , , , , | 35 Comments
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Aperture 3 – Nikon NEF Files – Screencast

Here is a short little video for those of you wanting to develop your own presets for NEF files in Aperture 3 that are closer to the way Capture NX2 renders your RAW files. I will continue to work on the cameras that I do not own as I get a decent sampling of images. So far a couple of people have sent me files – but a lot of people have requested presets. I am in need of additional samples for the D700, D300s, D3s, and D3x. If...

15 February 2010 | Apple Aperture, Articles | , , , , , , | 9 Comments
14

Aperture RAW Processing – The Not So Ugly Truth

I just went through an exercise with a reader that was doing all his RAW NEF conversions in Capture One Pro prior to importing into Aperture because the RAW conversion was so much “better”. The reality is that Aperture RAW processing is really really good. It just is neutral/flat out of the camera and juiced way way up by default without doing anything “out of the box” with Capture One Pro. Really. Personally I think the default Capture One Pro settings for “film curve” and the default sharpening and...

29 January 2010 | Apple Aperture, Articles, General Photography | , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments
29

Aperture – Something Nice To Say

Okay – so I have been like a whining baby that last few days. Let me say a couple of positive things about Apple Aperture as we are winding the week down. The first thing that I want to say is that in my opinion it is still the best photographic tool in it’s class by a large margin. This doesn’t mean that it cannot stand some room for improvement. It can but… Aperture blows the living crap out of anything else out there in terms of an organizational...

28 January 2010 | Apple Aperture, Articles, General Photography | , , , , , , , | 29 Comments
9

Fake Film Edges – Why They Bother Me

Without getting way too philosophical on photographic lies and truth as this discussion is best had with really close friends while drinking – I want to offer up some thoughts on fake film borders or rebate. When I see these on a photograph that is clearly digital – the wrong aspect ration for the film – and edge lettering that is clearly done in photoshop it is an instant turn off for me. It’s probably even worse when it is “well done”. I guess it is a turn off...

22 January 2010 | Articles, General Photography | , , , , | 9 Comments
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McNally Uses Aperture – Who Knew?

Maybe this is not news you all of you but McNally’s assistant just posted something about his workflow. Seems like he uses Aperture for all the organization amongst other things. Guess what the hitch is – he is a Nikon shooter and he does all of his RAW processing in Capture NX2. Given the pain in the ass factor this has to be a giant endorsement for some of Aperture’s wonderfulness vs. Lightroom and at the same time a giant indictment about Aperture’s RAW processing on NEF files. The...

20 October 2009 | Aperture vs Lightroom, Articles | , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments
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A Tale of Two Images

As most of you know I am not a landscape guy. Don’t have the patience for it but If I happen to be there, sure I’ll give it a shot. That happens very rarely, especially where I live. Don’t get me wrong, the bay and surrounding area are quite beautiful but if there is nothing in the sky it is kind of flat and very difficult to get a good landscape image that represents the feeling of the place. I have been working on a super secret project this...

28 September 2009 | Articles, General Photography | , , , , , | 6 Comments
19

Nikon – Aperture and War Against Bit-twiddling

Just a quick follow-up post regarding a bunch of email conversations I have had regarding my last post about what me, me, me wants in the next version of Aperture. I have engaged in a number of interesting and not so interesting conversations regarding that post. I cannot begin to cover all of them at the moment but I had so many regarding my number one issue, NEF RAW processing, that I thought I would share a couple thoughts. First I had about the same number of emails that...

27 May 2009 | Apple Aperture, Articles | , , , , , , | 19 Comments
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RAW and Aperture – Anyone Care To Help Me Out Here?

Hey people, This is why I could never be a teacher. My head would explode. Maybe I need a cooling rod like the Scorpious guy on Farscape from a few years back, for those of you who are not familiar with the series, Scorpious is a bad guy that has a chamber that unscrews from the side of his head so that he can service rods that cool his brain and stop him from going completely insane. I feel the need for one now. As I have mentioned, I...

16 May 2009 | Apple Aperture | , , , | 8 Comments
14

Why Shoot RAW

I have received a bunch of feedback on a couple of articles regarding NEF processing in Aperture. More than a few were questioning the value of shooting RAW files at all if the camera does such a good job processing JPG files with in camera settings. I thought that I would share a couple of my thoughts on this along with a contrived example for the non-believers out there. With storage costs being so idiotically inexpensive and generally huge when compared with real world numbers of still images that...

18 January 2009 | Articles, General Photography | , , , , | 14 Comments
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