Out of curiosity what is the JPEG setting that produces your desired
skin tones? I hope it's not labeled "natural skin" or some such. :-)
Chuck Norcutt
On 10/13/2010 4:31 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
> After going through my DMC-L1 bashing last week regarding skintones, I
> buckled down and got to work with the conversions and understanding what is
> going on with the camera.
>
> 1. The sensor's WB trends towards the yellows. The sensor isn't
> neutral-centric or blue-centric like some brands, or red-centric like other
> brands. My A1 is green-centric, btw. Anyway, the DMC-L1 really needs to have
> the yellows neutralized to prevent people from looking like they are
> suffering from liver failure.
>
> 2. The reds, oranges and yellows are easily blown out during conversion.
> Unfortunately, this combined with the yellow cast conspire to give strange
> color shifts where you least want them. I like healthy pink skin and the
> highlights go yellow instead.
>
> 3. Third-party converters other than Silkypix do not do the files justice.
> However, VueScan with an ICC profile actually does a bit better MOST of the
> time. Adobe Lightroom? That's a non-starter. I twisted and turned things
> every which way in Lightroom to maximize the files but find that the base
> conversion engine itself (either version) just doesn't know how to handle
> the blend in the top exposure zone. Frankly, Lightroom conversions of all
> three of my digital cameras is overall the worse of all my options. It's an
> outstanding program for image manipulation and sorting, but is merely
> competent at conversions of these camera files.
>
> So, by using the ICC profile in VueScan I was able to get an idea of what
> the tones were supposed to look like. Then using this test image as a guide
> I managed to find settings in Silkypix to pretty much match. What surprised
> me was how far off from the normal conversion this was. However, what did
> surprise me is that I found an in-camera JPEG setting that got very close.
> Just as I've had to custom configure my other cameras, I'm having to do so
> with the DMC-L1.
>
> The reconverted files sailed through my editing process without further
> issues. The images edit nicely and I'm again very amazed at the quality of
> the lens. The contrast and smoothness of midtones is unlike anything I'm
> used to (it's better than the E-1).
>
> I still prefer the E-1 files for skintones, but at least I know that the
> DMC-L1 is usable and halfway decent.
>
> AG
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