Hi Peter…again excellent work!! I am curious, however about two things:
1) I would like to know what your in-camera settings are for color, sharpness, and contrast; and 2) for my own personal learning (and I realize this one would take away somewhat from your mystique…) but I would really like to see occasionally how your picture comes out of the camera, and what it ultimately ends up looking like…a “before and after” of sorts. Any interest? Don’t worry…we won’t mind seeing you “without your make-up on”!! Sometimes I just don’t know where to go with a picture once shot…
🙂
Thanks again, M.
Hi Mark, thanks for the good words, my friend.
Regarding your questions:
1. I shoot in DNG Raw at default settings. I really don’t want the camera to do anything to the original file… I want the file to be left relatively untouched – relatively “flat”, to be more precise. This is because anytime a setting is applied, you lose as well as gain, so I want to be in full control of what I’m gaining and what I’m losing at each step. This is not possible if I’ve handed control, to any extent, over to the camera.
2. I’m often asked about my post-processing… I’ll consider posting some before-and-after images (by the way, I’ve done this at least once, if memory serves me well). Should I do this in a future post, however, I don’t believe it’ll take anything “away” from the images at all. 🙂 The angle I’ve shot and the lighting for each scene are fixed entities — from the moment I press the shutter — so no amount of post-processing will correct any fundamental flaws in these qualities (perhaps the reason you sometimes “don’t know where to go” with an image is because something along these lines is lacking… I don’t know for sure, of course, but this is what I suspect). On the other hand, if I’ve shot a good image, a proper application of post-processing will greatly enhance it and I have no qualms reporting that I work very hard at it…every image to me is unique and should be treated carefully. It’s a very personal and creative process, dictated by the qualities of the specific image at hand. This individual approach to post-processing — along with the way I “see” and chase light, emotion, composition, etc. in the first place — are the signature qualities of my work (of anybody’s work), as I see it.
By the way, the “Little Boy Blue” image above looked special to my eye the moment I saw the scene… when that happens I know I should end up with a good image, provided I don’t mess up in post-processing. 🙂
Thanks Peter. All excellent points. I certainly hope to look you up next time I am in the big TO! (I am in Deadmonton).
Prosophos 
Hi Peter…again excellent work!! I am curious, however about two things:
1) I would like to know what your in-camera settings are for color, sharpness, and contrast; and 2) for my own personal learning (and I realize this one would take away somewhat from your mystique…) but I would really like to see occasionally how your picture comes out of the camera, and what it ultimately ends up looking like…a “before and after” of sorts. Any interest? Don’t worry…we won’t mind seeing you “without your make-up on”!! Sometimes I just don’t know where to go with a picture once shot…
🙂
Thanks again, M.
Hi Mark, thanks for the good words, my friend.
Regarding your questions:
1. I shoot in DNG Raw at default settings. I really don’t want the camera to do anything to the original file… I want the file to be left relatively untouched – relatively “flat”, to be more precise. This is because anytime a setting is applied, you lose as well as gain, so I want to be in full control of what I’m gaining and what I’m losing at each step. This is not possible if I’ve handed control, to any extent, over to the camera.
2. I’m often asked about my post-processing… I’ll consider posting some before-and-after images (by the way, I’ve done this at least once, if memory serves me well). Should I do this in a future post, however, I don’t believe it’ll take anything “away” from the images at all. 🙂 The angle I’ve shot and the lighting for each scene are fixed entities — from the moment I press the shutter — so no amount of post-processing will correct any fundamental flaws in these qualities (perhaps the reason you sometimes “don’t know where to go” with an image is because something along these lines is lacking… I don’t know for sure, of course, but this is what I suspect). On the other hand, if I’ve shot a good image, a proper application of post-processing will greatly enhance it and I have no qualms reporting that I work very hard at it…every image to me is unique and should be treated carefully. It’s a very personal and creative process, dictated by the qualities of the specific image at hand. This individual approach to post-processing — along with the way I “see” and chase light, emotion, composition, etc. in the first place — are the signature qualities of my work (of anybody’s work), as I see it.
By the way, the “Little Boy Blue” image above looked special to my eye the moment I saw the scene… when that happens I know I should end up with a good image, provided I don’t mess up in post-processing. 🙂
Thanks Peter. All excellent points. I certainly hope to look you up next time I am in the big TO! (I am in Deadmonton).
Best regards,
M.