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11/07/2008 08:08:36 AM · #1 |
Just out of curiousity, does anyone here regularly use the auto tone (develop module, Basic adjustments, "Auto" button just above exposure control; or Control/Command-U shortcut) feature in LR? For those unfamiliar, it automagically tries to adjust exposure, recovery, fill, black point, brightness and contrast for you with the click of one button.
I ask because I ran into another photographer recent who swears by it, and actually uses it on all his photos during import.
I had fiddled with it back in LR 1.x and never liked the results and since then had never really bothered with it since. I've seen several notes similar to "auto tone improved blah blah blah" in the release notes with previous LR updates, so I tried it again (now using LR 2.1) on some shots this week...
I found the results all over the place. For a few shots, it did a great job. For a few shots, it went in the right direction, and after a few tweaks, I was where I probably would have ended up by myself, but it saved me some time. For more-than-a-few-shots, it did a horrible, horrible job. For most any of my theatre/concert shots (which are usually low-key, histogram-wise), it did a beyond-horrible-horrible job. I haven't researched exactly how auto tone makes it's decisions, but I expect it's trying to "correct" your histogram to appear fully/properly exposed.
Anyway, I just wondered if anyone here uses auto tone on a regular basis, and what your opinions here. No particular reason aside from academic interest. I've already decided for 95% of the type of shots I take, auto tone simply doesn't work, :) but I'm interested/curious if anyone else has found it helpful.
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11/07/2008 08:40:46 AM · #2 |
I dont use auto-tone but one thing I swear by now is the camera profiles that can be added to LR2 by means of a seperate download. It does a really good job of emulating the colour tones you see on the LCD at time of shooting.. defintely worth checking out.
Will try Auto-tone tonight if you like to see how it does for me.. |
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11/07/2008 08:54:07 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by Simms:
I dont use auto-tone but one thing I swear by now is the camera profiles that can be added to LR2 by means of a seperate download. It does a really good job of emulating the colour tones you see on the LCD at time of shooting.. defintely worth checking out. |
Absolutely agree with that. I have "Adobe standard beta 1" set as my profile default, and have been using it since they released the profile support. I use the specific camera modes ("Camera vivid beta 1," etc.) much less often, but just having the new "Adobe standard" profile was worth the effort alone.
It's amazing to go back and find shots you have from ACR 3.6 or ACR 4.4 and update them to the new Adobe standard profile. I usually have to go back and "tune down" the vivid and saturation adjustments, because I had punched them up to try to obtain the same results.
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11/07/2008 08:55:20 AM · #4 |
I've also heard some swear by auto tone, so I'd love to see where others sit on this. I'm presently caught between the two. I find doing my own adjustments ends up more reliable, but using auto tone offers time saving as long as you watch the bad ones.
Last shoot I used auto tone & found it reasonable. But it's hard to tell which to go for...
Maybe there's a trick to anticipating the bad ones--and keeping them out of the auto tone batch. Only thing I've noticed is for low key shots it tends to over brighten the shadows.
I'll look foward to hearing more responses... |
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11/07/2008 09:48:35 AM · #5 |
I've played around with auto tone and find it almost useless. There are very few shots I find that it does more then essentially over expose the shots and open the shadows way too much. Of course I dont have profiles downloaded and am still very much a newbie to LR2
Matt
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11/07/2008 10:46:49 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by MattO:
I've played around with auto tone and find it almost useless. There are very few shots I find that it does more then essentially over expose the shots and open the shadows way too much. Of course I dont have profiles downloaded and am still very much a newbie to LR2
Matt |
MattO - defintely download them profiles mate, they are great for the 5D , they emulate the picture styles really well. I have import settings for each `style` so depending on what I am shooting I can pick the style and it applies it to all shots as they import. |
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11/07/2008 11:10:19 AM · #7 |
| Most of the time auto-tone doesn't work very well though there are the odd situations where it comes close and only minor tweaking is required after applying it. |
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11/07/2008 02:49:22 PM · #8 |
where do you find the camera profiles ?
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11/07/2008 03:16:32 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by soup:
where do you find the camera profiles ? |
Discussed in this thread (and I think others, but that's the first one I could find)...
Direct link to Adobe labs ACR/DNG Camera Profiles.
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11/07/2008 04:36:39 PM · #10 |
I don't do AUTO anything.
Using AUTO means that you are letting the company that created the program decide weather or not your image needs a certain degree of toning, or levels, or what ever the situation.
YOU should decide what is needed on an image. Some guy in a white smock, in a laboratory, refining the auto settings on any editing situation just means that that is HIS companies ideals of what a good level of editing is.
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11/07/2008 05:25:06 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by Man_Called_Horse:
I don't do AUTO anything.
Using AUTO means that you are letting the company that created the program decide weather or not your image needs a certain degree of toning, or levels, or what ever the situation.
YOU should decide what is needed on an image. Some guy in a white smock, in a laboratory, refining the auto settings on any editing situation just means that that is HIS companies ideals of what a good level of editing is. |
To be honest, they probably just wear jeans and t-shirts..
So you only ever shoot in Manual mode on your camera?? wow, respect to you there..
Ditto for flash as well?? no E-TTL at all?
Message edited by author 2008-11-07 17:26:21. |
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11/07/2008 05:33:16 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by Man_Called_Horse:
I don't do AUTO anything.
Using AUTO means that you are letting the company that created the program decide weather or not your image needs a certain degree of toning, or levels, or what ever the situation.
YOU should decide what is needed on an image. Some guy in a white smock, in a laboratory, refining the auto settings on any editing situation just means that that is HIS companies ideals of what a good level of editing is. |
Of course you should. However, auto can sometimes get you 90% to where you want to be in one click rather than tweaking several sliders over the course of a few minutes to reach the same goal. It isn't useful in all cases but can save a lot of time in others. |
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11/08/2008 12:15:57 AM · #13 |
Just a quick note to say that they improved Auto Tone in LR2. I felt it was basically useless in LR1, but every now and then I'll click it just to see what it gets. I often decide that my own settings are best... but I've been amazed at how often it "gets it right" (or closer to being right than if I started out by fiddling).
So while I completely avoided it in LR1, I have to admit to using it every now and again under LR2.
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11/08/2008 11:43:51 AM · #14 |
Originally posted by Simms:
Originally posted by Man_Called_Horse:
I don't do AUTO anything.
Using AUTO means that you are letting the company that created the program decide weather or not your image needs a certain degree of toning, or levels, or what ever the situation.
YOU should decide what is needed on an image. Some guy in a white smock, in a laboratory, refining the auto settings on any editing situation just means that that is HIS companies ideals of what a good level of editing is. |
To be honest, they probably just wear jeans and t-shirts..
So you only ever shoot in Manual mode on your camera?? wow, respect to you there..
Ditto for flash as well?? no E-TTL at all? |
Your sarcasm is inspiring.
Have you not seen any of my images? Mostly baseball, and football during the golden period of the day.
What images I do use models I don't use flash much,I only have my 580 EX and one other flash. I use standard studio equipment.
I do use manual all the time, I don't trust other modes except my vision.
And I thought this thread was about post production, not production.....am I wrong?
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11/08/2008 01:10:46 PM · #15 |
thank you !
Originally posted by cdrice:
Discussed in this thread (and I think others, but that's the first one I could find)...
Direct link to Adobe labs ACR/DNG Camera Profiles. |
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11/08/2008 01:13:40 PM · #16 |
90% + of the time that's the way i work ( outside of AF ). so don't think it's such a pipe dream to know how to make your equipment work for you...
Originally posted by Simms:
So you only ever shoot in Manual mode on your camera?? wow, respect to you there..
Ditto for flash as well?? no E-TTL at all? |
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11/08/2008 03:01:53 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by soup:
90% + of the time that's the way i work ( outside of AF ). so don't think it's such a pipe dream to know how to make your equipment work for you...
Originally posted by Simms:
So you only ever shoot in Manual mode on your camera?? wow, respect to you there..
Ditto for flash as well?? no E-TTL at all? |
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First three shots I just checked out on your portfolio are all in Aperture Priority mode.. go figure.
edit - to be fair 2 out of the next 3 in manual.. maybe I just got lucky.
Message edited by author 2008-11-08 15:03:30. |
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11/08/2008 05:56:46 PM · #18 |
maybe i over estimated...
try using a 550ex or 430ex in manual mode with the camera set to AV. IMO eTTL sucks most of the time... but that's another thread. my point was not to live by the cameras capabilities, but to make the camera do what you want. obviously you're a good photog... to each their own.
Originally posted by Simms:
First three shots I just checked out on your portfolio are all in Aperture Priority mode.. go figure.
edit - to be fair 2 out of the next 3 in manual.. maybe I just got lucky. |
ETA - you're right - with the on the fly shots - i have tended more and more towards AV. but with the studio type stuff it's almost all manual. thanks for calling me out ;}
back to the jist of the topic - maybe ?
Message edited by author 2008-11-08 18:04:47.
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