The Fisherman

[Onyx]

This was taken near Luna Park on the northern side the Bridge tour activity on Saturday, the guy pulled out a fairly sizeable fish from the end of his line (surprising as it came out of Sydney Harbour), and we D70Users made him a star.

It was with a newly discovered custom curve I shot with on the Anniversary weekend, Raszevski curve, named after its author (originally intended for the D2X). Reviewing my pics, the curve didn't work for me in alot of shots, but this one image is a standout I thought I'd share.

Honest opinions sought. Do you like the tone curve? Do you like the results? Can you separate one from the other?


Gear: Nikon D70, Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8@80mm.
Exif: ISO200, f/11, 1/500s. Matrix metering, -1.3EV. No fill flash.

IMO the curve makes the image uncharacterstic of the D70 - totally different in tone and colours, the compressed/lack of dynamic range makes it look like it was from scanned film instead. Except resizing for the web, there was no PP done on this out of camera JPEG.

[informer]

Despite all the technicality explained, it looks like a happy snap to me.

[Alex]

Great portrait, Onyx. I really like the lighting and composition. Nice size pinky too.

Alex

P.s. I never tried that curve. I use Fotogenetic P&S4.1. I tried sReala v.2 but did not like it as much.

[WadeM]

Curve looks nothing too spech to me. I prefer RAW PP over JPG curves.

--Wadem

[Hlop]

Curve looks nothing too spech to me. I prefer RAW PP over JPG curves.

I always shoot RAW but when I bring 500+ photos from some trip I really want to minimise PP as much as I can. If you spend about 10 minutes for each photo, it'll be about 80-85 hours, 2 work weeks. I just don't have this time. So, I found curves might be useful in some situations.

Onyx,
This your photo looks pretty good. I tried Raszevski curve myself and I also don't like it in many situations but here it works

[rokkstar]

I quite like it Onyx. Hits you immediately.

Anyone else think he looks like Baldrick from Blackadder?

[Glen]

I like the shot, not sure if the curve helps or not but good use of DOF, nice blue sea and an interesting subject with good lighting, what more could you want.

[Onyx]

Yes, it is an ordinary snap as informer said. I was merely trying to illustrate the Raszevski curve, and that it didn't work for me.

Wade - your comments suggest a misunderstanding about tone curves. I would try to explain further, but I'll end up sounding too condescending.

Here's the image reprocessed with the 'normal' tone curve. His face and hands are no longer as close to clipping and his yellow beanie seems to be more saturated too.