From Capture to Print

Capture

I currently shoot with a Nikon D200 for topside photographs and a Nikon P4 for underwater photography. In the spring of 2008, I will be adding a Sea & Sea enclosure w/dual Ikelite strobes for my D200.

Depending on situation, I either take JPG or RAW. I usually use JPG for sports of fast-moving photography during the day, or for day-in, day-out snapshots. Where detail matters – most importantly highlights, extreme contrast, or I’m-only-getting-one-shot-at-this – I use RAW. Once my D200 goes underwater – all of that will be in RAW as you only get a single chance with underwater critters.

Processing

I primarily use Adobe Lightroom, and Adobe Photoshop CS2 for most of my image processing. Depending on need, I also use Nikon CaptureNX, DXO Optics Pro 5, and a variety of plug-ins for both Lightroom and Photoshop. All of my work is performed with color-calibrated dual monitors using the Pro-Photo RGB color profile. Before export to my final image format, I’ll convert the image to specific color profile to the specific printer-profile, or sRGB IE61966-2.1.

Printing

All of my images through smugmug are printed by a professional print partner who contracts directly with smugmug. Believe it or not, most of your studio photographers and school-event photographers use professional labs like these for their prints as well. The reason is that they provide access to extremely expensive printers ($500,000 and up) that are color-calibrated to produce consistently good, quality prints. All of my prints are done on Fuji Frontier systems, Polielettronica LaserLab printers, and for the largest format items on Durst Lambdas in up to 300 dpi format.

The paper used is Fuji Crystal Archive and was chosen for its long life and its consistent reproduction of excellent skin tones, really bright highlights, good clarity, and excellent contrast.

A Comment On Color

Because of the time I’ve already invested reviewing images before they get uploaded, I’ve set most of my images to be printed using “True Color”. These are the colors that I’ve signed off on and where the prints you get will be what I intended. The “Auto Color” option is available for quick prints where the final color isn’t as important. As an example, most of the photos you print at your local drug store are printed with “Auto Color”. It’s one of the reasons the reds, and greens pop – as the printing process is designed to maximize specific color ranges.