A100

[Mark K]

With LR 2.1 and Photoshop CS3, is here anyone who can offer a workflow to make A100 a better camera?

[deanr1968]

The A100 is already a good camera, LR and PS arent going to change that. First of start shooting RAW and then play with all the settings in LR to see what happens. I typically start at the top of the right hand panel in LRs develop module and work my way down changing things that I think might enhance the image.

Also check out some of the tutorials on Adobe TV tv.adobe.com from memory

[David Kilpatrick]

For the A100, ACR/WB white balance adjustment is the most important factor. The images will tend to be too yellow/warm by default, and dropping 'daylight' to just below 5000K (typically to 4700-4900) can greatly improve the colour and make it more like the classic Dynax D7D look. I use sharpening set to only 10-15, instead of the usual 25, and detail/radius/mask at the defaults. Vibrance I often preset to 10 instead of 0, but I leave saturation alone unless needed. The black level is set to 0 by default instead of the 5 it comes preset to, and the tone curve is set to Medium for sunny conditions, Strong for overcast. I tend to leave Colour Noise reduction at 25 (default) for 100-200, raise it 50 for 400; at 800, introduce 25 luminance noise; at 1600, raise colour noise to 100 (this does lose some subtle colours) and if necessary luminance to 50, and turn off sharpening.

The A100 has about the best file quality for detail and sharpness at native size, of all the APS-C Alpha models. You should be able to get the best ISO 100-200 results from this camera, and it only begins to require care in post-processing (noise reduction) at 400-1600.

David

[Mark K]

Thanks David.
Of all the cameras I have, I found A100 the most difficult to yield great photos. Let me start practicing and reprocess all my older images.

thanks again