Getting it right in the camera - is it enough?

[speedneeder]

I think another word for it is "preparation"

Much of it prep yes, but taking test shots and checking in LR and adjusting? I think preprocessing is a better description
Either way, you and others I agree with about the time - is it better to spend an hour prepping for a shot and then taking it? Or spending 5 minutes in photoshop afterwards? There is definitely benefit in getting as close to right to begin with, especially with repetitive shots like the bicycle example, or my recent experience shooting hockey portraits - basically doing the same PP 30 times in a row was not pleasurable!

[Black Pearl]

The studio we hired (my friends wasn't big enough) had several areas that were completely separate. There was a black cove walled off from the rest plus some standard grey areas where backgrounds could be introduced if needed.

We did have two issues.

Highlights running the length of the frame tubes that seemed to want to go right through the lettering - last years images by a previous photographer has this issue - so we needed to align the front soft boxes very, very carefully. Being able to zoom into an image on the camera really comes into its own here as does a handy MBP to check DoF and critical areas at a decent size.

There was a little too much light coming down on the top of the bars so we used a black flag held just out of shot to calm it down.

With a shoot like this then getting it right was a must. Brian you're right that doing the same bit of PP over and over again is far from fun. If we hadn't have come up with a solution to the shadows by hanging the bikes it would have been a nightmare to clone them out over and over and over again. Same with the WB and the exact exposure, they both could have been done on every shot afterwards but why when it can be done once at the start. It was a hard day or two of shooting as so many bikes needed to be built, moved, polished and the tyre valves aligned - we had bits of Blu-Tack on the back side of the rims to weight them. Good fun though.

[Giman]

What do you like? Forget what all the "authorities" say. Its about personal preference.

[nimitzbenedicto]

What do you like? Forget what all the "authorities" say. Its about personal preference.

Yes. definitely.

(however, when it's commercial, It's what the client wants that counts. )

[carl89]

Interesting, indeed.

[Brev00]

Well, the tester couldn't get a correct exposure straight out of camera and obviously relies on pp to do his stuff. So, that is not even a single-blind approach. It is like Gov. Christie hiring folks to see if he had anything to do with the bridge scandal. The entire test was designed according to the techical standards associated with pp. Only at the very end does he present the subjective side. I think it is pretty obvious that that is precisely what divides the pp proponents and the jpeg advocates. A truer test might involve a raw and a jpeg shooter taking pics of the same scene and then showing prints to a variety of audiences. I process everything but my favorite moments are when I got the shot in my camera and I feel compelled to upload it as soon as possible.