Back to Cambodia

Cambodia was a whirlwind tour of photography for me but an incredible charming country that left a lasting impression. I am considering returning later this year to capture more portraits of the fantastic people of Cambodia. Angkor Wat deserves many visits, it is the most awe-inspiring of places. I recently processed two images from Cambodia in Capture One:

cam-c1-market

cam-c1-thun-angkor

These two images are straight out of Capture One with only sharpness added in Photoshop after resizing. I am teaching myself Capture One as I’m assisting a friend who uses Capture One for his work including shooting tethered on site. I am quite impressed by the tethering feature, it works really well. As an expert Lightroom user there are quite a few features that I miss in Capture One (or perhaps I cannot find them). The awesome lens correction tool in Lightroom is much better than C1 and I cannot figure out how to split tone a colour image, for example tint the shadows blue. Capture One is also slow as molasses. But the colour module is outstanding and I find the processing engine to live up to it’s reputation as the best on the market. The processed TIFFs have a sharp and crisp very 3D quality and the colour tones are incredibly detailed, subtle and beautiful. For the processing and colour engine alone I may end up switching to Capture One. I shall need it anyway for when Phase One decides to sponsor me a Phase One. That reminds me, I presently live 2 km’s from the office of Phase One, I must go ask for my camera!

13 Comments on “Back to Cambodia”

  1. I think the only thing I understood in the description of Capture One was the “slow as molasses” part of it 😀

    I am devoid of a left brain, I think!

    (i remember the boy clutching his head trying to explain “hello world” to me and going “argh, you have no logic!”)

    Oh but, why Phase One and Capture One? Surely Phase One files work most commercial processing suites?

    1. I seem to be blessed/cursed with having both sides of the brain working fully 🙂 Means I am ambidextrous, means I can get awfully torn and confused.

      You can load Phase One files in say Camera Raw but it’s next to useless, Capture One is the only way to proper work on Phase One files.

  2. I’d’ve picked you for being more of a left brain than a right I must say. One can’t be balanced with right brain fancies and stuff and still be correct all the time 😉

    Just kidding!

    Is it Phase One holding their technicalities for Capture One back, or that the devs working on Camera Raw have no idea what to do with Phase One files? Or a third dimension I hadn’t considered?

    1. Hehe re left/right brain 🙂

      I think Adobe etc. do not care about Phase One or Hasselblad files, it’s such a small market for them, so they don’t bother except for very basic support. They know all the MF shooters won’t use their RAW converters anyway (well they might if say Lightroom actually worked well with the files!).

      And yes, I am ambidextrous although my right hand is better for writing as it’s receiving by far the most use. Writing left to right, it’s just easier writing with the right hand.

    2. Man… next you’ll be telling me you play 13 instruments, with no bias for left/right…

      …do you?

      I find ambidexterity fascinating. I can use chopsticks with my left hand ok (i’m right handed, for the record), but anything else, no way. I sprained my right wrist once and my god, getting dressed in the morning was a complete circus for the 2 weeks I had to immobilize it.

      1. Can’t play an instrument to save my life. Well I can play drums and guitars in Guitar Heroes, can play the guitar with my left hand. Sometimes I decide a day is Left-Hand Day and I must use the left hand all day. For some reason I am an expert marksman and equally well with both hands. Alien weirdo!

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