Large prints from Hasselblad H3dii-39

[jonathan.lipkin]

I'm planning to make large prints from my H3, and have run into a few issues I hope for some feedback on. My workflow so far is:

1. Shoot at ISO 100 and sometimes 200 based on subject matter.
2. Import as 3f in phocus
3. Major tone and color temp adjustments in Phocus with sharpening and noise reduction turned off and export as 16 bit tiff
4. Open in PS, RAW sharpen about 57-67% using NIK sharpener, minor retouching and compositing
5. Files are a bit small at 300 ppi, so I upsample in one step to 240ppi to create files that are 40 inches on the short side. Some are stiches so long dimension ends up at 80 inches for some files
6. Output sharpener from NIK
7. Print to Epson R2400 (at 100%, cropped for tests. Final prints will be on a 7900)

I'm seeing a bit of noise in the midtone to shadow transitions. NIK recomended using U-point to hold the sharpening off those areas.

So can anyone suggest an improved workflow, or is this more or less the right way to go? What should I be testing in terms of variables?

Are you sharpening and doing NR in Phocus or in external editor?

I'd like to be able to shoot at ISO 200, but shadow noise worries me.

[Brian Hirschfeld]

I owned an H3Dii-39ms for a while before upgrading to my PhaseOne. I never printed anything ridiculously large, however, I believe I made one print in the 40-50inch range from a file, which was shot at ISO 50, opened as a raw in photoshop and edited using photoshops camera raw, edited and sharpened using light unsharp mask in photoshop, and scaled using Perfect Resize 7 (genuine fractals) and then sent off to the printer. From my experience with this camera, 200 is starting to push it for noise, while you can get somewhat decent results even into the 400 range in certain conditions, 200 is really the limit / tipping point for shadow noise, so you either have to not let it bother you and accept it as part of the aesthetic for the picture, do some sort of noise reduction, possibly to one image, and then overlay it on top of the image with only the shadow regions having the noise reduction applied, get a new camera, or shoot at ISO50 or 100. IMHO...

All of the largest prints I have ever done were with a P65+ on an H2 and an H4D-50 which you can read a little about on my site here: http://brianhirschfeldphotography.com/2011/12/07/hasselblad-300mm-f4-5-hc-lens-review-2/

[BobDavid]

I recommend doing much of the initial adjustments in Phocus, including noise reduction and perhaps sharpening while viewing the file at 100%. Export the file into at least an aRGB 16-bit Tiff and then do the fussy adjustment layer stuff in Photoshop.

ISO 100 is very clean. ISO 200 does start to show a bit of noise, but the noise reduction tools in Phocus should clean the files up just fine. I print big prints at 150dpi, you can't see the difference between 150dpi and 300dpi on big prints.

You shouldn't have to go beyond Phocus and Photoshop to process the RAW files. I'm not sure an Epson 2400 will show what a 7900 print will look like.

[paulmoorestudio]

"major tone" adjustment... not really sure what that means but if you are tweaking the image hard you could be seeing the results later..
fff files are very pliable but all have their limits.
also I have always held off all sharpening until my final size was, after phocus..I am not current on what is best. I have had good luck with ps
smart sharping and really dialing in highlight/shadow controls it offers.   

[Dustbak]

I assume the ISO200 files are just that, no way of redoing them at ISO50. ISO200 certainly has more noise.

I do much of the prep work in Phocus and export in 16-bit TIFF when I need to do any work in PS. There are many more ways that lead to Rome, one of the things you can do is mask out the areas that give you noise problems (probably in the darker areas anyway).
If you cannot get around upping noise for whatever reason (sometimes you simply cannot mask out something because the result appears odd) you could also mask the noise by adding grain. I find purposely added grain much more attractive than accidental noise...

[Rob C]

I assume the ISO200 files are just that, no way of redoing them at ISO50. ISO200 certainly has more noise.

I do much of the prep work in Phocus and export in 16-bit TIFF when I need to do any work in PS. There are many more ways that lead to Rome, one of the things you can do is mask out the areas that give you noise problems (probably in the darker areas anyway).
If you cannot get around upping noise for whatever reason (sometimes you simply cannot mask out something because the result appears odd) you could also mask the noise by adding grain. I find purposely added grain much more attractive than accidental noise...

[/b]



Guess that one way or another we all still love and regret losing our old 500 Series!

;-)

Rob C

[theguywitha645d]

I print P25+ and Pentax 645D on 44" printers on an Epson 9800. I let the printer driver/RIP do the resizing. I have have no problems making 44x60 inch prints. And prints not from files at base ISO. Printing crops from the image will not give you a idea of the final print--viewing distance is a real criteria you must factor in.

[John R Smith]

Guess that one way or another we all still love and regret losing our old 500 Series!

;-)

Rob C

Never lost mine, Rob - I'm still adding them to the collection . . .

John

[Dustbak]

I have long sold mine. I am still wondering whether I miss them or not. It has now been 14 years since I stopped using film, I sometimes still get nostalgic

[Enda Cavanagh]

Hi Jonathon
I also use the Nik software and if used correctly it does an amazing job of removing noise, editing the image and sharpening for output.
I shoot at ISO 50 90% of the time and noise is not an issue. As the other guys pointed out once you go to iso 200 or above on the H3D, than noise becomes a serious problem. You get noise as big as gold balls at iso 800.
At iso 50 I only get noise in low contrast areas in underexposed shots, especially on a bright day (which you may use for the brightest part of the final image. - the bright sky for example) That is the only time I apply noise reduction in phocus. I always turn sharpening turned off in phocus.

Due to it's u point technology Nik software does a much better job of noise reduction and sharpening as it it only reduces noise in the low contrast areas and applies sharpening to the high contrast areas.

The sharpening should not be saved onto your final full size edited file. It should be saved as a new file and resized. After which the sharpening is applied on Nik to the specific output and than saved. You might think on your screen you have gone a bit too far but the final prints look amazing after Nik sharpening is applied, combined with the fact there is absolutely no noise visible. You can crop and print a section to test for yourself and you'll soon learn how much it should be sharpened.

You can apply noise reduction and sharpening as an action to speed things up but I don't do it as it results in a universal edit. You can't apply u point edits unless you open the image each time and work on it. A bit of a pain but it's worth the effort.

I usually export the raw file as 16 bit pro photo RBG TIF file from Phocus.

I have printed panoramics up to 63 inches wide at 200 PPI and they come out really well so 80 inches should be fine.

 

[jonathan.lipkin]

Thanks, all. Have been experimenting with Dfine and the new LR4 noise reduction.