help with post processing?

  • Soooo .... I am posting this for two reasons: 1) I'd like some suggestions if I'm doing something wrong 2) I think RAW is amazing.



    So, on the top of the hardest trail in Moab (Pritchett's Canyon), I wanted to grab a picture of me overlooking and conquering the canyon ...



    Here's the first photo I snapped:





    The temperature is obviously off and the clouds are all blown out. So I severely underexposed the next photo (mind you, handholding).





    Thinking I could merge them somehow; well I'm not an expert with layers and need to learn more but I found a "Photomerge Exposure" option in Photoshop Elements. It didn't work out great, gave me weird colors:





    So ... then I re-visited the severely underexposed image, and the Camera Raw plugin isn't updated and won't update, so using Canon's free software I pulled this bad boy out. It's really soft, and the guys kind of got in the scene, but I got all the color I wanted out of it.





    Let me repeat: this is simply from overexposing the severely underexposed RAW image up top (2nd).



    So ... Anything else I can try? I can try scene cleaner to remove them but that doesn't work great with the difference in exposure and it's not my top priority anyways. I'm mainly looking to get a clean looking photo. I've tried copying over only the clouds but I'm not sure what to do to help match all the colors. I'm amazed that my compact camera pulled this picture and RAW still had so much data stored in it. So anything I can do to make it a better picture?



    In any case, here are the pics from the trip: https://www.facebook.com/media…06987&type=1&l=3d8058da6b



    Thanks!

  • Well, it seems like Adobe's raw editor is a lot better than Canon's. I converted the canon raw file to adobe's raw format and was able to then use adobe's raw editor, and within 1 minute pulled this. Looks better, even though I couldn't get as much deep sky.





    I don't really know if I'm just not using the right tools for a cleaner photo, but I'm still amazed that a picture that was originally all black can come out looking like this.

  • Well, I took another shot at it and added a layer on top of the one above, with the gradient tool from bottom of the pic up to the bottom of the sky, and turned the brightness all the way up. It brought out a lot of the canyon and didn't touch the sky.





    Curious to see if anyone who's contacted me and has the RAW files can do better (and how you did!). I only have Photoshop Elements 9.


  • My only advice, as a camera tard, is if you are taking an important picture like this of your Jeep and the scenery I'd tell Gavan and Aaron to get the hell out of the shot next time.


    He blew the important ones.


    He's trying to salvage it with the one with them in it.

  • He blew the important ones.


    He's trying to salvage it with the one with them in it.



    In my limited experience, I've found that the automatic modes are great for 90% of the time, and it's just easier and quicker to use them. With a little knowledge of depth of field and shutter/motion, you can use the priority modes the other 9% of the time to make it easy on yourself. If you've been in dark warehouses, or a church with lots of different types of light, or if you don't want to just show the scene as is you'll know you have to use the manual settings, so I tried the "P" (automatic, but not full blown automatic) mode first, and having noticed the light and readings were different at this particular spot, set my own exposure settings manually. I could have yelled at them to move, but at the time, after driving up by myself and being the first one up, I thought it was more pertinent to see if they needed help winching up :innocent: Aaron's Jeep was toast, his auto gave way, Dee and Gavan's jeep both broke rear axle shafts, so we were using my Jeep as an anchor for them throughout the day. (And that is Aaron and Larry, not Gavan in the pic) If you go through the photos in the link, you'll see very deep blue skies and amazing detail, all with the "P" mode. So, I don't think I really "blew" a lot of photos, and I'm pretty damn happy with how this one came out. I brought along a pocket sized camera so I could focus on hitting the trails, not a DSLR so I could focus on photography.



  • In my limited experience, I've found that the automatic modes are great for 90% of the time, and it's just easier and quicker to use them. With a little knowledge of depth of field and shutter/motion, you can use the priority modes the other 9% of the time to make it easy on yourself. If you've been in dark warehouses, or a church with lots of different types of light, or if you don't want to just show the scene as is you'll know you have to use the manual settings, so I tried the "P" (automatic, but not full blown automatic) mode first, and having noticed the light and readings were different at this particular spot, set my own exposure settings manually. I could have yelled at them to move, but at the time, after driving up by myself and being the first one up, I thought it was more pertinent to see if they needed help winching up :innocent: Aaron's Jeep was toast, his auto gave way, Dee and Gavan's jeep both broke rear axle shafts, so we were using my Jeep as an anchor for them throughout the day. (And that is Aaron and Larry, not Gavan in the pic) If you go through the photos in the link, you'll see very deep blue skies and amazing detail, all with the "P" mode. So, I don't think I really "blew" a lot of photos, and I'm pretty damn happy with how this one came out. I brought along a pocket sized camera so I could focus on hitting the trails, not a DSLR so I could focus on photography.


    Why didn't you just use the ev compensation? You could have quickly shot a bracketed set.


    And on the Nikon's at least, Program mode is still automatic but typically lets you shift the shutter/aperture settings while still keeping the same overall exposure value.


    And Sal, I checked out the rest of your pics from the trip, they are great. :up:


  • Why didn't you just use the ev compensation? You could have quickly shot a bracketed set.


    And on the Nikon's at least, Program mode is still automatic but typically lets you shift the shutter/aperture settings while still keeping the same overall exposure value.


    And Sal, I checked out the rest of your pics from the trip, they are great. :up:



    Thanks.

    I would have to look at the information on the pic to see what the settings were, but I believe I went full manual in order to maintain the smallest aperture - F/8 (hey, at least it goes down to F2.0 for those night time shots). I don't think you have control, through "P" mode, to choose which it is. With my 20D/5D, i had the choice of changing one knob or another to choose. I don't have as many knobs and dials that you do, mine are located through menus, so the knobs I have aren't always defaulted to the same setting. For instance, doing an under exposure may have changed the aperture instead of iso or shutter, putting either into a value that I don't feel comfortable with. The camera has very clean iso at much higher levels than my old DSLR did, so I usually would rather change the iso before compromising on handholding shutter speed or depth of field, but it would require me to hit a button to bring up a menu, scroll to the item and choose its value, or having already set that item to the ring function and then turning the ring to find the value. In either case, I can compare what the first photo was set at and the second and let you know.

    The S110 has a dial on the back, and the ring up front can be set to default to certain settings for quick access, in addition to the function set button. Being that it fits alongside my phone or keys in my jeans pocket, it really is useful.









    VS





    [img width=1200 height=900]http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/…14/D7000_18_105_top_l.jpg[/img]



    EDIT: trying different pics of the Nikon

  • So, the first picture was shot at 1/160, f/4, and iso 80.





    The second was shot at 1/1,250, f/8, and iso 100





    Which is a difference of around 5 stops. The exposure bracketing and manual compensation on the S110 is pretty easy to reach, click the 12:00 position on that dial and then scroll to whichever value you want, then cycle through manual/aeb by hitting the menu button while in that mode. You can combine them both, and I probably could've yielded a -5 exposure "automatically", but wouldn't have had control of each setting and probably would have taken me just as long to configure. Easier to just go to manual, and then select each value you need, I think.



    EDIT:



    I should add, there's no viewfinder on the S110, which is a huge selling point for many DSLRs, which in this pic, could've been a little annoying. Only a preview mode; but for a novice, most of the time, I think it's a lot easier to see the final exposure.


  • EDIT: trying different pics of the Nikon


    My Coolpix P5100 will let you shift shutter/aperture values with the rotary dial on top.


    But, it won't fit in a normal size pocket. :)




    Are you able to see the meter's suggested values while in Manual mode?

  • Woody, I gotta figure out how to do it with elements, I haven't figured out how to position the new layer yet. But, the more I'm looking at them I like the underexposed most and how I've gotten enough light out of it.



    I kind of wanted to see if I was just being an idiot about the raw processing or not, so I created a JPG straight from the unedited raw file.



    This one uses a layer (I used a polygonal lasso tool and just used straight lines across the horizon thinking I may be able to erase the edges later on, not sure yet)



    And this one is just a straight up global brightness on the same JPG





    The raw edits are global. With layers, I can do a lot more but only after it's an 8-bit JPG. So, I can't get enough brightness in the foreground without sacrificing the sky in the RAW portion before I convert it to the JPG.



    I just started learning/using layers with this photo and second post.

  • Dang, Sal. I am glad I gave all that stuff to you to edit. Way out of my league!
    BTW, there are a couple of shots I want you to send me on the sly, :spinrhead: ok?


    Thanking you in advance!

  • ... 90% of the time, and it's just easier and quicker to use them. With a little knowledge of depth of field and shutter/motion, you can use the priority modes the other 9% of the time...



    what do you do for the last 1%? Use an iPhone..

    Straight six or nuthin!
    1993 Jeep Wrangler Sport w/ splash graphics!
    1993 Dodge W-350 Cummins
    2006 BMW 325xi wagon.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!