my first "RAW" pic

[DarkHorse]

Heres this mornings sunrise XTi /28-80

when i look at other peoples pics here, it seems like there all crisper, colors more vivid,
i feel like im doing something wrong,

its my first time prossesing a RAW image, but they shure look better than a jpeg from the get-go,

any help would be most welcome,

johnp

[johnastovall]

What are you using to process with? If it's ACR I highly suggest you get a copy of Fraser book on ACR raw processing. It's also available for CS2.

[DarkHorse]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

What are you using to process with? If it's ACR I highly suggest you get a copy of Fraser book on ACR raw processing. It's also available for CS2.

i used DDP that came with the camera,

thanks for the book tip,
johnp

[Duffy Pratt]

Your shot is underexposed. There is no information at all from the midtones to the highlights. In ACR, I would have pushed the Exposure slider some to brighten the picture. I would also have looked at the Brightness control, and then played with vibrance and saturation.

Another difficulty with this sort of shot is that there is no good reference for white balance. That leaves it, to a certain extent, as a mater of taste. What you have looks pretty good, but I would have experimented with the white balance sliders to see if I liked the picture warmer or cooler. I might even play with the hues some. This part, I don't see as a fault.

I took a shot at this picture in PS, with a 3 minute edit. I raised the white point, to brighten the picture, and held the windmill to a near silhouette. Then I boosted the colors with simple curves in LAB. (There are other ways to boost color, but for me this is the simplest and fastest with good results.) Then I applied unsharp mask, using high radius and low amount.

The whole thing took less than a couple of minutes. The same sort of result can easily be achieved in ACR -- and I'm sure you could do even better than this with RAW processing.

Duffy

[acymc]

After reading this thread I went home and reset my camera and shot some tests in RAW. I looked at them closer than when I first got the camera. I can't believe I have been shooting in JPG for 6 months and how much better some of my good pics would have been in RAW.

[jfoureyes]

I did a bit of research before I got into digital photography. I’ve been shooting film and slides since 1968. I got a D80 last December and been learning ever since about post processing the images.

I use Nikon Capture NX software. It’s reasonably simple to use and produces results I’m extremely satisfied with. I shoot in the raw mode 100% of the time because I’m going to process the images before I convert them into jpegs or tiff files. A raw image is not really an image at all; it is a data set, a collection of zeroes and ones produced when light falls on your camera’s sensor. In post processing you are just moving “0’s” and “1’s” around to where you want them with no harm to the image. Work in raw it’s a lot more fun and you have complete control over your image… not what the camera processes. Good luck.

[PhotosbyHollyWood]

okay you know have me looking into RAW format now..,.I take lots of pictures and they all apear FLAT and unlusterous, maybe shooting in JPEG is not the way to ...

okay I have been shooting in SHQ (JPEG)... my only fear about RAW is the editing or processing... do not know much about this setting... anyone who can offer pointers or reading material to help me learn this

thanx

[rwwright]

dont knwo what ddp is but photoshop elements is not very expensive and has many features. (i use all of the above, photoshop cs3, NX, adobelightroom, and several others)

[Paulo]

Originally Posted by DarkHorse

Heres this mornings sunrise XTi /28-80

when i look at other peoples pics here, it seems like there all crisper, colors more vivid,
i feel like im doing something wrong,

its my first time prossesing a RAW image, but they shure look better than a jpeg from the get-go,

any help would be most welcome,

johnp

John,
Not sure if you've already done this but have you tried long exposures for these types for shots. It'll give your image the crisp, vivid colors you're seeking without having to change your current processing software.

The file from the image you attached shows F5.6 at 1/250 sec. Around the same time you took the image, experiment with your slowest ISO at F8 or F12 with a shutter speed of 5, 10, 15 & 30 seconds. Set your WB to 'Cloudy'. Since you're now shooting RAW, you can change this later in DDP if you want but I think it'll get you closer to begin with. See if it yields the results you were hoping for.

Check this thread out. Has some great long exposure examples with limited software processing:
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=65127

[Slight Clutter]

I really like Lightroom for RAW processing. You can target the areas you'd like to work with -- increasing brightness, exposure, and the like.

[DarkHorse]

Originally Posted by Paulo

John,
Not sure if you've already done this but have you tried long exposures for these types for shots. It'll give your image the crisp, vivid colors you're seeking without having to change your current processing software.

The file from the image you attached shows F5.6 at 1/250 sec. Around the same time you took the image, experiment with your slowest ISO at F8 or F12 with a shutter speed of 5, 10, 15 & 30 seconds. Set your WB to 'Cloudy'. Since you're now shooting RAW, you can change this later in DDP if you want but I think it'll get you closer to begin with. See if it yields the results you were hoping for.

Check this thread out. Has some great long exposure examples with limited software processing:
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=65127

thanks for the tip and link,,

johnp

[Rolland]

I have been using Photoshop CS2 since it came out to convert my Raw images, I love the control that I have in building the image to look exactly how I want it to look.