First time working with RAW

Gambler

Hey all,

Looking for some tutorials\pointers for working with RAW format files. I've done a little bit with some photos I took on Safari, but I feel like I'm not getting the kind of results I could get with more info!

Here's a sample of what I've done so far to give you an idea of my current level (or lack thereof):

http://www.intec.ie/Before.jpg (Picture with too much sun reflecting in a puddle)

http://www.intec.ie/After.jpg (Used "Recovery" to try and reduce the highlights from the sun reflection)

sheesh

I would lighten it up so that you get more detail of the cub export that as atiff or jpeg then bring down the brightness and so that you get more detail of the water and stick the two images together in photoshop cutting the cub out and using the darkened water as a background.

in my own raw editing software there is brightness white balance adjustment contrast and sharpness all these will have an effect on this kind of image.

recover should not be the only one to use afaik.

nilhg

If you wanted to share the RAW file I wouldn't mind having a go at that shot, its a great example of where to get the maximum benefit from shooting RAW.

What software were you using?

Gambler

Would be willing to share the raw if people are willing to give details of what they did to the shot so I can learn a bit Ideally a screen recording but if not then a bit of a step by step would rock

I've uploaded the raw file to http://www.intec.ie/LionCub.zip and I was using an Adobe CS3 Trial (Trying to figure out if it's worth the cost of buying just for my hobby, going to play with the Canon Raw software too later on)

nilhg

OK I've had a quick go, its a scene with quite a high DR, so not easy to get something decent out of, but this is heading the right way I think,



I have to go out now but I'll do a report on what I did to get this far later on.

nilhg

OK, this is how I got to the picture above, first of all when I opened the CR2 file in Lightroom I played about a bit with the exposure, highlight recovery and fill light sliders but couldn't get the shot looking as I thought it should without producing artefacts and halos around the highlight edges, OP, if you are using LR or ACR I was at exposure -1.14, recovery 93, fill light 27, blacks 23 and a strong contrast point curve.

So I decided to try a different track, I created 4 virtual copies in LR and developed each differently to get the various areas of the picture right.

1. Exposure -3.33, recovery 74, to get the main water looking ok.
2. Exposure -1.14, recovery 60, to get the water in shadow right.
3. Exposure 0, blacks 11 for the main part of the cubs body.
4. Exposure +29, blacks 10, to get some detail in the tail.

Then I used LR/enfuse, to combine the four files and output a TIFF file which I then reimported into LR for final finishing off.

The TIFF file was developed as follows, exposure +38, recovery 60, fill light 16, clarity +25, vibrance +5, saturation +2 and point curve to medium contrast.

The whole thing took about 20 minutes while I was watching the football and golf, and I probably could have gotten closer to a final result with LR/Enfuse if I had paid more attention when I was developing the virtual copies, but i believe that the TIFF file produced would stand up to even more PPing.

Gambler

Hmm, OK Going to have to have a play with that this evening

Lots to learn still but that's why I love it