Ahh... The Wonders of RAW

BTilson · Oct 11, 2008

This picture isn't necessarily brag worthy, even though I do think it's kind of cute. However, it was one of the darkest ones I took at a wedding I helped shoot today. Thankfully I was shooting RAW. Check out the before and after. Quite amazing, I think.

Before, straight out of camera (except for resizing and the border obviously):

After:

Just wanted to share! I think I have a new found love for RAW!

Rachelsne · Oct 11, 2008

I love RAW, you do have to watch for noise and strange effects when doing drastic lightening.

rubbertree · Oct 11, 2008

nice job and I agree with /\. Too much and you get noise and strange colors, especially in skin.

mark h · Oct 12, 2008

Personally I wouldn't say you've salvaged the photograph at all. You may have brightened it, but the noise is horrible and the skin tones don't look right.

Yes RAW can be a great saviour, but maybe not this time. Better to realise what you did wrong at the time of shooting and learn from that mistake, than to try and post-process your way out of it.

BTilson · Oct 12, 2008

mark h said:
Better to realise what you did wrong at the time of shooting and learn from that mistake, than to try and post-process your way out of it.

I fully agree. Thankfully for the bride and groom, I wasn't the main photographer, I was just tagging along, mostly for the experience above all else. In this case, I was shooting from an upstairs balcony in relatively low light, and a lot of my shots turned out pretty dark. This edit was a quick stab at working with RAW, which I am also pretty new at. I still think the results are impressive, not perfect by any means, but impressive. I think when printed from full res, that shot above would make a fine 4x6 or 5x7.

Thanks for the input!