Blowing out whites

[jaxx419]

Jeep lights: Thank you!!

 

[480sparky]

White's aren't blown out. They're close, but not 'blown out'.

Do you shoot raw or jpeg?

 

[Derrel]

It looks to me like you have the Picture Controls cranked up...what are you shooting in? VIVID???

The issue isn't exposure so much as it is an excessively high degree of contrast and saturation...those need to be dialed down a bit. The color on the images is wildy over-saturated.

 

[jaxx419]

Sparky: RAW. I played just with the jpg on the pic on my bfs laptop tonight with photoshop cs3 and haven't opened it in my Lightroom yet.

 

[jaxx419]

Derrel: it is on vivid! Thank you!

I also probably messed up the colors in photoshop but the original still had the same bright whites.

 

[480sparky]

If it was shot in raw, I'd say you can recover it with proper post.

 

[jaxx419]

Sparky: thanks, that's good to know. These are all practice shots for me, I'm still learning but would like to salvage when possible!

 

[JohnYoga]

Thanks, Derrel...

John

 

[MLeeK]

Sparky: RAW. I played just with the jpg on the pic on my bfs laptop tonight with photoshop cs3 and haven't opened it in my Lightroom yet.

Therein lies part of your problem (aside from what Derrel pointed out.) A laptop cannot display the gamut needed to display all of the image. You never want to edit anything on a laptop.
It's also REALLY magenta.

 

[jaxx419]

Mleek: thanks, I was just working with what I had at the time. Im positive its not calibrated either. I have a nice large Mac monitor at work that I edit pics on during my lunch break. I'll see what kind of damage I can do to it on that.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

High
Dynamic
R a n g e
imaging.

 

[jaxx419]

Yes, I've heard of HDR. It's not what I was going for.

 

[Derrel]

When the subject matter and/or the lighting is high in contrast, the Vivid picture setting is often a recipe for disaster. However, on FLAT-lighted days, or with really low-contrast subject matter, it can look simply wonderful. If you use Vivid, you might want to consider that it will tend to emphasize contrast, and saturation, which on things like brown-and-white dogs, and black-and white cats, illuminated by high-contrast window-lighting, is the proverbial recipe for disaster I alluded to earlier. Window lighting in most normal homes is quite high in contrast...unless there is a LOT of fill lighting, the window side is very bright, and the shadowed side quickly drops wayyyyy off in brightness. "Vivid" on the "older" Nikons like the D70 and D80 was actually reasonably useful, but on the newer models, Nikon's baseline tone curve seems much,much hotter, and so Vivid is now kind of clown-color-like, like Fuji Velvia...it's just short of garish on the D3000,D3100,D5000, D5100...but as I said, on FLAT-lighted days, Vivid can actually look pretty good--with no post processing.

I would say try Direct Print as opposed to Vivid, if you want to try another pre-set value. I think it is a good idea to shoot RAW + JPEG, and then you will have the RAW file for serious manipulations, and ALSO the benefit of a JPEG file that has the appropriate degree of JPEG processing already done to it. Nikon cameras all have subtly different pre-set characteristics thagt vary by model and sort of also by generation of camera. Nikon's noise reduction, their degree of in-camera sharpening, AND their in-camera chromatic aberration removal--all that stuff is tied in to the lens and the CPU information conveyed to the camera. The automatic CA removal is done on JPEG files, but not on RAW files. The noise reduction is custom-designed for each sensor and camera. Same with the pre-set picture controls. Until you become pretty good at processing raw images, I would say shoot RAW+ JPEG (either Medium size Jpeg with Fine compression OR Large-sized JPEG, with Fine Compression) and see what the camera and its internal processing can do. Experiment a bit...try Vivid in the fog some time!!! Try Vivid on cloudy days...but stay away from vivid under high-contrast lighting scenarios, or with B&W colored kitty cats that are adorable as heck!!!

There are different schools of thought on how best to use a d-slr, and the controls. Nikon has designed some good cameras that operate very differently from other companies' cameras, like with the built-in image editing, color-AWARE metering, and so on...the consumer cameras have the potential to deliver almost perfect images in JPEG for with D-Lighting applied an all that--but you need to learn exactly HOW the camera works. And when to set it up one way, and when not to set it that same way. The Baby Nikons are geared more toward LESS post-processing, and so their picture control pre-sets can be pretty extreme.

 

[jaxx419]

Derrel: thank you for taking the time to post!! I will definitely keep this in mind and change my setting now! I am shooting raw+jpg. So I'm good as far as that setting goes. Great to learn about the vivid setting not being the best option!

 

[480sparky]

Keep in mind, even if you shoot Vivid, if you're shooting raw you can always change that in post.