Downtown Oklahoma City

[David_MC]

Drove through downtown OKC a few days ago after I was sure that the rain and storms had passed. Mainly practicing RAW image processing. Tips are welcome.

1. Downtown skyline.
IMG_1874 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

2. Entrance to the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
IMG_1880 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

3. On the inside of the Memorial.
IMG_1887 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

4. The Memorial Museum accross from the reflecting pool.
IMG_1893 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

5. Reflection of the Bank of Oklahoma Tower in the windows of the Leadership Square Tower.
IMG_1911 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

6. Water feature at the Myriad Botanical Gardens.
IMG_1927WBCorrect by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

7. The Devin Energy Center (850ft tall).
IMG_1931 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

8. The Skydance Pedestrial Bridge over Interstate 40.
IMG_1959 by David Covarrubias, on Flickr

 

[Ysarex88 82]

Welcome to TPF. I'm a couple states over to the east.

Too many photos. You'll get better feedback by showing one, no more than three, at a time.

I assume raw processing is new to you. It's worth the effort so stick with it. Right now you could use some help and more practice.

Your first photo, compare it with this:

Your version is way too flat (tone response) and the color is shifted green. I could do a lot better if I had access to your CR2 file and I can show you what I did. If you're interested set up a dropbox account and put a link in this thread to the CR2 file for this photo.

Some questions: I noticed you used DPP, do you have any additional software? What computer system are you using MAC or WIN or.....

Joe

 

[David_MC]

Thank you for your input. I am trying to learn how to shoot and process RAW in an attempt to get out of my "JPEG Shell" and I could use all the advice I can.
I see what you mean on the tone and color. Here is the original CR2 file: Dropbox - RAW Files
I have Windows 8, DPP, Ifranview, Gimp, and Paint.net on my pc currently.

 

[Ysarex88 82]

Thank you for your input. I am trying to learn how to shoot and process RAW in an attempt to get out of my "JPEG Shell" and I could use all the advice I can.
I see what you mean on the tone and color. Here is the original CR2 file: Dropbox - RAW Files
I have Windows 8, DPP, Ifranview, Gimp, and Paint.net on my pc currently.

OK -- got the CR2. I'll get back to you again soon concerning the processing but first this:

That's a histogram of your raw file and it indicates a problem that you need to look into. I put the yellow line there at about the place the green channel graphs should end. Photo is at least two full stops underexposed. I looked at the EXIF data and didn't see anything that would be obvious. This you need to chase down and solve. That much underexposure hurts.

Joe

 

[David_MC]

I think when I took the photo I tried expose it in such a way as to retain the detail in the clouds but it would appear I went overboard with it.

 

[Ysarex88 82]

I think when I took the photo I tried expose it in such a way as to retain the detail in the clouds but it would appear I went overboard with it.

Yep, good plan but two stops is too much.

All you have right now to do raw conversions is DPP. DPP is very basic and limited. You can take your raw conversions into GIMP for further processing and that will work but GIMP has some issues. Time to think about moving beyond DPP if GIMP is what's waiting on the receiving end -- want to get more accomplished before hitting GIMP. You don't have to spend money but there's that d*mn learning curve.

IMG_1874.DR4

That's a link to a DPP recipe file for your photo. Download the file. Open your photo in DPP and then from the Edit menu select Read and Paste recipe from file. That'll show you what I did to adjust your photo in DPP. It's not finished but that's all DPP can do.

I have to go now -- back in the morning.

In the meantime you may want to consider this free Raw Converter: Raw Therapee or this one: LightZone. Both will do much more than DPP and although you may still want to tweak a few things in GIMP they'll both get most, and often all, of the work done.

Here for example is your photo processed in RT -- notice things like straightening up the bldgs. is possible in RT but not in DPP. RT was also able to darken the sky a little without effecting the rest of the photo, DPP doesn't have that ability.

Joe

 

[David_MC]

Thank you for your advice, I'm going to take a look at those two programs you linked to and look at the recipe file.

 

[dxqcanada]

Try to work on the contrast curve of the B&W ... the worst thing you can do is make them muddy, meaning no real whites or blacks in the midtowns.

 

[bulldurham6 1]

I just looked at the first image and made an edit to show the difference between the flatness and a little work in the Raw editor with a bit of a contrast boost in photoshop....looks to me now that I've scrolled down, Joe has filled in all the details.

 

[David_MC]

Ok, so what I have gathered so far is...

• Do not underexpose the image too much to retain highlight details.
• DPP is limited in capabilities (tried RAW Therapee and LightZone, bother are far more capable than DPP, prefer RAWTherapee a little more).
• Work on contrast curves (an S-curve is a good place to start with)
• Keep an eye on the color shifts and try not to let the image get too flat.

Am I missing anything?

 

[Ysarex88 82]

Ok, so what I have gathered so far is...

• Do not underexpose the image too much to retain highlight details.
• DPP is limited in capabilities (tried RAW Therapee and LightZone, bother are far more capable than DPP, prefer RAWTherapee a little more).
• Work on contrast curves (an S-curve is a good place to start with)
• Keep an eye on the color shifts and try not to let the image get too flat.

Am I missing anything?

You're making fast progress. I would stress: Do not underexpose the image. This is digital photography in which you're using the sensor in the camera to record data. The sensor has a fixed data recording capacity and a simple, even common sense, rule would tell you to use the sensor's capacity. More data is better and less data is worse. It's a tricky game because you don't want to push your highlights over the sensor recording limit, but you do want to get close to it. That graph you saw me post yesterday came from a utility program: Raw Digger. We use that to test our cameras and refine our exposure control.

Have you tested your camera and camera metering system? Raw Digger will let you download a trial. Put your camera on a tripod. Turn off the bleep bleep evaluative metering mode and pick average or weighted average and then run some exposure tests. You can leave the camera in an auto mode and use the EC adjustment to alter exposure or you can put the camera in manual. Use Raw Digger to evaluate the results.

Something for you to read: http://photojoes.net/class_notes/chapter01.html

Joe