It's a sample - why I am taking only RAW pictures.

emayd · Dec 10, 2006

I’ve published this information regarding to ask of my friends.
May be it also help you do not delete “bad” images or take quite good pictures in bad light situation.
Difficulties of taking pictures on stage – it’s a good work of light engineers. They play all time with different color filters.
I've never had have a possibility to adjust a right white color balance. I set usually “AWB” mode and in my Canon 5D – dual picture mode RAW+S-JPG.
You can see a camera information on next picture.

Next one shows a JPG that was delivered by camera.

And this one – is a sample what possible to extract from RAW picture using 3 programs
one after another: Digital Photo Professional(Canon) – Neat Image – Adobe Photoshop.

Alex_B · Dec 10, 2006

the main effect here is white balance, the noise reduction is not really that visible in the posted resolution, then you saved some highlights.

However, you introdiced something new, that is vertical stripes running from the top to th bottom of the image, best seen in the very dark areas, but also in the blueish area of the background.

Alex_B · Dec 10, 2006

'Hmm, but if the original situation was in red light ... for the sake of the play presented, why not have the picture red-ish as that was what most people would have seen who were there?

One should not make the mistake of wrecking the ambient light by having a perfect white balance (this you only need in product photography)

[but I agree, technically it is a good example of post processing white balance in RAW .. a feature which I myself use very often]

doenoe · Dec 10, 2006

wow, big difference. I normally dont shoot in RAW, but seeing this makes me wonder why i dont.

RMThompson · Dec 11, 2006

I personally like the red better. What you've shown as "extraction" is really digital manipulation.

Furthermore their is more graininess and a digital feel to the blue lines running up and down the person and the wall.

I would rather you take the original red version, and maybe lower down the saturation of the read and increase some of the contrast to give it a nice monochrome feel.

There is probably a REASON they cast a red light on her during the performance!

Alex_B · Dec 11, 2006

RMThompson said:
There is probably a REASON they cast a red light on her during the performance!

that is what i think too. the red light is part of the play, not just something which has to be removed by white balance.

as for the stripes, this is what typically happens at extremely high ISO when you additionally try to brighten up the shadows too much in post processing.

Big Mike · Dec 11, 2006

Regardless of the mood or setting etc...I think this is a good example of what can be done with a RAW file.

emayd · Dec 12, 2006

It wasn't performance ligth. It was a warming before play when was only working light on stage. It wasn't my intention to show a "perfect" post processing. With this sample I want to show for people that use JPGs instead of RAWs a difference between an information that exists in picture, but doesn't first visible.