Using RAW for the First Time

[TJ_Photographer]

Okay so I went out yesterday and took some Raw photos, I played around a little bit and it looks okay. I didn't edit it, I just messed with the settings. So I want to know how well I did just messing with it, or what I should do.

My Messed With Photo:
Rose.jpg

The Raw Photo:
IMG_5035.CR2

 

[Ysarex88 82]

Okay so I went out yesterday and took some Raw photos, I played around a little bit and it looks okay. I didn't edit it, I just messed with the settings. So I want to know how well I did just messing with it, or what I should do.

My Messed With Photo:
Rose.jpg

The Raw Photo:
IMG_5035.CR2

Good for you, first steps. What raw processing software did you download?

Joe

 

[TJ_Photographer]

Okay so I went out yesterday and took some Raw photos, I played around a little bit and it looks okay. I didn't edit it, I just messed with the settings. So I want to know how well I did just messing with it, or what I should do.

My Messed With Photo:
Rose.jpg

The Raw Photo:
IMG_5035.CR2

Good for you, first steps. What raw processing software did you download?

Joe

I just downloaded the trail for photoshop

 

[Ysarex88 82]

Okay so I went out yesterday and took some Raw photos, I played around a little bit and it looks okay. I didn't edit it, I just messed with the settings. So I want to know how well I did just messing with it, or what I should do.

My Messed With Photo:
Rose.jpg

The Raw Photo:
IMG_5035.CR2

Good for you, first steps. What raw processing software did you download?

Joe

I just downloaded the trail for photoshop

OK, so you're supposed to start out with something easy. Instead you picked one of the really hard subjects. The colors in a rose like that are highly saturated and tricky to deal with.

First off, you didn't need the 640 ISO. All that did was give you an underexposed sensor with visible noise. That rose wasn't going anywhere so you didn't need 1/2500 sec. shutter speed to freeze motion. Even if it was bobbin' a bit in the wind 1/500 sec. would have done the job.

So like I said the processing is tricky because of the extreme saturation in the flower. You want to keep the rose as saturated as possible but without blowing one or more color channels. When the software in your camera processed the photo it blew out the red channel and it shows in the JPEG. You have some of the same problem going one with your "messed with" version. Do a close comparison of the ends of the rose petals between your version and this one:



Do you see where your version has blotches of nearly solid color that break to hard edges? You're getting some posterization there. Back in Adobe Camera Raw where you got to mess with there's a panel called HSL/Greyscale. You want to go there and tweak down the saturation of the red and magenta colors to control the over-saturation problem you're seeing in the camera JPEG and your version.

For what it's worth, since you started out using GIMP which is open-source software I went ahead and processed your photo in Raw Therapee which is also free to download open source software.

Joe

 

[TJ_Photographer]

Okay so I went out yesterday and took some Raw photos, I played around a little bit and it looks okay. I didn't edit it, I just messed with the settings. So I want to know how well I did just messing with it, or what I should do.

My Messed With Photo:
Rose.jpg

The Raw Photo:
IMG_5035.CR2

Good for you, first steps. What raw processing software did you download?

Joe

I just downloaded the trail for photoshop

OK, so you're supposed to start out with something easy. Instead you picked one of the really hard subjects. The colors in a rose like that are highly saturated and tricky to deal with.

First off, you didn't need the 640 ISO. All that did was give you an underexposed sensor with visible noise. That rose wasn't going anywhere so you didn't need 1/2500 sec. shutter speed to freeze motion. Even if it was bobbin' a bit in the wind 1/500 sec. would have done the job.

So like I said the processing is tricky because of the extreme saturation in the flower. You want to keep the rose as saturated as possible but without blowing one or more color channels. When the software in your camera processed the photo it blew out the red channel and it shows in the JPEG. You have some of the same problem going one with your "messed with" version. Do a close comparison of the ends of the rose petals between your version and this one:

View attachment 122285

Do you see where your version has blotches of nearly solid color that break to hard edges? You're getting some posterization there. Back in Adobe Camera Raw where you got to mess with there's a panel called HSL/Greyscale. You want to go there and tweak down the saturation of the red and magenta colors to control the over-saturation problem you're seeing in the camera JPEG and your version.

For what it's worth, since you started out using GIMP which is open-source software I went ahead and processed your photo in Raw Therapee which is also free to download open source software.

Joe

Okay, thank you, that's really helpful.

And I did have a problem with the rose, the winds were very high so it was whipping all over the place. Normally what I do is if it's sunny, I leave the shutter speed very high, cause it's doesn't over light it. And I don't change my IS0, I leave it in auto

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[KmH]

Photoshop's Raw processor is a plug-in included with Photoshop (Ps) called Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), or just Camera Raw.
Also included with Ps, but you have to download it separately, is Adobe Bridge, a file browser that is used with many other Adobe applications besides Ps.
Consequently Bridge can handle a lot of different file types.
Note too that ACR also serves as Lightroom's Develop (editing) module.

I put Bridge in Filmstrip mode, open a folder of photos , and right click on a photo or group of photos I want to open in Camera Raw.
A list of options appear with the right click - choose Open In Camera Raw to start processing the Raw file.
By the way, it's Raw, not RAW - because it isn't an acronym like JPEG is (Joint Photographic Experts Group).

Moving on - ACR is a parametric image editor. Ps itself is a raster/bitmap graphics editor that has some limited vector graphics editing functions .
Parametric means ACR does not change any pixels and is called a non-destructive editor. What ACR does is change XML line commands that affect how the Raw processor renders the data in an image file. ACR can process Raw, JPEG or TIFF image files. TIFF - Tagged Image File Format

To learn how to process/edit a Raw image file I highly recommend the inexpensive book:
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)
If you ever want to make prints yourself or have prints made I recommend the next steps:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

 

[TJ_Photographer]

Photoshop's Raw processor is a plug-in included with Photoshop (Ps) called Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), or just Camera Raw.
Also included with Ps, but you have to download it separately, is Adobe Bridge, a file browser that is used with many other Adobe applications besides Ps.
Consequently Bridge can handle a lot of different file types.
Note too that ACR also serves as Lightroom's Develop (editing) module.

I put Bridge in Filmstrip mode, open a folder of photos , and right click on a photo or group of photos I want to open in Camera Raw.
A list of options appear with the right click - choose Open In Camera Raw to start processing the Raw file.
By the way, it's Raw, not RAW - because it isn't an acronym like JPEG is (Joint Photographic Experts Group).

Moving on - ACR is a parametric image editor. Ps itself is a raster/bitmap graphics editor that has some limited vector graphics editing functions .
Parametric means ACR does not change any pixels and is called a non-destructive editor. What ACR does is change XML line commands that affect how the Raw processor renders the data in an image file. ACR can process Raw, JPEG or TIFF image files. TIFF - Tagged Image File Format

To learn how to process/edit a Raw image file I highly recommend the inexpensive book:
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)
If you ever want to make prints yourself or have prints made I recommend the next steps:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

Thank you very much

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[Trever1t]

And I did have a problem with the rose, the winds were very high so it was whipping all over the place. Normally what I do is if it's sunny, I leave the shutter speed very high, cause it's doesn't over light it. And I don't change my IS0, I leave it in auto

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.

Stop doing that! Learn when and how to set shutter speed. Learn when to alter iso settings.
To be honest you should focus (see what I did there?) on learning your camera and understanding exposure and making that a priority

 

[KmH]

Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed
Understanding Depth of Field in Photography
Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure
Understanding White Balance
Understanding Dynamic Range in Digital Photography

 

[TJ_Photographer]

And I did have a problem with the rose, the winds were very high so it was whipping all over the place. Normally what I do is if it's sunny, I leave the shutter speed very high, cause it's doesn't over light it. And I don't change my IS0, I leave it in auto

Sent From Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

.

Stop doing that! Learn when and how to set shutter speed. Learn when to alter iso settings.
To be honest you should focus (see what I did there?) on learning your camera and understanding exposure and making that a priority

Okay, I will!

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[Trever1t]

good attitude!

 

[TJ_Photographer]

good attitude!

I'm hoping to get better

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