BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Raw Conversion

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April 21, 2008

It is not your workflow; nor is it your camera.

Thumbnails are NOT representative of image quality, so you can't use them as a comparison.

RAW images are supposed to be fairly lifeless if you're doing it right.

"Then a gray color cast covers the images and they look desaturated and flat."

First, gray is really not a color; but I do know what you are seeing. This is more of a metering error on your part, or a lack of contrast.

Try this to prove it to yourself.
Bring your RAW image into the editor and use "auto levels" I bet the gray almost disappears.

Look at the histogram as well within the editor, or look at the curves; I know you will see a very real shift, especially in the midtone area AND left side.

Many photogs think they're RAW images should "pop" right from the camera. Well; they don't and should not.

So again, I feel you have a metering problem, NOT a RAW problem. I noticed you made no complaint about your JPEG images as these are already heavily processed in camera.

If you receive little help in fixing this, I'll post some examples when I have more time as well as how to "process" a RAW image. Tons of books have been written on RAW procesing; and I'm sorry to say, many still do not understand the workflow in RAW.

all the best,

Pete

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April 22, 2008

Thank you for the advice. I will try your suggestion and see what happens.
As far as the metering goes can you give me some advice on what I may be doing wrong.
For weddings I meter one studio light so it is at F8. It is the only studio light on when I meter.
When metering the second light I keep my F8 light on. I face the light and get F11.
Once I face forward, lights are at a 45 degree angle, I usually get f11 or f11.2 for my overall lighting.
My shutter speed is set at 125 and my ISO is 200.
Thanks again,
Don

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April 22, 2008

Forgive my exasperation Donald. LOL

This might be better carried on via email.

You have asked TWO questions now.

1) RAW processing (workflow)

2) Studio lighting control.

BOTH can be manipulated to produce a desired result..NEITHER are used in the same way.
These two are mutually exclusive..One has nothing to do with the other.

Please take no offense at this question..what is your experience level in photography?..or RAW processing?

The reason I ask this is based on a very old yet true adage, "One must crawl before they can walk."
This has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time. You seek what I call a band aid approach to what probably in reality requires some major surgery.

That is NOT a personal attack on you, it is a observation concerning the subject of "Learning Photography" from the ground up. It applies to all too many in the new world of digital photography. Far too many digital photographers enjoy the "now" approach..or "How can I fix this particular problem NOW." The problem with this way of learning is that it leaves gaps in your basic photographic knowledge that you can drive a semi truck thru.

Whew..ok, I'll get off my soap box now.

I was going to post a couple photo examples with levels & curves diagrams that simulate what you are probably experiencing.

I think at this juncture, it may confuse more than it will help.

To answer your lighting question: You are metering..setting up the lights in a incorrect manner based on your description.
It is impossible to really answer your question on your lighting setup as there is not enough information.

What ratio do you desire? Is this indoor or out? Hard light, soft, umbrellas, softbox? Distance of strobes to subject?..Camera distance? Camera height? Strobe height? Color balance?

ALL these elements contribute to a portrait. Several of those elements bear directly on image contrast

Lastly; are your JPEG images ok with your lighting setup?
We need to determine if the problem is in your processing of RAW or the lighting ratios..Perhaps it is a little of both.

If you could post an image you feel is "flat and desaturated" maybe some of us could help define the problem.

all the best,

Pete

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April 22, 2008

One other thing you might consider is to use ACR rather than Nikon Capture Editor. ACR comes with CS3 and it is a dynamite RAW editor.

There is a tremendous amount of preprocessing you can do in ACR, then import into CS3 as a RAW image to do your final processing before saving to your favorite file format.

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April 24, 2008