Photography Tips & Tricks.

[number9]

Very nice, have you used HDR with these ?

pic 1 and 3 are HDR

 

[wmrcomputers]

Right, I've finally got around to a little experimentation regarding the RAW files. The drone camera stores both a RAW file and a JPEG.

Here is the JPEG first of all, totally unedited, as saved by the camera itself (but resized for forum friendliness)

And here is the RAW file, again unedited and saved as a JPEG using Picasa...

I mean, REALLY?! What the hell happened to the colours? I'll be giving this one a miss!

Next is the RAW file opened in Adobe Lightroom, again unedited and saved as a JPEG.

Certainly better than Picasa, but I still preferred the overall look of the cameras own JPEG, so will be forgetting about RAW files for now. It also caused 10 second disconnects while it created the raw file, during which I was unable to view or take another picture - I actually missed a possibly awesome picture of an extremely close flock of ducks flying only metres away from the drone because of it

 

[wmrcomputers]

Following on... what I did like about lightroom was that it has a lens profile included for my drone camera, which makes it produce this...

However, when I look closely it isn't without it's cons. The concrete square at the bottom left has been skewed , the left hand tree has been bulged out etc. The horizon looks great but anyone picky might notice other defects.

My question is, therefore, does the image above look better than the first image in the previous post? OR, am I better being more selective with pictures and using cropping like this one below as a way of eliminating lens distortion on the outer edges?

 

[Jonah]

@wmrcomputers You cannot think of a RAW file as a finished photo. It's like the digital equivalent of a negative and needs post-processing. It will always look 'flat' before processing. The JPEG the camera has produced has already been processed so you are seeing the camera's idea of what the finished photo should look like.

RAW files contain ALL the information the camera has been able to photography, the JPEG will have had information discarded, never to be recovered.

Look at the sky in the RAW file opened in Picassa, there is so much more detail than in the camera JPEG. As for the lens profile - the photo has has the 'fisheye' look removed but at the cost of the square piece of concrete being skewed. It's up to you which you prefer.

 

[Jonah]

@wmrcomputers This is a photo taken with my D7000. The left is the unedited RAW file and the right is the same photo after post-processing. Looking at the RAW file, you would not imagine that it could be 'rescued' and produce the file on the right but it can. It's because RAW files contain every single piece of information the camera captures. Camera-produced JPEGs don't. My advice... shoot RAW and accept that you will need to post-process and it soon becomes part of your photography workflow.

 

[wmrcomputers]

Thanks for the feedback @bigbluewolf

This really comes back down to my original question though of whether there was any point in taking pictures as RAW if I don't really want to be getting into post processing... in which case it seems that the answer is no. I just want to snap nice pictures with the drone, and if there had been an improvement in just converting the raw file "as is" then I might have done so.

I totally understand everything you've said about the raw file and what it is, but I'm already amazed to see that how Picasa & Lightroom see that raw image (without processing) varies so massively.

Out of interest though, would you fancy taking the same raw file and processing it yourself? I'd be really interested to see what somebody that is familiar with processing can do. I wouldn't expect you to waste half of your day on it, but if you can do something within just a few minutes it would be great to see.

 

[Jonah]

Thanks for the feedback @bigbluewolf

This really comes back down to my original question though of whether there was any point in taking pictures as RAW if I don't really want to be getting into post processing... in which case it seems that the answer is no. I just want to snap nice pictures with the drone, and if there had been an improvement in just converting the raw file "as is" then I might have done so.

It does sound like shooting JPEG may be the right thing for you at the present time.

I totally understand everything you've said about the raw file and what it is, but I'm already amazed to see that how Picasa & Lightroom see that raw image (without processing) varies so massively.

I see differences in how the RAW file is handled between Photoshop, Lightroom and Nikon's own software. It's how the application process the file.

Out of interest though, would you fancy taking the same raw file and processing it yourself? I'd be really interested to see what somebody that is familiar with processing can do. I wouldn't expect you to waste half of your day on it, but if you can do something within just a few minutes it would be great to see.

Yes that wouldn't be a problem.

 

[wmrcomputers]

Yes that wouldn't be a problem.

Excellent! I've put a download link at the very bottom of THIS PAGE for you. File name is DJI00096.dng
Don't spend huge amounts of time on it please as it's not an important picture anyway. Just try and show a newbie to processing what can be acheived in a few minutes if that's possible.
Thanks

 

[Jonah]

Done in Lightroom

 

[Jonah]

Done in Photoshop. I have over-done the sky by using the Burn tool after Camera Raw to show you what you can do.

 

[Jonah]

Photoshop version as above but using the built-in HDR option. This is far too unrealistic for my liking.

 

[wmrcomputers]

Wow - I can definitely see the advantages to processing if I can ever find the time to learn a little. That first Photoshop version you have done makes me appreciate the fisheye'd skyline so much more that I wouldn't want to remove the distortion.

Thanks for your time on those.

 

[Jonah]

Glad to help.

I've been using Photoshop for over 20 years and I'm still learning.

If you want the high resolution versions of these just let me know and I'll upload them somewhere.

 

[Jonah]

ISS 10.02 p.m. overhead pass

ISS 4th June 2015 by bigbluewolf, on Flickr

 

[Laurie61]

This is an ISS shot I took a few years ago, the main image is mine (15 sec iso 200) the inset shots were taken at the same time. The one showing shuttle and station was captured by an astronomer in Oxford with camera and scope, the other by an astronaut on the space station as it approached for docking.

 

[Jonah]

11.39 p.m. overhead pass of the ISS

ISS 4th June 2015 photo 1 by bigbluewolf, on Flickr

ISS 4th June 2015 photo 2 by bigbluewolf, on Flickr

ISS 4th June 2015 photo 3 by bigbluewolf, on Flickr

 

[Gramaisc]

Remarkable to think that there hasn't been a day without somebody in outer space since the 2nd of November, 2000.

 

[photography_bloke]

River Log by Mike Hillman, on Flickr



Camera and Lens - Canon EOS 70D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 55mm (Tripod Mounted, IS Off). Lens fitted with screw in ND 3.0 Filter (aka a Big Stopper)
Settings - 160 second exposure, f11 and ISO 100 (Bulb Mode)
Location - Dovedale, Derbyshire

First time out playing with my new ND filter - took a few around Dovedale first thing this morning, did quite like this one taken near the stepping stones By this time the sun was starting to get a little higher, so this was pretty much the last shot I took

 

[Laurie61]

River Log by Mike Hillman, on Flickr



Camera and Lens - Canon EOS 70D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 55mm (Tripod Mounted, IS Off). Lens fitted with screw in ND 3.0 Filter (aka a Big Stopper)
Settings - 160 second exposure, f11 and ISO 100 (Bulb Mode)
Location - Dovedale, Derbyshire

First time out playing with my new ND filter - took a few around Dovedale first thing this morning, did quite like this one taken near the stepping stones By this time the sun was starting to get a little higher, so this was pretty much the last shot I took

Like it, the water almost looks like cloud.

 

[Laurie61]

I had a wonder around the garden this morning while the sun was out. A busy Bee.