Processing RAW images Dec 2011

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Simon Wantling

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 5, 2011
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451
Location
Northamptonshire, UK
Hi all,

Looking at all the wonderful images on here it's clear that a lot of the skill is in the post processing. Although I have been processing RAW images for a while now, I think I have a lot to learn and wondered whether anyone here would be willing to process one of my images so I can compare my results against someone better skilled than I am and I can see how the image should really turn out. I know it's probably a lot to ask, but it would be a really interesting exercise. I've question my lens quality being the 100-400mm lens but looking at it, it looks fine and I think I fall down on the processing of the RAW image. If this is at all possible then it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

Simon
 
Simon I would also be willing to work on one of your images if you want. I also believe that the quality of your processing can be greatly improved by working on a very good calibrated monitor it really does make a difference.
 
Hi Simon,
I have only been doing PP for a year or two but would be happy to work on an image for you. Just send me a RAW,
Gail
 
Thanks for all the replies. Yes, this would be great to see how you more experienced photographers process them as I'm amazed at the quality. I assume as it's a RAW image it'll be ok to mail a 20mg file. I could upload it to a webspace for easier access save clogging up your inbox's

The image isn't a fantastic one but it is one of a Robin which I'd like to get the best from.

Thanks

simon
 
Simon,

Greetings. There is a certain point past the basics that pp is a matter of taste, artistry. I suspect there will be quite a range of images from your raw file. I'm used to a Nikon workflow (using CaptureNX for raw conversion) but used LR here for the conversion and PS (CS3) for further processing. Lens seems fine to me. I went minimalist composition with a large crop to 1382x1728 (8x10 aspect).

Robin-Edit.jpg


In LR, WB, some preliminary toning (prefer the exposure and curves controls over brightness which seems to be the LR default), color noise reduction. In PS, Topaz InFocus plugin, Lab Mode curves (Selective for feather detail, eye detail (L channel), global color adjustments (a & b channels)). 2 rounds of smart sharpen (selective), back to LR for crop. I didn't work the perch... it could use some work.

Cheers,

-Michael-
 
OK, I had a go at it Simon. I learned that it was tough to process an image without the vision of the photographer for the final result...but I also learned that it is a great exercise, and fun. Saying this, I opted to leave the fence and wires to keep an urban feel to the image. Also, the small size of the bird in the original left me the better option (for me) to keep it smallish in the frame to avoid the "heavy crop" look in the details, thus leaving lots of man-made stuff in there...too much to remove for what little patience I have with processing images:e3:S3:

Here are the steps I took for the procesing:

Lightroom 3:

- Exposure + 0.41
- Temperature 5333
- Tint +39 (default)
- Fill Light +16
- Blacks +5 (default)
- Brightness +50 (default)
- Contrast +25 (default)
- Vibrance +8
- Clarity +8

Then on to CS2:

- Levels (midtones set to 1.13)
- Selective Color, Blacks +20
- Dodge iris
- Burn pupil
- Dodge belly and flanks
- Burn left side of right fence picket
- Clone out OOF vegetation next to middle picket
- Sponge tool to slightly saturate upper half og background
- Saturation +7
- Cropped from 5184 pixels on the long side down to 3036 pixels
- Sharpened using USM: Amount 160, Radius 1.3, Threshold 0.
- Added black border for web presentation
- Resized for web

Total time from import in LR to resizing in CS2 = about 10 minutes.
 

Attachments

  • tn_Robin-jpg.jpg
    tn_Robin-jpg.jpg
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<embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0">Here's my version.
Lightroom:
1. Crop
2. Exposure +0.80
3. Fill Light 6
4. Blacks 6
5. Contrast 33
6. Clarity +31
7. Saturation +9

Photoshop (a little complicated):
1. Selective sharpening of bird and perch
2. Selective NR of the BG
3. A low level of Shadows/Highlights on the bird (maybe 3)
4. Raised saturation and lightness on the BG (+12 saturation, +2 lightness)
5. Dodge the iris, burn the pupil, and dodge the reflection in the eye
6. Reduce BG brightness by -32
7. Raised saturation on the bird by +6
8. Add a color balance adjustment layer to the whole image (Magenta/Green +2, Yellow/Blue -9)

I went with a tight crop, even though sharpness could have been better and the image was fairly underexposed. The combination created some issues with noise and lack of detail. Maybe a looser crop like Daniel's would have been a little more forgiving.

Robin-Edit-800.jpg
<embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0"><embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0">
 
<embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0">Nice job Daniel. My only criticism would be that the iris looks too light. I do some lightening, but I find that dodging the reflection of the sky has a more natural appearance when trying to inject some life into the eye.
 
I was going to post my version but Daniels is better and thats about as good as can be done with this file. For me the image has one major flaw and thats sharpness and no amount post processing can fixed that and when you add the subject size in the frame this image would have been a first edit delete for me. Simon looking at the metadata your shutter speed of 1/80s is to slow at 400mm even with a IS lens unless you were using a tripod.
 
I agree with Don's assessment but I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try and see what I could squeeze out of it.

Adobe Camera RAW :
Color 5200/39
Exposure +0.5
Recovery +10
Fill +10
Blacks +2
Clarity +30
Used adjustment brush to selectively boost exposure on bird by 0.35 stop

CS 4:
Capture sharpening with Photokit Sharpener 2
Creative sharpening selectively with Photokit Sharpener 2
Midtone Contrast adjustment (low) with Photokit Sharpener 2
Levels (two layers, one for bird, one for rest of image)
Slight contrast boost with Curves
Saturation (+2 for orange breast, +10 for rest of image)
Output sharpening with Photokit Sharpener 2
 

Attachments

  • Robin-as-Smart-Object-3.jpg
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Thanks for all the examples posted. This really is superb and all look great. I'll post my effort up later tonight, uk time.. Don, agree the image could have been sharper which has been my concern with the lens despite the slow shutter speed. Even at fast shutter speeds it never seems tack sharp, but always on the soft side. This was taken in av control so i should have bumped up my ISO to get the shutter speed up. Funny, but it seems all images I take in av priority are slightly under exposed.

I don't think I could have got closer to this subject. Not sure of the exact distance but I could only have been 10-15 feet away, so couldn't really get the subject bigger in the frame at 400mm.

Thanks again for all the examples posted. It really has been great and much appreciated.

Simon
 
Ok, I'll play! Here's my attempt. I too usually convert with Capture NX2 and then open into CS5-ACR but here....... I opened in CS5-ACR, cropped at 3:4 ratio to 8.5mp, which is about 50%, to preserve as many pixels as possible. I tried to place the bird near a "rule of thirds" spot and use the posts as part of the framing.

Adjustments as follow -

White balance - Daylight, 5500
Exposure - +.45
Recovery - 0
Fill light - 38
Blacks - 0
Brightness - +50
Clarity - 0
Vibrance - 0
Saturation - +8
Open shadows with slight tone curve
Canceled all in-camera sharpening and NR

Open into CS5
Create BG copy layer
Clone out dark OOF weed below bird
Select green OOF bg with magic wand
Switch to Quick Mask mode and paint in mask where needed
Switch out of QM mode back to marching ants
Open "refine edge" and adjust
edge detection - 1.2px
adjust edge - feather - 1.2px
output - check "decontaminate edge"
amount - 6%
output to - new layer with layer mask
OK
Apply "shadow and highlight" on bird and fence
Apply a slight S curve overall
Reduce noise slightly on bird and fence with Topaz Denoise
and strong on BG
Sharpen bird and fence with Topaz infocus
reduce to 800x1024 and save for web to 246kb

Oh, and I cloned the bird poo off the perch post!
 

Attachments

  • Robin1024.jpg
    Robin1024.jpg
    247.6 KB
Here's my shot at is using only Lightoom 3

values were
Temp 4900
Tint +30
Exposure +.14
Recovery 36
Fill Light 20
Blacks 5
Brightness 40
Contrast 47
Clarity 36
Vibrance 40
Saturation 8
Tone Curve highlight +9, Light +9, Darks -5, shadow -7
Sharpening amount 66, raduius 2.3, detail 41, masking 32
Noise reduction Luminance 16, Color 55


raw-pp.jpg
 
Here's another one -- with a different look in at least some respects. So far, all my images have been posted on the Out of the Box forum, and this version reflects my leaning to that type of output.

Adobe Camera Raw
bumped up the saturation of the greens and yellows
darkened the greens just a little
lightened the yellows

CS5
cropping for composition -- I wanted an odd number of posts, and three worked. I used divine proportions, DP, (but not with a golden rectangle) as a guide. The bird's eye is on a vertical DP line. The post on the right is just to the right of the other DP vertical. The upper DP horizontal passes between the bird's body and the tops of the two posts on the left.

Topaz Simplify -- 2 layers using a preset based on BuzSim; one as is, the other with reduced simplification (Some spaces -- like where the wire leaves the post were filled in at the greater level of simplification. These and the entire bird were masked out to reveal the lower amount of simplification. The bird's eye was masked back to the original in the raw file.)

subdued out of focus vegetation to the right of the center post
Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize line art for dark detail lines on posts and around bird (reduced layer opacity)
Levels
Nik Color Efex -- Tonal Contrast
Curves -- linear contrast, masked from bird
uniform gradient vignette
Content Aware fill to get rid of right end of wire, which was leading the eye out of the image. Partially masked back in with a soft, low opacity brush to get fading effect
Nik Color Efex -- Darken/Lighten Center to lighten the bird and a little of its surroundings and somewhat darken the rest of the image
 

Attachments

  • Robin-dbedit.jpg
    Robin-dbedit.jpg
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Here's my take on it:
ACR Sharpening:
Amount 36
Radius 1.2
Detail 80
Masking 0
I used Adobe Standard Colour Temp as shot
Exposure 0
Recovery 9
Fill Light 5
Blacks 8
Brightness 36
Contrats 30
Clarity 30
Vibrance 10

In Photoshop I selected the background and lowered the brightness and I masked the bird and increased levels at tad. I then made a mask of the eye and brightened that a little.
Then I resized for web and Save for Web at 250kB
My monitor hasn't been calibrated for a while but I don't think it is far out.
 

Attachments

  • Robin.jpg
    Robin.jpg
    247.4 KB

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