My first photo!

Dusker

New member
Taken recently in northern part of South Australia. Mainly trialling to see if I am uploading correctly etc.
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Dusker

New member
This area is not far from the Cooberpedy Opal Fields. The scenery there though is man made! I can remember on that rather important night in July 1969 arriving for the first time to the Andamooka Opal Fields and thinking to myself--if they are on the moon; where the hell am I! I fell in love with the country-- our "Australian outback" immediately. The blue skies, the red earth, white clouds. Thank you for responding to my first photo. I only have about another 1000 to sort through from recent trip!
 

Nikon Photographer

Senior Member
Nice photo, but to me it looks a little flat, not sure if the camera has exposed for the sky, and left a lot of the trees in shadow, I had a quite look in PS Elements and it was a touch over exposed, Hope you don't mind, but I adjusted the levels a touch and up the saturation a little, if you take the photo's in RAW you will have a little more control over the photo and of course have more to work with.

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Dusker

New member
Many thanks for your critique! I do shoot in RAW as well; mainly to have if I ever decide to go big and print. Never have yet. I am an "as is" photographer--mainly because I shoot and save, review, and delete. The most I will do is to straighten horizons and minor crops--I do this when downloaded if I think I have one that I do like. I shoot manual at all times, so cant blame the camera for the aperture etc. I sort of picked this one at random last night from many of the same composition; your critique will make me look back to see whether I have one that is a bit snappier! Again thanks.
Heather
 

cbg

Senior Member
Many thanks for your critique! I do shoot in RAW as well; mainly to have if I ever decide to go big and print. Never have yet. I am an "as is" photographer--mainly because I shoot and save, review, and delete. The most I will do is to straighten horizons and minor crops--I do this when downloaded if I think I have one that I do like. I shoot manual at all times, so cant blame the camera for the aperture etc. I sort of picked this one at random last night from many of the same composition; your critique will make me look back to see whether I have one that is a bit snappier! Again thanks.
Heather

Nice image, but I don't understand why you are shooting RAW if you don't make any adjustments to the image. As I understand it, the reason for shooting RAW is so that you can make adjustments to the image in PP. If you are leaving the image "as is", why not shoot in JPEG and let the camera apply the settings for you?

Colin
 

Dusker

New member
Thanks Colin
I shoot jpg and RAW for only 1 reason--if I get that one magical shot that one day I might want to really do something with--I have it in RAW. I have a photo of my husband which is a real winner (to me anyway), however, at that time i was only shooting in jpg mode. I am not sure what you mean by let the "camera apply the settings" other than shoot on auto. I like to make the adjustments myself in camera ie using manual settings and focus. I suppose it is just the way I like to operate--using different DOFs etc, speed. Or where you referring to something else?
 

Nikon Photographer

Senior Member
Thanks Colin
I am not sure what you mean by let the "camera apply the settings" other than shoot on auto. I like to make the adjustments myself in camera ie using manual settings and focus. I suppose it is just the way I like to operate--using different DOFs etc, speed. Or where you referring to something else?

It doesn't matter what exposure mode you use, even in manual mode the camera will process the image in the camera if you have it set to record the image as a Jpeg, with Raw, it is just that, think of it as a digital negative, where you need to convert in using a computer and adjust the exposure, colour, contrast etc, the Raw image will record a lot more detail that a Jpeg, but you need to work on it to make it look it's best.
 

cbg

Senior Member
@Nikon Photographer, Thanks for explaining it better than I did.

I think the point I was trying to make was that any of the in-camera settings (White Balance, etc) are only applied if you save to JPEG. If you save the image to RAW, you get just that, an image that has next to no in camera processing. As Nikon Photographer said, consider it a digital negative that needs to be processed. While you can do some editing to a JPEG (I use Lightroom), to get the most from post procesing, you really need to be working with he RAW file. I really believe that in order to get the best possible image, some PP is necessary.
 

Patrick M

Senior Member
I agree the original looks a little flat and I liked the touched up copy.
It's probably worth looking at HDR to see what the same shot might look like.
Brighten to tones too.... As already suggested


Patrick
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

Dusker

New member
Hi Colin
I know the camera processes the raw data and converts to jpg. I thought you were inferring something different. I maintain my position which is shoot the very best I can with available light etc (I am not even a flash person). I shoot in RAW and jpg fine and large format. In this way I can see the jpg files immediately. I delete what I don't want along with the nef files. One day I will have the photo that I really want to do something with and then I will pull up the nef file. I also class them as a secondary backup albeit the best there could be to any photo I take. I suppose it is just a case of what suits an individual. I accidently set my camera at just RAW whilst on a boat cruise in Kakadu. I have had to wait to come home to view them as my netbook did not have the appropriate program. Guess what -- still haven't looked at them. I like the immediacy of jpg files. My husband likes the RAW as he works differently to me. To each their own method. Cheers Heather
 

cbg

Senior Member
Heather, Sorry for the miscommunications. I completely agree on shooting the best possible picture. Although, like a lot of others, I generally shoot RAW, but will shoot jpeg fine on those occasions when I need to, generally family gatherings, etc. I just find that shooting RAW gives me greater flexibility. Most of my shooting is wildlife (birds) and outdoors subjects, and given the unpredictabilily of the subject and changing lighting, I find that shooting in RAW gives me a little more lattitude in the final image.

Colin
 
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