RAW shooting 101

[tims]

Originally Posted by DebsSisterFlo

With my Canon Rebel XT I got this program: ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5. Anyone else use this program?

not sure i have that ver. but yes i use it along with a bunch of others.. it is a nice program i think

[tims]

jess.
i have arcsoft 2.0, liveshot 2.0 ,image impression , adobe photoshop and image,microsoft pictuire it 9.0,arcsoft 4.0,photstudio 2000 ( use that the most), and nero
plus the image software that came with the various cameras

[DebsSisterFlo]

I dunno, I took some pics in the raw (L)fine setting, but maybe I don't know how to adjust them, cuz I just did what I always do with the pics I take in the regular modes; I adjust:
despeckle
auto enhance
brightness and contrast
hue and saturation
I did look and I do have the unsharp mask so I did use that on these pics, but other than that, what can I do? I have yet to get a pic of an eye popping ric, and I don't know what to adjust to make it really pop yet look real and not obviously doctored...
Here's the pics I took and played with.

[DebsSisterFlo]

here is the before and after of my little blasto. Please feel free to play with the before pic to show me what you can do, but please tell me WHAT you did too so I can learn.
Thanks!!!

[Fly Guy]

I think that pink ric pops pretty dang well Jess.

[DebsSisterFlo]

yeah but... it's an orange ric!

[marcuspajp]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

whats "USM" .....lol

im sure whatever you did would have been easier on an unshrunk picture............

I like the smoothness of my pic better...but if we could do that with the detail of whtever it was you did.........

forgive me...im CLUELESS : )

USM is Unsharp Mask. Sorry about that, been in photo forums for too long.

Since your picture is slightly noisy in the shadows finding the perfect amount of sharpness to apply can be hard. But it is one of the big advantages of shooting RAW if you make the effort.

[marcuspajp]

I took a shot at editing your pic Jessica. I'm not all that good at post-processing but I did what I usually do. I used Photoshop CS2 becouse thats all I have.

First I used the curevs tool (Image -> Adjustments -> Curves)

I used the white eyedropper tool first (to the right in the red circle in the link below), and then pressed the sand. It works with anything white, then I took the black one and pressed a dark bit of the background. This in basicly the same thing that Auto levels does but manually. Then I made the curve into an S-shape, again see the link below.

http://www.marcuspajp.com/Picture%202.png

Then I used Smart Sharpen. This does the same thing as Unsharp Mask but is supposed to be slightly better, it is a new feature in CS2. I Used Amount 80% and Radius 1.3.




There is really no wrong or right here, Its all about what you like and what you think the coral really looks like.