Help adjusting raw files

[posiej]

I have just started to work with raw. I can't find much information on the web to help me know what I am doing. I did some reading last night about Historgams and that is helping some. The two pictures below show what the raw one looked like and after I made changes, working with the histogram.

Any suggestions and comments are really desired! Please help me learn

The first one is the raw/jpg the next one is the one I worked on. Both are clickable to see the larger images.

[alain_lestrade]

Hi,

I don't know what you read about histogram (H), but I can try to give you some help about it.

Since you cannot be sure of the true level of the light through a screen (of your camera first, of your computer secondly), H is here to give a more accurate information. But it's not THE definitive and perfect solution. You can see by this mean, if your photo correctly exposed, better than having a look of the image on the screen (good test to be convinced: look at your camera screen in a sunny summer day...). I ALWAYS USE H, to be sure I haven't burnt areas for example for both, shot and postprocessing (PP).

Another smart use of H: overexposition at PP gives you noise, everybody knows that, it's usually the first displeasing digital photographer experiment... It's better to slightly overexpose when shooting and then correct exposition at the PP. It's fruitful to manage this overexposition by using H to avoid burnt areas.

In PP, you can use H to center the peak in the middle (depending of the soft you use) of H, equivalent to a good global exposition. You can also try to spread it.

Your photos:

I find the first one better balanced even if small ares are too dark. You've probably tried to equalize H with PP but the second one seems to be slightly overexposed.

Regards,

Alain.

[posiej]

Thanks for taking the time Alain to answer my question. Your answer is very helpful. I do have another question that you might be able to anwer. How, other than my personal visual perception can I tell if my shots are exposed correctly? I us photoshop cs2.

I also prefer shot no. one in my samples, I think I will give it another try at correction in raw mode, and seeing if I can keep it pretty close to the original.

Thanks again,
Posie

[alain_lestrade]

First of all, photography is not a "perfect" or an "exact" science. There is no really a unique solution to your question.
If the histogram presents a spread peak close to the middle, then try to center it. If no, you are obliged to "interpret" the histogram: if burnt areas exist, where are they? if there are low level areas (close to zero), where are they, where are the greys. You are the only one to decide what areas must be dark, grey or black, depending of what you want to obtain.

Your shot does not present such a peak. We can see a burnt area, the sky: it's not a problem for the photo and its subject because it's white. You just have to sligthly overexpose or use the tool of PS to improve the dark areas because it's probably interesting to have more details in the trees located onthe right side of the raiway, it's enougth. The second PP picture is globally too much overexposed.

For such cases, it's true that a calibrated screen (for the PP) is very fruitful and can help you to choose the right correction. Impossible to use a screen when shooting, you must estimate the exposition with camera itself (and the H too) in order to have the range you want, it's a question of practice.

It's now very late for me (2:00 in the morning...), see you tomorow,

Alain.