nascar27 Loc: Kansas City, MO

I have finally switched from jpeg to raw and this is my first attempt. Using PSP X5 and am not terribly impressed by its raw section for editing. After researching I may go with Lightroom. Anyway here is the first one in a leap of faith. 8-)

First RAW Attempt

(Download)

nascar27 Loc: Kansas City, MO

I see now that I should have reduced the size so when viewed at full size it wouldn't be that large....sorry. At least my wife was patient with me as I was trying to get the settings on the camera where I wanted them. 8-)

Carlo Loc: Maryland, NW.Chesapeake Bay

I will be interested how your journey from jpeg to raw goes and hope you continue updates, photos and commentary going forward. For now, I will continue in the jpeg world.
Good Luck..

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Congratulations on being bold enough to step into uncharted territory and learn new stuff! You sure picked a difficult target to get started with, but I admire your courage. The hardest photos to edit are those with extremes of light and shadow and boy do you have it here! Don't give up on your software till you try it out on some easier targets.

It looks like the histogram is indicating some blown areas, I would guess they are in the white flowers or the paper in her hand, which look like they've possibly lost detail. This could be in the original file or it could be from the processing itself. If it's in the original file, you might could try different metering modes or spot meter off them to be sure you don't lose them. If you're shooting in raw, you can afford to let the photo be a little dark to preserve the highlights, because you can rescue the darks in post, but you can't bring back blown highlights. This wasn't true in jpeg, because while you wanted to preserve highlights, you would know the likelihood of being able to get a decent image out of a very dark file was not good.

You've done a good job of balancing the facial shadows but there is no magic cure for that other than choosing a different time of day/different lighting. Fill flash is a possibility too. What raw will do for you in these kinds of shots is give you the leeway to adjust. Just remember to check your histogram while shooting and processing to make sure you retain detail unless it is unavoidable like specular highlights. And keep sharing your journey! :)

nascar27 Loc: Kansas City, MO

Thanks for the tips. This forum is a wonderful place to learn from people who have been there & done that. 8-)

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I think what you should have done, in order to minimize blown out highlights, was expose by a stop less and then compensated brightness in the RAW editor.

Other than that, looks good.

tsilva Loc: Arizona

Regardless of whether you shoot in jpg or raw, the image starts with the light. You didn't really have good light here to start with.

Keep practicing, it's how we all learned :-)

nascar27 Loc: Kansas City, MO

I have tried re-working the settings in PSP X5 for this RAW image. Is it better in your opinion this go around? I felt that her face got too dark with shadow so I tried to fill with the flash setting. Trying to adjust the blown out background white blossoms seems to have left her somewhat darker. See what you mean by balancing high contrast areas. I love learning about these techniques! Having lots of fun learning though. 8-)

Reworked RAW Image

(Download)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Aside from the RAW, processing etc.
Not a good idea to do portraits in direct sun, too many shadows and harsh contrast.
Better to shoot portraits in open shade or if you absolutely need/want a particular location shoot on a cloudy bright day or use fill flash to wipe out the harsh shadows.

RAW does a lot more, but the better the original, the better the final version.

nascar27 Loc: Kansas City, MO

Thanks for the info. 8-)

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

This is what works or me, and is offered merely as a suggestion. I use Canon's raw file program DPP (the other manufacturers also have proprietary programs for handling their raw files) as a first step for selecting, adjusting exposure, and converting to lossless TIFF files. Then, I work on the TIFF files in PSP as needed, to crop, to create JPEGs, etc. Might seem like an extra step, but it goes smoothly and quickly. You are asking each program to do what it does best, so there is less guess work and fiddling around. I am finding that raw files need a lot less work than JPEGs, btw.

I am not knowledgeable about using LR or PS for this.

Mike

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

That is much better and would have been very difficult to achieve with a JPEG as the starting point (assuming that the blown highlights in the first image are what the JPEG would have looked like straight from the camera.)

Mike

Mary Kate Loc: NYC

Or use fill flash.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

You've retrieved the blown highlights in the flowers! That is what raw captures can do for you. If you'd shot in jpeg with the settings that appeared in the first post, your highlights would be gone. Your white balance looks a little off now, so I'd recommend fiddling a bit there, I don't know PSP tools so can't tell you how to do that. In most software there are ways to isolate certain areas for adjustment separate from others, so you may want to play with those tools as well, but be cautious as using them overzealously can make your photo look fake.

Keep on your learning path and keep sharing, it is a journey, and after years of shooting and fiddling, I still learn something new every day.

nascar27 Loc: Kansas City, MO

Thank you kindly minniev. 8-)