RAW is great, even for snapshots!

[fletch]

The snow here is a bit of a big deal so I've been out taking some shots of it. Knowing WB balance would be a problem due to the street lights I set my WB to the coolest preset on my camera, tungsten and got snapping. This was the result, unfortunately its not brilliant.



Luckily I was shooting RAW so I had something to work with. In ACR I made the following adjustments

- Customer white balance and tint
- Increase exposure
- Fill light
- Increase black point
- Increase brightness
- Decrease saturation
- Sharpen

Giving this result. Its not the best shot for composition but at least the snow isn't yellow!

Agreed! Much better.

[kirbinster]

Well I don't know that it is much better. It looks nicer, but does it reflect reality? I would imagine the first image while not as vibrant is probaby what the scene looked like with the sodium vapour lighting. The question becomes do you want to capture reality or create "art" that is only loosely based on reality. Not sure there is a correct answer to this, just a question you must address in your own mind.

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by kirbinster

Well I don't know that it is much better. It looks nicer, but does it reflect reality? I would imagine the first image while not as vibrant is probaby what the scene looked like with the sodium vapour lighting. The question becomes do you want to capture reality or create "art" that is only loosely based on reality. Not sure there is a correct answer to this, just a question you must address in your own mind.

With custom white balance, you wouldn't need all thos post-processing steps:

To set custom White balance: (Nikon)

Select a neutral coloured object to set your white balance
It’s best to avoid using a white target. The camera prefers grey.( Print yourself a grey card: In photoshop- File> New
Click on background square in toolbox
select 127;127;127 from color chart-Print)

If you use white in direct sunlight you'll always get a "No Gd" response from the camera because the Matrix meter is rendering it white instead of grey. Thus the trick is to select the centre-weighted meter when using a white reference in bright light and you'll get "Good" from a camera. Remember to set back to Matrix metering as soon as you're done.

Regards, Ken

[fletch]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

With custom white balance, you wouldn't need all thos post-processing steps:

To set custom White balance: (Nikon)

Select a neutral coloured object to set your white balance
It’s best to avoid using a white target. The camera prefers grey.( Print yourself a grey card: In photoshop- File> New
Click on background square in toolbox
select 127;127;127 from color chart-Print)

If you use white in direct sunlight you'll always get a "No Gd" response from the camera because the Matrix meter is rendering it white instead of grey. Thus the trick is to select the centre-weighted meter when using a white reference in bright light and you'll get "Good" from a camera. Remember to set back to Matrix metering as soon as you're done.

Regards, Ken

The white balance part of it was just one slider though, the rest was exposure correction.

Anyway I'm not saying its not possible another way or that it wasn't possible to get it right in camera. Just that it worked for me and I was out in the cold for as little time as possible. (Well until I decided to go build a snowman!)

[Jim Poor]

I think we need one of those "dead horse" emoticons.

[shep]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

I think we need one of those "dead horse" emoticons.

that is a wonderful idea. very funny, too.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

I think we need one of those "dead horse" emoticons.

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[Jim Poor]

Perfect! Even if it looks like a mule

Originally Posted by fletch

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[vandergus]

I'm primarily a jpg shooter but even I can appreciate the usefulness of RAW for shooting snowy scenes. I took a trip to the Canadian Rockies this winter and decided I was going to shoot RAW so I wouldn't have to worry about nailing the highlights and the white balance. With most scenes it's pretty easy to nail the exposure for a jpg straight out of the camera. But with a snowy scene, you want the snow as far to the right as possible without losing detail, otherwise everything is all grey and nasty looking. That can get tricky. There's also less margin for error with white balance. Since most of the scene is white, the slightest color casts become very apparent.

As someone who's trying his best to resist shooting in RAW all the time, I have to say this is a good example of when it's useful.