Why are my photos lack of highlights and shadow?

[Ocean108]

I'm a beginner in photography. I've been shooting a lot of images lately, but have notice a common problem in most of my shots, the colours look really flat. I tried different settings, shot in different environment, but most of them need slight alterations in Camera Raw, as soon as I adjust the shadows and highlights, the images become significantly better. I have a Nikon D90 with a good zoom lens, I think I should be able to shoot good quality images without having to retouch them, so there must be something wrong with the way I shot them. Can someone please tell me what could have been done wrongly? Thanks.

[Sime]

Would you post a shot here for us? One that you've not touched (Aside the jpg convert, I guess)

Welcome to DPS

[Ocean108]

please see uploaded images. Thanks.

[filemanager]

KITTY! *grabby hands*

ahem...

I'd say all they need is a little saturation boost in the digital darkroom is all

[navcom]

Saturation boost in post processing will work a little as stated by filemanager, or even try boosting your default saturation setting in your camera and try some shots. But it won't solve all of your contrast problems.

Unfortunately, both your photos appear to have been taken when the sun is high in the sky. The lack of shadows from the sun itself might be causing most your problems.

One easy way to boost contrast is trying not to shoot in the middle of the day. Shoot early or later when the sun is low in the sky. The shadows created add lots of contrast. Also, the light color is much more pleasing.

Obviously this cannot be done all the time, but it does help if you can. High noon (sun high in the sky) photos are notorious for lack of depth and can wreak havoc with colors.

Otherwise another option might be to try a circular polarizer filter. In the middle of the day especially, a CP can do wonders in the right situation.

Unfortunately when there are no shadows, many times post processing is your best option. When I have situations like this, I usually deliberately underexpose the image just a little knowing I will post process later. You can always increase the exposure and pull out detail selectively later. If you overexpose, those details are lost...and it's easy to overexpose in high sky sun.

Hope that helps! Let us know how you do.

[AnnetteJ]

I read somewhere on here that p+s cameras do some automatic pp, which dslrs don't, so all dslr images tend to need a little tweaking, like the colours are usually brighter on p+s. Someone correct me if I misremembered. But if it's true it doesn't mean you are a bad photographer!

[private]

I have the Canon Xti and I can do some "pp" in the camera - I can adjust contrast and sharpness, just to name a few. But that is BEORE I take the photo.

[RoyL]

Originally Posted by AnnetteJ

I read somewhere on here that p+s cameras do some automatic pp, which dslrs don't, so all dslr images tend to need a little tweaking, like the colours are usually brighter on p+s. Someone correct me if I misremembered. But if it's true it doesn't mean you are a bad photographer!

Lets see if I can explain without getting in to deep, a bad habit of mine

It depends first on what format you are shooting in.

If you are shooting jpeg format then the image is processed on board the camera and average values are applied as well as the contrast increased to give the appearance of a clear sharp image. The eye loves contrast, hence the reason.

Shooting Raw is a different kettle of fish. When you expose the sensor to light all those pixels capture as much light as possible and place it into a pixel just like water. Along with the light goes a whole swag of info about THAT pixel, things like WB setting and other thing that describe the tonality of that pixel. Each pixel has 16bits of data, any more (ei., clipping the highlights or shadows will do well) in that pixel and the data overflows and you have a pure white or pure black pixel (not really but it will be made one by software). If the bucket spills over then it is basically treated as empty so you ARE losing detail.

Because there is NO onboard processing you are able to manipulate every value that is stored in that pixel. You can adjust things like exposure (yep, exposure is just a value in a pixel) shadow detail, highlights, the whole tonality of the image via WB, HSL, contrast, and a whole bunch of other things because most of it is just bits in a bucket.

This is why images need to be run through a converter such as Adobe's Camera Raw, but others are similar. It is here that you make all the adjustments to bring the image up to what you want, remember you are in control.

You can work within the confines of the converter, in most they allow you to save a jpeg or tif. But taking the image into a photo editing package and making final adjustments such sharpening (Raw is a fine sharpener but no where near as good as Smart Sharpen or Unsharp Mask).

[RoyL]

Originally Posted by AnnetteJ

I read somewhere on here that p+s cameras do some automatic pp, which dslrs don't, so all dslr images tend to need a little tweaking, like the colours are usually brighter on p+s. Someone correct me if I misremembered. But if it's true it doesn't mean you are a bad photographer!

Lets see if I can explain without getting in to deep, a bad habit of mine

It depends first on what format you are shooting in.

If you are shooting jpeg format then the image is processed on board the camera and average values are applied as well as the contrast increased to give the appearance of a clear sharp image. The eye loves contrast, hence the reason.

Shooting Raw is a different kettle of fish. When you expose the sensor to light all those pixels capture as much light as possible and place it into a pixel just like water in a bucket. Along with the light goes a whole swag of info about THAT pixel, things like WB setting and other thing that describe the tonality of that pixel. Each pixel has 16bits of data, any more (ei., clipping the highlights or shadows will do well) in that pixel and the data overflows and you have a pure white or pure black pixel (not really but it will be made one by software). If the bucket spills over then it is basically treated as empty so you ARE losing detail.

Because there is NO onboard processing you are able to manipulate every value that is stored in that pixel. You can adjust things like exposure (yep, exposure is just a value in a pixel) shadow detail, highlights, the whole tonality of the image via WB, HSL, contrast, and a whole bunch of other things because most of it is just bits in a bucket.

This is why images need to be run through a converter such as Adobe's Camera Raw, but others are similar. It is here that you make all the adjustments to bring the image up to what you want, remember you are in control.

You can work within the confines of the converter, in most they allow you to save a jpeg or tif. But taking the image into a photo editing package and making final adjustments such sharpening (Raw is a fine sharpener but no where near as good as Smart Sharpen or Unsharp Mask).

If anyone doesn't understand anything I have said let me know, I read it and it looks right to me

[Ocean108]

Thanks to everyone who posted answers, I'm really pleased that I joined DPS, as a new user I was surprised to see how much I can learn from all of you. A special thanks to RoyL, I totally understand what you were trying to explain, my background is graphic design, so I can understand the processing/retouching side of story. Just need to practise more and hopefully my photography skill will improve