What’s Your Preference?

First Light · #1 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 12:03 AM

I'm trying to get into the habit of shooting in RAW format. But I'm having trouble adjusting to it, and one reason is because my images seem to come out grainy-looking. Am I doing something wrong?

EXIF:

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T3
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 36 mm
ISO Speed 800
Flash on, fired (but blocked)

Edited in LR3

IABoomer · #2 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 12:13 AM

Something in your post-processing is applying way too much sharpening. Give us some more info on what you're shooting with and processing images with and I'm sure someone can point you in the direction of things to check.

inkista · #3 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 12:33 AM

Actually, that doesn't look like sharpening to me so much as a really low bit-depth.

Does the RAW look like this when you're processing it? Or is it just the JPEG you output?

First Light · #4 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 12:39 AM

Here is the SOOC, just cropped so that all you're getting is me:

First Light · #5 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 12:40 AM

It looks like that when I'm processing it.

RichardTaylor · #6 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 01:16 AM

The image posted is 565 x 565 pixels

Is that the size of the original crop or has it been enlarged?

First Light · #7 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 01:25 AM

It is enlarged. The original image included the whole family, but I don't post anyone else online. However, the whole image looks about the same, even when it's not enlarged. This would be very close to the original size:

inkista · #8 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 01:27 AM

What software are you using to process the CR2 file?

kcoppock · #9 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 01:32 AM

To me, that definitely looks like oversharpening on an image that was probably a little out of focus to start with. I could be wrong, but definitely check your sharpening settings in Lightroom and see what they're set to by default.