Water Lily

[winegeek]

I was at Longwood Gardens yesterday for a session, and I felt like this was one of the more serviceable shots I took. I lightly touched it up last night with Nikon's "editing software" (still can't figure out how to get the RAW files to import into PS3:

increased the sharpness by ~10%
boosted the color by ~10%
and adjusted the lighting and contrast also by ~10%


original:


What I would like to know is what, if anything, should I have done differently with the edit? My goal is really to try and get the best possible shot without having to edit. I would rather preserve the integrity of the image with little to no PP wherever possible.

Nikon D7000
Nikkor 70-300 1:4.5-5.6
circular polarizer
2* magnifier filter
focal length 135mm
Aperture: f/5
1/125s
0EV
WB auto
handheld

[Doug Sundseth]

First, the D7000 uses a newer version of Adobe Camera Raw than is supported by CS3. You can get around this problem by using Adobe's free RAW to DNG converter and then just working on the DNG. (The conversion is lossless and Adobe has opened up the DNG file format, so you should be able to use most newer graphics programs without issues.)

I don't know that I'd do much differently than you have. I'd probably pull up the vibrance a bit and possibly tweak the tone curve for a bit stronger contrast, but those are stylistic choices and I suspect my style is a bit different than yours.

I like your crop/composition, your sharpening works pretty well, and I like the colors in the upper (edited, I assume) photo quite a bit.

[winegeek]

Doug,

Thanks so much for the feedback as well as the info on the file format conversion. I will have to look into that, though I think that my wife may have a copy of CS4 lying around.

As for the contrast comment, I don't know yet what my style is, having only been doing this since the end of April. I guess I just like to shoot nature....so far anyway. My naivete in all of this is precisely welcome such input!

Cheers,

Matt

[Doug Sundseth]

FWIW, D7000 RAW files don't work with CS4 either. (He says from personal experience.) That's why I know the workaround.



For style, play around (Camera Raw is pretty good for this, BTW) until you find what you like*. It looks like you've already got a pretty good idea how to compose and process an interesting photo, so trust yourself.

* Unless somebody is paying you; then play around until you find out what they like