Sunset in Finland

[Åmund]

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I have just finished a very hot summer vacation in Finland and with a multitude of beautiful motives my M9 got a heavy use.

 

As I've had some problems in mastering LR2, I have mainly shot jpg's. I think the result is quite nice, no artistic masterpieces so far, but nice. One thing though: There was a spectacular sunset one evening with lots of red, yellow, blue, green... and I shot a number of frames. But the result was disappointing: Mainly yellow with very little red.

 

The conditions were difficult, but could it have been better if I had shot raw and tried some post processing?

 

Åmund

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[jaapv]

Yes- for sunsets I find RAW essential.

[stunsworth]

Shoot RAW and set the white balance to daylight when processing the image.

 

The Jpeg has probably tried to correct for what it saw as an orange cast in the original scene.

[wda]

Amund, with hindsight it would have been so much better to have shot Raw+jpeg. In that way you would have the best of both worlds; jpeg for run-of-the-mill shots and Raw where some special processing would give you startlingly good results.

 

Now that you are back home, why not look at some tutorials on LR and get a good book. Skills do not come immediately to most users; it takes patience, study and trial and error. Gradually you will demystify the process and then wonder why you waited so long!

[Jeff S]

Amund, I suggest you get the Scott Kelby LR book (and ignore the bad jokes). It's easy to follow and provides a lot of good foundation.

 

It's a shame to have an M9 and not use its full RAW capabilities. Likewise, once you get comfortable with LR, you'll want to take advantage of LR3 improvements. No stress or rush, but some reading should help.

 

Jeff

[wattsy]

One thing though: There was a spectacular sunset one evening with lots of red, yellow, blue, green... and I shot a number of frames. But the result was disappointing: Mainly yellow with very little red.

 

As well as the advice above regarding shooting RAW, you need to be careful with your exposure. When shooting into bright light sources it is easy to inadvertently blow one of the individual channels and find it very difficult to correct for colour balance in PP. If you have time, it is good insurance to bracket the exposure (in, say 1/3 stop increments) rather than rely too much on chimping the histogram. Another thing to watch out for is that the M9 files can also 'band' quite noticeably in the sky when you have the sun in the frame.

[Åmund]

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As well as the advice above regarding shooting RAW, you need to be careful with your exposure. When shooting into bright light sources it is easy to inadvertently blow one of the individual channels and find it very difficult to correct for colour balance in PP. If you have time, it is good insurance to bracket the exposure (in, say 1/3 stop increments) rather than rely too much on chimping the histogram. Another thing to watch out for is that the M9 files can also 'band' quite noticeably in the sky when you have the sun in the frame.

 

You lost me a little bit there.

 

I usually shoot full manual, so by "bracketing" i suppose you mean that I shall take multiple exposures and change the aperture by 1/3 under and above the original aperture?

 

Could you also explain what "banding" means and how to avoid that?

 

Åmund

[jaapv]

I supposed Ian means posterizing. You can avoid that by shooting RAW and processing in 16 bits ( for 16 bits files I process in 32 bits, but that is probably overkill)

 

The M9 has an autobracket feature. It is described adequately in the manual.

[thrice]

For post precessing a shot with important reds I will usually stick to Capture One, anything that uses the Adobe Camera Raw engine tends to turn them pink if they're slightly clipped.

 

For a shot with lots of blues and greens I find Lightroom 3 does a great job.

 

A shot that needed C1, and a shot that did well in LR3.

 

I also use grad filters and bracket as Jaap has mentioned.