What do you guy's think of this shot

[monkeynuts1]

This was shot at Brooklands last weekend .........please critersize the process not so much the content ...it was shot with sharpness up 3 satuation up 2 ............Steve:)

[Mark1]

Seems a bit flat to me, There are no highlights. Boost the whites a bit and it will be OK. The blacks could be a bit darker as well. But they are not as bad as the whites. You could boost the saturation a tad as well. I know the red on that car is supposed to be brighter than this.

I take it by your comments that this is right out of the camera as jpg. While this is not bad enough to need to be in raw to fix it, I will suggest shooting in raw next time anyway. Its just good insurance.

[monkeynuts1]

Seems a bit flat to me, There are no highlights. Boost the whites a bit and it will be OK. The blacks could be a bit darker as well. But they are not as bad as the whites. You could boost the saturation a tad as well. I know the red on that car is supposed to be brighter than this.

I take it by your comments that this is right out of the camera as jpg. While this is not bad enough to need to be in raw to fix it, I will suggest shooting in raw next time anyway. Its just good insurance.
Thanks for your comments ,as its a jpeg can i change everything you said in photoshop?............Steve:)

[Mark1]

Yes. as nothing is that far off, jpg should be OK. However.... raw locks you into doing post processing. There is no way arround it. But by doing that it makes sure you optimise each picture. This is a good thing. Camera processing is like a "1 size fit all" hat. It may fit one perfectly, but to big for some, to small for others. So in fact it is not a 1 size fits all.

Scrap the raw= negative stuff for a second. Even though this example is worse than that one. The image you take is something a bit flexible. Like a piece of plastic. You can bend it one way, streach it another, squish it a bit. The point I'm making here is a jpg would be a stiff plastic. As it left the factory ( camera) it is pretty much set how it will be forever. You dont really have that much say over the fact. Raw is the same plastic. but not sent throught the machine yet. So you can shape it how you want. ( to a point obvoisly) You can pick the color, the shape, just do with it as you need.

All that said. In the case of the pic you posted. The hard jpg is workable with what you need to do with THIS image.

[Mark1]

Here is a 30 second edit. Did nothing but change the white and black point to match the histogram.

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8218/brooklands1982ue0.jpg

Yours to compair...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=285988&stc=1&d=1215268515

The histogram and the change i made...
http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/881/hisyozy0.jpg

[techlab2k]

Hi Monkeynuts1, Mark1 has some valid points there. I have saved the day with raw when otherwise I would have created some poor pics. Using raw is an option. Don't stick on it all the time. If you are at home, snapping away, then just shove on the green square! There is nothing worse than having to PP when you just want a few shots of the kids.

Mark1, do you use digital photo pro (camera bundled)? I am starting to get good results using it to get what I'm after and then going into PS to fine tune and crop if needed. One problem with DPP is that I'm getting varied results with the noise reduction, either killing the sharpness or too much noise; any ideas about noise management with Canon raw?

Pete

[monkeynuts1]

Hi Mark1 thanks for all your help :)looks like i better have another read of the p/s instruction book again what you have done is imoa made a good shot a great one ,i can spend hours going over p/s and end up more confused but after someone shows me it seems more easier ....once again thanks if after evertime i visit this site i learn something to me the world is a better place :D

[monkeynuts1]

this is one i have attempted to correct

[Mark1]

Take it a bit farther. The whited are still gray. Blacks seem OK.

Do you have your monitor calibrated? All of this is just a shot in the dark if it is not. The calibrated monitor will help more then you think. Even if it is not that far off.

Techlab2K I have never used DPP. Well not really. I have it installed and played with it when new. But I have never "worked" in DPP I use Elements 5, I am about to upgrade to 6. Just never think of it in the store. I Use Noisewhere Community for noise reduction. Its free and works well. High volume people will not like it as you can not batch run images. But noise reduction by its nature kills sharpness. It trys to get rid of hard edges of the "grain". It does not know the difference from grain and image. Some say sharpening should be the last thing you do.

[monkeynuts1]

Take it a bit farther. The whited are still gray. Blacks seem OK.

Do you have your monitor calibrated? All of this is just a shot in the dark if it is not. The calibrated monitor will help more then you think. Even if it is not that far off.

Techlab2K I have never used DPP. Well not really. I have it installed and played with it when new. But I have never "worked" in DPP I use Elements 5, I am about to upgrade to 6. Just never think of it in the store. I Use Noisewhere Community for noise reduction. Its free and works well. High volume people will not like it as you can not batch run images. But noise reduction by its nature kills sharpness. It trys to get rid of hard edges of the "grain". It does not know the difference from grain and image. Some say sharpening should be the last thing you do.
Hi Mark thanks for your help ...........Steve:)

[Strnge]

I would crop it ever so slightly on the top