RAW: Low light challenge

[tommykjensen]

I got another one for You PS gurus and experts.

This photo was shot when I was in Orlando in april. It is from the big night time spectacular show at MGM "Fantasmic!".

I shot a lot with my 50 mm f/1.4 knowing that due to the low light I would probably not get a lot of keepers but anyway I have a bunch of photos from the show.

What can You do with this photo. Please explain steps so we can all learn (especially me ;) )

ISO 1600
Aperture 1.4
Shutter 1/400

Below is only converted with standard settings and resizied.

Download raw file here. (http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/public/challenge/IMG_4896.CR2)

http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/public/challenge/IMG_4896.jpg

[Pekka]

A question: what are the things you want out of the photo? What I quickly evaluated was that I wanted deeper colors, avoid overblown face look and clear the clutter by cropping and removing one spotlight. You could always want to get more data out from backgrounds by using two conversions mixed together, but I see nothing there that is needed in the photo.

http://photography-on-the.net/stuff/PR_IMG_4896-RSE-PS.jpg

Steps to do this:

RSE Conversion with settings:
white balance (non kelvin): +20 warmer
Tint: 0
Exposure compensation: -1.40
Fill light: 24
Shadow Contrast: -100
Highlight contrast: -44
Saturation: +30
Hue: 0
Sharpness: -50
Detail Extraction: -50
Noise Suppression: 0
Color noise suppression: 0

Convert to ProPhotoRGB TIFF

Open in Photoshop 7
Crop.
Clone out one spotlight.
Convert to 8 bit (don't have CS on this machine)
USM: 120/1.0/0
Fade Unsharp Mask, mode: Overlay, Opacity: 50%
Curve: 1st handle at input 30/output 20, 2nd handle at input 73/output 70
Unsharp Mask: 120/.5/0
levels: middle slider to 1.20
Convert/assign to sRGB
export to JPEG.

[tommykjensen]

Excellent You pretty much nailed it Pekka.

Nothing in the background is important. The interesting part is the float and the dancing couple. And You managed to get out details in the faces and more colors. Great work.