basketball in RAW

Is it possible that folks who shoot ambient basketball in RAW to post before / after shots? I'd like to see improvements that can be done (that is, the power of shooting in RAW) for crappy ambient lighting in basketball gyms.

I have read that the power of shooting RAW is in its ability to correct WB / skin tones, and to provide for underexposing (gaining 1+ stop) without introducing additional nosie.

TIA

Here are a couple of examples. Please note, I would not consider this a good photo in the first place but does allow you to see some pretty significant adjustments.

Original shot with Mk III and 135 f/2 at 1/1250 f/2 ISO 3200. The light overhead was out so anything in this spot on the court was junk at these settings.

The second shot was adjusted in Aperture by increasing the exposure +1.2 stops and changing the WB from 3942K to 3104K and was done with the eyedropper tool using the white shoe. Nothing fancy and no noise reduction or sharpening applied but was able to make these changes in about 1 minute.

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Regarding the ability to push exposure with a RAW image without introducing additional noise, I personally have not found this to be true. Trying to push the exposure of any high ISO image in post always accentuates the noise regardless if it is a RAW image or a JPEG. Noise shows up much quicker and more severely in the shadow details and underexposing just makes the shadow details worse, thus making the noise worse.

What I have found is that an image that is overexposed can be reduced in PP and you are more likely to be able to recover more of the lost details in the highlights if shooting RAW vs JPEG.

Attached are 100% crops of the same images from above to let you better see the noise detail. Again, no noise reduction or sharpening but you will notice in the shadow areas the noise is really bad on both versions and in my opinion worse in the adjusted image.

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Hi Kevin:

I shot basketball using RAW files last season. Import to DPP and fix WB first, adjust exposure (usually necessary!) usual lighten, contrast, sharpen a bit then save to .jpeg files. Next, I import all to Neat Image and run the NR software on them. Doesn't wipe them out too badly.

As a point of reference, our local HS gym is ISO 1600-2000, f/2.0 or 2.2 (on an 85mm f/1.8) at 1/500 to 1/640. Here's an example shot:

My workflow for RAW files shot at high-ISO is similar to snyderman's but with a few more steps. It is set-up to avoid sharpening until after the NR step.

Using DPP adjust WB, brightness, contrast and saturation, but set sharpening to zero and each of the NR sliders to 1. Then convert the file to a 16 bit TIFF. Run the TIFF through Noise Ninja using the default Auto Profile with the sharpening sliders at their lowest level and the Suppress Halos box checked. Save the output from NN as a TIFF, and then take that back into DPP. On the RGB tab add the sharpening as needed, usually in the range of 100-250. I almost always increase the contrast a bit after NN, it helps to hide any reaming noise or graininess. And you can adjust brightness and saturation again to fine tune them. Now convert and save as a JPG.

Hope this helps.

Hi folks;
Thanks for your tips, info, and sample shots. I didn't ignore them. I was so busy with kids' sports that I didn't get a chance to try DPP and your suggestions. I started shooting JPEG + RAW last month to have RAW version of the shots available so that when I learn DPP I can start playing with the RAW images. Although the DPP UI looks simple enough, I haven't found a very basic workflow to get me started in it. I know workflow is something rather personal, but contrary to a software like PS, where there are tons of basic tutorials, I can't find one for DPP. I am sure given enough time I can figure something out.

Happy shooting

Start with this tip:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=787577

wyofizz wrote in post #9104553
Start with this tip:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=787577

Ah, good tip there for starters. Thanks