Post processing...

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 00:33

Howdy

I'm struggling.
I recently took some shots of a mates 4x4 doing some mud slinging and as far as I know, I had the camera set up correctly.
It was low light so I had the iso @400 (about the max my camera can handle without producing very bad noise), the aperture was set at the widest in reference to focal length (f/3.5 - f/5.6) and I was varying the shutter based on the internal light reading meter.
(Could the aperture have caused the hazy feel?)

My shots seem correctly exposed and as the shutter rarely passed slower than 1/100th I cant see any blur, however...
When I've gone to process them in post, no mater what I do I just cant seem to get them to look right. there fine in black and white (as most are) but as soon as I add colour they just look hazy to me for some reason.

I'm currently using lightroom which I'm more than familiar with, but I haven't really tried to process anything from low light shots before.

So I ask please, Does anyone have any tips for low light processing?
All shots are in .NEF (RAW)

Any pointers would be appreciated

Cheers

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 00:42

It was natural light outside, but it was about 7pm so was getting dark, but still daylight if you know what I mean lol

This was basically one of the best efforts I could get (Athough its cropped), but there's just something about it that annoys me...
I had to process it quite abit just to get it like it is here

Danny's Ford Ranger by Trackslide, on Flickr

cheers

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 00:53

I think it was a little darker, but not much.
lightroom says the exposer is up +1.00 over original,
I usually shoot @ ISO100-240 as my D80 loves making noise :/
this was the first time in quite a while I used ISO400.
Can the post processing cause noise? or is that from the camera in your opinion?

Cheers

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 00:55

I didnt actually look at the full size as I thought I'd cropped to near enough 1:1 and can see the noise now lol
Didnt see that before

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 18:19

Cheers all

Anyone know some where I can host the .NEF as ill upload and share? lol

D.P. said:
You under exposed the shot by 1 stop, that makes it equivalent to shooting at ISO 800.

I think your best options is to buy faster glass, or simply go earlier in the day to get more light.

Does it really work like that? :eek:

I thought the iso was whatever you set it at, even in post lol
Good excuse to buy a new lens but why did it underexpose if I was always monitoring the light reading?
Maybe something to do with taking the reading from a white car? :/

cheers

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 18:46

Ah lol

Being a complete noob here but I've just installed dropbox, how do I share?

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 19:15

Cheers
Think I did that right lol clickity click

oO Stevie Oo · 7 Sep 2011 at 22:42

thanks for the processes guys, its interesting to see the way others do it lol
Clown, the early ones I did before I gave up and went B&W looked very similar to yours, I could either get bright and abit overdone, or bland, neither of which had that pop factor

oO Stevie Oo · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:12

I think Rojin's might be the best so far, but that might be cos he's posted a 800x***

I think I may have to just accept the fact the ISO was too high, I took the light reading from a white car therefore pretty much the brightest thing in the shot = underexposing, and do leave them in B&W lol

oO Stevie Oo · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:55

That was basically the style I went for yesterday Ejizz but I went abit darker

Danny's Ford Ranger by Trackslide, on Flickr