[outsider]

Could you give me your honest opinion on how I should have dealt with this picture? Threw it away? Or, what your advice is on fixing severely underexposed shots? I'm an experienced novice and wanted to practice shooting in low ambient light. Most of the light available were christmas lights hanging overhead. Did my best to rescue this picture. Also your opinion on the fixed version? Much appreciated!

Attached Images

   

[rparmar]

That looks crazy over-processed. So I gave it a few minutes. (Could have done better with original full-sized file.)

I didn't bother with noise reduction because I don't mind the mood it creates. Shot is a bit OOF but one has to live with that.

[rparmar]

In general though, I have to say the way to do these shots is to become competent with flash. Dark shadows are never appealing.

[outsider]

Looks alright! Thanks! I can tell from your version that some of the inexplicable facial expression is preserved since it's not as processed as mine.

[atupdate]

This is the best I could do without the full size image. The biggest problem with this image is that it is not in focus. The darkness can be fixed but not to a level where you would want to print it very large. It takes a bit of work and a PP program that has layer and masking capabilities.



Shooting Raw would let you boost the exposure for the image by +3 and make the PP work a lot simpler. Also, check your histogram on the camera and adjust the exposure compensation to bring more of the histogram to the right. The bright lights in the background will end up blown but the face would be better exposed. Back lighting is a lot like shooting in the snow.

Tim

[twitch]

A fixed version in B&W will probably look better than in colour, grainy pictures usually do.

[outsider]

Many thanks for your help Tim! Looks good! I like the blueish hue to it. How did you get it so sharp?

[atupdate]

Many thanks for your help Tim! Looks good! I like the blueish hue to it. How did you get it so sharp?

After I down sized you image so Photobucket wouldn't compress it when I posted in this thread, I used a little bit of Unsharp Mask (radius @1, strength @ 100) and some High Pass sharpen at Radius=1. This is the only sharpening I did and I waited until the end of everything else I did.

Tim

[outsider]

Gotchya. I don't have any experience with unsharp masking. I'll have to play around with that....

[atupdate]

Atiim [outsider] was kind enough to send me his full size DNG file. I then used Raw Therapee to convert to JPEG for post processing. With Raw Therapee I adjusted the exposure by +2.85, changed the white balance using the eyedropper on her teeth, and max'd out the noise reduction, both color and luminance.

Here is what I came up with.




After my raw conversion, I did a bit of playing in Paintshop Pro X to come up with this.



Proof IMHO that shooting in raw is well worth the effort.

Tim

[C-Factor]

Atiim [outsider] was kind enough to send me his full size DNG file. I then used Raw Therapee to convert to JPEG for post processing. With Raw Therapee I adjusted the exposure by +2.85, changed the white balance using the eyedropper on her teeth, and max'd out the noise reduction, both color and luminance.

Here is what I came up with.




After my raw conversion, I did a bit of playing in Paintshop Pro X to come up with this.



Proof IMHO that shooting in raw is well worth the effort.

Tim

I liked your edited version the best, but it seems like a very appropriate photo for B&W with the slight out of focus and underexposure. Outsider, don't be afraid of upping your ISO to save time with PP later. I used to get so frustereated trying to recover under exposed photos when I realized that a grainy properly exposed photo was less headache and often gave better results. If it was a grab shot but you liked the composition, pose, etc., etc. then I understand. Sometimes you just have to make the best of it and IMO you are on the right track.

[Fontan]

I would have turned it into B and W, and made it a bit more grainy.