Saving an Underexposed Photo

As mentioned in a previous post comparing RAW and JPG photos, RAW gives you additional flexibility in recovering improperly exposed images. While taking photos of hummingbirds at my in-laws, I ended up with a few much too dark photos (discussed in my last post, you can read more about it there).  These photos were taken on my usual RAW + JPG setting and you can see the original (JPG) and developed image from the RAW file below.

To get from the original to the final, the irst step is importing the RAW file into your RAW editor and letting the program do any base settings. Darktable (the RAW editor I use) applies a base curve and sharpening upon import.

After importing its time to adjust the exposure and white balance. The white balance would be optional, as I like to add a slight boost to the color temperature (as many digital cameras have a tendency to produce colder color tones) on many photos. The next two steps are also optional, but were used to produce the image below: perform a slight de-noise and then a slight sharpen to the image. Lastly boost the fill light to finish out the image recovery and we are done after exporting the finished product.

Original, too dark photo

Edited photo

While the developed photo is still nothing amazing, this does highlight the possibilities for recovery and the quality of a drastically altered RAW photo. This shows a big advantage of the RAW format over the JPG format, as you cannot achieve the same results - even by applying the same exact procedure to the JPG file in the same program.

Blessings,

Jesse

Photographing Hummingbirds

Getting a shot of a hummingbird takes patience, and plenty of it. Not only are they fast, but they don't hang around in one spot for very long. But you can be rewarded with a satisfying image if you wait long enough.

During a recent visit to my in-laws' house, I had a chance to take a shot at getting a hummingbird photo. My first thought was to set my camera on shutter priority at 1/640 to try an capture the fast movement. That didn't pan out as the 1/640 images were way too dark on an overcast day for the lens I was using (55-300mm f/4.5-5.6). I could have boosted the IS, but I had a space out and didn't even think about ISO settings and my auto ISO settings were off so the camera stayed at ISO 200.

Next thought was to use the flash to capture the fast moving hummingbirds. This proved what would be the right approach as I got the below photo of a hummingbird taking flight.

Taking flight 1/200 @ f/5.6 ISO200 - flash used

I enjoyed my short little hummingbird photo shoot, and look forward to getting another shot. Next time I will remember my auto ISO setting (or boost it manually) if there is not enough light for faster shutter speeds.

Blessings,

Jesse

Photographing Lightning

I have always wanted to get a good shot of lightning, but we don't have many electrical storms in Western Washington. On a recent vacation to Eastern Washington/North Western Idaho I got a chance to try and get that shot one evening.

With a forecast for thunderstorms increasing as the weekend neared, my wife and I were excited at the chance to see a good storm - and we would not be disappointed at all! This storm was quite large, lengthy and for a good portion seemingly right outside our window/on top of us. After taking a couple of videos the battery in our camera was drained to the point where the shutter release was disabled and the spare battery was in the car. Well, after unplugging the white noise machine (for our one year old, who was asleep) in case something hit the hotel, our little one woke up and needed a diaper change something fierce - but like the spare battery, the wipes were in the car. Now I had a must need trip to the car and would retrieve the battery while I was there and get my change to attempt to take a photo of the storm.

So, camera on the tripod and remote shutter release cable at the ready, I thought I would try a 30 second exposure and try and time it right to get a bolt somewhere in that 30 seconds - after two exposures that was very apparent a waste of time and effort. Next thought, put the camera on bulb exposure @ f/11 and leave the shutter open till a bolt flashes by (again, trying to time it right). This strategy worked with a little luck and resulted in the below shot with just over a one second exposure.

Post Falls, Idaho Lightning Strike

I could have had more chances at some amazing shots, but as mentioned earlier our spare battery was in the car during the more intense part of the storm. Sometimes a little luck is just what you need for an amazing shot, sure lightning photos may be much easier if you have a lightning trigger, but for most of us we will have to rely on patience and the right timing to capture the lightning.

Blessings,

Jesse

Honey Bees and Hibiscus

Something about photographing bees can be unnerving, granted honey bees pretty much leave you alone unless provoked - but anyone who has been stung as a child probably still has that slight unease lurking somewhere in the deep recesses of ones mind. Braving the wrath of the winged sweet makers can sure lead to some memorable photos. The two below are from my in-law's house while we were visiting to have a first birthday party for our son.

Collecting Pollen

Ready for Flight

Both of these were taken with a 55-300mm lens which puts a nice distance between the stinger and the photographer.

Blessings,

Jesse

Shooting the Daylight Moon

Shooting the moon in the daylight poses more challenges than it does at night when all we have to worry about is proper exposure on the moon itself. One evening as the sun was going down and the moon was already up, I set out to try and get some shots of the moon against a nice blue background.

Well the light blue background didn't come out to anything exciting as the moon was over exposed and lacked detail when the sky showed up on camera in the lighter blue. However, getting a good exposure on the moon rendered the sky a much darker hue. While not the look I was initially setting out for, this was my favorite of the few I took of the evening moon as the daylight faded.

For exposure on this photo we have 1/125 second @ f/11, ISO 200. Might try again on another blue sky day and see if different results can be attained.

Blessings,

Jesse

RAW vs. JPG

To start, this post is not going to be what you may see on many other sites or magazines trying to convince you that you need to shoot RAW (if you have that capability) or on the flip side try and convince you that JPG is the way to go. This is simply meant as an informative post from my experiences on the merits as well as the pros and cons of either format.

So with that said, if you are unfamiliar with RAW formats, (or new to photography -  especially DSLR photography) RAW  is just what the name implies: an unprocessed, typically uncompressed (or minimally compressed) image file containing all the information seen by the camera's sensor. JPG on the other hand is a compressed and processed format. Every digital camera applies sharpening, color corrections and other image processing (based on camera settings) to every photo before the final JPG file is saved on the memory card.

RAW files contain the unprocessed data from the image sensor and will need to be opened in a RAW editor to be developed before use for on-line or printing. The developing does add an additional step to your work-flow, but I have found an advantage to this is that many times all that is needed is to import the RAW file, let the RAW editor do its default sharpening and base curve, and then export the file to get an image that looks better than the flat JPG file straight from the camera. This development step also gives you complete control over the development process and the ultimate results in the final image, of course the trade off is in extra time.

The extra data in the RAW file also gives you more flexibility to recover or improve an image that may have otherwise been destined for the take and file never to be shared or looked over again pile. Another interesting tidbit with RAW file's is the overall pixel dimensions. While my JPG files from my Nikon D5100 are 4928x3264 the RAW files come out slightly larger at 4946x3280. RAW files will also be much larger in file size. While the JPG images my camera takes average around 5-8 MB, the RAW files average 15-20MB and once processed, the exported JPG files are typically just as big as the original RAW files. So you will be looking at a significant boost in needed storage space when dealing with RAW files (a somewhat moot point when its pretty difficult to get anything less than a 320GB drive in a computer these days, and more common to have at least a 500GB drive).

When it comes to JPG, the camera does all the processing. You will be able to make changes to in camera settings, but ultimately the camera has the final say. You can of course do more development to a  JPG file in many image editing programs, but you will have some limitations that are not present in the RAW editing process. Shooting JPG files also reduces your photo archive storage footprint, as they take up significantly less space. In many scenarios the JPG from the camera has all the quality one would expect and need, with some images needing just a slight adjustment after the fact in an image editor.

Another option is the RAW+JPG setting on your camera (if available). I find that I use this setting more and more lately as it gives you the best of both worlds. You have the RAW file available when you want or need more creative/development options and you also have the quick snap right out of the camera available for printing and sharing on-line on demand. The biggest disadvantages to the RAW+JPG setting are: a reduced memory card capacity, extra hard drive space required for storing and backing up all your photos and the extra time needed for sorting and managing the extra files (RAW,JPG & JPG export of the RAW file).


Below is a a quick sample to illustrate some of the points mentioned above:

JPG from the camera

Developed RAW file

What is best is ultimately up to the individual, I have been pleased with the RAW+JPG option for a good balance between artistic photos and family photos. Also not leaving the camera on RAW only means my bride can take and download photos while I am at work with out having to learn an extra import/export step if the camera happened to be left on RAW only.

Blessings,

Jesse

New Town, New Photo Oportunities

Moving to another town, even one that is only a few miles away brings with it much excitement and work. Along with everything associated with moving comes the settling in part and then figuring out new routines.

Moving from your old town you have your beaten paths and go to spots for your favorite photos. The river bank you could walk to, a local park or a favorite view for sunset photos. The new town brings with it a chance to explore and find new favorite spots for your go to photos and expand your portfolio - a journey I am looking forward to taking after our recent move - stay tuned!

Blessings,

Jesse