You Can Improve Your Digital Images ... by fine tuning them in your Digital Darkroom Photo Editing Program.
The biggest problem with Digital Imaging is burned out highlights and or Digital Noise in the shadows. As careful as you may be, this can still occur because the image sensors still do not have the exposure latitude of film. Yes; you can under exposure but that may cause other problems if you under expose too much. It basically comes down to how you see light in it's various variations and learn to use it to your advantage.
There are two common formats that your camera may output; JPEG ( Small File Size ) and RAW ( The Digital Equivalent Of The Negative ). It is this Raw format that allows us to fine tune or radically alter our images. Unfortunately the Raw Format is not standard and you must use software that will support your camera. Adobe has the de facto standard in its Photo Shop Software; but it is expensive. There is other software out there; I use a program called Bibble Pro 5 (Bibble Labs) and Corel's Paint Shop Pro Photo X3. The manufacturer of your camera may also provide you with Raw Editing Software.
This image is a case in point. Out of the camera it looks good, but with some fine tuning it can be better. I like to enhance the dark tones as well. That feature in my Nikon Software; makes the over-all image more pleasing. The key word here is fine tune, your not re-building a disaster, that is a different matter. -- Black-crowned Night Heron .. Nycticorax nycticorax ... Nikon D70s Nikkor 300 mm @ 270 mm .. F/5.6 @ 1/800 .. ISO 200 .. © 2006
These Herons are usually found in the east High Park Pond in Toronto; or Amos Pond in Pickering; and with a little care you can get fairly close; in this case less than 15 feet. I used my Nikon Capture NX2 and Bibble Pro Editing Programs to enhance the image, cleaning up the highlights and enhancing the dark tones. Noise Ninja; a program included with Bibble: was also applied to remove any background noise. In the original image the details of the white feathers on the neck, head and upper body was lost due to over exposed highlights; tweaking restored the feather detail. Note how the reflected back light separates the heron from the background.
I primarily use Capture NX2 to fine tune and process my Raw Images. I re-size and convert my images to a JPEG File using Corel Paint Shop Pro X3 Ultimate. I may also use its Fill Flash feature to open up shadow areas on an image. I also am using some features of tne new Bibble 5.
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