# Ss.org RAW challenge thread.



## Tang

as per TP's suggestion, we're going to try and keep the RAW stuff in another thread to try and keep it as organized as possible.

So to start us off, Rook posted a mystery RAW and I took a shot of it. Top is his RAW file and bottom is my edit. I can post my settings if anyone is interested.




rawchallenge by nrrfed, on Flickr


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Here's my take on Tang's leaves, raw on the left.






Here's my RAW file for editing, enjoy.


----------



## Tang

ThePhilosopher said:


> Here's my take on Tang's leaves, raw on the left.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Here's my RAW file for editing, enjoy.



That's pretty damn close to how I processed mine. Originally I was trying to drop the shadows down and use the silhouette of the leaves but I changed my mind pretty quickly. Love it, man!

My version of that shot:




IMGP3665 by nrrfed, on Flickr

I'm gonna let someone else tackle TP's shot, but I did download it and I'll post it a bit later.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Yeah, the silhouette of the leaves in that shot isn't particularly interesting - I tried that as well. I ended up creating 4 different RAWs with 4 different exposures, running them through Photomatix to mask in only the leaves atop the original, a little selective lightening, some sharpening and that's my result.


----------



## Tang

ThePhilosopher said:


> Yeah, the silhouette of the leaves in that shot isn't particularly interesting - I tried that as well. I ended up creating 4 different RAWs with 4 different exposures, running them through Photomatix to mask in only the leaves atop the original, a little selective lightening, some sharpening and that's my result.



Nice, sir. I'm having a blast playing with your file especially since I'm starting to do proper portraits like that.


----------



## Whammy

I really like this. Mainly from the point of view I get to process photos which aren't my own. This takes me out of my comfort zone which I like 

I decided to do ThePhilosopher's photo.
Left RAW / Right Processed

A few things I did.
Changed the cut off point for the blacks.
to make the blacks less sharp and to 
Decided to go for softer tones.








A few things I did.
I changed the cut off points for the blacks...
This made the blacks more subtle and also removed the fold marks in top (less distracting)





I evened out the skin tone. I felt the chest was a little to bright to the face. Same with around the eye. I still kept the brightness, it's just softer.

I normally shoot wide open so I'm not used to everything on the face being in focus  so I brought down the clarity to smooth things out (probably a bit too much). I retained the clarity with the eyes and lips. 

I added some sepia tones to the highlights for a extra bit of warmth...





Removed the ear piercing marks too 

Here is a RAW file for anyone interested...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/76kxjbk7knq1gnm/IMG_8578.CR2


----------



## feilong29

Did my take on Whammy's! This is fun you guys  Original on Top.









https://www.dropbox.com/s/3r7fxi5sx2ftkos/DSC_2162.NEF


----------



## ihunda

If someone wants to play with this bar shot:






Raw


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Not a bad job there Whammy, here's how I edited that photo:


----------



## Whammy

^ Sweet man 

We both have completely different styles of processing 
I edited my post to be more descriptive with what I did instead of just doing before and after 



feilong29 said:


> Did my take on Whammy's! This is fun you guys  Original on Top.



Nice man. I didn't quote your photo because it's huge 
Here's mine.





I decided to use darker tones and White balance the sky


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Whammy said:


> ^ Sweet man
> 
> We both have completely different styles of processing
> I edited my post to be more descriptive with what I did instead of just doing before and after



I think my PSD file ended up with 20ish layers. I have a version without the skin toning done in that style as well, but that's the color grading my clients tend to ask for (since I guess I do that more often than not to various degrees).

http://www.bartkophoto.com/AndreaG/AndreaG_0038.jpg


----------



## Whammy

ThePhilosopher said:


> I think my PSD file ended up with 20ish layers. I have a version without the skin toning done in that style as well, but that's the color grading my clients tend to ask for (since I guess I do that more often than not to various degrees).
> 
> http://www.bartkophoto.com/AndreaG/AndreaG_0038.jpg



Yeah after seeing the original and then your final version I can understand how you ended up with loads of layers.
I don't mean that in a bad way  I wouldn't have thought about the amount of work you put into it because the photo didn't scream of super processed, which is a good thing


----------



## feilong29

Took a stab at Rooks  His is on top. I just played with the RGB curve, clarity set to max, fiddled with the shadows/blacks (lightened) and upped the contrast.


----------



## Whammy

Nice 
Are we just processing any photos now 
I though we had to do whatever is next in the queue


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> Nice
> Are we just processing any photos now
> I though we had to do whatever is next in the queue



My bad, I tried that bar shot but the file didn't work :/


----------



## Whammy

feilong29 said:


> My bad, I tried that bar shot but the file didn't work :/



No worries. Not giving out or telling you what to do. Just trying to make sure no one gets left out 
By all means pick any photos you want to process 

Actually I had some issues with opening up some peoples RAW files. Once I updated my software they all opened.


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> No worries. Not giving out or telling you what to do. Just trying to make sure no one gets left out
> By all means pick any photos you want to process
> 
> Actually I had some issues with opening up some peoples RAW files. Once I updated my software they all opened.



I had trouble with the dropbox file he posted. I'm hoping he fixes it cause I really want to mess with that one! But ya, this is a really fun exercise. I normally wouldn't do this but, Whammy, maybe you can try my file out??? Lol


----------



## Whammy

feilong29 said:


> I had trouble with the dropbox file he posted. I'm hoping he fixes it cause I really want to mess with that one! But ya, this is a really fun exercise. I normally wouldn't do this but, Whammy, maybe you can try my file out??? Lol



Right click on his link and save the file to your hard drive 

That was actually a hard one for me to process  With everything except the seat being so bright it was hard to make the seat pop out in the photo while keeping it in context.








I did color too be preferred B&W


----------



## Rook

Having a crack at ihunda's (hey Giorgio )

BAH blown out highlights and focus in a funny place, this is gunna be fun haha


----------



## feilong29

Can't wait to see it Rook. I'm gonna probably redo mine:


----------



## ihunda

Rook said:


> Having a crack at ihunda's
> 
> BAH blown out highlights and focus in a funny place, this is gunna be fun haha



Yep, ISO 5000, F/1.4 50 mm, darkness all around, I couldn't get the old D600 to focus in that place


----------



## Whammy

Seeing as how it's turning into a bit of a free for all 

I'll stick up a few photos for people to pick and choose what they want to do.
I shoot wide open so there is a lot of softness and vignetting.
Along with some large dynamic ranges.

Interested to see how people approach these 

Lake Landscape 1
Lake Landscape 2
Dog Collie Portrait
Dog Ridgeback Portrait
Broken Car
Fender Strat


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> Seeing as how it's turning into a bit of a free for all
> 
> I'll stick up a few photos for people to pick and choose what they want to do.
> I shoot wide open so there is a lot of softness and vignetting.
> Along with some large dynamic ranges.
> 
> Interested to see how people approach these
> 
> Lake Landscape 1
> Lake Landscape 2
> Dog Collie Portrait
> Dog Ridgeback Portrait
> Broken Car
> Fender Strat



Well, what was next in line? I thought the bar shot was? I don't have anymore to post (raw). Sorry Whammy!!!!!! lol


----------



## Whammy

I don't know  I'm losing track myself


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> I don't know  I'm losing track myself


 
Ha, this is the best place to lose track and go nuts!


----------



## Rook

FREE FOR ALL EVERYBODY GO GO GO 

The idea is for it to be fun, we'll rely on the structure again when the novelty wears off a bit


----------



## Rook

My go at ihunda's. I went for n instant look but took it easy on the grain heh.




SSO RAW Challenge 1 by NickNickNickHowlett, on Flickr


----------



## ramses

Where am I supposed to put my RAW picture for you to play with it?


----------



## Philligan

I did an edit on Whammy's "Broken Car", because his was the last post I saw with a RAW file posted.  Here's my raw file of a bike!

Lonely bike.


----------



## Philligan

ramses said:


> Where am I supposed to put my RAW picture for you to play with it?



Put it on DropBox. Click the chain link icon to share the link, then close the window that prompts you to upload it to Facebook, then copy the URL and paste that here.


----------



## Tang

Philligan said:


> I did an edit on Whammy's "Broken Car", because his was the last post I saw with a RAW file posted.  Here's my raw file of a bike!
> 
> Lonely bike.



Since we're in a temporary free-for-all, I did Whammy's broken car at random. I also did his Collie picture and I'm currently working on your bike pic, Phil.

I went in a different direction because I felt emphasizing seeing through the window made the shot, imo.




Broken Car by nrrfed, on Flickr


----------



## Whammy

Philligan said:


>





Tang said:


>



Nice guys 

Yeah when I took this shot the intention was to draw attention to the light coming through the frosty window.
But I had to expose the shot to allow for a lot of shadow details so the window came out fairly bright. I ended up bringing down the exposure in Lightroom and then brought back in whatever shadow details I though were too dark.
Here's mine. It's close to Tangs. Just Black & White 







Looking forward to seeing the Collie shot Tang. I found it interesting to process due to the darkness of the dog on a very bright background


----------



## Tang

Whammy said:


> Nice guys
> 
> Yeah when I took this shot the intention was to draw attention to the light coming through the frosty window.
> But I had to expose the shot to allow for a lot of shadow details so the window came out fairly bright. I ended up bringing down the exposure in Lightroom and then brought back in whatever shadow details I though were too dark.
> Here's mine. It's close to Tangs. Just Black & White
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Looking forward to seeing the Collie shot Tang. I found it interesting to process due to the darkness of the dog on a very bright background



Since I don't have a reference point of the true color the dog, I just used my best artistic judgment. So I tried to focus on the eyes without going with super-cheesy selective saturation.




Dog Collie Portrait (ss.org RAW challenge) by nrrfed, on Flickr

Here's a RAW from me with a bit more dynamic range..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbckp6ufi59v9zl/IMGP0411.DNG


----------



## Whammy

Yeah the snow (it's out of focus on the ground) has a tendency to give a blueish hue under some normal white balance settings.

I think I ended up putting out all the color except for his eyes because the subtle color tint was pissing me off 
Then I emphasized the eye color a little. Maybe a lot haha

I love vignetting so I also pushed that just a little bit too. Okay maybe a lot 
I felt it helped to focus attention to his eyes.






Had a go at Philligan's bike photo. Nothing like the dirty streets of Ireland to make me think of home haha 







Tang I tried your photo but I couldn't import it into Lightroom.
It said it's either unsupported or damaged. I updated to the latest version


----------



## Tang

derp.


----------



## Tang

I'll reupload and see if it helps! I just downloaded it and it loaded in Photoshop and Lighteoom with no problem.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbckp6ufi59v9zl/IMGP0411.DNG


----------



## Whammy

Worked 

That was a pretty fun one to process 
I couldn't decide if B&W or color worked better. Went with color.


----------



## feilong29

So this one took me some time! I wanted to get the blue just right and also bring out the orange and yellow. I boosted the clarity, drew the contrast all the way to the left and added some vignette. I need to update my program cause I want to get my hands on that collie pic!


----------



## feilong29

This is such a beautiful dog! I want one!!!!!!!!! For this one, I focused on bringing out the eyes, not so much with color adjustment, but with the iris enhancer tool. I used vignetting to bring out the shadows/blacks in the pic, then adjusted the clarity, blacks/shadows and contrast to even out the tone of the body/head. I like to see most of the detail on an object which is why I don't have super dark spots unless it's in the corners of the frame. Anywho, this is probably my favorite edit yet.


----------



## Tang

Whammy, how do you feel those RAW files handled compared to your 5d2? As far as I know, I'm the only Pentax person taking part of this adventure.

I found your files pretty easy to manipulate heavily, for what it's worth!


----------



## Whammy

Tang said:


> Whammy, how do you feel those RAW files handled compared to your 5d2? As far as I know, I'm the only Pentax person taking part of this adventure.
> 
> I found your files pretty easy to manipulate heavily, for what it's worth!



Seemed grand to me 

But seriously I didn't notice any nasty artifacts when pushing the photo. I'd be happy shooting with it.
You can change settings drastically without having to worry about it fecking up stuff.
Some cameras I've tried are not so forgiving


----------



## Tang

Whammy said:


> Seemed grand to me
> 
> But seriously I didn't notice any nasty artifacts when pushing the photo. I'd be happy shooting with it.
> You can change settings drastically without having to worry about it fecking up stuff.
> Some cameras I've tried are not so forgiving



I'm just imagining that sensors performance upgraded to a full frame body. It could seriously give the 6d a run for its money. 

Please Pentax, give us full-frame.


----------



## Rook

645D mate, do it.


----------



## feilong29

Took a stab at the bike pic:







Edit: I think I'm going to take another stab later tonight.


----------



## Tang

Rook said:


> 645D mate, do it.



That's like 1/4 of my yearly salary right now! Being a working student sucks 

But goddamn is the output of that camera magical.

EDIT: totally gonna upload one of dog portrait RAW files


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Rook said:


> 645D mate, do it.



I could buy a used H3D kit and write it off; however, I'm not in a position to justify such a thing. You want to see insanity check out the Hassy 80mm f/2.8.

I'll see if a buddy of mine can send me a Hassy RAW file we could play with.


----------



## Tang

ThePhilosopher said:


> I could buy a used H3D kit and write it off; however, I'm not in a position to justify such a thing. You want to see insanity check out the Hassy 80mm f/2.8.
> 
> I'll see if a buddy of mine can send me a Hassy RAW file we could play with.



here're some sample RAW files that dpreview posted from the 645d.. those files are HUGE.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2010/12/4/pentax645d


----------



## feilong29

Here is a Skyline shot for you guys to mess with, if you want. It's not the best skyline pic out there. I think I may have had some color issues off in my camera.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u5tei62jh38m31v/DSC_1821.NEF


----------



## ramses

OK. Here is a boring picture of a boring guitar. Lets see how non-boring you can make it 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yk3vhxtvhq3gw73/IMG_2821.CR2


----------



## Tang

ramses said:


> OK. Here is a boring picture of a boring guitar. Lets see how non-boring you can make it
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/yk3vhxtvhq3gw73/IMG_2821.CR2



Nice guitar man, and nice shot! I loved tinkering with this pic. Is that a walnut top? Sure as hell looks like it!

here's the RAW:




ramses original RAW by nrrfed, on Flickr

and here's my edit:




ss.org RAW challenge (pic by ramses) by nrrfed, on Flickr

and here're the major edits. I also played with HSL to help make the body a tiny bit darker (which helped bring out that gorgeous grain) and added a heavy vignette to bring the focus clearly to the Carvin.





ramsesraw by nrrfed, on Flickr


----------



## ramses

Tang said:


> Nice guitar man, and nice shot! I loved tinkering with this pic. Is that a walnut top? Sure as hell looks like it!



Thanks! I'm teaching myself photography as a hobby 

Yup, that's a claro walnut top. I like how you made the grain pop!


----------



## Whammy

feilong29 said:


> Here is a Skyline shot for you guys to mess with, if you want. It's not the best skyline pic out there. I think I may have had some color issues off in my camera.


RAW





Processed











ramses said:


> OK. Here is a boring picture of a boring guitar. Lets see how non-boring you can make it


RAW





Processed







Both of these were fun to do


----------



## Tang

My original version of that guitar had a heavy matte like that. I like it both ways.


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> RAW
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Processed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> WHAMMY!! HOLY SH*T! What did you do?? This looks awesome! I had trouble editing this so I did an HDR instead.


----------



## Rook

GAH THIS IS SO INFURIATING

I've been so busy this week, literally not had time to do any of you guys' stuff haha.

Tang, a 645D is a quarter of your annual salary and you're a student? They're the equivalent of $10,000 here, what the hell are you complaining about? 

Hassy H3D looks like a beast and can be had for decent enough money second hand here for the body. I plan on picking up a 500c/m this year and maybe at some point in the future slapping a digital back on it once they aren't £4000 hahaha. I very much look forward to shooting some more film, I went through film all too quickly tbh.

This is fun and I haven't even contributed next, got some time this evening so I'm gunna do loads


----------



## Whammy

feilong29 said:


> WHAMMY!! HOLY SH*T! What did you do?? This looks awesome! I had trouble editing this so I did an HDR instead.



First I brought the contrast down a lot to recover a lot of the subtle stuff that gets lost with the full blacks and bright lights.

This along with some shadow recovery brightened up the sky a lot.
So I added a generous amount of vignetting to darken off the side so the bright sky was only above the city, giving the impression that the city was glowing.

That's about it really. White balance was auto/tungsten but I added some blues to the shadows.

I felt the blacks over all was a bit overpowering so I changed the cut off point for blacks. Blacks are 90% grey.


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> First I brought the contrast down a lot to recover a lot of the subtle stuff that gets lost with the full blacks and bright lights.
> 
> This along with some shadow recovery brightened up the sky a lot.
> So I added a generous amount of vignetting to darken off the side so the bright sky was only above the city, giving the impression that the city was glowing.
> 
> That's about it really. White balance was auto/tungsten but I added some blues to the shadows.
> 
> I felt the blacks over all was a bit overpowering so I changed the cut off point for blacks. Blacks are 90% grey.



Wow, thanks man! I was super disappointed with that shot but, it seems I REALLY need to learn my editing program and fiddle around with some other adjustments. I'm sure learning a lot from you and the others and I really appreciate it. This was probably the best thread that could have possibly been created, photography-wise


----------



## Whammy

feilong29 said:


> Wow, thanks man! I was super disappointed with that shot but, it seems I REALLY need to learn my editing program and fiddle around with some other adjustments. I'm sure learning a lot from you and the others and I really appreciate it. This was probably the best thread that could have possibly been created, photography-wise



I'm learning things too. Normally most of my own photos have low contrast to begin with due to my lenses. So all of my presets I've made are to suit my photos 

Editing other peoples photos is teaching me to not treat every photo with a one size fits all mentality


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> I'm learning things too. Normally most of my own photos have low contrast to begin with due to my lenses. So all of my presets I've made are to suit my photos
> 
> Editing other peoples photos is teaching me to not treat every photo with a one size fits all mentality



THIS^ I'm not going to 'bite' off you guy's style, but there are elements that I love in each editing style. I would have never touched vignetting before, but it can make certain images or subjects 'pop'.


----------



## Rook

^Why not? You're never actually going to manage to bite off our styles because what you see in people's work isn't necessarily what they're intentionally putting into it. All you're ever going to do is bite of your perception of someone else's work and subconsciously put yor own taste and your own swing on it.

Nobody here will ever take the same style shots as Whammy and process them the exact same way. Even if you went out with him with the same gear and everything he took a picture of you took a picture of they'd look distinctly different and that's the beauty of all things artistic to me, naff as that sounds.

Take cues from other people's work. Learn from trying to copy them. Take photos that are 'wrong' and don't correct them to photographic standards just leave it wrong. Do what people don't like.

If you want to.


----------



## Whammy

Rook said:


> ^Why not? You're never actually going to manage to bite off our styles because what you see in people's work isn't necessarily what they're intentionally putting into it. All you're ever going to do is bite of your perception of someone else's work and subconsciously put yor own taste and your own swing on it.
> 
> Nobody here will ever take the same style shots as Whammy and process them the exact same way. Even if you went out with him with the same gear and everything he took a picture of you took a picture of they'd look distinctly different and that's the beauty of all things artistic to me, naff as that sounds.
> 
> Take cues from other people's work. Learn from trying to copy them. Take photos that are 'wrong' and don't correct them to photographic standards just leave it wrong. Do what people don't like.
> 
> If you want to.



Yeap. All this 
I love it when I look at a photo and I can tell who took it due to the style, framing, subject matter etc.
The best watermark you can ever have is a photo that screams your name without actually saying it.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

I was given permission to use a friend's MFD RAW file (Pratik Naik of Solstice Retouch) - I'll post it when I get home and can access it easily.


----------



## ihunda

Learning a lot from this thread, thanks guys. This is a picture I took yesterday doing street photography:

Raw:






Edited:





And the raw file

Any body inspired to try it?


----------



## Whammy

Lovely photo.
It's a pity the focus isn't on her face. But still, lovely photo 

Interested to see what others do with it.

I went Black & White. Was going to use some noise reduction but the photo didn't react kindly to that  so I decided against it.






EDIT------------

Actually here is a photo that I gave up trying to process.
Everything I've done to the photo seems to make it worse so I'd love to see how others approach this 

It was taken with a 24mm wide open at f2
RAW File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x0sgh907l7v3u39/IMG_8383.CR2

Anyone want to do this as I'm completely stuck on this one


----------



## Rook

Here's two of my own that Tom asked for the RAWs for:




Pontoon by NickNickNickHowlett, on Flickr




View and Clouds by NickNickNickHowlett, on Flickr

And here are the RAW's:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47095395/IMG_2320.CR2
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47095395/IMG_2349.CR2

FINALLY GET A GO AT YOUR STUFF 

EDIT: Had a crack at Whammy's car first. Took a different route to your guys.

Warmed up the white balanced to bring out more colours and emphasise that red. Ducked the highlights and upped the whites to move all the dynamic range into the higher tones so that I could drop the exposure about four stops and make that window and lighting pop - the lighting in this shot is absolutely wonderful. looking at this shot makes me feel like I'm wrapped up in a cold car looking out, like I'm waiting in the cold. Very cosy but with a touch of frost, and the looking to the window brings that feeling of anticipation. Lovely stuff.






EDIT EDIT: Oh wow, Photobucket slaughtered that, moving over to dropbox...

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Didn't realise I did a full size export, sorted.


----------



## Whammy

I've been uploading mine to Flickr but keeping them on private.

I like the car one Rook. You brought out the dirty in the car 
But seriously, It's making me look at the photo differently now 






EDIT
Hosting the car photo via dropbox with full pixels is killing the page  Any chance of smaller files when showing your edit?


----------



## Winspear

Thanks Nick!
Damn Whammy nice edit.
Here's my attempts - heavy critique would be appreciated!

I quite like the first - but I realise looking back at yours Nick that I was actually trying to do exactly what you did subconsciously, and failed miserably haha! What did you do? Like I said I do like my edit but I think my stuff tends to look a bit too..hi res? 













Here's a favourite of mine and the RAW:





https://www.mediafire.com/?b86696n8m5lgauu


----------



## Rook

TP's Portrait.

I'm cropping a lot but I didn't take the pics, come at me








EtherealEntity said:


> Thanks Nick!
> Damn Whammy nice edit.
> Here's my attempts - heavy critique would be appreciated!
> 
> I quite like the first - but I realise looking back at yours Nick that I was actually trying to do exactly what you did subconsciously, and failed miserably haha! What did you do? Like I said I do like my edit but I think my stuff tends to look a bit too..hi res?



You're on the right track, your tones are about right on the first one. The thing with the first one though is I was genuinely just dicking about, I couldn't let go of the shot but the framing was frankly awful, I just happened to have the 18 on and couldn't really go running over to frame properly and not freak those guys out, make the dog move and scare the birds away so it fell victim to the crop hammer. In a piss-take sort of way, because it was a square crop, I then imposed some pretty hairy instant-looking adjustments to it. Pull it up to about 80% grey on the RBG curve, really flat low tones and all the dynamic range in the upper half, all the contrast Then pull down the blue RGB curve to make it go brown, pull the blacks and exposure down to make it mostly-brown and you're getting close.

The other one got my usual black and white pop technique. I like lots of black and lots of white in my BW shots, It got the horizon straightened I think and a clarity boost too I believe.


----------



## Whammy

I liked this photo.
The original showed fog in the background and a lovely worn path leading towards it.
So for the edit I wanted to merge it all together as if you're lost in the fog and the path itself is guiding you through it, to the unknown.

When I first saw the photo it reminded me of trenches during WW1. So I wanted to push that lonely no mans land vibe.


----------



## Rook

Whammy, I really like how you gave my shot a panoramic look, really nice, new perspective, the vignette really brings it in.

Took a slightly different approach to Tom's. Don't know if I like it but whatever haha.


----------



## Whammy

Rook said:


> Whammy, I really like how you gave my shot a panoramic look, really nice, new perspective, the vignette really brings it in.



I just wanted to do something different to your edit 
But yeah it made sense to me to go wide, 2:1 Ratio.
The lens was an 18mm after all and it would have been a shame to chop off the edges.

This thread is starting to get interesting when we a doing completely different edits


----------



## Philligan

Whammy said:


> Anyone want to do this as I'm completely stuck on this one



This was a really rushed one (I'm sitting in class waiting for the prof to get here haha), but I tried to go for a grim, black metal setting. It seemed appropriate. 





I'd love to take another shot at it when I have some more time - I'm not used to stuff like this at all, so it was really challenging trying to think of a way to make it look unique.


----------



## Rook

Nice, yeah absolutely agree. I think I even said in the tog thread cropping an 18 is a sin, despite having done exactly that in that picture hahaha.

Tang's.

Yeah I cropped it again screw you guys


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Rook, I always leave room to crop since standard format for delivery is 9x12 for the kind of work I do most often. Skin retouching beauty shots is not for the rushed.

Fence:





My contribution from Pratik: https://www.yousendit.com/download/elNLZEU4Q1BsUjlqQTlVag


----------



## Tang

Rook, love that crop! Very seductive lines in that shot! Great photograph


----------



## Rook

ThePhilosopher said:


> Rook, I always leave room to crop since standard format for delivery is 9x12 for the kind of work I do most often. Skin retouching beauty shots is not for the rushed.
> 
> Fence:



Yeah, just to clarify that wasn't a criticism or anything, just a comment about people biting your head off in tog forums for cropping lol. I generally don't do it anyway but I just do stuff photography on the street and whatever so I'm able to impose pointless rules on myself haha.




ThePhilosopher said:


> My contribution from Pratik: https://www.yousendit.com/download/elNLZEU4Q1BsUjlqQTlVag



I can't say I really like the picture but that file is just astonishing. 
A-MAZING.


----------



## Tang

Ahh, I get to edit my favorite Rook shot ever (kids and birds by the lake)

I am excite bike.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Rook said:


> Yeah, just to clarify that wasn't a criticism or anything, just a comment about people biting your head off in tog forums for cropping lol. I generally don't do it anyway but I just do stuff photography on the street and whatever so I'm able to impose pointless rules on myself haha.
> 
> I can't say I really like the picture but that file is just astonishing.
> A-MAZING.



I know, man. I rarely crop, but I shoot with room because IMO it's better than chopping off hands and fingers.

That RAW makes me want an MFD even more. I'm giving a go over the weekend.


----------



## Rook

Joisus, do share.

I WILL get a Hassy this year. It's worth the Hassy hassle.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Digital?? I already have a medium format film camera, but it's not compatible with any available backs without $800+ adapters and cords all over the place.


----------



## Rook

Nah, used 500CM or something, film, and I'll do TIFF scans, that's basically RAW right?   

I can't afford Hasselblad digital, doubt I ever will, and if I could I'd buy a PhaseOne system


----------



## feilong29

Mystery file  I'm working on the broken car pic at the moment. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vli7wax59281df9/DSC_0678.NEF


----------



## feilong29

Here ya go! I think I could have fiddled with the noise reduction just a smidge, but I'm so thrilled at messing with something like Vignette and even the temperature can dramatically change the mood of a shot.


----------



## Tang

Rook, this is ironic in the light of that jpg only comment, but here's my version of the dockside shot:




IMG_2349-2 by nrrfed, on Flickr

I think I went full stupid on this one, yes sir. Seriously though, it's a great shot. Loved working on it and I think it's a realistic (if a bit idealized) exposure. That 6d makes some nice, nice files.

And that lens.. my god man. That lens..


----------



## Rook

^I actually much prefer your edit to mine, and that alongside Whammy's...

Tempted to revisit it. The was you guys have displayed it, I like, I fully wasn't fussed about the version I posted hahahaha.

I'll still be providing RAW files, don't worry, I'm mostly gunna be shooting the JPEGs on my Fuji but now I'm realising the potential of a load of shots I've binned, I'll continue to give them to you guys


----------



## Tang

Rook said:


> ^I actually much prefer your edit to mine, and that alongside Whammy's...
> 
> Tempted to revisit it. The was you guys have displayed it, I like, I fully wasn't fussed about the version I posted hahahaha.
> 
> I'll still be providing RAW files, don't worry, I'm mostly gunna be shooting the JPEGs on my Fuji but now I'm realising the potential of a load of shots I've binned, I'll continue to give them to you guys



It's a wonderful shot, and I'm glad you liked my version! I was reasonably stoned out of my mind when I was working on it and was worried I'd hate it when I woke up. Nope 

Playing with your files I can begin to see the full-frame love. I was pushing shadows just to see what would happen and it was beautiful. I know objectively my camera has a tiny bit more dynamic range but there's just something intangible about those files and the way the 6d handles shadows. 

Seriously dude, I fiddled with the shadows for over 15 minutes in total awe. It's so clean!


----------



## Rook

Here's a new RAW for some of you guys while I play with yours. I really like this shot myself.




Sun on Tower by NickNickNickHowlett, on Flickr

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47095395/IMG_4009.CR2


----------



## feilong29

I'm tackling Rooks next 














Edit: OOPS! I forgot to mess with the angle of the second one.... changes to come  I'm gonna start playing around with cropping!

Edit: Fixed  Still seems a smidge off but my eye isn't that good. I used the grid on the crop tool to level it the best I could.


----------



## Tang

Check the horizon on the first shot you posted. That was literally the first thing I adjusted!


----------



## feilong29

Tang said:


> Check the horizon on the first shot you posted. That was literally the first thing I adjusted!



Ya I'm not sure how I overlooked that... too hasty I guess! Fixed it though 

And while I'm at it 





Love the blue sky on this one.

Edit: That bit of noise makes it look like a newspaper print.


----------



## Whammy

I see blue skies the whole time so I wasn't too pushed to keep it in the edit. To me the architecture wins out and needed to be highlighted.


----------



## feilong29

For this one, I added some warmth the temperature, booster the clarity, increased the contrast all the way up, pulled out some of the blue with the tone curve due to chromatic aberration? I can't remember, but there was some crazy blue stuff happening on some of the branches, hehe. Ummm what else... after warming it up, I could fiddle around with the orange and yellows of the ground and foliage, and turned down the highlights. Man, I'm abusing the vignette, but I love how it makes the image 'pop', and draws your attention to the center of the picture.


----------



## Whammy

That's awesome. I wasn't happy with that photo but I like this edit of it 
The crazy blue stuff in the photo around the branches is called Purple Fringing.

The lens already had some vignetting going on but I like the added vignetting 

Just a heads up in case you didn't notice.
If you check out the bokeh around the background trees at full size you can see it's adding in weird stuff. Not that it affects the photo, just letting you know 
Normally you get that stuff if your "Sharpening" setting is a little too high.


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> That's awesome. I wasn't happy with that photo but I like this edit of it
> The crazy blue stuff in the photo around the branches is called Purple Fringing.
> 
> The lens already had some vignetting going on but I like the added vignetting
> 
> Just a heads up in case you didn't notice.
> If you check out the bokeh around the background trees at full size you can see it's adding in weird stuff. Not that it affects the photo, just letting you know
> Normally you get that stuff if your "Sharpening" setting is a little too high.



I'm glad you dig it! And I did bump up the sharpening quite a bit. I'll have to look out for that next time. Incredible the amount of stuff I'm learning from you guys! What causes purple fringing?


----------



## Whammy

Yeap I did like it 

This will answer it quicker that I will 
Purple fringing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All my lenses do this ha

I find in Lightroom "Clarity" does a better job of making things clearer/sharper.
The "Sharpening" control is better at retaining information after noise reduction.

I'm sure others use them differently but that's what I use each for.


----------



## JeffFromMtl

Took a quick go at Whammy's car.


----------



## Whammy

^ Someone likes their Polaroid tones


----------



## JeffFromMtl

Whammy said:


> ^ Someone likes their Polaroid tones



Who, me? Nah.


----------



## Tang

feilong: when you're sharpening look for the Masking slider. If you hold down alt (on windows.. not sure about Mac) you can actually see and adjust what's being sharpened in your image. Each lens and image requires a different amount of masking, but I use it for almost every image.


----------



## JeffFromMtl

And I just had to do this one once more just because all I want to do these days is black and white everything.


----------



## Whammy

Here is the RAW from one of the guitar photos I have in the main photo thread.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gw83it7ji1n4aol/Ibanez RGR465m.CR2

This is the processed...


----------



## feilong29

Whammy said:


> Here is the RAW from one of the guitar photos I have in the main photo thread.
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/gw83it7ji1n4aol/Ibanez RGR465m.CR2
> 
> This is the processed...



Been WAITING for you to post this  Working on it now!


----------



## Whammy

Decided to process the photo that The Philosopher shared from his friend with the medium format digital camera.

Even the crop is a huge file!

You really have to take your time with these studio portrait shots. Rushing through these will not end well 

I did a B&W edit which I think is nicer but I like the color in her eye so here's the color version.





EDIT:
I'd recommend everyone to have a go at this photo. It really forces you to actively think a few steps ahead when processing.


----------



## feilong29

Here it is! I think I may need to tone down the yellow/orange just a smidge. This is probably the coolest guitar picture I've ever seen. 







Edit: Fixed


----------



## Whammy

Yeah the yellow on the fretboard can get out of control when the saturation is up. Happened to me when processing


----------



## feilong29

Do NOT enter!






https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3vp94vv561wki1/DSC_2210.NEF


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Whammy said:


> Decided to process the photo that The Philosopher shared from his friend with the medium format digital camera.
> 
> Even the crop is a huge file!
> 
> You really have to take your time with these studio portrait shots. Rushing through these will not end well
> 
> EDIT:
> I'd recommend everyone to have a go at this photo. It really forces you to actively think a few steps ahead when processing.



I still haven't had a chance to take my hour or two stand with that shot - had to change the thermostat in my Outlander this weekend and that took longer than expected. Pratik also did a B&W version of that shot; hopefully this link will work and you guys can find it:https://www.facebook.com/SolsticeRetouch/media_set?set=a.10100608417533556.2515929.37514348&type=3


----------



## Tang

For Whammy and anyone else that wants to play with this file..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/96kr6so5gn22l0t/IMGP6592.DNG


----------



## Philligan

I'm supposed to be reading Chaucer for a test tomorrow but I did a quick one.  Took a little different approach than I usually do. There was an awesome amount going on in the sky in this shot. 

edit: No thanks, Photobucket.


----------



## Philligan

Wow, all the artifacts in that are ridiculous.  Is that something I did wrong on my end?


----------



## Philligan

Here's a better one, hopefully. Same edit, just on Flickr instead of Photobucket.


----------



## Whammy

Feck that photo was hard to process.
So hard to bring in the shadow detail.


----------



## Tang

Very nice Phil and Whammy! Yeah, I did purposely underexposed (well, I used spot metering on the sky + exposure lock) with the end edit already in my mind. I knew it was going to be a silhouette.


----------



## Philligan

How did you lock the meter? Same as locking the AF, or is that another step?

I went pretty overkill on that one, I thought I'd go for a super trve black metal album cover.  I've got a 90 minute break between classes this afternoon, so I might have a more realistic go like Whammy did. It's a weird one to edit but a lot of fun.


----------



## Whammy

Tang, why do you correct the distortion of the lens?
I've never found it to make or break a photo and in a way it's taking the character of the lens away.
Just curious.


----------



## Tang

Whammy said:


> Tang, why do you correct the distortion of the lens?
> I've never found it to make or break a photo and in a way it's taking the character of the lens away.
> Just curious.



Out of habit, mostly. I almost never correct lens vignette, though. 

The distortion at the 17mm end of my Tammy isn't bad, but it can wreck my straight lines.




Philligan said:


> How did you lock the meter? Same as locking the AF, or is that another step?
> 
> I went pretty overkill on that one, I thought I'd go for a super trve black metal album cover.  I've got a 90 minute break between classes this afternoon, so I might have a more realistic go like Whammy did. It's a weird one to edit but a lot of fun.



Phil, I have a dedicated exposure lock button. See the top right corner. 






I'm not really sure what the T3 equivalent might be. It's probably hidden somewhere in your custom functions.

EDIT: found this article from Canon about AE-L on their bodies. I'm pretty sure the T3 can do it, but you might have to give up back-button focusing if you use it.

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/autoexposure_ae_lock_article.shtml


----------



## Whammy

It's good to know it's there. I can imagine in certain situations like architecture it would come in quite handy.

I can't really do it with my old Zuiko lenses as they don't have a profile for them.


----------



## Tang

Whammy said:


> It's good to know it's there. I can imagine in certain situations like architecture it would come in quite handy.
> 
> I can't really do it with my old Zuiko lenses as they don't have a profile for them.



That's the best part about those old lenses. They have a shit-ton of character.


----------



## Whammy

Tang said:


> That's the best part about those old lenses. They have a shit-ton of character.



I'm starting to think my 55mm 1.2 has too much character.
I love the lens and 50 to 55mm is my favorite focal length. However although the bokeh is beautiful wide open the lens (along with most super fast old lenses) is soft on the areas in focus.
Fixed by stopping down but I don't want to stop down 
My old 50mm 1.8 is sharper but the bokeh isn't the same.

My 85mm 1.2 has just as nice bokeh but also sharp in focus areas.
The old 55mm just seems a bit foggy over the in focus areas. I do like the effect and it does work for some things, but not all things.

Starting to think I need an upgrade seeing as it's the number one lens I use.


----------



## Philligan

Whammy said:


> My old 50mm 1.8 is sharper but the bokeh isn't the same.



Is it an FD 1.8? If so, that's what I use on the AE-1, and yeah, the bokeh's awkward. It's really squiggly, and looks more like camera shake than background blur. I'd really like to get the aspherical 50/1.4 I hear everyone talk about, but I've only shot four or so rolls with the 1.8 so I'll give it some more time. I really should pick up something wide-ish - I see the 28 2.8s go for cheap on eBay all the time.



Tang said:


> I'm not really sure what the T3 equivalent might be. It's probably hidden somewhere in your custom functions.
> 
> EDIT: found this article from Canon about AE-L on their bodies. I'm pretty sure the T3 can do it, but you might have to give up back-button focusing if you use it.



Haha I do use back button AF.  It's all good, though - I was reading that and realized that since I pretty much always shoot in manual, I'm fine.  I usually use auto ISO, but I've got the flash pop-up button set to change my ISO, so it's not a huge hassle to read it for one area then manually set it to that when I focus.


----------



## Whammy

Philligan said:


> Is it an FD 1.8? If so, that's what I use on the AE-1, and yeah, the bokeh's awkward. It's really squiggly, and looks more like camera shake than background blur. I'd really like to get the aspherical 50/1.4 I hear everyone talk about, but I've only shot four or so rolls with the 1.8 so I'll give it some more time. I really should pick up something wide-ish - I see the 28 2.8s go for cheap on eBay all the time.



No it's another Olympus Zuiko OM lens. The bokeh is nice, it just can't get as exaggerated as quickly as a 1.2 lens.

To be honest the Bokeh I've seen with the FD 1.8 is actually nice. Maybe our opinions on what is nice bokeh differs.
But the FD 1.8 is meant to have more pleasing bokeh than the EF 1.8

Here is a nice read regarding bokeh. It's got a few lens listed too with ratings on how pleasing the bokeh is. Nothing about the sharpness of the lens though.
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/files/bokehrankings5.pdf


----------



## Rook

The canon exposure lock is a little star type thing like this *


----------



## Philligan

Rook said:


> The canon exposure lock is a little star type thing like this *



Ahh, that's what I reprogrammed to be my AF button.  God, I want a 70D/6D so bad haha.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Here's a quick take on my friend's RAW from the PhaseOne:






Here's another RAW: Beach Shoot

I've not even processed this one, but I was looking for something to post up here and thought it would be a good image for folks to play with (including myself).


----------



## JeffFromMtl

Give this one my usual B&W treatment. Hope you like!
I've also realized that my B&W processing is essentially a super-dark, low-contrast Fuji Neopan 1600 emulation. Cool.


----------



## Tang

JeffFromMtl said:


> Give this one my usual B&W treatment. Hope you like!
> I've also realized that my B&W processing is essentially a super-dark, low-contrast Fuji Neopan 1600 emulation. Cool.



Excellent work sir.. I wouldn't have used quite so much grain but it does work in a black metal album cover kinda way! 

Here's a RAW that (hopefully) showcases what a great sensor can do in terms of dynamic range.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ffepivtc4omv6nd/IMGP7031.DNG


----------



## Philligan

Man, that one was hard. I did two, colour and b&w. I tried to do something different, ended up having trouble and basically went for a cheap film look with each. 

With the colour, the blue slider was the toughest to work with, and holy shit the purple slider was crazy on the b&w one. 









Here's one from me.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s7k5i13c5l7vbjp/IMG_2840.CR2

And here's what I did with it.


----------



## Whammy

Had a go at this one. I tried to get rid of the power lines but that was way too much hassle


----------



## feilong29

Took a stab


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Me too:


----------



## Tang

ThePhilosopher said:


> Me too:



Holy shit dude, that's almost exactly how I edited that shot.. will be posting as soon as l get off work.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

16x9 crop and all?


----------



## Tang

ThePhilosopher said:


> 16x9 crop and all?



Nah, just the sky color and crushed black look.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

The blacks aren't super crushed; there's still some detail there - especially in the leg area.


----------



## Tang

ThePhilosopher said:


> The blacks aren't super crushed; there's still some detail there - especially in the leg area.



Of course. I was speaking colloquially. My blacks were destroyed but I might reconsider.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Ah, I was confused-my brain is slightly fried from taking two grad courses (one of which is accelerated) while teaching full-time.


----------



## Philligan

Those all look awesome, guys. 



ThePhilosopher said:


> The blacks aren't super crushed; there's still some detail there - especially in the leg area.



I thought I crushed the blacks pretty hard in mine. Apparently not.


----------



## MemphisHawk

Raw






Edit..?


----------



## Philligan

ihunda said:


> If someone wants to play with this bar shot:
> 
> Raw



I've got an hour to kill before class, so I'll have a go at this one, and pick one from Florida to post. 

edit: Well, the link 404'd and I realized my Florida raws are on my external back at the house, so that was a bust.


----------



## JeffFromMtl

The JPG of the portrait for ThePhilosopher. Anyone else who would like to take a stab at it is welcome to.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n7n485hi1fxgzwl/IMG_3319.JPG


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Finally got around to this one.





PSD File for peeping: http://www.bartkophoto.com/Retouch/JeffFromMTL_IMG_3319.psd (it's huge so just keep that in mind).

A raw for you to play with: www.bartkophoto.com/Retouch/Rain_0001.NEF


----------



## Nats

One of the photos I did of my friend...
Free File Sharing and Storage made Simple.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

My take:


----------



## Tang

Phil has requested this file and I am happy to oblige!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxljefztut5s1k0/IMGP9558.DNG?dl=0


----------



## Philligan

Bam! That was a fun one to edit. I'm so used to Canon RAWs, this had me thinking a bit more. Interestingly enough, though, I didn't do things that much differently. This photo seemed to start out a bit flatter but got contrasty faster than what I'm used to, and I added a lot more sharpening than normal (it seemed to need a bit more, but I feel like it handled it a bit better than the 70D RAWs, too). 



IMGP9558 by philbabbey, on Flickr


----------



## Tang

Nice! I actually thought about doing a wider crop and using the trees to balance out the frame, but the I like having the subject just a tad bigger. Really liking your tones in the sky, though! If I'm honest with you, my first color edit looked just like that!

EDIT: this was shot with my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and while it's nowhere near as sharp as that Sigma I was playing with I can't help but love how it renders shots. How do you feel the base sharpness compares with your Sigma 17-50?


----------



## Philligan

I feel like the Sigma is any sharper. I'm on my phone and can't pixel peep, but I'll try and post a full res photo. Flickr wouldn't let me link on my phone, so I tried do download the full res version on my phone, we'll see if it works.  

I remember being surprised by how sharp this photo was, so if it's the full res version, check it out and see what you think. If it doesn't work I'll post the real one from the computer. This was pretty much ideal settings - middle of the zoom range and f7.1 IIRC.


----------



## Tang

Looks like it got downsized to 1024px somewhere in the process. I find the easiest way to get the full size shots from mobile flickr is to click on "view all sizes" and Save to photos. Using the flickr app rarely works properly. 

Actually, the new flickr app is total shit, IMO.


----------



## Philligan

That's what I ended up trying, funny it didn't work. I'll post the full res one soon man.

edit: Sorry that took so long man. Here's the link. I think you should be able to download the full res file from there?


----------



## Whammy

Here is a RAW file for anyone interested.

Shot on a Canon 5d MKII with a 85mm f1.2L
The camera setting were ISO 100, f1.2, 1/500sec

This is from an engagement shoot I did. It was one of the last photos I took and the sun was just above the horizon ready to set.
I used a reflector quite a lot for this shoot but not for this shot as it was a little over powering.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/decla8294opykyb/_MG_6172.CR2?dl=0


For Tang (or anyone interested), here is some test shots I did with the 85mm as I wanted to see how sharp it was wide open compared to my other lenses. I also wanted to see properly how much the contrast changes stopping down.
It's the same subject in each photo but the lighting does change a little through-out the shots.
There are five photos at 1.2 / 2 / 2.8 / 4 / 8
They are RAW files too.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aaoz5tkqo0dpi86/AADkyJX-OQDWL6kzMu-vN6cMa?dl=0

I'm going to keep these links up for a day or two before deleting.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

I took a quick stab at the engagement image.





Here's one from my last shoot that I thought was good for skin practice.
www.bartkophoto.com/Retouch/Selah_0018.NEF
Here's a PSD of how I start skin editing as well: www.bartkophoto.com/Retouch/Selah_0018.PSD


----------



## Tang

I gave it a crack too.. nice file  I didn't even try to fix that light flare on the grooms face.



raw challenge by nrrfed, on Flickr


----------



## Whammy

I like the tones on Philosopher's edit. The choice of colors in the highlights and shadows work so well together and the subtle light really brings out the sun.

I also like Tang's high contrast, detailed edit. Plus the light wraps around them revealing more. Did you notice the crazy blue bit on the grooms right cuff. How did you manage that 

Here's my original edit. I went B&W. I think it's a mixture of both of your edits, just B&W


----------



## Tang

HOLY SHIT DUDE. Omg. 

I didn't even notice his sleeve! For shots without a ton of blues I like to bump up the blue saturation channel because it tends to add a bit of pop to shots. That being said, if there's any blue at all (like skies or his collar) it can get out of control real fast. 

I did say it was a quick edit!


----------



## Whammy

Philosopher, I tried your Selah file. I got tones that I really liked but I couldn't touch up the skin to look as natural as your edit.
Maybe it's lightroom not having as much flexibility as photoshop although I'm sure it's a case of the user being at error, not the tools  So yeah, I gave up on it because I need a lot more practice touching up skin.

This was great practice though  I'm just not going to show my end result


----------



## ThePhilosopher

It could be the tool, if you could open up my PSD file you'd see the method I use requires adjustment layers - I don't know if Lightroom does layers at all.


----------



## Whammy

No layers in lightroom. Looks like I need to start looking at photoshop again.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

You could use CS2 and get the results I do (if it would open the raw files).


----------



## Philligan

Hey Dave, here's the only photo I know I'm happy with at the moment.  There's another I think I'm going to like, but I haven't had a chance to look at it in Lightroom yet. Up until today, I've almost entirely shot jpgs, so I don't have a lot of raws at the moment. I'll try and get out shooting soon and post some more.

Anyone else who wants to, go nuts. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lzuivxr6fuoqyz2/DSCF1107.RAF?dl=0


----------



## Whammy

Thanks for that Phil 
I see what you mean with the shallow depth of field. Seems a little much for f4 on a crop sensor 

Arg none of my personal presets work on this RAW 

As it stands I don't actually like the Fuji RAW (I didn't think I'd be saying this haha). I know you are liking the change and that's awesome  But then again I never felt anything was wrong with my RAWs apart from the iso noise while you were not liking the canon RAWs in general.

I need to work on this file more to get a grip on the colors.


----------



## Whammy

My take on it


----------



## Philligan

I like it. 

I liked the Canon raws, I just think I like the Fujis more. I do like the Fujis a little more right off the bat, because I find they don't need as much work. I need to get out and shoot more, I've only taken a couple hundred shots or so. It's funny - between shooting the 70D for ten weddings or so, and shooting Nikon for one, and shooting this Fuji now, the camera definitely doesn't make the photographer. But there are a tonne of subtle little differences between cameras that can totally change the experience.


----------



## Nats

Here's a shot of one of my girls (the other wasn't cooperating). I already did an edit I liked but wanted to see another take on it. 

https://www.mediafire.com/?t5pblati6mhro57


----------



## ThePhilosopher

A little beauty macro RAW anyone?

Nats, my take - I kept it large in case you wanted to download it:


----------



## Philligan

I really need to participate in this more.  Here are those beard photos, as requested by the Philosopher.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4q36acrjcu7ewb5/AADRy_z1OXK2zMIVxnjl-YZHa?dl=0

And my take on them:



Josh by philbabbey, on Flickr



Josh by philbabbey, on Flickr


----------



## Joe Harvatt

Thought I'd give this a go on my lunch break. I went for a softer look.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

I didn't spend too long on these, but here's my take. The little boxes are from needing to convert to DNG before I could open the files.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Bumping this up with this shot; I'll post how I edited this image once someone gives it a go. It shouldn't need too much skin work so it's a little more Lightroom-friendly .


----------



## Whammy

Really nice composition on this photo. I really like it.

Also the Nikon file was so much easier to edit than my Canon files


----------



## Furtive Glance

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x88r5uhq3mtwfbm/IMG_9054.CR2?dl=0

No idea if this link will work but I tried, as per ThePhilosopher's request.


----------



## ThePhilosopher

It worked quite fine, my take.





And my edit of the image I posted:


----------



## ThePhilosopher

I took a very similar image to the one above and gave it a totally different treatment:





Here's a beauty macro shot for anyone interested in giving it a go: www.bartkophoto.com/Retouch/SSORaw/SSO_RAW_Ksenia_Macro_0023.NEF

Here's how I edited the image: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showpost.php?p=4666390&postcount=7174


----------



## JmCastor

Alright! First off, thank you guys for all of the tutelage and inspiration. Getting on here was no doubt one reason my photos got so much better in a short period of time (although they could still use work of course). 

All shooting was done with the D7100 and 85mm f1.8 AF nikkor lens and I'd like to see what you guys could do with the RAW files. I've made my own versions already but I'm interested to see the difference with someone who has been doing it a while! 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6w75atgfynu953/DSC_1712.NEF?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rar8d0n18w59a65/DSC_1729.NEF?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/usa2k58pvpfyn6h/DSC_1860.NEF?dl=0


----------



## ThePhilosopher

Honestly, none of those images really speak to me to spend more than about 10 minutes working on them (they all look like snapshots to me). Here's a quick edit I did for the first shot.


----------

