[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I'm always interested to see the approach that other people take, so if you (or anyone else) would like to have a go at developing the RAW file, I would love to see how somebody else might handle it. I've never had any training in Photoshop and have only been using it for a couple years just to develop my own images, so any suggestions or tips are always welcome.

I am not that big on post processing actually - I only do basic stuff and I use gimp, not Photoshop. I process the RAW image using Pentax's software.

Here are my observations:

- white balance was not set for the scene - I selected tungsten, which seemed to be the closest - you should really set custom white balance for the room lighting - it also took me a while to learn this habit, but now I set the WB for each room before I shoot and it makes my life much easier
- looking at the histogram, it is all bundled to the left, so this was indeed underexposed - you could have overexposed by 1 stop without clipping anything, so I bumped exposure by 1EV

The above two steps were done in PDCU and I exported to JPEG. Now in gimp:

- I applied a curve to brighten it a bit more and increase contrast. A simple S curve would also do, but I went a bit fancier and added a couple extra points. Basically, I followed the steps I normally follow for processing JPEGs - they are described here.

I am attaching the result of these steps:

Attached Images

 

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Had to cut my message short because of my kid's evening bath - here are a couple more comments:

- I expect that the light spots on the pajamas are white - I couldn't get them to look white because of the WB issue.
- I am not familiar with the hair color, so the result may be a bit off - I recognize that hair color though

Let me know what you think.

[geekkt]

I played around a bit during midday and bumped the ISO higher than I'm used to doing, and higher than I really needed to, and I was happier with the results. I do think a new lens is in order, though I haven't decided which, because I think something wider is going to be helpful indoors.

ISO 800 f/2.2 1/250



ISO 1600 f/1.4 1/4000 I had focused on his face and missed it slightly here, I think he leaned. I didn't have much room to back up any further to take this.



Continued practice is in order.

ETA: particularly in some lower light to actually test this out.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I just uploaded here a set of shots I took with the Cosina 55/1.2 at a local concert. All wide open at ISO 800-1600.

[Frogfish]

I just uploaded here a set of shots I took with the Cosina 55/1.2 at a local concert. All wide open at ISO 800-1600.

Cool shot LC. I actually bought this lens for it's OOF rendering but sent it back as it was damaged (unable to focus - possibly a loose element). Still looking at the Porst ($200) as an alternative.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Cool shot LC.

Thanks!

Still looking at the Porst ($200) as an alternative.

Have a look at this post by Miserere - the Cosina seems to be actually made by Tomioka, with the Porst being made by Cosina Given that the Porst is reputed to be softer wide open, the Cosina/Revuenon might be better suited for general use.

[Frogfish]

Thanks!

Have a look at this post by Miserere - the Cosina seems to be actually made by Tomioka, with the Porst being made by Cosina Given that the Porst is reputed to be softer wide open, the Cosina/Revuenon might be better suited for general use.

Thanks for the link/tip !