DPP-Part 2; Exercise 1

 

Exercise; Sensor linear capture

For this exercise, I have to choose any TIFF or JPEG and generate a ‘curve’ in Photoshop which will show what the image looks like, before the ‘in camera’ processing is applied.

I have chosen an image with ‘Dynamic Range’, which means the image has a tonal range at opposite ends of the tonal scale on the histogram….an image that has dark and light areas.

First image;

Firstly, this is my original image with the histogram; I have changed the image to 16 bits per channel, as I will be making some strong adjustments, it is better to have it on this channel as 8 bit may create some banding.

 

Second image;

I have now done a ‘curve’ that will demon straight how the image would have looked, when it was captured and before the ‘in camera’ processor adjusted it.

This is the curve that I implemented in to the image to get the following result below;

 

 

By creating this curve the image has changed drastically, the colours are more vivid, or turned completely, so much so, they almost look black, where as the highlights are more defined, with a lot more detail. The histogram, as you can see, has moved over to the left, which is directed more in the darker tonal ranges of the image.

 

Third image;

The next ‘curve’ was adjusted on the 1^st curve image; I took that amended image and adjusted the curve to go in the opposite direction, to make the image as close to the original image.

This is the curve that I implemented in to the image to get the following result below;

This is as close as I could get the image back to normal, without it looking washed out, there is still a bit of difference, the colours seem richer and the histogram is only slightly different.

If the original image was too dark to begin with, then this is the curve I would use for any correction that I need to make on the image.

As the information states, the main problem with this post production process is, that ‘noise’ in the shadow areas are more prevalent, on magnifying the image, I can see the noise level differs from the original image. I found this exercise extremely helpful for my post production work; however, I would like to get it right in the first place!.