Why is the RAW photo opening in such bad condition?

[Manfred M]

Here's the link to the RAW file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6h...ew?usp=sharing

Thanks for the link. Remember that the raw data is the data that your camera has collected with no processing so that lets us understand a lot.

The metadata shows you were shooting with a Nikon D3200 with the kit 18-55mm lens at a focal length of 55mm at ISO 100 at f/10. The date and time stamp tell me (if your camera's clock and calendar were correctly set that you took the picture on October 27, 2015 at 14:03.

Your camera was set to manual; i.e. you had to tell it what shutter speed and aperture was required for that ISO setting instead of letting the camera's on-board computer / integrated light meter do that for you. The result is what you see.

The problem with this raw file is that it is so badly overexposed that recovering a decent image is going to be impossible. The highlights are clipped, so there is nothing to recover. No amount of work in Lightroom is going to recover this image, because the data not there.

I was at the Taj Mahal just about one year earlier than you, and when I look at my shot; I took a picture at ISO 200 at f/7.1 at a shutter speed of 1/320th sec. I shot before 08:00 so it wouldn't have been quite as bright out; this confirms to me that your exposure was off quite badly, and you have an unusable image.

This is about as much as I can recover.




Before you get too much into Lightoom and post-processing, you need to get a properly exposed image first.




A raw file with a histogram that looks like this is NOT a good sign...

[xpatUSA]

The Auto button changes a whole lot of things! That's why the sliders aren't all at zero. It's basically Lightroom's best guess, and with a challenging image like this it's likely a bad one. (Personally, I find it of no practical help, but others differ.)

Dave

+1 to that - I never use auto-anything

[Black Pearl]

Here's the link to the RAW file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6h...ew?usp=sharing

God almighty!!!!

That is one seriously over exposed shot and one you don't have a hope in hell of getting anything useful from it. I tried as Manfred did and his is about the same as I managed which is to say of no use to you.

Mark it down to inexperience and move on.
Take you camera OFF manual exposure until you read the intrusions and get a little more understanding of exposure.
Learn to use your meter and the histogram your camera provides.
get the above sorted and book another trip to try again.

[xpatUSA]

Thanks for the link. Remember that the raw data is the data that your camera has collected with no processing so that lets us understand a lot.

The metadata shows you were shooting with a Nikon D3200 with the kit 18-55mm lens at a focal length of 55mm at ISO 100 at f/10. The date and time stamp tell me (if your camera's clock and calendar were correctly set that you took the picture on October 27, 2015 at 14:03.

Your camera was set to manual; i.e. you had to tell it what shutter speed and aperture was required for that ISO setting instead of letting the camera's on-board computer / integrated light meter do that for you. The result is what you see.

The problem with this raw file is that it is so badly overexposed that recovering a decent image is going to be impossible. The highlights are clipped, so there is nothing to recover. No amount of work in Lightroom is going to recover this image, because the data not there.

I was at the Taj Mahal just about one year earlier than you, and when I look at my shot; I took a picture at ISO 200 at f/7.1 at a shutter speed of 1/320th sec. I shot before 08:00 so it wouldn't have been quite as bright out; this confirms to me that your exposure was off quite badly, and you have an unusable image.

This is about as much as I can recover.




Before you get too much into Lightoom and post-processing, you need to get a properly exposed image first.




A raw file with a histogram that looks like this is NOT a good sign...

Thanks, Manfred. I'll add some tech stuff . . . .

Here's the raw histogram from RawDigger:



The big spikes at right are what tell the tale; all channels are blown. Because I selected a log scale for the vertical axis, the histogram looks much better that it really is - so pay attention to the numbers on the y-axes at left.

It is interesting that the two green channels "brick wall" at lower levels than the red or blue . . .

Sad to say, I agree with Manfred that the highlights on the building frontage are not recoverable.

In RawDigger, the best-looking channel was the red and here is the best I got from that with a quick play in FastStone Viewer:




Manfred's recovery work is a masterpiece of PP, if I may say so

[dje]

Hi "edithelp", I suggest you use Aperture Priority mode rather than Manual for general shooting, at least until you have more experience. This should avoid gross over-exposure as in your example. You just select a suitable aperture value for the Depth of Field you want (see the tutorials on this site for Depth of Filed info), and the camera sorts out the metering for you. For your TM shot, the f stop value of 10 used would have been fine.

Don't despair, you'll get there!

Dave

PS You do need to keep an eye on the shutter speed the camera selects for you to make sure it is fast enough for the situation you have. You may need to bump up ISO sometimes (or use Auto ISO) to get a sufficiently fast shutter speed.

[rpcrowe]

Before every camera had built-in exposure meters and even before most photographers owned hand-held exposure meters, we would work with the rule of Sunny Sixteen. That is, correct exposure would generally be the the shutter speed as the reciprocal of your ISO at an aperture of f/16 for normal subjects in bright conditions.

It is still a handy thing to work with since if your exposures are too far off this chart, you know that you will not be getting correct exposure and you should modify that exposure...



OTOH: most badly exposed images that are posted for critique on CiC result from improper use of the manual settings. Today's cameras on full-auto really do a pretty darn good job of exposing AND if you want to ensure that you will have correct exposure; place your camera in programmed exposure mode with your ISO somewhere in the area of 100 to 200 for normally bright conditions raising the ISO in darker conditions or when you need to maintain a very fast shutter speed (such as in shooting sports) AND select Auto Exposure Bracketing at 1 stop intervals. That way you will get 1 shot at the camera's meter reading and one shot each above and below that reading. I can pretty well guarantee that one of the three shots will be right on the money...

The advantage with the "P" mode is that 1. you can adjust the f/stop and shutter speed and 2. the camera's brain will usually try to select the best hand-holdable shutter speed.

An advantage of AEB is that you will not only get at least one dead-on exposure but, you will be able to graphically see the results of over-riding the camera's meter which we frequently need to do in extreme light or extreme dark conditions.

After gaining experience using the P mode and AEB, many photographers (including me) opt to do most of their shooting in aperture priority or shutter priority exposure modes.

[edithelp]

Thanks for the link. Remember that the raw data is the data that your camera has collected with no processing so that lets us understand a lot.

The metadata shows you were shooting with a Nikon D3200 with the kit 18-55mm lens at a focal length of 55mm at ISO 100 at f/10. The date and time stamp tell me (if your camera's clock and calendar were correctly set that you took the picture on October 27, 2015 at 14:03.

Your camera was set to manual; i.e. you had to tell it what shutter speed and aperture was required for that ISO setting instead of letting the camera's on-board computer / integrated light meter do that for you. The result is what you see.

The problem with this raw file is that it is so badly overexposed that recovering a decent image is going to be impossible. The highlights are clipped, so there is nothing to recover. No amount of work in Lightroom is going to recover this image, because the data not there.

I was at the Taj Mahal just about one year earlier than you, and when I look at my shot; I took a picture at ISO 200 at f/7.1 at a shutter speed of 1/320th sec. I shot before 08:00 so it wouldn't have been quite as bright out; this confirms to me that your exposure was off quite badly, and you have an unusable image.

This is about as much as I can recover.




Before you get too much into Lightoom and post-processing, you need to get a properly exposed image first.




A raw file with a histogram that looks like this is NOT a good sign...

Thank you for such great indepth understanding of the photo and information you have provided me. The best recovery of the photo is coming out to be the same. I regret not checking the shutter speed at the time I captured the photos. I have gained experience and lifetime mistake to learn from.

And I also appreciate everyone in here sorting and helping me understand the key things to keep in mind when shooting.

Thanks really a lot. Means too much!