Post-Processing to improve Wet Weather/Rainy Day shots

[bellevivre]

while we all know that cloud cover can serve as a giant light diffuser to soften shadows, it also tends to leave us with rather dull pictures. This coming weekend- opening weekend of TRF, is going to be a wet and nasty one- any suggestions for my post processing?

I use Gimp, typically...

[DeadBishop]

You could try adjusting the contrast, color saturation, or just playing with the curves to adjust the overall look of the image.  I try not to make too much of a change since it starts to affect the quality at some point.  Mainly if you are nailing your exposures correctly, you should get good results without the need for too much adjustment.

[Jon Foster]

Kat, didn't you get a new camera recently? A decent Canon or Nikon body? If so, or if not, does your camera have the ability to shoot in RAW? If it does, your best bet is to shoot in RAW (not jpg) and get the exposures as good as possible. Then later you can set white balance if it's needed and play with the levels and curves to give them a little pop. If you are shooting with a Canon body you should have most of the software needed on the CD's that came with the camera. DPP is the program you are looking for with Canon's. I'm not sure about Nikon software but I know there are Nikon shooters here too. Hopefully they will see this thread too...

The only problem with doing large amounts of post processing on pictures is the time it takes sitting at a computer. Gimp works pretty well as a free alternative to Photoshop. Lightroom is picking up a good following of users too. You can adjust one picture in a set (like a whole day of shooting in the rain) and then have Lightroom adjust all the other pictures with the same settings as the first picture. Saves a ton of time and works very well.

Jon.

[bellevivre]

Not quite up to a true DSLR- it's the Canon SX10 IS... doesnt do RAW, though the new SX20 does, so I'm limited by what i can do.

Honestly, while this Canon's great for me as I am learning about photography, I'm also learning that i think they've maxed the 'superzoom' range- there's no point in having a 20x optical zoom if you dont have a remote shutter release! lol but that's just my big complaint.


With this camera, specifically, though, it tends to pick up grain in low-light situations- I have full manual control so i can try to work around that, but without having the RAW option, my best bet is to GIMP things back to life, as it were.

[Jon Foster]

I don't know too much about the SX10 IS. But in general the same rules apply. Get the best shot you can to start off with. Then later pick the best shots and do some work to see if you can get some pop out of them.

Jon.

[Lazuras]

One thing that can really improve your hue/saturation is to use a custom white balance whenever you change situations - the custom white balance is going to give you the truest colours to start with. I'm not sure if your camera has that option, but you may want to look into it.

[Melkar]

I had an S2 IS (predecessor to the SX 10 IS), loved that camera.

For my taste, (and it is subjective) I'd set the white balance "cloudy" to warm up the skin tones.  Move the ISO to 400 (yes there will be grain at 100% magnification, but when you shrink that down to web size, e.g. 700 pixels on the long end, the noise "falls out" quite a bit.  

If you want to be more conservative, set ISO to 200.   Problem is the lower you set the ISO, the bigger the chance you'll have camera shake making the photos blurry.   With a super-zoom like that IS can only do so much.  As Scotty would say "I canna change the laws of physics!"    In fact, later in the evening at TRF ISO 400 is going to be too low, you'll need to raise it to 800 (or 1600) depending on how rainy and dark it gets.  Been there, done that.  Got wet.  

Also use that pop-up flash with negative 1 stop flash exposure compensation and see how you like that.  The touch of flash will add in the catchlights and tend to lessen the bags under  the eyes that the cloudy day will bring out.  And take about 3-4 sets of charged AA rechargeable batteries, using flash and taking lots of photos will drain those puppies pretty fast.

And give me a holler if you see me!  I'll be out there all opening weekend shooting as well!
Old site: http://www.pbase.com/vstrick
Moving to: http://vstrick.smugmug.com/

[bellevivre]

Awesome Melkar, thanks!!! I'll definitely try out those settings...

[Xanthenes The Unbalanced]

while we all know that cloud cover can serve as a giant light diffuser to soften shadows, it also tends to leave us with rather dull pictures. This coming weekend- opening weekend of TRF, is going to be a wet and nasty one- any suggestions for my post processing?

I use Gimp, typically...

A few suggestions.

1.  A polarizer.  Specifically, to pop what little sky there is. 

2.  A flash, preferably diffused.  As Melkar suggested, subtlety with a flash is always preferable to overkill with a flash.

Good suggestion, too, on the ISO.  Smaller sensor, less light, slower shutter speed.  If you're shooting portraits on a short lens, it's not going to be as big a deal.  If you're shooting a joust with your lens extended, you'll want a shutter speed north of 1/500, so cranking that ISO up on an overcast day is the only way to get there.