[Rawstudio-users] Pentax PEF file and constrast

[Laurent Meunier]

On Tue, 2008-06-24 at 13:11 -0700, Bob Dundon wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-06-24 at 18:45 +0200, Laurent Meunier wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> > Does someone know why all my photos lack of contrast?
> 
> I think it is just matter of setting the black & white points with a
> curve, then playing with applying an "S" to the curve.
> 
> I took your Raw file and played with it a bit. I'm far from an expert at
> this, but here is the result from a quick setting of the end points and
> a quick S to the curve:
> 
> After adjusted curve in Rawstudio: 
> 
> http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0611pefhd6.jpg
> 
> Screenie of Rawstudio settings:
> 
> http://img365.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotrawstudiohomeqe5.png
> 
> What steps I used - 1) Right click on line in Curve window, select to
> "Auto adjust curve ends"; 2) Left click (and hold) on the curve line at
> a point, you can then drag that point. The screenshot image gives you an
> idea of what points I selected to adjust the curve.
> 
> IMHO, just auto setting the black & white points on the curve makes a
> better looking image than bumping the contrast to 1,20 in Rawstudio. But
> that could certainly just be a matter of individual preference. :)
> 
> I'm sure you or others could do better, but I think the image I adjusted
> looks better than either the dcraw or ufraw images you posted. The dcraw
> image I am seeing is too yellow for my taste, the ufraw image too dark.
> 
> To be fair, you should be able to make the same curve adjustments in
> ufraw.
> 
> Hope this is of some help Laurent.
> 
> Bob
> 

Hi Bob,

Yes, this helps me ! Thanks for trying with the S-curve. I never used
this tools before, and I will now try to use it more :)

But my problem is not isolated to this photo, I must set the black &
white points (or bump contrast) for each photos. Maybe I am doing
something wrong with my camera settings. Or maybe it is normal to set
the black & white points for each photos. I'm a bit lost, photography is
new to me.

This is certainly off-topic, but do you know if my camera settings are
wrong for this photo? The photo seems under-exposed, could this be the
reason of my problem?

-- 
Laurent Meunier <laurent at deltalima.net>