Crosswalk No. 48

Crosswalk No. 48
Crosswalk No. 48

This was severely underexposed.  I almost cannot believe I salvaged this from the unprocessed Raw image.  There was a lot of noise, but Topaz DeNoise 5 really worked, although you can see some of the loss of detail in people’s faces.

UPDATE: I decided to add a copy of the image as it appears straight from Raw conversion with no other edits or adjustments to show how underexposed it was:

Unedited Image

The transformation was done completely in Aperture, basically by increasing the exposure and moving the Shadows slider all the way to the right.

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This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Jim Denham

    7 Sep 2010

    There’s an awful lot of face work going on here. Look at the expressions! Great stuff Mark!

  2. Bob Lussier

    7 Sep 2010

    Nice save! I love the effect of the final image. Agree with Jim. Lots of captivating expressions. Makes you wonder what’s going on outside the frame.

  3. James Howe

    7 Sep 2010

    Impressive recovery from the underexposed file. Looks great in black and white.

  4. mark

    7 Sep 2010

    Thanks guys.

  5. Dave Wilson

    8 Sep 2010

    This is a great example of how much you can push and pull a raw file. One of the most impressive things I’ve noticed since moving from the D90 to the D700 is just how much more ability I have to recover under- and over-exposed images. Despite the fact that both cameras have sensors with the same nominal dynamic range, I get about a stop better latitude on the D700 raw files compared to the D90 – pushing or pulling the exposure up to 2 stops on the D700 files leaves me with great results but shows pretty nasty artifacts on the D90 files.

    1. mark

      8 Sep 2010

      Dave makes an important point that this is an instance in which equipment can make a difference. Some cameras won’t have this much range. Still, no matter your kit, push it as far as the range allows.

  7. Chris Stern

    11 Sep 2010

    In my last past, I gave the following tip: “Next time, you look at the photos in your catalog don’t be quick to discard it as you can turn an ok photo into a great photo solely by using the tools you have on your computer.” The image was darker than I had hoped for but with LR and Color Efex Pro I was able to salvage an ok image to a great image in my opinion.

    I really enjoy our B&W photos as it is my favorite medium as you can tell from my blog. Keep up the great work.

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