Fuji Lattitude of Fuji JPEG files

tonyturley

Legend
Location
Scott Depot, WV, USA
Name
Tony
I normally record both a JPEG and RAW file, in case I need to recover shadows when there's a wide dynamic range. I decided to try an experiment to see how much I could recover from a JPEG file. In the original, taken very early on a foggy morning, you can see that I exposed for the creek and its highlights, leaving my bike and the foreground in deep shadow. I used HDR Efex Pro 2 on the JPEG, and #2 is what resulted. Not bad. Thoughts?

DSCF7931.JPG


DSCF7931.JPG
 
Excellent, but perhaps like you, I have an intense HDR addiction. :popcorm2:
But that was a notable recovery you demonstrated as far as light.
I run from raw+JPEG mode.

I process often in Lightroom if I am trying to adjust or recover.
Then typically head off to Photoshop, Sagelight or PhotoMatix.

The root-message of your findings are true, one can recover some notable material from RAWs.

Again, I like the pic a lot.
 
I don't know if you run a Mac but if so, LUMINAR recovered your jpeg expertly. Its fast becoming my go to software.
 
Tony - Nice post processing of that image. (Nice bike too. ;-))
Since I started shooting with Fuji X series cameras I seldom use RAW. I've found with shadow recovery, (as well as highlight recovery), of JPEGS in Lightroom works exceptionally well. Most all of the images I post here as well as on the Serious Compacts forum were done this way.
To be honest, prior to moving to Fujis most everything I did was in RAW.
. . . David
 
Thanks David. If you haven't seen my thread, I scratch built the bike from parts I sourced from various vendors. First time I ever tried such a thing, and it rides great! I like to put my camera in a small bag and strap it to the handlebars . . . has worked great so far.
 
Interesting to see that HDR Efex could do that. I had a vacation photo with somewhat of the same problem. I took this shot of the entrance to the Souk in Casablanca, Morocco in the middle of the day. I focused on and metered the stonework below the two windows on the far side of the shopping area. All of the shadows before the courtyard were dark and like your bike, I could not see the motorcycles on the right. But I imported the RAW file into OnOne Photo RAW's develop module and applied some negative exposure compensation overall to bring out some lost shadows in the shopping area. Then I used the local adjustments tab and applied a mask to everything before the shopping area except the roadway and applied positive exposure compensation to bring out shadow details. OnOne applied it's standard color pallet and I exported a jpeg into HDR Efex and tried different presets until I found the one that gave this look, including fading out the colors.
The Souk, Casablanca.JPG
 
I've used HDR Efex Pro on several other pics with deep shadow areas. Does a great job of bringing out the details without looking "cooked". One just has to experiment a bit with the settings to ensure a more natural look.
 
I normally record both a JPEG and RAW file, in case I need to recover shadows when there's a wide dynamic range. I decided to try an experiment to see how much I could recover from a JPEG file. In the original, taken very early on a foggy morning, you can see that I exposed for the creek and its highlights, leaving my bike and the foreground in deep shadow. I used HDR Efex Pro 2 on the JPEG, and #2 is what resulted. Not bad. Thoughts?

View attachment 29862

View attachment 29864

Brilliant Tony . . I shoot JPEG only and recover lots of forest hiking scenes like this . . very easy and effective. Nice job and great demonstration!
 
Back
Top