Closing out the Halloween photos, this year's family jack-o-lanterns.

The technique I used for processing most of the later ones was a little unusual: I used Adobe Camera Raw (as I usually do, in part for its richer color and better shadow detail) but overlaid with the results of converting the same files with Canon's software, using a mask so that the Canon part was visible only in the overexposed highlights. Adobe was making those parts too solidly yellow, while Canon left more detail visible and used a softer white-yellow that I liked better. I've been overlaying two versions of the same photo reasonably often before, typically with greatly differing exposure compensation levels, to preserve highlight color and detail while correctly exposing the rest, but I think this is the first time I've done it with versions converted at the same exposure by two different pieces of software.




Comments:

geomblog:
2005-11-10T16:40:08Z
What canon software is this ? is it a free download ? I have the older Canon Rebel (the one that came out 2 years ago), and don't have the latest version of photoshop (that can take RAW format files).
11011110:
2005-11-10T19:05:48Z
File Viewer Utility. It came with the camera (mine's a D60, even older than your Rebel); I think it must at least have been upgradable online because the version I'm running now is native for OS X and I don't think it was that way originally. In general I'm much happier with Adobe Camera Raw than FVU: the user interface is much nicer, it's a lot easier and more reproducable to set the white balance, it gives me more control of contrast etc, it doesn't screw up the purples the way FVU does, it's much faster, and as I said in the post it gives generally richer colors and better shadow detail. But FVU does seem to do better than ACR with yellowy orange colors; not just the candlelight in these pictures, but also pumpkins in sunlight. I'm still using Photoshop 7, but bought Camera Raw as an add-on. Don't know if you can still do that now that current Photoshops have it included.
geomblog:
2005-11-10T19:09:34Z
I see. I don't know what FVU is. You are right that you can't buy the RAW plugin any more; i checked that. picasa on windows oddly enough can read the RAW format. I'll see if i can find the canon software
11011110:
2005-11-11T01:59:43Z
I don't know what FVU is. Canon keep changing the names of their software. It may be the same thing as ZoomBrowser or Image Browser.