** Disclaimer - I'm JSO and I have a few questions. If these have been covered before, I apologize, please point me in the direction of the established threads. If some of these questions seem basic, please bare with me.

I am working now to really understand what goes into getting a good exposure, and getting the best exposure I can SOOC. I've already begun to see how much time one can spend pping photos, and I've decided I'd rather be shooting! I only allow myself to shoot in manual, as I think that's the best way to get experience. I've seen the beauty of the CWB, and the difference it can make in photos. In my practicing, I've also become aware, that when you are shooting subjects in situations that are constantly changing (ie. playing children, weddings, etc.) you can't always walk around with a gray card and ask your subject to pause and hold the card for you so you can reset your white balance.

Then I started investigating RAW. I learned that you have the opportunity to adjust your exposure and set white balance after the photos have been taken. I could see this as being beneficial, so I decided to try shooting in RAW. Now here's where the questions come in:

1.) I'm doing well on exposure, so I don't tweak that very much in my RAW software, but I'm having a heck of a time with white balance and skin tones. I just can't manually adjust white balance in the software and get good skin tone. Everyone seems to be green or red. Some subjects are better than others, because of their natural skin tone. I seem to have an easier time with kids than adults. When I adjust a white balance, I'm using the temperature slider for the light, and then I use the magenta/green slider for color casts. Right now the only way I can get the skintones to look good is after I process the RAW image and then bring the JPG into photoshop doing an "Adjust for skintone". But I think if I was doing the WB correctly in the RAW software that I wouldn't need to do this, right? How do I get better at adjusting WB in the RAW software? Should I take the same picture twice, once in JPG with a CWB, and once in RAW, and then practice adjusting the RAW until it looks like the JPG? Or is there a better way to get good at this?

2.) I understand that there is no in camera processing to a RAW image, so sometimes these can have some noise. I've noticed this. What do you do about the noise, and when do you do it in the pp workflow?

3.) I've noticed that the SOOC images sometimes look like they have a "fog" over them. Many of the before and after threads show this, so I know I'm not the only one who has this issue. People are defogging (which some say is bad for the image), and others are adjusting in curves, levels, etc. I have on occasion seen some SOOC images that are clear and don't have the fog. What causes the fog? Does it mean that you have an incorrect exposure? Is it just a contrast issue? How are these people getting non-foggy images SOOC? What do I need to work on to minimize the foggyness?

Thanks for your help. I just really want to understand the technical side to what I'm doing.

Erin

What RAW conversion software are you using?

I use Adobe Camera Raw and it has a pulldown menu just above the sliders that you can pull down and select options like tungsten, daylight,cloudy etc...
You click on the one that matches your shooting situation and 90% of the time that nails it (no sliding and going hmm little more to the left?), quick and easy.

I'm not 100% for sure what you are refering to as the fog (hopefully someone else can help you on this one) but my first thought is that it is a contrast issue that can be adjusted easily in curves or levels.

Hope that helps you some.

Ryan,

Thanks so much for your response. I have a Sony Alpha A100, and I'm using the raw software that came with the camera. I have PSE4.0 and the only Camera Raw 4 supports my raw format, which unfortunately it seems that Camera Raw 4 is only supported in PSE5.

I've tried using the presets, but those don't handle mixed light situations, right? Isn't that the point of why you would want to do a custom white balance in camera, because you have a mixed light situation? Often times, when I use the cloudy preset on a photo taken under cloudy situations, the subjects are still a little blue. Also, I was reading this thread regarding ambient light:

http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...showtopic=12654

Both of the photos in the original post were taken under the same lighting conditions, the subjects did not move where they we sitting, only the photographer moved. If I used the presets for white balance, I would use the same preset, because they were shot under the same conditions. But, when I look at these two photos, one is definitely warmer than the other, I just can't understand how the white balance needed would be the same. Am I missing the boat? Like I said in my original post, I think there is just something I'm missing in my thought process, and that's why I'm not "getting it."

First congrats on making the switch to RAW. Welcome to the winning side of the RAW vs. JPEG thread. I have been shooting RAW for several years now and will never shoot a JPEG again. I should first say I am not familiar with some of the acronyms you used like SOOC and pp but I will answer as best I can.

1. I have not had trouble with skin tones. I use Adobe camera raw, I have found that by using holding a card at arms length in front of the camera I can get the ambient temp. of the room pretty well. I also make use of the drop down menu to balance for sunlight, shade, etc.

2. "Noise" is something I will never understand. When did film grain become "noise"? I have never taken a single grain of "noise" out of my images. I think as a group we need to ban this word from our vocabulary. Film grain can be a good thing, it adds mood and texture. I am pretty sure that shooting raw reduces the normal jpeg artifacts that you would expect to have in any photo.

3. In my experience the fog is caused by extreme backlighting. It's basically a big lens flair.

Carl,

Thanks for your response. I apologize for all the acronyms.

SOOC - straight out of the camera
WB - white balance
CWB - custom white balance
PP - post process

I really like white balancing off a gray card, but right now I have one that's 8.5x11, and not real convenient. I guess I should consider investing in a small set that would fit in my pocket.

I've thought about it quite a bit today, and I'm going to experiment more with the preset settings. Even if they aren't perfect, they might get me closer than just experimenting with sliders.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

Erin:)

Erin, you won't always get what you want by moving the basic sliders in ACR. There are times when you will have a colour cast that just won't be removable without further tweaking. For instance, say you have someone lying on the grass in the sun. The shadow areas will be green-tinged, but where the sun hits them won't be. You can also get this sort of problem with different lights inside. And you can get it when mixing flash with almost any other kind of light.

In the thread you linked to I didn't see anything to say whether or not the camera was set to AWB or a custom one. If it was on auto then it's not a good comparison for white balance purposes. Of course, things are cooler in the shade, but that's life. If you shoot with a preset white balance then all the shots in similar lighting will look similar with the same tweaking in ACR.

Adobe Lightroom. In my option it is a must have if you are going to be processing any significant amounts of RAW files. It cut my processing time in half from using Canon's software, and I find I can do a better job with it as apposed to Adobe Camera Raw.