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Blacks/shaddows has no detail


Harvey

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Hi,

Please help mw with this recurring problem.  Blacks appear flat with no detail, shadows grainy. 

Both images at 100 ISO, in RAW, one octobox 200watt lowest setting. Used a light meter said to set to F2.2

Close up, light was 3 feet away and was shot at 2.8, the portrait light was further back - probably 5 feet.

Question is - why does it do this? (has happened before shooting on white, with a baby with black hair and aperture of 5.6)

Another question, how best to fix it.  I have LR4 and CS2.

many thanks in advance.

untitled-6232.jpg

untitled-6223.jpg

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Don't even ask me about the WB!  Here are some sooc shots,  I think dad was stood in the way of the light and I had put it down to that.  I only included one in the final gallery, because mum had seen the jpeg version in the back of the camera and really liked it.  now she has it as her cover photo (cringe)

Originals-181.jpg

 

 

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opps, don't know why 3 of same image.  i'm trying to send you the version where his hair looks purple, says only allowed to upload so much

 

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not sure what you mean by raw editing, I am new to shooting in raw, I do my main edits in LR and only do skin and blanket work in PS. 

I have cropped a few images to 700 px. 

one is the proof of above image.

one is the purple hair one, with levels and curves adj in PS, no other work on it at the moment as it was a reject.  thank you for looking into this for me, I defo need some of your courses. I know this.

proof-21 copy.jpg

Originals-175 copy.jpg

proof-21.jpg

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Thank you for you advice.  I only have noise removal sliders in LR4 and have tried what you have suggested, but to me the problem looks the same.  I can not put my finger on it why this is happening.  this problem has been occurring since I switched to studio lighting and shooting in quality of RAW and Jpeg in camera.  I don't have a good camera it's a canon 600D, the lights are elinchrom d lite 200. 

 

NR1.jpg

NR2.jpg

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Many thanks for looking into this, have named the files with the noise removal respectively.  Only other edit done was upped exposure by +0.48 

NR 39 C 49.jpg

NR 89 C 95.jpg

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I see absolutely nothing out of the ordinary here.  This is perfect.

On 9/3/2016 at 5:48 AM, Harvey said:

Please help mw with this recurring problem.  Blacks appear flat with no detail, shadows grainy.

No they don't.  If you're seeing it like that, I suspect it's a problem with your screen, or lack of calibration.

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Ahhh, lightbulb moment. 

I have a IPS monitior, the guy in the shop says as long as prints are appearing true to colour there is no need to calibrate.  I guess this an untrue statement?

It's first on my things to buy as possibly I am seeing things that aren't there. I  have looked into the spyder pro ones, would you recommend this?

Many thanks for your advice.

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Thanks for your help.  Calibrating helped - the brightness was too high on my monitor,  I checked images on my sisters mac and they looked fine.  Now my monitor has a green/yellow tinge to the top right side.  It's only 2 and half years old but think it would be cheaper to buy a new one rather than repair. 

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