MGA 8025 on 251, and the joys of RAW

[E.M. Bell]

By the time NS 251 got down to our area on Tuesday, it was pretty much
dark.. Still light in the sky, but not enough to help.  We had headed
out after supper and drove over to Burgin to see what we could get, and
watch the sun go away before they got close. I decided to wait it out
anyway, and grabbed a couple of shots just for the heck of it, and they
came out pretty much as I expected...pure crap.

I played around with one of them this evening in my RAW editor and then
photoshop for the heck of it, and came up with what you see attached
here. I had the Canon maxed out at 3200 iso, F4 at 100 hand held. I
probably could have gotten a little more light, but didn't dare go any
lower on shutter speed with a 60mph train.. After jacking up the levels
in Raw, then unsharp mask and messing around with the shadows and
highlights in PS (and then a healthy amount of noise reduction with Neat
Image), I came up with the finished product.

I doubt this one will ever go to Pbase, or anywhere else, but even after
shooting in RAW for about 5 years now, I am still amazed at what you can
do with it. Sure wish we had such things years ago when I was still
shooting slides! At least we where only 10 miles from home....

Here is a before (straight from the camera and just cropped and sized)
and the after.

NS 251 at Burgin KY 07/24/12   2054 hours

Straight from the camera...just cropped a bit a file size reduced.


and after a little work...still not much, but better..

[Backyard]

  Awesome improvement!

[butch]

It just needs a Death Star on the horizion...   

[NSMoWandS]

Still cleaned up nice EM. There was an article a while back about two guys who made a "tera-pixel" camera. Imagine what you can do with that? Dan

[Backyard]

  I'd settle for Polaris, the Northern Star...

Anyway...

And...

So...

Great Work Mr. Bell!

[T. Mahan]

It definitely needs more Death Star  ;D 

I am a believer in RAW (CR2).  I have salvaged some bad pics and made them good, gives me a little more confidence to shoot full manual rather than timing priority.  If I blow the exposure of a shot, nothing I can't fix in PSE!  Just wish I started shooting RAW earlier!