Before and After the Engineers

The RAW truth

Removing some of the mystery

Made similar photos to this a couple of times but never used it for anything important. Same light. Different angle, weather, and purpose.

Shot with two cameras. The Sony ZV-1 and Nikon Z50. Both aperture-priority auto-exposure, the setting I use for almost everything. That’s another discussion.

Shot in RAW on both cameras to give better details and tones in both highlights and shadows but the dynamic range didn’t have the same aesthetics of the experience of a cold, windy day with people wrapping themselves in their coats, leaning into the wind, and having brief conversations before heading to their vehicles.

I used Photoshop to grab the background in Adobe Camera Raw, darkened it, and toned it more blue to match the mood of the day. The look is much preferred to camera manufacturers and Adobe software engineers’ versions of what the scene should look like.

The engineered software balances color and tone to an even setting, especially on a cloudy day when the sky is a giant softbox creating few shadows.

The photo above is one of the photos I edited. Shot with the Z50 at 30mm, f4. Below is the unedited version.

The photo below is from the ZV-1. Same tones and colors but the depth of field at 60mm, f2.8 is too shallow to give form to the background. That’s why I chose to publish the Z50 photo.

PhotoCamp Daily

• YouTube has changed its mind. Again. Don’t get angry. Wait. Count to seven. OK. Now you can swear.

There’s more like this in the PhotoCamp Daily Newsletter. Please read it and subscribe for more information to make you a better-informed photographer.