Everyone has probably experienced looking at the preview screen after shooting, and thought that was not how they envisioned it. At the times when you think, ‘It should have been brighter’, or ‘it might look better with less saturation’, in-camera RAW image post-processing enables you to respond to them on the spot and improve your pictures. Even with mistakes, such as in exposure, you can take comfort knowing that they can be corrected to a certain extent. The advantage of RAW image post-processing is that you can use it to tweak the way a photo looks, by making the colours more vivid for social media, or changing it to monochrome for postcard use.
1. Press the [Playback] button and select a RAW image for post-processing.
2. Press the [Set] button, select [RAW JPEG], then [Customize RAW processing], and press the [Set] button.
3. Select the effects to adjust each one of them.
5. Select [OK] to save.
In the following, we will introduce techniques you can use to improve your photos with RAW image post-processing.
To give more of a yellow tone to the picture, I shot with the white balance set to ‘Cloudy’. However, this was not enough as the image still retained cool tones overall, so I turned up the colour temperature using the White Balance settings. I got the warmth I envisioned at 8700K.
Besides changing the white balance settings, I also set the Auto Lighting Optimizer to ‘Standard’ to adjust the level of brightness and contrast.
Due to overexposure, the green tone in my first picture (Before) seemed washed out. I wanted to emphasise the beauty of the green leaves.
I set the Brightness Adjustment to ‘-2/3’, and changed the Picture Style effect from ‘Landscape’ to ‘Portrait’. In the detailed settings under ‘Info’ which allows you to customize Picture Syle parameters, I also set the Contrast to ‘-2’ and Color tone to ‘+3’.
I wanted to give the picture of the dinosaur fossil a rugged, unusual look so that I could use it with a postcard, and therefore decided to give it a stark monochrome finish.
I set the Picture Style to ‘Monochrome’, then changed the Strength, Fineness, and Threshold settings for sharpness to ‘4’. Also, I raised the Contrast to ‘4’, and chose ‘Ye:Yellow’ under Filter effect. To create a grainy,raw effect, I set the High ISO speed Noise Reduction to ‘Disable’.
This was an image where I wished I had captured the old-style store front with a more retro ambience. I wanted to use a lower saturation to make it look as if it was a frame from a movie.
The Picture Style was ‘Auto’. In the Picture Style detailed settings menu, I changed the Saturation to ‘-2’, and then lowered the Contrast to ‘-4’. Setting the white balance to ‘Cloudy’ adds a yellow tinge to the image and gives a nostalgic feel.
Born in 1983 in Osaka. Photographer. Actively involved in magazine and advertising photography, book writing, photography workshops and so on.