I wanted to interject a few more UFRaw* adjustments into my Workflow Series. I’ve discovered three more things I wanted to share with you before we move on to GIMP.
UFRaw Tutorial
1. Exposure
First, I wanted to show you two options in the exposure section that will make quite a bit of difference in your photos, depending upon which one you choose.
Choosing the ‘microchip’ icon will clip your highlights.
Choosing the ‘film’ icon will result a softer handling of highlights.
For a side by side comparison, notice the histogram and the image with each selection…
Notice that this image, with the ‘microchip’ icon chosen, is much harsher. The histogram is bumped up against the right side. It is overexposed: 1.4% red 2.4% green and underexposed: 0.9% blue with the auto gears chosen.
Notice that this image, with the ‘film’ icon chosen, is much softer, even though the exposure is the same. The histogram is not bumped up against the right, in fact, it is in the middle. It is underexposed: 0.9% blue with the auto gears chosen.
2. White balance
Second, I learned a way to manually change your white balance by picking a white spot. It is not inherently obvious how this function works, so I thought I’d explain it here (using an image with a clear area that should be white).
Here is the image with the white balance that I had set in the camera…
To set the white balance to a specific white spot… first, take the mouse and select an area on the image, by drawing a little box (see red circle), then click the white eye dropper spot white balance icon (red square). Notice that the image became a little warmer and the white area is white…
3. Curve
And lastly, I wanted to show you a neat ‘trick’ I figured out when creating a manual curve.
If you need to make minor changes to your curve and you feel like moving the points with the mouse are just too big. I have a solution… click on the point you want to adjust (red circle) and then use the arrow keys to make minor adjustments! This also works on the curve in the Saturation/Contrast tab.
I hope you found these extra bits of information helpful.
Next installment, Part 3, I will bring the locust image up in GIMP where I will adjust the contrast, saturation, and add a split-tone.
*** This is an on going series, in which I explore a normal workflow using UFRaw and GIMP.***
Did you miss part of this series? Check out my Workflow Series page.
Until next time…
~nic
* UFRaw is a raw editor available for all platforms (Linux, Mac, and Windows). UFRaw has been around for quite some time (since 2004) and even has a GIMP plug-in so that you can do your raw edits and then import into GIMP. You can get UFRaw here (the plug-in is available for Linux and Mac only).
Photography by Nic 