Need Some Advice on Pics

[xxxbadfishxxx]

I have been practicing a lot, i take tons of pics to get a handful of decent pics. I use a Nikon D50 with an 18-70mm lens. I also use macro filters sometimes to get some okay macros. I shoot in Raw, but begin to think i should just shoot in JPEG since i like the way the colors turn out. I do post process with Photoshop PS2. I always had a problem with the whole fish not being in focus, i used to shoot in Shutter Priority but thought if i shot with aperature priority i would get everything in focus, and this is not the case. here are some pics i took tonight.

So i had to pic up the camera.

and now this is a raw vs Jpeg, which do you think looks better?

Raw

JPEG

 

[Phyl]

Whats the XIF on the image? What were your ISO, Shutter & Fstop? Increasing your depth of field will give you more of your image in focus (but how much depends on what you set the fstop to). Your edges may still be soft because of the close up filters.

I like the color on the raw image better. To me, the clown looks like a fake orange on the JPG conversion, though the raw may still have a tinge too much blue in it.

 

[maroun.c]

Your comparison of RAW to JPEG is not really valid.
This JPEG picture is a result of the same RAW picture that your camera processed according to the set processing criteria wether by Nikon or you: Saturation, Sharpness...
The same RAW can be processed to give you the same JPEG you got and even better.
Still the colors in the JPEG are not the true colours you see as the
previous poster mentioned.
Shooting in aperture mode on its own will not give you more deapth of field you have to use a small aperture (bigger number) to achieve that. you could be shooting using SHutter mode and select a slower shutter speed that would push the camera to use a smaller aperture and then get more DOF in shutter priority mode. this unfortunately comes at an expsense more risk of blurring due to handshake or subject motion.
it's a triangle that you have to play with the highest ISO that your camera does handle with limited noise to grant a small aperture that increases DOF still at reasonable shutter speed to avoid blurr.
Your D50 is known to be the best in the Nikon lineup in handling noise. don't be afraid to use ISO 800 or even 1000 to get small apertures and fast shutter speeds.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

thanks for your comments. Do you guys feel that the colors on all the pics are off? i feel like the clown is pretty accurate, but i feel that the colt coral is closer to how it looks in the jpeg.

i shot these pics at an ISO of 800, they are more pixelated, but i ran a despeckle and reduce noise filter in photoshop. The next ISO available is 1600, and i feel that would be extremelly pixelated, but i havent really tried it, what do you think?

I think i really need to tone up my post processing in photoshop. I normally bring the raw in, and use the auto white balance, bump up the saturation and make the shadows darker, but thats about it.

I think thats my problem, LOL. I shot at the lowest number f3.5 and not the highest number. What would be a good f stop to shoot at?

For white balance, i usually have it set to flourecent, but now that i shoot in raw i tend to not worry about it as much.

Thanks for looking, and for your help.

Jeff

 

[maroun.c]

Hi Jeff,
Looking at your picture on my calibrated monitor shows that WB is a bit off nothing severe though.
doesn't the D50 hve Iso settings of 1000 and 1200 before 1600?
Usually having a properly exposed image from the start decreases the noise which is more visible in the shade or darker areas.
Using Auto could sometimes do it but sometimes you still have to do it manually depending on the tank lighting and how close auto give gets you to the reality you are seing.
You could try doing it auto then refining it manually. you still could do a measured WB in JPEGS where you take a picture of something white under the same lighting and use that as WB. also you could take adjust it in RAW for a batch of images sampling from an area in your picture or one picture of a grey card then applying the same correction to all the pictures.
3.5 will give you a shallow deapth of field. something that is not necessarily bad if you are after some blurred background effect. you could close down to include more of your subject 8-11 would be enough most of the time. that is still dependant of how much you are zooming and the distance to your subject but in an aquarium setup that is not really important. Still you can't always close your aperture that much without aditional lighting as tank lighting would not be enough. So basically you have to check on your display meter or in the histogram after you take the picture to see what is the smallest aperture your lighting will give you.