Tips and Technique

WORK TRAIN RAW AND JPG

Friday, April 9, 2021, Conway Scenic Railroad operated a Work Extra on its Conway Branch. The sky was clear and blue and the sun bright. This was a perfect opportunity to experiment with my Nikon Z6 digital camera.

Although I purchased this image making machine six months ago, I haven’t come close to mastering it.

The Z6 has an amazing ability to capture and store visual information.

However, to best translate the Nikon RAW (NEF) file requires a bit of study and interpretation, and it is in the interpretation that I am still learning.

Below are two images of the Work Extra, and two interpretations of each. The top in each sequence represents the camera-JPG output with built-in Vivid color profile (scaled but otherwise unadjusted in post processing). The bottom of each sequence is my interpretation of the NEF file using Lightroom, where I’ve made nominal changes to color temperature, shadow and highlights, and overall contrast.

Camera JPEG with built in Vivid color profile. No changes to exposure, color temperature or contrast in post processing.
NEF (Camera RAW) file adjusted using Adobe Lightroom to correct for color temperature, contrast, and shadow/highlight exposure.
Camera JPEG with built in Vivid color profile. No changes to exposure, color temperature or contrast in post processing.
NEF (Camera RAW) file adjusted using Adobe Lightroom to correct for color temperature, contrast, and shadow/highlight exposure.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!