Anybody out there like to attempt the impossible

[thegrump]

Anybody out there like to attempt the impossible. I did not know I had even captured this bird (Eastern Spine bill ). I was just flicking through my computer and saw a black image. I remember now taking the shot, but as I was totally unprepared, I thought I had missed the bird altogether, and forgot about it. I have been using my lack of skill in FS and FS to try and get some image. But am failing miserably. Would anybody like a challenge, and try to pull some sort of image out of this blackness.
I do not even know if the bird is in focus. As, when I saw the bird, I knew I only had a split second to capture it, as you will understand if you attempt this task.

DSC_1243a.JPG

[ameerat42]

TG. You should be able to do it on the raw file (presuming you had one). The result is rather
grainy when working on this jpeg. Really wouldn't be worthwhile. And that's a pity because it was a
quite good capture

This should be quite straightforward working on a raw file. You should give it a whirl

Maybe make the raw file available somewhere on (?your??) Flickr.

[paulheath]

as above.... would be a lot easier and productive if we had the RAW file...cheers

[thegrump]

I converted to RAW a while back, but found it took too long to open a file and the main reason I went back to Jpeg, was the images did not come up in my computer. I had to open every one to see what it was. I guess there is a way around this. I should have done this before.

[ameerat42]

It's called FastStone Image Viewer (as you well knw)
That's for viewing them only, not converting from raw. I guess Capture NX?

[tandeejay]

you can also download the Nikon Raw Codec which makes the raw files have thumbnails in explorer, and you can also preview them.

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.co...NEF_Codec.html

[ameerat42]

Hey, Tands. Blowed if I can find ANY sample NEFs for the d3100 Plenty of jpegs.
Any idea where?
Ta.

[tandeejay]

try here :
http://www.photographyblog.com/revie...sample_images/

[ameerat42]

Looks good. Tar.

[feathers]

Yes, raw works much better to retrieve. But had a play. More like a painting than a pic cheers.

[thegrump]

Thanks feathers....I got close to that, but not quite. I am re looking into RAW, I have taken a few shots on a new card. I will play around with them and see if I cam navigate FS again. or something else.

[Glenda]

What a pity as yes there is a bird there and sharp with interesting pose. Unfortunately way underexposed. In raw you would have a better result. Had a quick play.

DSC_1243a copy.jpg

[thegrump]

Lplates and all. I have only seen this bird actually hovering about 3 times in the last couple of years . Up until this year this bird only visited for a few weeks in the late summer. But, this year it, and an extended family seem to have moved in. I have half a dozen, with one or two almost always in the back yard, and they are getting used to me being around. So I am hoping to get a better picture of it hovering, although it might take some time.

[ameerat42]

It was more the OOF bird than the underexposure that made recovery not worthwhile.
But it was a difficult subject, and on the fly at least you managed some record.

[Mark L]

Doesn't really matter if you make the RAW available somehow, you are not going to get a very good photo under exposing this much. ETTR works much better.
It's still a bit interesting what is contained in a small file size though,

DSC_1243aa.jpg

[arthurking83]

It's called FastStone Image Viewer (as you well knw)
That's for viewing them only, not converting from raw. I guess Capture NX?

Change CaptureNX suggestion to ViewNX2(or CaptureNX-D, but this one can be dodgy in terms of speed!!) .. I suggest ViewNX2.

you can also download the Nikon Raw Codec which makes the raw files have thumbnails in explorer, and you can also preview them.

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.co...NEF_Codec.html

I converted to RAW a while back, but found it took too long to open a file and the main reason I went back to Jpeg, was the images did not come up in my computer. I had to open every one to see what it was. I guess there is a way around this. I should have done this before.

What program did you use to open the raw file(s)?

Change Am's recommendation from CaptureNX to ViewNX2, and I reckon you should be fine.

So some steps to do following on from the above quoted advice:

1. download the codec tandeeyjay commented on and linked too.
Install.
reboot PC.

2. download ViewNX2
Install. it may(or more likely .. WILL!) install a bit of other crap software too, but on the whole the three bits of important software it does install are ViewNX2, Nikon Transfer 2, and the Picture Control Utility.
(these are the most handy programs you need)

** Note: it will install quicktime(for videos), links to Nikon, and the Nikon update utility as well(maybe some other useless crap too) .. but you can easily and quickly remove them all with no issues. Look for them in the list of programs that you can uninstall and remove them if you wish.

Once VNX2 is installed, the PC may require another reboot. Once everything is installed and done, there may be a small trick to help speed up the loading/editing process.
IN the main window(where the image is displayed) there is a small button marked [RAW] in the top left corner of that box. You can click this button and it changes.
If the box is grey, then you only view the preview data(ie., jpg image in the image window). This is faster to work with. jpgs a smaller files and load and refresh quicker .. making the program seem to run faster.

If you click the small button it will then change to an orange-y/yellow-y colour still with the word RAW. So basically it's displayed in an inverted state. In this mode the actual image you're viewing is the raw data of the file, not the preview jpg image.
In this mode, depending on the size of the raw file(and power of the PC), you can see a significant time difference .. and in this RAW mode, the program can seem much slower(to refresh).

Major problem with ViewNX2 tho is that Nikon no longer update it. The link to it is the final version v2.10.3, and the biggest problem is if you want to view newer raw files! If this is not a concern for you(as it isn't for me .. yet!) there is no problem using ViewNX2.

So with all that advice:
What you would have done to a raw version of such an image is twofold.
1. first you would have set a small-ish amount of exposure compensation .. like +1.0 on the raw file. No point trying this with a jpg file, VNX2 won't allow it(option is greyed out!).
2. then the important part: you would then scroll down to the D-Lighting tool halfway down the adjustments tab, and slowly increased the slider upwards till you were happy with the effect.
The D-Lighting slider works about as best as you can get from free software. It recovers shadow detail and introduces smal amounts of noise reduction to give a half decent balance of both effects.
Note it's not magic tho, and won't produce miracles.
But with the above procedure, you should be able to recover about 3 stops of underexposure from a D3100.

Note that you can do all those steps above using CaptureNX-D as well, and from what I've seen it's ever so slightly better at the end result.
I've tested this with the old D70s(which is a much older camera than the D3100!) .. and CNX-D is better.
BUT! .. I've had many major issues getting CNX-D to run, let alone actually do anything useful with the images.
When I can get it to work, it's OK .. and it's better than VNX2 in most respects(but deficient on one major aspect for my taste!)

What you try is up to you .. but the recommendation to use FSViewer too, to browse through your images is sound.

Finally! when transferring images from card/camera to PC, I think it's best to use a transfer program. Again, my preference is to use Nikon's Transfer which comes with ViewNX2.
The icon to access Nikon Transfer 2 is way up in the top left corner of ViewNX2, just under the word 'View' in the toolbar.
No matter what and how you set up your PC and irrespective of what codecs you have or haven't installed, Nikon Transfer will always display the raw file data in it's entirety .. and thus display the raw NEF file as an image.
This is a good way to preview what each image is, via thumbnails.
Some tricks on how to set up Transfer to work well for 'ya are available if you just ask.