Using Ultra-Fast Lenses on DSLR Cameras

Step 7 Post Processing

The images look awful as captured with default settings, but that's ok. You'd be stuck if you were shooting on film, but digital processing can fix a multitude of sins. After much playing, I determined that the images are not really as bad as they look. In fact, there are really only two things wrong with most photos captured this way.

The first is that the lens is not well corrected outside a small central area of the image circle. There is not much we can do about that.  Call it part of the "look" of the lens and be careful where you put stuff that you want to be sharp in the image.

The second is severe lack of contrast. Look at the histogram in the previous step's image. It doesn't use much of the sensor dynamic range, does it? Auto levels sometimes can do a good job fixing this, but has a tendency to shift colors, not just luminance levels. Instead, use the curves tool to change the luminance values. Move the black point to the left edge of the histogram and the white point to the right edge. The colors were there all along! The only problem is that the image often looks grainy after stretching contrast this way, so noise reduction may be appropriate.

You might be able to approximate this PP in the camera. Try turning-up contrast and saturation. You can turn off any shadow enhancement options; the lack of contrast is doing that for you.