The Worst Pictures Saved by your RAW Processing. Lets see some Pics!

[RLPhoto]

We've all made mistakes from time to time with our camera. Being able to shoot RAW can save our butts in post if we may have looked over something in the field.

Lets see some Miraculous RAW File Saves from horrid photos to usable or even great shots with the Power of the RAW and masters of the darkroom!

Ill start with this.

Horrid Mixed Lighting, On-camera flash, High-ISO, Shallow DOF, and a Busy Family.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Blown out shots are the worst to recover for me.  Sometimes in wide angle stage scenes, the lighting varies accross the stage from too dark to too light.
 
Here is the horrible original image.  I thought it was worth saving because I liked the kids expressions.  I printed a large 40 inch wide print of it for the director to post on her wall.  She has a lot of them by now.
 
Before:
 

 
 
 
 
After:
 

 
 
Here is the overexposed area in the center:
 

[helpful]

I've been trying a new JPEG processing algorithm for highlights and underexposure, and when I saw this thread I thought I would try it out. I haven't corrected any colors, but it seems like the exposure can be fixed rather well.

Update: added the center crop.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I've been trying a new JPEG processing algorithm for highlights and underexposure, and when I saw this thread I thought I would try it out. I haven't corrected any colors, but it seems like the exposure can be fixed rather well.

Update: added the center crop.

Thanks, You software seems to be working.  Be sure to document everything in a patent logbook so that you can apply for a patent when you are ready.  You want to firmly establish the date of your invention, so ask one of your professors for help.
 
Do not publically give out information about how it works until you have applied, that is usually considered a no no.
 
As long as the information is there, it can be recovered.  Unfortunately, severely underexposed or really blown out images lose information and then extrapoaation or some extreme editing might recover some.  That image was taken the same day my D800 arrived, it does have a better DR than my 1D MK IV, and its able to recover over / under exposures fairly well.