You said you are shooting RAW. Unprocessed RAW images are flat and, typically, unattractive. They must be photoprocessed (with Photoshop or some other photoprocessing program) to achieve their potential..

I suggest that you learn to photoprocess your photos using one of the programs for this purpose. Until you are really ready to shoot RAW, you probably should shoot JPGs. However, be aware that even JPGs benefit from adjusting levels and applying the unsharp mask (and other programs) in a good photoprocessing program..

Good luck..

Jerryhttp://jchoate.zenfolio.com/..

Yeah I use the built in raw function within photoshop cs3, just didn't know the term "photoprocesing". I've tried the auto function, but this isn't great and played with the manual settings but I seem to either have too dark images with good contrast or brigth image with blown out higlights...

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The area around the statue subject is much grayer and darker than the subject. you meter is being fooled. you should have used spot metering on the subject(statue), then shot. or, alternately used matrix metering and then used exposure compensation; I would've tried about 1/2 or 2/3 stop negative compensation...

Ah, thanks I will give the shot another try, cheers...

RhysM wrote:.

Ah, thanks I will give the shot another try, cheers..

This is a difficult subject, capturing detail in highlights without making the background too dark is not easy. There are probably things to learn both in the original capture and subsequent processing.I took a little look at your image and adjusted the tones a little..

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A little bit of "curves" adjustment in PSP7..

Working from the original RAW file you could probably do something far better than I've attempted here..

Of course getting the exposure a little darker in the first place will help and is a lot easier. The other thing to watch is the direction of the lighting. The shadow indicates that the sun was directly lighting the subject. At different times of day, or in fact from a different camera position, the lighting would come more from the side and give a better indication of the roundness and 3D depth of the sculpture.Regards,Peter..