DPP Part 3 - Processing the Image - Exercise 1: RAW
The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate processing advantages of Raw but at the same time to put these advantages in perspective.
Daylight Image - RAW
I've deliberately taken an image of an old building shooting toward the sun to make this a more interesting image to process. Opening the RAW file in CS6 I can adjust the tone curve and let the software make adjustments based on the lens I am using, I can see that I have over exposed the sky on the basis I'm shooting the side of the building that is in shade.However my adjusting the whites slider to the right I can remove all the highlight clipping, there is no shadow clipping in this image. I've increased vibrancy and saturation slightly. I've also increased the shadows slider to 35% to increase the detail that is not visible in the shadow areas of the image.
I've also sharpened the image the bring out the detail in the face of the building
Daylight Image - JPG
I've made some changes to colour and curves and sharpened the image but have been unable to recover any detail from the blown out sky that I could from the RAW file. The camera has WB set to auto:
Somewhere with the RAW file I've over processed the image, likely where I've adjusted whites to recover detail in the sky as the wall of the jpeg is more like the colour my eyes recorded. In this instance recovering detail in the sky has been at cost to the colour of the building, the jpeg retaining the original colour.
In this instance the jpeg appears the better image but this is simply because I haven't correctly processed the RAW. I've left this differences in images because it proves that even if processing in RAW retaining options, the photographers' post processing sjills are still a key element
In this instance the jpeg appears the better image but this is simply because I haven't correctly processed the RAW. I've left this differences in images because it proves that even if processing in RAW retaining options, the photographers' post processing sjills are still a key element
Artificially Light
An indoor shot of a perfume bottle with a macro lens under tungsten light. The focus is entirely on the text on the bottle with a view to getting some interesting reflections of the bottle. I could consider some product photography in the future as a way of testing my lighting and production skills
- RAW
In the RAW processor I've used the Tungsten preset adjusted levels and exposure
- JPEG
The auto white balance hasn't copied as well as I'd hoped. Of course with RAW I can can adjust more critically
HDR image
I've used a tripod and found a scene high in contrast that should suit a HDR type of image. I've bracketed the image 9 times exposing in increasing and decrease exposures of 1 stop so that I have the 2 extreme images at 4 stops over and 4 stops under what the camera metered as the perfect exposure.
Of course the files I've uploaded are both jpegs. I've made no changes to either RAW or JPEG simply to see what the combined HDR images between RAW and JPEG were. The RAW HDR appears to have more detail than the jpeg. However since I've created for both RAW and JPEG a 9 bracketed combined image then there is less reason to make any key changes to exposure as I've created in both cases images with a dynamic range of 8 stops.
- RAW
- JPEG
Most HDR images are made using jpegs. Photomatix is one of the more common utilities offering HDR and Tone Mapping options from a single or multiple source file
Exercise and Research Learning's
a) A RAW file captures much more detail than a JPEG and allows the photographer to control the processing of the image rather than the camera
b) A RAW processor such as photoshop offers many powerful processing options, including corrections to an known lens issues as standard for the focal length used
c) A jpeg is restricted to 256 levels of brightness, a RAW file can record between 4,000 and 16,000 e.g. jpeg in 8 bit and RAW in 12 and 14 bit
d) Exposure and White Balance are better corrected in the RAW processor than preset by the camera. Auto White balance does a good job but its not perfect. Preset WB I found struggles to do exactly what you want - how can it as its not a mind reader
e) RAW files allow non destructive editing. With a jpeg you are stuck with what the camera does to a degree in addition to the file being compressed with considerable data loss
f) RAW simply allows the better quality and allows the photographer to make the processing decisions - the key here is that they can be reset easily and started again
g) Jpeg allows faster processing as most of it may already be done and file uploads and back-ups are much quicker and take up less space
h) RAW files allow printing to much larger sizes. Perhaps for most anything bigger than A4 is not needed. However with RAW you always retain that option. What happens if you shoot a Wedding in jpeg only but if the couple want a a very large poster size print made, with RAW I can achieve this for any image I took, but with JPEG I may be stuck to a specific size that gives a maximum print size due to quality of image size I can print up to
i) View the files at a small size, sub 100k for use on the internet on a website or social media then size may not matter, but even still the processing options may
b) A RAW processor such as photoshop offers many powerful processing options, including corrections to an known lens issues as standard for the focal length used
c) A jpeg is restricted to 256 levels of brightness, a RAW file can record between 4,000 and 16,000 e.g. jpeg in 8 bit and RAW in 12 and 14 bit
d) Exposure and White Balance are better corrected in the RAW processor than preset by the camera. Auto White balance does a good job but its not perfect. Preset WB I found struggles to do exactly what you want - how can it as its not a mind reader
e) RAW files allow non destructive editing. With a jpeg you are stuck with what the camera does to a degree in addition to the file being compressed with considerable data loss
f) RAW simply allows the better quality and allows the photographer to make the processing decisions - the key here is that they can be reset easily and started again
g) Jpeg allows faster processing as most of it may already be done and file uploads and back-ups are much quicker and take up less space
h) RAW files allow printing to much larger sizes. Perhaps for most anything bigger than A4 is not needed. However with RAW you always retain that option. What happens if you shoot a Wedding in jpeg only but if the couple want a a very large poster size print made, with RAW I can achieve this for any image I took, but with JPEG I may be stuck to a specific size that gives a maximum print size due to quality of image size I can print up to
i) View the files at a small size, sub 100k for use on the internet on a website or social media then size may not matter, but even still the processing options may
j) Crop zooming will show that the RAW files retain much more quality than jpeg due to the amount of data. For instance as a paparazzi the photographer may be kept at a distance from the subject but shooting in RAW may allow a higher quality zoom cropped image
k) Using RAW files relies on a level of post processing skill. Either time constraints or skill levels may be a key factor in deciding which to use
l) I shall continue to shoot in RAW and perhaps basic Jpeg
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