Author Topic: RAW vs JPEG (Read 3394 times)

pretzston · « **on:** March 09, 2011, 11:03:14 AM »

I am trying to convince myself to start shooting in RAW. While I know I should, I haven't brought myself to start doing it.

Will Aperture 3 bring in the RAW files just the same as the JPEGs from my EPL1 on my Macbook Pro?

Convince me to move in this direction as I know it is the place to be!

E-M5 Pete · « **Reply #1 on:** March 09, 2011, 12:17:17 PM »

Most software will apply the camera setting you have for JPGs..

RAW will allow you "Save" badly exposed files with unwanted artifacts that will happen in JPG files when you try to "Save" a badly exposed JPG.

RAW also has a deeper BIT count for color, than JPG... JPG may have 16bit. RAW may have 24bit color depth... that means more color depth before conversion.

That is, if you are familiar with the exposure difference between 35mm Slide and 35mm Negatives, then you see that 35mm negatives have a greater exposure latitude, then you have a greater idea. RAW files are like the 35mm negatives.. they have more exposure latitude for correcting things later.

Brianetta · « **Reply #2 on:** March 09, 2011, 12:23:31 PM »

The Olympus allows you to re-process your raw files inside the camera. I shoot raw+JPEG, and in the event that I screwed up my white balance, I just correct the settings of the camera, and "raw edit" the image. Instant new JPEG from that original raw file. Anything that happened after the shutter closed, can be done again, differently.

Aside from this, I'm such a JPEG person. The first thing I do upon inserting the card into my computer is select and delete all the raw files. Linux-land really isn't the place to be messing about with raw, not from micro four thirds cameras. The camera does it better by far, but to me it's still worth saving that raw file with the JPEG so that I can re-do it if I mess up.

lisandra · « **Reply #3 on:** March 09, 2011, 01:26:06 PM »

While the PENs have fantastical JPEG engines, RAW gives you control beyond what the camera offers. In a jpeg there's only so much saturation you can add before adding ugly chroma noise, in RAWs you can sometimes tripple the saturation before this happens. The convincing thing about RAWs is that all the info is there, that includes much more detail, detail that you think its there on the JPEG but when you look at the RAW files you realize its not. On high ISO shots you can control how much noise is left there against how much detail you want, and even if you match the JPEGs cleanliness, the RAW file will look far better. If you have lightroom, DxO, bible 5 or apple's aperture its gonna be fairly easy to notice (especially on bible and lightroom). See my post on the carnival, its basic processing in lightroom (white balance, noise reduction, a tiny bit more (+5) sharpening than default), If you saw the equivalent jpegs for the ISO 5000-8000 you'd run away screaming in terror.
http://e-p1.net/portrait-street-and-journalism/el-carnaval/msg41447/#new

voyager · « **Reply #4 on:** March 10, 2011, 06:21:29 PM »

Hell, I always want to shoot JPEG on my E-P1 instead of RAW because it's so much easier and my aging computer can't handle the RAW files as well as my K-x's DNG files.

E-M5 Pete · « **Reply #5 on:** March 10, 2011, 06:45:27 PM »

Quote from: voyager on March 10, 2011, 06:21:29 PM

Hell, I always want to shoot JPEG on my E-P1 instead of RAW because it's so much easier and my aging computer can't handle the RAW files as well as my K-x's DNG files.

HUH.....
When is your Bday.... we should donate to a special "New Computer" fund, Man, what happened to your old server you just changed out?...
Surely it is more capable than your "Aging Computer"?

corgifan · « **Reply #6 on:** March 10, 2011, 09:53:42 PM »

I have my E-PL1 set to shoot RAW+JPG. The jpg is convenient if I want to e-mail some quick pics to friends or family. RAW allows me to fiddle with things I may not have gotten quite right in the camera. For instance, just being able to apply +- exposure compensation after the shot is invaluable. Sometimes that 1/3 stop bump makes all the difference. Then there's all the other in-camera features that can be played with outside of the camera if you're working with the Olympus software (slow, but it's free). I usually take the RAW images, make any basic adjustments they might need, then convert to 16bit tiff files and do my final editing in Capture NX2 ('cause I'm basically a Nikon guy at heart).

Doug

Panther · « **Reply #7 on:** March 10, 2011, 10:24:24 PM »

Once you start shooting RAW, you'll never want to go back to JPG

voyager · « **Reply #8 on:** March 10, 2011, 11:50:44 PM »

That is generally true. At least it was for me until I got the E-P1.

Brianetta · « **Reply #9 on:** March 11, 2011, 04:29:29 AM »

I just wish that there was some easy way to delete the raw files from the camera in bulk. Last night, after nearly three hundred photos, I ran out of space on my 4GB SD card. Yeah, I could have popped in a spare, but I thought I'd just delete some raw files to make space.

Ouch. Talk about long-winded and battery intensive.

Why take the raws in the first place? Because I was switching from flash to available light an awful lot, and I kept forgetting to change the white balance. With a raw file, this could be corrected immediately without having to re-shoot.

Centauri27 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 14, 2011, 12:30:40 PM »

Like many others, I've waffled between JPG and RAW many times. I've tried going "all RAW" before, but quickly got bogged down twiddling and tweaking trivial shots. Now I shoot JPG for all snapshot-type photos, while reserving RAW for when I'm trying to be a "real photographer" (and also for shots when white balance or exposure is in doubt).

peterb666 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 19, 2011, 06:02:55 PM »

I started out shooting JPEG as I couldn't get good results out of the original Olympus Master software with RAW.

Later, when Olympus Viewer software came out, I switched to RAW+JPEG as I was shooting a lot of low light stuff. I got better results from RAW.

I now use Adobe Camera RAW (comes with CS5) and now only shoot RAW. I use an Olympus E-P1 and Nikon D90 and have one piece of software for each although the treatment of images varies from the two cameras. The processing flow is essentially the same. I have no need (or desire) to go back to JPEG.

dlips66 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 27, 2011, 12:58:36 PM »

I'm new to the RAW file world and trying to find an editor (free?) I use PhotoShop Essentials 5.0 for JPEGs but it will not reconize/open the RAW Files.
Any suggestions?? Dave P

lisandra · « **Reply #13 on:** June 27, 2011, 01:18:13 PM »

We did this a while back, here you go, good info
http://e-p1.net/micro-four-thirds-general-discussion/which-raw-converter-you-use/msg24545/#msg24545

E-M5 Pete · « **Reply #14 on:** June 27, 2011, 01:48:08 PM »

Quote from: dlips66 on June 27, 2011, 12:58:36 PM

I'm new to the RAW file world and trying to find an editor (free?) I use PhotoShop Essentials 5.0 for JPEGs but it will not reconize/open the RAW Files.
Any suggestions?? Dave P

Here is a simple free converter.. allows simple adj of EXP, Sharpness, WB, Saturation, (see Screen capture), and will save in JPG or TIFF (at highest quality)

Stepok's Raw Importer

tamoio · « **Reply #15 on:** June 27, 2011, 03:15:18 PM »

I generally set up my cameras to do both a raw and jpeg simultaneously. Also (and I don't think I'm the only one who does this) with professional work I only deliver jpegs and tiffs or psd files to client/employer and archive the raw files myself.

As you get better at postproduction you will find yourself going back to old raw files and tweaking them over and over. Whether this is time well spent is another issue.

A Brit in Euroland · « **Reply #16 on:** June 27, 2011, 03:28:56 PM »

I have recently moved to raw cause there is a huge difference when you are pushing the ISO (beyond 1600) in low light. I don't much like flash, and take a lot of portraits, and recently in London took some river shots in the pouring rain when raw allowed me to change the WB, and even find a bit of light blue sky which I hadn't seen even in the original shot. Using photoshop, raw allows you to do lots of stuff, and get the most from the sensor of the EP1. Ok it takes time, so I also store a medium sized Jpeg file. My 27 inch Imac is just great for photoshop, and really fast.

sukeypett · « **Reply #17 on:** November 02, 2011, 06:52:29 AM »

I just got my camera. How do I set it to shoot in raw?

voyager · « **Reply #18 on:** November 02, 2011, 06:31:20 PM »

Check out my response in your other thread.

lisandra · « **Reply #19 on:** November 02, 2011, 07:36:50 PM »

Or read the manual

voyager · « **Reply #20 on:** November 02, 2011, 07:41:40 PM »

Quote from: lisandra on November 02, 2011, 07:36:50 PM

Or read the manual

The E-P1 manual surprisingly doesn't give very clear directions.

lisandra · « **Reply #21 on:** December 04, 2011, 01:15:33 PM »

Quote from: pretzston on March 09, 2011, 11:03:14 AM

I am trying to convince myself to start shooting in RAW. While I know I should, I haven't brought myself to start doing it.

Will Aperture 3 bring in the RAW files just the same as the JPEGs from my EPL1 on my Macbook Pro?

Convince me to move in this direction as I know it is the place to be!

now that you're going serious with photography and do weddings regularly, I hope you've also convinced yourself of shooting raw only.

E-M5 Pete · « **Reply #22 on:** December 04, 2011, 02:01:37 PM »

Something that hasn't been mentioned about RAW

You have about a 2 stop +/- exposure variance without it affecting your shadow/high light areas... you'll need to adjust "Levels" with "Exposure" to "Save" the capture... but, in the end, you will have a very usable image...

With JPG, if you try to adjust exposure "That Much", you will wind up a very short Dynamic Range, and all kinds of artifacts and such.

I will post a sample in few minutes... with 1 stop over exposure.

E-M5 Pete · « **Reply #23 on:** December 04, 2011, 03:36:03 PM »

I was in Manual Metering instead of my normal Aperture Priority mode....
This one is +1 stop overexposed....RAW to JPG no developing....

Details

the next frame was 1/2 stop overexposed
Corrected in Capture One 6.3.2 this one had -1/2 stop correction in exposure and a -14 in brightness -- Scale -20 to +20 -- (Fill Light in other programs)

Details

Author Topic: RAW vs JPEG (Read 3394 times)

Panther

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