The RAW Advantage



RAW format is a digital photographer friend. If you shoot for commercial purposes (eg to sell their images to the library stock photo) shooting in RAW allows you to squeeze every drop of the quality of your recordings.

RAW or JPEG?

Whichever form you choose, the picture has a slightly different way to get the final form. In the case of RAW image is captured by the sensor (typically 12-bits, which is a lot of data) and go directly to a memory card, without any further manipulation of the camera. For JPEG images, the image was first captured by the sensor, then the camera processes images using the difference of the curve, it sharpens (unless you need the focus), converts it into 8-bit, and then stored in a memory card so that the compression. When this compression is carried out, a little image quality is thrown away in order to achieve a smaller file size.

post-processing

when shooting in RAW format, the camera does not perform any processing at all on their images, unlike JPEG. It also means that in order to bring out the best in the RAW files, you will need to do what the camera is usually in JPEG. This is called post-processing (and not cheating, as some people think May). Post-processing is what you do to RAW file, which is a digital negative, to bring it to its final form in JPEG or TIFF format, ready for printing. Post-processing is done on film, and not exclusively the domain of digital photography. Post-processing gives digital photographers the ultimate control over how their images will look like. Shooting in RAW format gives the photographer the best starting point.

JPEG is good enough, sometimes.

In some situations, we find that the shooting in JPEG format, but gives us a very high picture quality. These situations are usually when the lighting is perfect. However, in high contrast lighting, we find that our JPEG file loses some detail in the highlights. This is due to cameras internal processing, which applies the contrast curves in Fig. Many digital SLR cameras allow you to load custom contrast curve, allowing you to optimize JPEG images to cater for the lighting conditions. This is similar to loading different movies for different photo-taking situations.

Highlight recovery in RAW allows the photographer to maximize the potential of the image.

If we shot the same image in RAW format, we would have a much better chance of recovery stresses. This is because the RAW file contains an enormous amount of data in it, typically 12-bits of data in a digital SLR fotoaparatima.Šire exposure latitude allows us to 2 separate RAW conversion in Adobe Photoshop: The first regular one, and then darker transformation recovery stresses. Layer these 2 conversions in Photoshop, and the lower layer is darker. Using Clear brush, remove the top layer of the parts that are burned out, revealing areas that contain a highlight in the bottom layer, and voila! You have to recover highlight details are missing!

post-processing shortcuts

So what happens when you open a RAW image? RAW files, well, crude. To get a sizzling picture, you have to cook it to perfection. How to do it after processing the RAW files? The Adobe Camera Raw dialog box in Photoshop, do not adjust the default settings instead prefer to open RAW files as they are. After that, I'm 2 steps I routinely do on my RAW files. One of them is what I call "Blessed are the S-curve", which performs adjustment unlike the curves of my pictures. The second step is called local contrast enhancement. "Gentle S-curve" that is used does the formation of 'S' shape of the curves command in Photoshop.Lokalni contrast improvement is done using the command Unsharp mask in Photoshop. My preferences are: The amount of 20%, Radius 60, Prague 0th i save these 2 steps individually Photoshop actions, assigning key F10 as a shortcut for the S-curve, and F11 as a shortcut for local contrast enhancement. i also have saved the F12 joint Unsharp Mask command with these settings: Amount of 50%, Radius 1, Threshold 0th My typical flow from the RAW file to finished JPEG or TIFF would be: 1 Open the RAW files (without setting the bar) 2 F10 (season to taste, ie. to do it twice if the necessary) 3 F11 F12 4th (optional) and there you have it, the final post-processing of images! it produces predictable results every image, without tinkering with the settings in the RAW dialog box.

Parallel processing

Imagine this. You have just photographed a wedding and ended up with 800 pictures. They are all in RAW format. Did you go through them one by one, each opening RAW files, RAW adjustment parameters, tweaking levels and curves, and then save everybody in JPEG format for the client? You're kidding, right? There is a much better way. Using Adobe Bridge (the Photoshop CS5) or File browser (in Photoshop CS), view pictures you've taken. Some of them may require adjustment of exposure for a wedding usually happen so fast that sometimes it is important to capture the moment but that the exposure perfect. Suppose you have several images that are underexposed. Double-click on each image exposure, adjust the exposure slider to the RAW dialog box, and save the settings. Do this for each image that is underexposed. After tweaking these individual settings, select all the images and set the parameters such as conversion contrast, saturation, etc. for them. Once done, you can run the batch process command (File -> Automate -> Batch) to convert all 800 images in JPEG with just one command. All 800 images will have the perfect exposure (or at least nearly perfect) and ready to be sent to the client.

RAW quality

You might ask, why not shoot in JPEG from the beginning, if you convert the RAW files to JPEG later? Well, if you had to significantly enhance image, RAW files allow the maintenance of image quality much better than JPEG. It also allows a more natural appearance, which will be difficult to produce if you had a much flatter JPEG images using the levels and krivulje.Razlog for this flexibility because the RAW files contain much more image data than JPEG. RAW files contain 12-bit data, while JPEG files only 8-bits. RAW files are also stored in a lossless format, and JPEG files stored in format that causes loss nestajanje.Bez format the image data that has no cast, usually resulting in a larger file. This means that image quality is preserved, no matter how many times the file open and save. Typical lossless RAW format and TIFF.Koji lossy format is one that has some image data to remove in order to achieve smaller file size. Every time you open a JPEG file and save it again in JPEG format, you will lose some image quality. Opening and saving a JPEG repeatedly will result in a visible loss of quality. Typical lossy formats are JPEG and GIF.

Truly custom white balance control

Usually when we are faced with tricky lighting situations, eg. mixed light sources in the same scene, we can make a custom white balance measurement on a digital SLR set the optimum white balance for the shot. This is accomplished by directing the camera at a white piece of card, with all light sources turned on, and measuring the white balance in camera. This is very useful when shooting in JPEG, because it saves you from having to color correction later. Shooting in RAW format gives you the ability to change your white balance after you have taken the shot, allowing you to do color correction without the risk of degrading the quality slike.Ravnoteža white data in the RAW file is set when a shot, but you are free to change this setting the white balance in RAW dialog during post-processing. This is different from the color balance adjustment in Photoshop, JPEG, resulting in a slight loss of quality. I find this particularly useful for underwater photography without flash, when it is difficult to do a custom white balance measurement, while diving in strong currents, 60 meters under water. Without the custom white balance, underwater photography will have excessive blue cast.

Should I shoot RAW?

Personally, I shoot in RAW format when my intention was to sell my photos to stock photography libraries. This allows me to enjoy the absolute maximum possible quality from my digital SLR camera. Once you understand the advantages of shooting RAW, you will find it worth the extra effort. On the other hand, I usually shoot in JPEG for family vacations, entertainment, and general photography. In these situations, sometimes rather just make my pocket point-and-shoot digital camera that still has some degree of creative control.