Richard & Caroline's Blog

RAW verses JPeg.  Which to use.

Its an old Argument on the forums but JPeg seems to becoming more popular again, but why?  Well in Camera processing is a lot better then it used to be, and the connivence and ease that it gives certainly speeds up the workflow.

Once the photographs are imported into my DAM Package (Digital Asset Management) they then have meta data and keywords added to them.  Even with import scripts and presets it is still quite a bit of work.  Its worth it though as anyone who has been approached by a buyer who wants to purchase the high quality original to the small jpeg you have placed on Flicker or your Blog will testify.  Being able to quickly and easily find your work, a week, a month or even five years later can mean money in the bank, and not being able to find it a lost sale.  Keywording and adding Meta Data to your photographs is essential to any semi or full time professional photographer.

But back to the original question; what about editing and post production?

The above two pictures show a edited RAW file followed by the out of camera jpeg.

Some of the in camera jpegs do look a lot better then the raw files imported into your favourite raw processor.  It is a complaint that a number of photographers make.  The image they see on the back of their camera is nothing like the RAW image they see after importing into Adobe Camera RAW/Lightroom.  What a lot of people don’t realise is that modern RAW software is designed to give a basic flat image.  It is then up to the Photographer to take that image in the direction they wish to go.

My out of camera jpeg is certainly not as good as it could be, there are lots of in-camera settings to improve things, but what people don’t realise is that the histogram is based on the in-camera JPeg.  So if you tweak the JPeg you are altering the display of the histogram.  Currently only the Leica Monochrom can display a real histogram based on the RAW file.  White Balance also has a major impact on the histogram.  I try to have my JPeg settings configured to give me an accurate as possible histogram.  In the above shot my White Balance is out due to the complex mixed light source, if I had got this right in camera then the JPeg would have been better.

So the top image has had a lot of tweaks and adjustments made, while the second image is just an out of camera JPeg.  Is the added work necessary and worthwhile?

Well this example may be a little extreme, the lighting was mixed light sources, the contrast high and the exposure difficult.  I got the shot wrong in camera but as I shot RAW and JPeg, I had the RAW to fall back on.  RAW files can be edited far more then a small 8 bit JPeg.

For an outdoor street scene the in-camera jpeg and processed RAW would likely look the same, in fact the JPeg would highly likely be better.  In that situation one would likely say that the extra work involved in shooting RAW is not worth it, and I would likely agree.

But what about in this example.  The out of camera jpeg is reasonable, but by editing the RAW file, applying a simple preset and then a minor adjustment with a bit of additional burning and dodging, the image pops that little bit more.  But is the extra work worth it?  I suppose it depends on the image and the end result.

Get it right in camera and if your intending not to do any intensive post production then the JPeg will be fine.  If your not sure you are going to get it right in camera or are going to do a lot of post production then shoot RAW.

So what do I do?  Well I tend to shoot RAW and JPeg, but I have the JPeg set to Black & White.  That way in Lightroom I see images side by side, one colour (the RAW file) and one Black & White (the JPeg), I can then see at a glance which I prefer, colour or Black & White.

For personal work JPeg is a good option but while many currently professionals are saying that they use Compact Mirror-less Systems and shoot in JPeg it should be remembered that for their commercial work they are often shooting RAW on Medium Format, then at the end of session are shooting some personal stuff on mirror-less in JPeg and posting straight to their blog.  One is given the impression that Pro’s are now all shooting that way.

 

I have blogged previously about some of my testing of Adobe Lightroom V5.

Well this morning while checking out Leica and Apple Rumour sites looking for information about the new Leica Camera that is due out this week and for new about WWDC for Apple news, they both had articles announcing the release of Adobe Lightroom V5.

You can also get more information from Chris Bennet’s Blog here.

A few days a go, I published an article where I shot a RAW photography in the evening then before getting back to my computer I had saved it to my iPad, processed the RAW file into a jpeg, then edited using layers in Photoshop Touch, then published the result.

All done on the iPad with quite good results I think.  Yesterday I looked again at the original RAW file and decided to process it and edit it again on my laptop using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

If you want to see the original post its here.

First of all here is the original RAW file processed into a jpeg.

 

In this image very little has been done, except a little fine tuning of the highlights and shadows so that all the image can be seen and a little import sharpening.

 

Now above is the image that was produced on the iPad.  Similar to the original file but more to how I envisaged it, when I took the photograph.  I kind of saw it in black and white but the red door took ones attention.  That night on the iPad I loaded the file that I had processed in PhotoRAW and took the jpg into Photoshop Touch.  I selected the red section copied it to its own layer, I then turned the underlying layer to Black & White, darkened the result and then wrote the blog post and published.  All from an iPad.  I think that is quite an achievement and am very proud of the resultant image.

People have said since the release of the iPad that it is a consumption device, but I think the above image proves that devices such as the iPad and the Android (Insert your favourite Windows RT/Palm WebOS Tablet OS here!) tablets can be used in the field.  With their light weight, instant on and good battery life, they make an excellent device for basic editing in the field.

Of course you are all saying that you could make a better job using a laptop, but the iPad fits easily in my camera bag and I do not really notice the weight and do not have to bother with the charger.  The truth is I can make a better job with my laptop but do I want to always carry it with me and then share the results of my work with the world.  Well yes I want to share but the weight and convenience of the iPad will win out.

 

Here is the version produced on my laptop using the full power of modern software.  Better, well yes but the other image is close, and more importantly, I could experiment in the Pub (Scottish Bar) a few minutes after capturing the image and produce a nice peice of art.  A few days later when I had the time would I have remembered to edit this again on the laptop to produce this without already have producing a draft on the iPad.  I don’t know but its food for thought.

PS.  Dear Apple if your thinking of producing a sub £1000 11″ MacBook Air with a 1400 x 900 display, with battery life close to an iPad, and a 250 GB or more Solid State Hard Disk then please let me so I can replace my iPad.

The iPad (or insert your favourite Android, Palm WebOS tablet OS here), are consumption devices and toys not suitable for real work is what you are always told.

Well to be honest they’re not suited for Photography heavy lifting but its surprising what you can accomplish.

I went out with a small Billingham Hadley Bag carrying an iPad, Leica M8, spare memory cards, camera batteries a couple of lens for a walk while the rest of my Photo gear was safe in the hotel.

I took photographs of the pretty little church, a few other buildings and a few people who looked interesting.

We then passed a rather small old garage that had stood unused for a number of years so I had to take a few shots.

After a meal we were relaxing and I decided to see what I could do with a few of the images. I have a iPad2 and using the camera connection I imported all my photographs, I usually make a backup of my photographs at the end of the day like this when I do not have a computer to hand. This then gives me two copies, one on the memory card and one on the iPad, once back home I always ensure I have three separate copied before wiping the cards.

Once on my iPad my first job was to use my PhotoSmith App to create a collection holding today’s Photographs, then I added location meta data and keyword’ed them. This App can then sync this information over to my master Lightroom Catalogue. I then used my new Raw processing software PhotoRaw. I loaded a few images and created a few full sized jpegs with a few tweaks.

The photograph of the garage was one I most interested in. I thought as a desaturated imaged leaving a little red in the imaged but removing the rest would work well. The kind of work I wanted to do really needed the HSL model of Adobe’s Lightroom but what can you do on an iPad?

With the garage image in PhotoRaw I had the import sharpening set to Auto, I have tested a few of the manual sharpening import options and there is even a setting for my Leica but Auto seems to produce the same settings as the Leica setting and seems to give the best results.

I gave the image a slight contrast boost, lifted the shadows and warmed and desaturated the image very slightly. I then saved it as a full sized jpeg and opened the image in Photoshop Touch. A quick selection of the coloured area to place it on its own layer, I could then turn the other layer into a Black & White image. Another layer containing the inside view enabled me to brighten that area. Once again it was saved and then opened in SnapSeed, where I warmed the image and added the frame. And so there you have it. An imaged processed from the Raw and the published on the web, all using my iPad. Even this post was written and published using it.