I shot RAW -JPEG-Fine

Michael J.

Senior Member
I had to try again. Yesterday I used my Nikon 55-300 and captured a flag in the wind behind my house. I shot it in RAW and JPEG Fine.

I tried both as good as I can to to post-process and resized it. I know with more experience I can develop my pics better. So I will keep on trying/learning and practicing. Software Lightroom 3.6 Long time I believed that JPEG is fine and great. Now I am not that sure anymore. I think if the Capture condition is perfect JPEG is fine but if it turns a bit difficult the capture condition I think RAW s to go.

Everyone is invited to post here the before and after

JPEG


banbueng_flag-jpeg-fine-1.jpg


RAW

banbueng_flag-1.jpg
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
I am looking at them with my small monitor at work at the moment, but the RAW looks better to me. The colours of the flag look better. and seems to be better detail in the trees.
​But as I said my monitor is not the best for viewing photos.
 

Michael J.

Senior Member
My shoots were one JPEG ooc the other RAW.

Both I tried after processeing as I have no experience.

The thread should help me and maybe others seeing what is possible with RAW schooting and Yes that's why I would like you share your Raw before processing and after - So we can see what is possible.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Try again just posted with different pictures :D

Just starting with raw myself using Elements 11 first shot straight from camera second my attempt to save it.

DSC_9415_176.JPG

DSC_9415-2.jpg
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
stunning - love the result mikew

Thank you, I'm still not sure raw is for me. I have to see if I can get pre sets into Elements to handle most of it, unless something is wrong with the file I get the feeling I'm aiming in my mind for the result fine jpeg would give any way, needs more thought.

mike
 
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Michael J.

Senior Member
Yesterday shooting was RAW +JPEG-Fine- After that I didn't look at my JPEG opend the RAW and processed it as the scene was in my mind to remember.

Finished my work looked overall I was satisfied.

After that I re-sized it and saved it as a jpeg.

Next, I opend the JPEG (OOC) and looked at it. It was not the scenery I had in mind and tried as good as I could to process/modify the JPEG file.

I saved it after re-sizing and I compared the OOC JPEG modified one and my RAW processed one.

The result I posted. And I like the out-coming of RAW even it is not that perfect. But I needed to see if I am able to process RAW to a result I like.

Still I think that the Camera JPEG out-comming is also great. Just look at the photos I posted already in my other threads. No complains but You don't know how many I didn't show cos' the results are terrible. But RAW I think I can get more satisfying results.
 
Thank you,ime still not sure raw is for me.I have to see if i can get pre sets into Elements to handle most of it,unless something is wrong with the file i get the feeling ime aiming in my mind for the result fine jpeg would give any way,needs more thought.

mike

If you read some of the old posts you will see I only shot JPEG for a long time. I shot some night shots a while back and decided I would shoot RAW that evening. When I went to edit the files the JPEG-Fine was absolutely unusable due to the color of the street lights in the area. I could not correct the orange/yellow out of the shot to save my life. A couple of days later I decided to take a second look at the night time pictures. This time I pulled up the RAW and slid the slider for color temp over to the left and the color went to as near perfect as it could get. I went through the entire group and adjusted the color, sharpness, contrast shadow detail and a couple of other items and they were the best night time pictures I had ever seen. Well at least the best I had ever shot. I started shooting RAW+JPEG-Fine for a while then and played with the RAW files on a few and found that basic post processing of the files only took a couple of minutes and the results were a leap ahead for me.

My wife shoots a Nikon CoolPix L120 and it only shoots JPEG. I had taught her to use ViewNX2 for her editing and she was doing very good with it. Recently I decided to show her how to use Adobe Camera RAW editor on her JPEG files. Her results jumped when she did. She will shoot several hundred photos when we go out and in a few hours she will cull her photos to 30 or so photos that she like and will edit them in ACR and then PhotoShop and will have some photos that rival some of the more expensive cameras on the forum here.

All this being said, give RAW a try by shooting RAW+JPEG so you can fall back on the JPEG at any time. Once you get the basics of RAW down it is a pretty easy task and the results will better than JPEG.
 

Watch72

Senior Member
Raw retains most of the information whereas JPEG is an outcome of a algorithm that may reduce or discard certain data.

I take raw all the time because I like to keep a copy for future - DNG being the digital negative. How good when compared to JPEG will depend on your post process skill. If you like to keep JPEG - then recording them in both format would be a good way to go. /W72
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I need to get a handle on it in my mind,discussions like this are great for getting things in perspective,i have considered getting a second card and writing raw and fine jpeg on different cards,the next step for me is carry on shooting raw then when viewed in View NX2, deciding how many need to go to photoshop and how many just need tweaking in NX

mike
 

Bill16

Senior Member
I tried raw, but at this time I can't even download them to post process. But once I get a computer up and running I'll look into trying again. :)
 
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Michael J.

Senior Member
I have to tell you that shooting RAW is not that bad as I thought. Actually I enjoy the afterwards processing even I just use only the lens-correction. On the other hand I re experience everything again and this is great.

It is not just looking at a photo it is thinking about how it was and which steps would fit on that particular photo I am going to process that it turns out as my feeling was when I captured it.
 

Roy1961

Senior Member
Contributor
i think this is something we all have to go through, i have been putting it of for as long as i could, just trying to learn as much as possible, now i know i need to switch over (and with a helping push from Don) i have just starting to shoot RAW and JPEG fine, once i get to play around in NX2 and master my mistakes with PP i will buy a better program and the end game is just to shoot in RAW, then i can justify getting a FX in a few years, until then its learning and correcting as we go.
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
I shot jpeg only for quiet a while. When I was ready to try RAW, I took the advice seen often on here to shoot raw & jpeg. I did that for about a week until I realized the double up in files were just cluttering up my computer.

I use Aperture for PP, and dont find it anymore work processing raw files than jpegs, I maybe spend a bit more time on each file now, but that is because I can do more to it as a raw file.
​My PP only scrapes the surface of what is possible, as I get better at it, I guess I will spend longer on some photos to try and get the best out of them.
 
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