Bad Reason to Shoot Raw, but Impressive

[Ysarex]

First, Happy Thanksgiving. The kids are up in Wisconsin so it's just my wife and me and the dishes are soaking in the sink (my job).

So I figured I'd see if anything was going on out on the Internet.

Here's an interesting one: One of my students brought me this photo last week. Seems a buck had wandered into the yard early evening and he didn't have time to do anything except grab the camera, turn it on and shoot. Buck took off. The camera is an older Nikon D300.

Needless to say the camera wasn't set up right and that's the camera JPEG -- a solid 5 stops underexposed. He told me he did have an NEF and was curious what if anything could be done. So I told him to email me the NEF.

So, not a good reason to save that raw but he's happy he did and I'm impressed with that antique D300.

Joe

 

[Forkie]

That's pretty impressive! I still have my D300s and still use it! I must admit, I might not have kept that original either!

 

[Llamapants]

That is amazing, makes me wonder if some of my oppsies could have been saved...

 

[Buckster]

I'm trying to figure out how this shows it's a bad reason to shoot RAW, and why it was not a good reason to save that RAW.

Seems to me that this shows exactly the opposite.

 

[Ysarex]

I'm trying to figure out how this shows it's a bad reason to shoot RAW, and why it was not a good reason to save that RAW.

Seems to me that this shows exactly the opposite.

Because you shouldn't save raw files just in case you need to pull one out of the fire -- that's all.

Joe

 

[Buckster]

I'm trying to figure out how this shows it's a bad reason to shoot RAW, and why it was not a good reason to save that RAW.

Seems to me that this shows exactly the opposite.

Because you shouldn't save raw files just in case you need to pull one out of the fire

Why not?

 

[bratkinson]

In the 12 years or so I've been shooting digital, I've had a handful of times that I had to 'push process' woefully underexposed pictures to get at least an 'acceptable' result. Shots like the only picture taken of 90 year old Aunt Millie at the family reunion were one of those times when I had to work with what I got. I also rescued a point-and-shooter friend of mine whose childs' birthday party was underexposed in many of the shots.

After learning about RAW files 3 years ago, my saving RAW files in addition to the JPGs has made my rescue processes give surprisingly better results. These days, I do all my editing from the RAW and use the JPGs only to make 'first pass' keep/no keep decisions.

 

[Andrew Houghton]

First, Happy Thanksgiving. The kids are up in Wisconsin so it's just my wife and me and the dishes are soaking in the sink (my job).

So I figured I'd see if anything was going on out on the Internet.

Here's an interesting one: One of my students brought me this photo last week. Seems a buck had wandered into the yard early evening and he didn't have time to do anything except grab the camera, turn it on and shoot. Buck took off. The camera is an older Nikon D300.

Needless to say the camera wasn't set up right and that's the camera JPEG -- a solid 5 stops underexposed. He told me he did have an NEF and was curious what if anything could be done. So I told him to email me the NEF.

So, not a good reason to save that raw but he's happy he did and I'm impressed with that antique D300.

Joe

A jpeg is 8bits, a 14bit raw is 8x2x2x2x2x2x2 or 6ev...he lost nothing being 5ev under exposed

 

[annamaria]

Glad you were able to rescue the photo. Amazing to see a buck right in the yard!

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

You will not be saying that with one of those horns up you keister while you are mowing the grass

John.

Glad you were able to rescue the photo. Amazing to see a buck right in the yard!

 

[Ysarex]

First, Happy Thanksgiving. The kids are up in Wisconsin so it's just my wife and me and the dishes are soaking in the sink (my job).

So I figured I'd see if anything was going on out on the Internet.

Here's an interesting one: One of my students brought me this photo last week. Seems a buck had wandered into the yard early evening and he didn't have time to do anything except grab the camera, turn it on and shoot. Buck took off. The camera is an older Nikon D300.

Needless to say the camera wasn't set up right and that's the camera JPEG -- a solid 5 stops underexposed. He told me he did have an NEF and was curious what if anything could be done. So I told him to email me the NEF.

So, not a good reason to save that raw but he's happy he did and I'm impressed with that antique D300.

Joe

A jpeg is 8bits, a 14bit raw is 8x2x2x2x2x2x2 or 6ev...he lost nothing being 5ev under exposed

No, he lost most of the data his camera sensor could have recorded.

It is inappropriate to compare the 8 bits per channel data space in an RGB JPEG with the bit depth of an ADC, and that old Nikon D300 is not equipped with a 14 bit ADC -- probably 10 bit.

Joe

 

[annamaria]

You will not be saying that with one of those horns up you keister while you are mowing the grass

John.

Glad you were able to rescue the photo. Amazing to see a buck right in the yard!

You're so funny, but yea I get it!

 

[Gary A.]

I'm trying to figure out how this shows it's a bad reason to shoot RAW, and why it was not a good reason to save that RAW.

Seems to me that this shows exactly the opposite.

Because you shouldn't save raw files just in case you need to pull one out of the fire

Why not?

I dunno Joe's reasoning, but for me, (while I may often employ this tactic), RAW should not be used as a crutch for poor photography and you should not be lazy and sloppy with your exposures knowing you can pull them out in post. (Or maybe, Joe just doesn't want everybody to send him their poorly exposed files for his recovery operations.)

Gary

PS- Good job on the processing. I guess the buck stops with you.
G

 

[Buckster]

It seems quite a leap to me to think that anybody says to themselves, "Gee, I'll shoot RAW so that I don't have to pay attention to exposure at all ever again! YAY!!"

 

[JustJazzie]

I am curious how these get recovered. In aperture I am limited to two stops. Is there a tutorial?