What is unrepairable?

[Val]

Over exposure resulting in burnouts is unrepairable. What else?

If i shoot JPG can i later correct white balance? If not can i correct it using RAW?

What about exposure? If i shoot RAW there is exposure scale, but it seems to me thats just a software algorithm very limited in its action?

 

[Josh66]

White balance corrections are as simple as one click with a RAW image. In JPG it's still doable, but there's a little more work involved.

 

[Alex_B]

a good exposure is a good exposure, a really bad exposure where you did not achieve what you wanted, will always be a bad exposure. corrections always work within narrow limits. what was not captured by the sensor, is not in the
RAW data and hence cannot be rescued.


however, RAW being 12 to 14 bits, instead of 8, allow alot more correction exposure-wise than jpg. you do not get posterizing that easily and you might be able to drag out more informations from the shadows (dark parts of the image)

 

[Val]

What about colour modes and saturation (eg Nikon [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]=Color Mode IIIa) ? Is this post processing done in camera or does it actually have effect on RAW images?
[/FONT]

 

[Garbz]

Poor composition! Basically blown highlights and being more than 0.66EV off in exposure even in raw is what I consider unrepairable. Just look at the difference of a properly exposed photo and one you manipulate in post. Especially if the manipulation is to brighten the image the noise goes up and the quality is not the same.

Don't rely on anything to be repairable in post except for white balance which truly is a post process for RAW files.

 

[Josh66]

What about colour modes and saturation (eg Nikon [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]=Color Mode IIIa) ? Is this post processing done in camera or does it actually have effect on RAW images?[/FONT]

I think (not 100% sure) that this has no affect on the RAW, just the JPG that is processed in camera. It should be easy to test though - set your camera up to shoot RAW+JPG and you should be able to tell pretty quickly if the effects are being applied to the RAW or just the JPG.

 

[Val]

Looks like purely post processing...

Why would anyone want to use those functions then? Surely you can adjust it in PS better and more precisely. On the other hand it doesnt hurt either. Hmm

 

[Alex_B]

Looks like purely post processing...

Why would anyone want to use those functions then? Surely you can adjust it in PS better and more precisely. On the other hand it doesnt hurt either. Hmm

those functions are for those who want no custom processing whatsoever and use jpg

 

[Sideburns]

The settings don't affect RAW. that's for people who don't wanna play as much with colour later.

Also, anything overexposed by 1 stop or underexposed by 1 stop is pretty much gone with digital. You may get a usable image, but you can't get the proper exposure with digital through PP, and still get perfect detail.

The latitude of digital sensors is 1 stop. Over or under that...and there's unrecoverable detail lost.