Would you edit this or leave it be. Airplane take-off.

[AprilEye]

I shot in JPEG. I am not really familiar with RAW at this point as I am still a fairly new DSLR owner. Its something I would like to learn more about though.

You're likely not familiar with JPEG either.

Your T2i makes 14-bit Raw images, but only 8-bit JPEG images.

Ironically, the T2i makes every image a Raw capture, at first. To then convert it to a JPEG, the camera throws away, forever, 80% of the color data it originally captured, so it can get down to that 8-bit limit.

14-bit means there are 16,384 tonal gradations per color channel in a Raw. 8-bit means there are only 256 tonal gradations per color channel on a JPEG. There are 3 color channels red, green, and blue (RGB).

JPEG files are smaller. Generally, the Large/Fine quality JPEG file size is 1/4 the file size of a Raw capture. But as mentioned, compressing the file size that mich, and particularly losing 80% of the image color data make editing JPEGs a touchy proposition.

As bad as that is, it gets worse. JPEG converts the image into 64 pixel squares called MCU's or Minimum Coded Units. That means no more pixel editing.

Why should I use Raw?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPG

Quick dumb question - does shooting in RAW mean that every picture you shoot will need to be edited post?

 

[Mecal]

Quick dumb question - does shooting in RAW mean that every picture you shoot will need to be edited post?

not necessarily. One of my favorite pictures I have taken I did not need to edit.
However, usually you do have to. I will post an example.


resized greatly and hosted on photobucket, so quality is lost.
But hopefully you get the idea.

original

edited

 

[KmH]

Quick dumb question - does shooting in RAW mean that every picture you shoot will need to be edited post?

No.

You only need to edit the keepers.

Look at it this way.

With JPEG - every saturation, contrast, and sharpening adjustment that is done in the camera, is done to the entire image. And, how much of it that gets done was decided by a committe of Japanese camera engineers who had no idea what you would take a photo of. So, they made it as generic as they could.

Learn to do non-destructive, and local editing.

Take control of how your photographs look, away from the Japanese camera engineers.

 

[PavementPilot]

From reading this thread, I went to my camera and set it to RAW+JPEG. I can see the difference in just the two photos side by side. I found the RAW editing much more pleasing in the end. I think I will leave my camera set to both formats. With the card I have, I can shoot 300 shots.

 

[AprilEye]

Quick dumb question - does shooting in RAW mean that every picture you shoot will need to be edited post?

not necessarily. One of my favorite pictures I have taken I did not need to edit.
However, usually you do have to. I will post an example.


resized greatly and hosted on photobucket, so quality is lost.
But hopefully you get the idea.

original

edited

I see what you mean. The quality in the unedited version seems good enough then you see the edited one and its even better.

 

[Derrel]

Rotate it counter-clockwise a bit and level the horizon. It looks fine as-shot...the hazy,filthy air of L.A. is expected by many people.

 

[KmH]

From reading this thread, I went to my camera and set it to RAW+JPEG. I can see the difference in just the two photos side by side. I found the RAW editing much more pleasing in the end. I think I will leave my camera set to both formats. With the card I have, I can shoot 300 shots.

Just remember that the camera LCD cannot show you the Raw image.

 

[oldmacman]

Would love to see it!

Okay, not sure if you will like this, but...

Some info:
- I find the need for rotation is an optical illusion. When I popped a guideline in PS, the verticals are pretty close to true vertical.
- the background was done by multiplying the original layer to build saturation and then masking the plane.
- I duplicated the multiplication layer again to deepen the background.
- global sharpened
- masked the background for the sharpen
- duplicated the layer and blurred the mountain a hair to create a little visual contrast with the plane.

 

[Jcampbelll]

Always shoot RAW. You will never look back.

 

[AprilEye]

Would love to see it!

Okay, not sure if you will like this, but...

Some info:
- I find the need for rotation is an optical illusion. When I popped a guideline in PS, the verticals are pretty close to true vertical.
- the background was done by multiplying the original layer to build saturation and then masking the plane.
- I duplicated the multiplication layer again to deepen the background.
- global sharpened
- masked the background for the sharpen
- duplicated the layer and blurred the mountain a hair to create a little visual contrast with the plane.

Wow, looks really nice. Thanks!

 

[AprilEye]

Hopefully someone from this earlier thread will see this... once you shoot in RAW, then can you convert it post to a JPEG or is it best converted to a TIFF?

 

[Emilymarie]

Hopefully someone from this earlier thread will see this... once you shoot in RAW, then can you convert it post to a JPEG or is it best converted to a TIFF?

you can convert to jpeg. i shoot RAW 100% and ALWAYS convert to JPEG AFTER Im done editing

 

[Josh220]

Hopefully someone from this earlier thread will see this... once you shoot in RAW, then can you convert it post to a JPEG or is it best converted to a TIFF?

Jpeg is easier if you plan on uploading it, as most hosting sites cannot read TIFF. Same goes for if you plan on sending the pictures to anyone.

 

[cyngus]

TIFF should generally only be used for print..

 

[Overread]

Hopefully someone from this earlier thread will see this... once you shoot in RAW, then can you convert it post to a JPEG or is it best converted to a TIFF?

This depends at what stage you are saving the photo and why. I tend to save all my photos first as a PSD (photoshops own save format) but a TIFF with layer data would serve a similar purpose. At this stage in the editing the photo has no "use" or output its simply a save of the photo at fullsize for reference. Saved in PSD/TIFF because its a lossless save format (ie data is not being lost after each save).

I'll then resize and edit accordingly for different outputs - eg resizing and sharpening a 1000pixel on the longest side version for the net - that will be saved as a JPEG - not need to preserve data perfectly and chances are it will only be used for upload.