Why start shooting in RAW rather than JPEG - Part two
In the previous post, I started with an old JPEG file that had an incorrect white balance, and using Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop CS4, I managed to get a somewhat decent picture out of it - not something I would send to Printer - But if it was a great shot, I had rescued it from oblivion.
This message will show the differences between a JPEG and a RAW image, taken at the same time (I save both JPEG and RAW in my D70).
And just to visualize the difference between JPEG and RAW images, you must imagine that this bar shows the amount of light / data that hits the sensor in the camera when you take a picture:
| Dark | to | Light | |
[===================================] | |||
When stored as RAW this is what will be stored:
| Dark | Light | ||
[===================================] | = 5.5 Mb | ||
But if it is saved as JPEG, this is what will be saved:
| Dark | Light | ||
[------=====================-------] | = 0.7 Mb | ||
Although more than 50% of the image is still there, every bit is also being scaled from 12-bit to 8-bit, you lose information that describes each pixel. The camera's internal CPU will then remove the excess data, for example the details of the dark background or a white sky. And then set the JPEG compression in and it's actually by the removal of even more data from the image.
Had you changed differently exposed in the camera against something light, or camera was cheated by how much light there was in the picture. Have you maybe even a file that looks like this:
| Dark | Light | ||
[-------------=====================] | = 0.7 Mb | ||
Thus, an overexposed picture, but you've lost detail in dark areas of the image.
See this screenshot of Adobe Bridge:
JPEG vs. RAW (click to view large)
This is a screenshot from my Adobe Bridge, where my JPEG file are left, and my RAW file to the right. Notice the colors in the JPEG file is warmer, skin tones are better and the background is much brighter.
But look closer, notice the sky behind my son is burned out, every detail is lost.
 JPEG Background Click above to view larger |  RAW Wallpaper Click above to view larger |
RAW file still need treatment in order to display correctly, but it can be done in a few minutes (if you've tried it before) in either Adobe Camera RAW or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
This is the final image, after more than 1 minute in Adobe Camera RAW:
And this full-size images, click to view full size.
 JPEG version |  RAW version |
The background now contains information, and the shadow on my son's right shoulder is not as dark.
What do you think is better, or do you just keep JPEG?
