RAW vs JPEG

[NazgulKing]

Just shoot both, unless you are really hard pressed for volume space on the SD card. Some blogger once mentioned that you can extract more DR out of the GX1 raws anyway. No harm shooting both.

 

[bousozoku]

What's the difference between Phase One and Lightroom?

I usually shoot jpg to save on editing but would consider RAW if I can find the right software,

Capture One takes less effort to get great image quality and Lightroom has great organizational functionality.

JPEG files are easy if you're using Olympus bodies, but if you use any other brand, you should be using raw files.

 

[elgkh]

Why I am beginning to like LR :
- very good highlight recovery
- very good noise reduction
- can adjust saturation of individual colours
- easy to correct perspective distortion
- easy to do spot adjustment
- your changes are auto-saved, and can undo at any time

I haven't tried Phase One yet, will be interesting to compare the highlight recovery and noise reduction.

 

[Agetan]

RAW only for me too.

Jpeg file seems a little too "lean" for me and something always seems missing from it. I prefer to control my final output of the jpeg rather then rely on camera "setting".

I find RAW just give me the latitude and depth to work with. But the trick is, you need to know how to work on the RaW files otherwise, it will look worst than the jpg files.

Regards,

 

[rasdeep]

One thing to note about LR is that original copy is untouched, the software is based on non-destructive manipulation which is why you can undo any changes you made. It scripts out your changes, keep a history of it and display the changes on screen, doesnt write to the original file whatsoever so there will not be any degradation of original files. your changes are then exported to a brand new file keeping your original file as master copy.

 

[Oly5050]

Shoot RAW and jpeg together. Display them both side by side on Lightroom. Then u will see wat i mean by Oly colours. 95% of the time, u will not use the RAW bec the jpegs look so good. Of cuz if u never see before, and u thk raws are good enuff, then you better not see. Once u see, u will b very confounded.

 

[vainqueur]

One thing to note about LR is that original copy is untouched, the software is based on non-destructive manipulation which is why you can undo any changes you made. It scripts out your changes, keep a history of it and display the changes on screen, doesnt write to the original file whatsoever so there will not be any degradation of original files. your changes are then exported to a brand new file keeping your original file as master copy.

Good point, now got LR, its better. Last time, before I start using LR. I always have to convert the photos from 8bits to 16bits, then do the modification/touchup before I convert back to 8bits to keep the histogram intent...

Shoot RAW and jpeg together. Display them both side by side on Lightroom. Then u will see wat i mean by Oly colours. 95% of the time, u will not use the RAW bec the jpegs look so good. Of cuz if u never see before, and u thk raws are good enuff, then you better not see. Once u see, u will b very confounded.

purely on RAW, for the sake of adjusting the right WB temperature, and rescue skin tone color. Sometimes I find jpeg is too warm for the skin tone.

I think nowadays, I do RAW+JPEG for only nightshots because like wong said... WB too warm. What color mode you use? I-Enhance is not good for nightshots, I will change it to vivid or normal mode for nightshots.

 

[Oly5050]

I think nowadays, I do RAW+JPEG for only nightshots because like wong said... WB too warm. What color mode you use? I-Enhance is not good for nightshots, I will change it to vivid or normal mode for nightshots.

Go learn your camera. Nowadays the new gen PENS like EP3 can have option for warm white balance or not.

 

[Oly5050]

Yup its called "WB keep warm colour - on/off"
Under the wb tab

 

[vainqueur]

Go learn your camera. Nowadays the new gen PENS like EP3 can have option for warm white balance or not.

You didn't think I have learnt my camera? Keep warm color is with the newer PEN. EPL1 don't have it. This is a feature which I am wanting to try once I get my EM5 because EPL1 white balance is something I don't quite like in some situation and I don't exactly like the One Touch WB thingy.

The only thing I don't know is the different setting for the Kevin in the WB, most of the time, I aga aga the numbers.

 

[vainqueur]

Why I am beginning to like LR :
- very good highlight recovery
- very good noise reduction
- can adjust saturation of individual colours
- easy to correct perspective distortion
- easy to do spot adjustment
- your changes are auto-saved, and can undo at any time

I haven't tried Phase One yet, will be interesting to compare the highlight recovery and noise reduction.

Have you wonder how the Color noise reduction in LR works??? Doesn't seems to do anything.

 

[David Kwok]

Have you wonder how the Color noise reduction in LR works??? Doesn't seems to do anything.

It works on the A and B chroma channels of the Lab color model. The reason why you see little difference is because human eyes are less sensitive to chroma changes, while extremely sensitive to luminance changes. For high ISO images which suffer from extremely bad chroma reproduction, you will notice colour noise reduction works best. It helps to keep the colours from fluctuating too much giving a more gentle and uniform colour after the NR. Chroma noises are also more annoying that Luminance noise; I suppose it could be due to our acceptance that luminance noise resemble grains found in earlier B&W film photographs, which doesn't look too ugly should the luminance noise looks random enough.

Take a closer look as you change the chroma noise reduction slider, you will notice slight changes. You might even see smearing occurring when you aggressively noise reduce.

w.r.t to choosing between RAW and JPEG. My personal opinion is use the best representation you can get out of the camera if you are going to perform post processing on the photo and it's those 慢功出细货 kinda works. Meaning it's works that you take extreme pride in if you get it delivered nice and awesome. However, if you are you snapping for events and traveling, then I suppose contents makes more importance than quality. Choose JPEG for easier manipulation and storage. It's much faster to perform edits on JPEG than large RAWs, after all you have probably 500~1000 photos to edit. All in RAW ? I can't believe how much time you want to spend in just loading and editing.

In either case, good photographs as most will agree isn't about quality but rather content/composition. If you get it right on the camera, it doesn't matter what you choose to store the image in. Besides getting the source right is the way to go for good result. I can't think of otherwise unless actual situation doesn't permit.

 

[Oly5050]

You didn't think I have learnt my camera? Keep warm color is with the newer PEN. EPL1 don't have it. This is a feature which I am wanting to try once I get my EM5 because EPL1 white balance is something I don't quite like in some situation and I don't exactly like the One Touch WB thingy.

The only thing I don't know is the different setting for the Kevin in the WB, most of the time, I aga aga the numbers.

Actually I was not referring to you. In any case, sorry, din know u were using epl1.

 

[wonglp]

Raw + Jpeg for landscapes to retrieve more details, Jpeg for portraits and the rest. Skintone with jpeg is best with Oly for me, I think you would agree

 

[vainqueur]

Actually I was not referring to you. In any case, sorry, din know u were using epl1.

Maybe I am too sensitive these days especially after the shitty performance rating and bonus I got last week. No worries.

 

[vainqueur]

Raw + Jpeg for landscapes to retrieve more details, Jpeg for portraits and the rest. Skintone with jpeg is best with Oly for me, I think you would agree

Haha, agreed. That's the main reason I have been sticking with oly for so long.

After all the responses, suddenly feel I belong more to those traditional style of photography, do it right the first time, use lots of filters, do very little pp. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing.

 

[george671]

Thats what I do..."Do it right the first time" Most of the time if you are careful the JPG right out of the camera is probable just as good ..if not better than what you might come up with from a raw that you have manipulated yourself....(but not always) I think its just a good idea to know your camera well....Like what Clint Eastwood said "a mans gotta know his limits" (Dirty Harry movie)...

Cheers:bsmilie:

 

[vainqueur]

It works on the A and B chroma channels of the Lab color model. The reason why you see little difference is because human eyes are less sensitive to chroma changes, while extremely sensitive to luminance changes. For high ISO images which suffer from extremely bad chroma reproduction, you will notice colour noise reduction works best. It helps to keep the colours from fluctuating too much giving a more gentle and uniform colour after the NR. Chroma noises are also more annoying that Luminance noise; I suppose it could be due to our acceptance that luminance noise resemble grains found in earlier B&W film photographs, which doesn't look too ugly should the luminance noise looks random enough.

Take a closer look as you change the chroma noise reduction slider, you will notice slight changes. You might even see smearing occurring when you aggressively noise reduce.

w.r.t to choosing between RAW and JPEG. My personal opinion is use the best representation you can get out of the camera if you are going to perform post processing on the photo and it's those 慢功出细货 kinda works. Meaning it's works that you take extreme pride in if you get it delivered nice and awesome. However, if you are you snapping for events and traveling, then I suppose contents makes more importance than quality. Choose JPEG for easier manipulation and storage. It's much faster to perform edits on JPEG than large RAWs, after all you have probably 500~1000 photos to edit. All in RAW ? I can't believe how much time you want to spend in just loading and editing.

In either case, good photographs as most will agree isn't about quality but rather content/composition. If you get it right on the camera, it doesn't matter what you choose to store the image in. Besides getting the source right is the way to go for good result. I can't think of otherwise unless actual situation doesn't permit.

Lab color, Ha... no wonder. If you haven't mention this color mode, I nearly forgot it exist. A powerful and yet not easy to use color mode. I only use it if I want to do conversion from RGB to CMYK color mode. Used it as a transitional color mode to do editing before converting the photo to CMYK.

Maybe I am more traditional, haha, I prefer to do it right the first time than to save the photo afterwards, however, I have yet to fully master how the WB setting works, in specific, the Kevin mode, so, nowadays I find myself doing RAW+JPEG for nightmode.

But hey, thanks for the detailed explanation.

 

[David Kwok]

Lab color, Ha... no wonder. If you haven't mention this color mode, I nearly forgot it exist. A powerful and yet not easy to use color mode. I only use it if I want to do conversion from RGB to CMYK color mode. Used it as a transitional color mode to do editing before converting the photo to CMYK.

Maybe I am more traditional, haha, I prefer to do it right the first time than to save the photo afterwards, however, I have yet to fully master how the WB setting works, in specific, the Kevin mode, so, nowadays I find myself doing RAW+JPEG for nightmode.

But hey, thanks for the detailed explanation.

I'm glad it helps. Something more to note, when using JPEG, your chroma (colours) channel is only sampled halve to the luminance(grayscale) channel. This means your colour is not as accurate. You may read up on chroma subsampling, which is utilized in JPEG. It's rare to get 4:4:4 for JPEG.

 

[vainqueur]

I'm glad it helps. Something more to note, when using JPEG, your chroma (colours) channel is only sampled halve to the luminance(grayscale) channel. This means your colour is not as accurate. You may read up on chroma subsampling, which is utilized in JPEG. It's rare to get 4:4:4 for JPEG.

Thanks man. I shall go look for chroma subsampling.