RAW and JPEG experiment
January 31st, 2009Having a husband in the field of digital image compression does have its advantages. I am able to get clear answers on the differences of various compression schemes and what is lost in each one. He has written a great article, To Shoot in Camera Raw or JPEG Format, on the subject for scrapbookers.
Once again, the question came up on a scrapbook message board - should I shot in JPEG or RAW? I am in the very small group that shots JPEG.
Feeling I might be missing something, I ran an experiment today. I took several photos of the same object on our hike. According to my camera’s histogram they were good images in terms of lighting. I took a high quality JPEG image then a RAW image of the exact same thing with my digital SLR camera.
I uploaded them to iPhoto, then opened them in Adobe Photoshop. These are the images Straight Out of The Camera:
One is RAW and one is JPEG. The RAW image in 7.3 MB while the JPEG is 3.2 MB. That’s quite a bit of memory differential.
In the top image the sky is bluer than IRL. The bottom one is more accurate in the yellow but a little washed out in the green. Both needed editing. For both I darkened things a bit and added some contrast in the midtones. It took about 1 minute to edit each one. The one on the bottom though - the RAW one - is more true to what we really saw with our eyes.
Two photographs of a bridge with bright sunshine and shade. The top one has correct color and great sharpness. The bottom one is washed out and dull. The top one (JPEG) needed no corrections. The bottom one (RAW) needed the blackest areas to be more black and lightened in the midtones. It also needed sharpening. Again the RAW image is almost twice as large as the JPEG.
Same as above. The bottom image (RAW) is washed out and needs the same correction. The contrast in the JPEG is outstanding.
I understand that RAW images do need to be edited. They are not meant to be taken straight out of the camera without any editing. I did edit the RAW photos in Adobe Photoshop. But what I found is that the quality of the edited JPEG did not exceed what I got straight out of the camera from the JPEG image.
I decided I needed to take some really bad photos (bad lighting) and see which made a better improvement. To be honest, it didn’t matter. A bad photo is a bad photo.
From my experiment with seeing what came straight out of the camera and what I got from editing the RAW files I can feel fine taking my photos in JPEG. The advantages of good high quality images, the time saved for not having to edit every file, the smaller file size and a format (JPEG) that I know will be around longer than probably my camera’s RAW format convinces me to go with JPEG.
This is my camera, my software and my results. I would suggest trying a similar experiment with your own camera and software.
Regardless of your choice to shot in RAW or JPEG, I would highly recommend saving a copy of your image in JPEG. Your camera’s RAW format may not be around in 5 or 10 years. JPEG will. Or maybe your future computer or operating system won’t support your RAW program. But it will support JPEG. I’d hate to see you lose your precious memories.
I agree with you. I like the JPEG’s better! GREAT photos!!
I have been doing the same thing. It is so interesting. I hate to think that I have to edit every single photo thought, and am still leaning to JPEG….the file size is SO huge. Wish we lived across the street from each other so we could chit chat about this more. I decided I am going to just keep practicing, and maybe I will become more definite as time goes on.
Love your templates.
I am actually doing Ali’s calendar, in 12 x 12.
Fun test, Denise. Have you tried comparing RAW and JPEG where the white balance is off? That’s where I see the huge advantage of RAW.
I’ve stuck with jpeg because I simply don’t want the huge files. My files are big enough with the 40D. I agree with Sue, though, that in situations where white balance is an issue, there’s no comparison - RAW wins that one every time.
Well, that was an interesting read…thanks for the visual, I found it very helpful. I switched to RAW last summer. Not quite sure how I feel about it. The editing is a pain and the file size is enormous but it’s a life saver for those few pics that need wb correction. I’m on the fence about the whole thing. I do save all my special photos in JPEG, but again…that memory issue….it’s a hard call.