Raw Processing Tutorial

[draco]

thanks for the very nice tutorial rick.. as alwasy

but my question is, from the above tutorial, it seems that the main advantage of raw is you can really do a lot of editing, but can't you also do that on a jpg?

[dbax]

thanks for the very nice tutorial rick.. as alwasy

but my question is, from the above tutorial, it seems that the main advantage of raw is you can really do a lot of editing, but can't you also do that on a jpg?

yep you can but.... a jpg has already been processed in camera, sharpened/saturation/contrast etc a RAW file is just that RAW you control what adjustment YOU want as well as being able to make exposure adjustments if you got it a little bit wrong.
thats the short answer its a discussion that will continue for decades

EDIT Oh yeah, and a jpg file is already compressed eg a jpg file might be 2M and a RAW file of the same scene might be 10M thats 8M of detail you can't get back.
thats a little more of the simple answer...... and yes I shoot both jpg and RAW

[ricktas]

Raw processing (till recently) has been 'whole of photo' processing. Ie you couldn't work on specific areas of your photo. RAW processors let you change the white balance, adjust shadows, etc. A RAW file is the data straight from the sensor (after analog->digital conversion).

A JPG is a processed photo. Your camera processed a JPG and saves it based on a series of instructions set in your camera. As dbax says, a RAW file might be 10MB of data, but the same JPG out of the camera might be 3MB..where did your other data go? Your camera just removed 7MB of colour information, pixel information etc that your camera sensor 'saw'. Does that sound the best way to get the best result from your captured image?

Yes you can edit a JPG just as you can a RAW file, but you are editing something that has already been striped of a lot of information. I know which one I would rather work with.

[jev]

Raw processing (till recently) has been 'whole of photo' processing. Ie you couldn't work on specific areas of your photo.

Strictly speaking that is arguable at least. Canon's DPP has had features for healing and cloning for years. LightZone (agreed, not a very well known RAW converter) provides things like dodge and burn, regional edits etc. It offered these features since day 1 (back in 2005 or 2006 or so). And those are just two converters I've been playing around with, there are many, many more out there.

[ricktas]

I agree Jev, thats why I said until recently - meaning the last few years

[Inspired]

HI Rick
I have been shooting in RAW and JPEG as i cant seem to open RAW photo's on my pc, (so shooting in both as a back-up and until i learn enough to go soley RAW). I have CS4 with camera RAW, do i need another program to be able to open the photo's or should that be suffiecent? as at the moment it says it doesn't recognise the file - having no trouble opening the JPEG's though.
Do i need to download another type of software to be able to open the RAW images?
Thanks so much
Nicole

[ricktas]

HI Rick
I have been shooting in RAW and JPEG as i cant seem to open RAW photo's on my pc, (so shooting in both as a back-up and until i learn enough to go soley RAW). I have CS4 with camera RAW, do i need another program to be able to open the photo's or should that be suffiecent? as at the moment it says it doesn't recognise the file - having no trouble opening the JPEG's though.
Do i need to download another type of software to be able to open the RAW images?
Thanks so much
Nicole

Have you downloaded the latest updates for CS4? When in CS4, go to Help menu and check for updates. Download any/all, repeat till everything is up to date, then try again