Exercise 11: Raw

Plan and shoot three images in three different lighting situations; one should be in daylight, one in artificial lighting and one high dynamic range.  Take each of these images in JPEG and RAW formats.

Open and process each pair of images.  Compare the two versions of each scene, paying special attention to:

·         Dynamic range

·         White balance and colour

·         Local adjustment of any kind

What difference, if any, do you see between the RAW and JPEG?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daylight lighting

Jpeg image using Auto setting in camera

RAW image using Shady setting in camera

The Auto white balance setting in camera gave a very yellow effect when the shutter was pressed.  I was able to adjust the white balance in the RAW window so that using the Shade setting I got a much better colour balance.  Also there was more detail in the shadow left hand part of the picture.

Artificial lighting

JPeg image using Auto setting in camera,

camera on tripod, ISO 1600 setting

RAW converted image using As Shot setting in camera, camera on tripod, ISO 1600 setting

When I looked further into the RAW image I could see that the street lighting had lost much of the detail on both images.  I was able to pull back some of the detail in the RAW image but there was nothing extra to extract on the Jpeg image.  See below for blown highlighting on street lights indicated by red areas.

I used the ISO 1600 and the ISO 200 images to check for excessive grain and found that although the images on the left with the ISO1600 image the grain was fairly obvious there was more detail in the street lighting so I used the ISO 1600 image rather than the 200.

High dynamic range



JPEG image using Auto setting in camera,

camera hand held, ISO 400 setting

RAW converted image using Daylight setting in camera,
camera hand held, ISO 400

This high dynamic image was taken in mid-December when the beach at Lyme Regis was empty apart from a couple of dog walkers and a surfer.  The sun was coming from the south but was fairly low in the sky which created these silhouettes.  The JPEG image was set on Auto and gave some washed out areas of light which were not retrievable even using Image/Adjust/Shadows & Highlights.  The RAW converted image, when changed to Daylight setting was able to retrieve a bit more detail than on the Jpeg image.  The Daylight setting also gave a warmer tone to the image.  In both cases the dynamic range seemed to be outside the camera’s capability to capture detail, which was a pity as the sea on the horizon was just blown completely.  Still, it made for a dramatic picture.