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I have recently been experimenting with the raw format on my canon G6 camera. I have followed numerous tutorials and cannot for the life of me match the quality that this fine camera produces in jpeg mode. Using photoshop cs2 I have moved the various sliders etc. in the raw editing mode to a setting that looks ok to me but when I compare them to the quality of the camera produced jpegs there is no comparison. Compared to the jpegs produced my conversions are a little flat and lacks the bright colours that a jpeg would give. Someone please tell me where I am going wrong before I write raw off as a useless gimmick.
Melv
There is a learning curve when you first start using raw, but it is worth it.
Try downloading a 30 day trial of Capture One LE and see if you get better results out of that. FYI, my workflow is:
White balance - find a decent grey point in the shot (if there is one) and click on it to correct the WB. Alter the warmth setting to give required tones.
Exposure - Bring the left (shadows) and right (highlights) levels sliders in until they touch the extremities of the histogram. Then switch to the curves tab and adjust shadows, midtones and highlights individually to desired levels (normally a slight S curve).
Once that is processed and loaded into PS all that is left to do is any resizing, cloning out dust spots and final sharpening.
If by the end of the 30 day trial you are still unhappy then it could be that your camera simply doesn't produce a decent raw file.
Ian
Its quite normal for Raw files to look a little flat compared to jpegs. You'll probably want to use levels/curves to increase the contrast in your images and maybe add a touch of saturation.
This link might be useful!
Chris.
I think the problem here is the trend towards saturated colours that is not helped with TV and adverising. I doubt if many do any fine tuning on their TV and just leave them as set by the manufacturer. The natural colours certainly dont look good on the screen. When viewed as a thumbnail on here they dont catch the eye the same way as an increased saturated one. On the film side its Fuji Provia that set the trend.
If you are happy with JPEG then by all means leave RAW alone. RAW puts you in full control.
Ken
If your shots are always perfectly exposed and colour balanced then you may not gain by switching to raw. The main advantage of raw is that it gives you the ability to pull out so much more from the shots than you can with jpeg, e.g. shadow details.
I stayed away from raw until I got a dslr, but am glad I made the switch.
Ian
You've made that assertion before CB, where is your evidence and what type of pro? I can imagine that press togs, who need absolute speed of production, may stick with TIF or JPEG, but I would expect the pros who require quality images would use raw.
Quote: I can imagine that press togs, who need absolute speed of production, may stick with TIF or JPEG
Wouldn't disagree with that. I would think wedding togs too would tend to use JPEG.
Just going on what I have seen on EPZ over the past 3 years!
RAW can be useful if you muck up a photo but if you try and get it "right first time" a JPEG should be no more difficult to get a pleasing result with, and as easy to manipulate should you wish to do so.
Interesting. Off the top of my head I can't think of any epz pros who habitually use jpeg.
RAW isn't always the appropriate approach in every case. If you're just after a reasonably punchy, well sharpened image then maybe RAW doesn't have too much to offer... over the built in settings. If you want to take a greater level of control over the final result then you should use RAW as the added flexibility will allow you to achieve more in terms of shadow and highlight detail.
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