One of the main reason to get a DSLR camera is the capability to deal with different scenes through variety of lenses. DSLR cameras also offer full manual controls that allow a photographer to specify the focal point, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, ISO and lot more. Over time SLRs have become huge machines with amazing features to deal with some of the difficult lighting conditions. But a true defining feature is the option to shoot in a raw file format. Raw file formats contain pixel data straight from the image sensor and allow you absolute control for making edits. Check out more about RAW Files HERE..
In order to save an image into a popular format such as JPEG, the camera is converting the raw sensor data into JPEG file. Which essentially means that cameras have inbuilt softwares to convert raw information from sensors into JPEG or Tiff. The camera is essentially making assumptions about photographers intent and is processing the data into a JPEG image. Conversely, a raw file format is unprocessed until you utilize a raw conversation program such as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 or Adobe Photoshop. I personally prefer Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for my raw processing workflows.
As we know that not every photo comes out perfectly. Sometimes lighting, shadows or highlights need to be adjusted or there might be color shift from what they were in reality or than desired and applying a slight blur or vignette can add focus on the main subject in a photograph. Since Raw files have uncompressed pixel information present in your shot frame, multiple things can be done in post processing. In fact, very small details of a photograph can be handled.
We have more possibilities when we process a raw file instead of JPEG. To show the difference in quality, below are two versions of the same photo: one which was captured as a JPEG and other in raw file format. Each of these photographs are processed using the Here we have tried to extract details from extreme highlights and shadows. The major different can be seen in the sky, which was almost overexposed in original photograph. Here in case of raw we are able to get more details as compared to JPEG. With the raw photo, we could recover most of the highlight detail in the sky. On the JPEG photo, there is a section of the sky that is blown out and cannot be recovered.
As we know that not every photo comes out perfectly. Sometimes lighting, shadows or highlights need to be adjusted or there might be color shift from what they were in reality or than desired and applying a slight blur or vignette can add focus on the main subject in a photograph. Since Raw files have uncompressed pixel information present in your shot frame, multiple things can be done in post processing. In fact, very small details of a photograph can be handled.
We have more possibilities when we process a raw file instead of JPEG. To show the difference in quality, below are two versions of the same photo: one which was captured as a JPEG and other in raw file format. Each of these photographs are processed using the Here we have tried to extract details from extreme highlights and shadows. The major different can be seen in the sky, which was almost overexposed in original photograph. Here in case of raw we are able to get more details as compared to JPEG. With the raw photo, we could recover most of the highlight detail in the sky. On the JPEG photo, there is a section of the sky that is blown out and cannot be recovered.
JPEG
RAW - NEF
Now many of the point-n-shoot and mirrorless cameras come with the option to shoot in RAW, so we should try those options to make best use of the whole photography workflow which also include post-procssing as one of the important steps.
So make BEST use of RAW file formats !!!
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