Are Your Photos Raw?

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the big advantages of digital photography is the ability to go back to old images and reprocess them with new software. Software keeps getting better and better each year, and there’s constantly new software coming along. Add to that your new skills and it’s almost like being to go back and retake the picture with a new, greatly improved film.

One caveat though, the ability to reprocess old images only holds true if your camera is set to shoot in raw mode. Most higher-end cameras can record the image in one of two ways, either raw, or jpeg. In raw mode, the cameras captures all of the data from the image sensor and records the raw data to the memory card. At that point, it’s not a picture, it’s just data. You then load the memory card data to your computer, and use special software to process the raw data into a finished image. In jpeg mode, the camera processes the sensor data into a finished image and then saves the image to the memory card.

Shooting in raw mode takes a little more work, but gives you a lot more flexibility. It’s a little like buying a cake mix versus buying a ready-baked cake. If I buy a cake mix, I can still modify the recipe, add goodies to the mix, and choose to make a round or square cake, or even cupcakes. If I buy a ready-baked cake, it’s pretty hard to add ingredients. If it came as a square cake, but I wanted a round cake, I’m pretty limited to the size of square I can cut out of the circle.

That’s the drawback to shooting in jpeg mode. All of the processing parameters are baked into the file by the camera. You can make some changes after the fact, but you’re pretty limited. And you certainly loose the ability to reprocess the image when better tools are available.

The finished photo below was taken in September 2006 in Jekyll Island, Georgia. The sun was still well below the horizon to the left, and the yellow glow is from sodium vapor lights in a motel parking lot. In fact, it was so dark that I couldn’t really see well to frame the image. The total exposure was at ISO 200, f2.8 for 30th seconds. The exposure time was long enough to pick up the stars, but short enough that they appear as points of light rather than short streaks. Needless to say, it was captured in raw mode.

Jekyll Island sunrise

Now, compare it to the original version shown below, before any adjustments have been applied. In particular, notice how much detail is actually in the nearly black areas in the foreground. That’s one of the areas where modern software for processing raw images really shines. If I had captured this image as a jpeg, those dark areas would have been recorded as pure black, and there’s no way to extract details and color out of a solid black area.

Jekyll Island original frame

If you want to learn more about using your camera in raw mode, feel free to get in touch with me. I offer very reasonably priced one-on-one training including camera settings and post processing. I also have a a number of tutorials on my web site, including a set of Powerpoint slides that I’ve used for training.

About Craig

I have a passion to create, and I'm fascinated with the tools and technologies of creativity. I strive to produce images that are graphically simple and technically precise in order to render beautiful photographic fine art prints. I work with a variety of digital transformations to create a finished image that reflects my artistic interpretation.
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