Shooting RAW?
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 11:21 am
I noted a photography article in the latest British Cactus Society Journal on shooting RAW if your camera will allow it. How many of us using conventional cameras that allow it simply shoot “in camera JPEG’s” instead because they cannot be bothered to post process their pictures and then convert to JPEG's after post processing?
I have always shot RAW since I started digital photography because a friend who was already shooting digital told me otherwise you had less control over the final image. Just as the author of the BCSS article pointed out, particularly for getting correct exposure on white flowers. Agreed if you use the “Blinkies” on cameras that allow it there is an indication which parts of the image has burnt out and you can alter the exposure to compensate, but post processing using RAW usually allows you to do this afterwards to a greater degree.
Higher specified amateur or semi pro cameras that allow it sometimes come with the “Blinkies” already set, but in most cases you have to go into the menu and set both the “Blinkies” and “Histogram's” yourself. However look in your camera manual to see if you can and if so how to do it:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQjDDM4WSIo
Also photography on some Forums is often just snatched shots of plants in a cluttered staging, the photographer seldom making the effort to remove them and isolate the plant for it’s own portrait. Also a lot of white flowered plants having the petals burnt out to a greater or lesser extent. Almost all whites in a picture should show some degree of texture and not be just burnt out flat white.
Anyway it’s worth the little extra time post processing your pictures, not just for exposure but also for sharpening since digital photography (at least until recently) works differently to conventional film photography in that the image is sharpened after taking to avoid Moiré patterning. The image being sharpened either automatically in camera if you shoot in camera JPEG's, or by the photographer in post processing shooting RAW. In camera sharpening can be manipulated to a certain degree in the menu in some cameras, but sharpening is better done in post processing where you can see the results on your computer screen.
https://www.howtogeek.com/215920/htg-ex ... -doing-it/
You can even sharpen smartphone photo’s:-
http://www.imageenlargement.com/how-to- ... ne-photos/
White flowers, especially with dark backgrounds, are the hardest to avoid the petals burning out and getting “Blinkies”, since the camera sets the exposure half way between the black and the white parts of the image and so overexposes the white, but with a black background you do not require detail in the black anyway. Camera meters work well on average subjects, but non average subjects with an exposure range longer than the sensor can record will fool them. The Golden Rule for digital photography is to expose for the highlights. Anyway if you can shoot RAW and post process give it a try.
I have always shot RAW since I started digital photography because a friend who was already shooting digital told me otherwise you had less control over the final image. Just as the author of the BCSS article pointed out, particularly for getting correct exposure on white flowers. Agreed if you use the “Blinkies” on cameras that allow it there is an indication which parts of the image has burnt out and you can alter the exposure to compensate, but post processing using RAW usually allows you to do this afterwards to a greater degree.
Higher specified amateur or semi pro cameras that allow it sometimes come with the “Blinkies” already set, but in most cases you have to go into the menu and set both the “Blinkies” and “Histogram's” yourself. However look in your camera manual to see if you can and if so how to do it:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQjDDM4WSIo
Also photography on some Forums is often just snatched shots of plants in a cluttered staging, the photographer seldom making the effort to remove them and isolate the plant for it’s own portrait. Also a lot of white flowered plants having the petals burnt out to a greater or lesser extent. Almost all whites in a picture should show some degree of texture and not be just burnt out flat white.
Anyway it’s worth the little extra time post processing your pictures, not just for exposure but also for sharpening since digital photography (at least until recently) works differently to conventional film photography in that the image is sharpened after taking to avoid Moiré patterning. The image being sharpened either automatically in camera if you shoot in camera JPEG's, or by the photographer in post processing shooting RAW. In camera sharpening can be manipulated to a certain degree in the menu in some cameras, but sharpening is better done in post processing where you can see the results on your computer screen.
https://www.howtogeek.com/215920/htg-ex ... -doing-it/
You can even sharpen smartphone photo’s:-
http://www.imageenlargement.com/how-to- ... ne-photos/
White flowers, especially with dark backgrounds, are the hardest to avoid the petals burning out and getting “Blinkies”, since the camera sets the exposure half way between the black and the white parts of the image and so overexposes the white, but with a black background you do not require detail in the black anyway. Camera meters work well on average subjects, but non average subjects with an exposure range longer than the sensor can record will fool them. The Golden Rule for digital photography is to expose for the highlights. Anyway if you can shoot RAW and post process give it a try.