unedited jpg

@SOURaiders @clay__10 @B_RAB13

Until last year I only shot in RAW for difficult lighting conditions. Now I only shoot in RAW, even for outdoor sports. Yesterday I was on the road, without a computer, so I shot in both RAW and jpg. I sent some jpgs in for quick publication, and they showed up in places like here and here.

Back on my computer today I had the chance to process the same RAW files.

edited RAW version of Clayton Nadon’s pass

unedited jpg

edited RAW version of Brendan Allen’s goal celebration

Posted on August 28th, 2015 under people, photography. Tags: brendan allen, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, raw vs. jpg jpeg, soccer, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD Lens for Nikon. Comments Off on RAW vs jpg in outdoor sports photography

jpg image, straight out of the camera

I have mentioned several times before that there are situations where images shot as jpgs are “throw aways” that had they been shot in RAW format could be salvaged.

Today’s comparison is one such example. With a rainbow outside a dimly-lit gym, I had the choice of shooting the rainbow and getting a nearly black gym (above) or shooting the action on the court and getting a white sky (not shown). By shooting in RAW I was able to process the above image to come up with what you see below.

Ashland High School volleyball – rainbow out gym window in front of Grizzly Peak

By the way, Ashland won last night, advanced to the Sweet 16 in state, and will be playing in St. Helens on Saturday. The winner moves on to the Elite 8 round.

Posted on October 29th, 2014 under nature, only in ashland, photography. Tags: AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED lens, ashland high school, grizzly peak, Nikon D750, photography, rainbow, raw vs. jpg jpeg, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on RAW vs jpg (#6 or 7 or something)

Today’s top photo is of Mike Wright from The Yearling, the second band to play on Friday night. I processed it from the original RAW file.

Below is the same file from the original JPG, quite a difference…

processed from JPG file

Posted on April 23rd, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: music, musichead, nikon d7000, raw vs. jpg jpeg, sigma 85mm f/1.4, the yearling. Comments Off on Another RAW vs. JPEG comparison

I previously mentioned how I was getting better results working with RAW files in concert lighting situations. When going through my jpg image results I almost deleted the above image because the amazing clouds my eyes saw were totally ruined in the jpg file. Before hitting delete, however, I decided to see what I could do with the RAW file. Here is the result:

Posted on March 28th, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: clouds, grizzly peak, nikon d7000, photography, raw vs. jpg jpeg, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon. Comments Off on RAW vs. JPG (RAW isn’t just for weird, indoor lighting)

from jpg file (about 30 seconds of processing)

I still use jpgs for most of my images even though I shoot in both RAW and jpeg. Whenever I try to process a RAW file, and the photo was taken in decent lighting, my jpg either looks better or it is indistinguishable from the RAW file which took many times longer to process. However, in low, poor, or weird lighting I still, sometimes, try to process the RAW file to see what I can come up with.

I don’t think there is much comparison in today’s photo. The jpg simply does not look better. I could have processed that jpg for hours and still not got it to look remotely as good as the RAW-processed result.

from RAW file (about 5 minutes of processing)

Posted on March 17th, 2012 under people. Tags: concert photography, fates medallion, johnny b's, nikon d7000, raw vs. jpg jpeg, sigma 85mm f/1.4. Comments Off on Another jpg vs. RAW comparison

JPEG version

I always process my .jpg image file separately from my RAW image of the same scene. Usually I delete the version I don’t like as much. With this photo, I couldn’t decide. Which do you like better?

RAW version

Posted on February 10th, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: clouds, nikon d7000, raw vs. jpg jpeg, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon. Comments: 3

David Satori of Beats Antique @ The Historic Ashland Armory, Oregon

I’ve been shooting in RAW + jpeg for the past month or so. For most photos, I can’t get the RAW files to look as good as the jpegs even though the RAW files are about five times as large and take several times longer to process. However, when the lighting is really poor, when the jpeg photo shows lots of noise, or when the lighting is just funky the RAW processing can yield superior results.

Same photo as above, processed from RAW file instead of jpg

Posted on February 9th, 2012 under people. Tags: beats antique, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, nikon d7000, raw vs. jpg jpeg. Comments Off on David Satori of Beats Antique

from RAW file with minor post processing in Photoshop - skin color is more natural and background contains less noise, also more details in face and hair

I have had cameras that have the capability to shoot in RAW for over four years now. However, every time I have taken RAW photos I have done nothing with them. I have tried to convert them to .jpg format without much success. Usually my out-of-camera .jpg looked better than my converted RAW image that I worked on for 5-10 minutes.

Today, however, I believe I have made a breakthrough. These .jpgs didn’t look very good no matter what I did in Photoshop to them so I struggled with the RAW images and finally came up with something better than the original. What do you think?

from jpg (with minor post processing in Photoshop)

from jpeg with minor Photoshop processing

from RAW file with minor Photoshop processing - you can see John's face again and less noise

This second photo is of John Javna. He spoke at the Ashland Martin Luther King Jr Holiday Celebration. He is a major reason why we have ScienceWorks in Ashland. My son loves his Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers. On this occasion he delivered a message about the Ashland Food Project.

Posted on January 18th, 2012 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Ashland Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration, photography, raw vs. jpg jpeg. Comments: 4