Wednesday, August 09, 2006
"Welcome to the wonderful world of image processing." That's what Gio told me when I complained to him that I couldn't just simply open a .CR2 (Canon photo RAW) file in Adobe Photoshop. How can you write the best photo/image processing application in the world, and not add basic, simple, desktop RAW support for images? This is the sort of stuff that makes Macs and Apple software a joy to use. I can switch my dad's camera to shoot RAW and he would never know, except from the quality he gains.
So, why shoot RAW?
1. You gain about an extra stop in your photo. You can use the Exposure tool, or Highlights and Shadows tool and brighten up underexposed pictures. The data for the picture is there, since RAW records more bits per pixel than a jpeg. After Ken Carson gave me a demo of this, I was convinced.
2. Post processing white balance. This is the best feature, in my opinion (though feature 1 is the best feature for most people). I realized about a year ago with my Pentax DSLR that adjusting white balance when shooting indoors or in weird light makes your pictures look much better. When you are shooting, you already have 10 things to adjust for to get that perfect picture, so why not do more at home on your computer when you can? Shooting RAW lets you adjust the white balance at home at your leisure.
3. Other settings such as sharpess, saturation, contrast. Shooting jpeg means all these settings are decided by your camera and burnt into the jpeg image. RAW means you can adjust them later with no loss in quality. 99% of you the time you can use the native RAW decoding your computer uses and not worry about a thing. But if you see a case where you want to adjust an image further, you know you aren't going through another generation of quality loss.
4. Non destructive editing! Ok, this isn't RAW specific. Non destructive editing is standard on high ends apps like Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack, and Pro Tools. When you mess with an image, you don't want to actually alter it. What if you change your mind later? This is the overall best feature of Aperture. I can open an image in Aperture, mess with the crop, white balance, sharpness, shadows, etc. and it never alters my image or saves another copy of the image. It just remembers what changes I made. The next time I select that image, I see what changes I made and i can undo or modify any of them.
RAW rules, Aperture rules. Digital photography is incredible and changes everything.
So, why shoot RAW?
1. You gain about an extra stop in your photo. You can use the Exposure tool, or Highlights and Shadows tool and brighten up underexposed pictures. The data for the picture is there, since RAW records more bits per pixel than a jpeg. After Ken Carson gave me a demo of this, I was convinced.
2. Post processing white balance. This is the best feature, in my opinion (though feature 1 is the best feature for most people). I realized about a year ago with my Pentax DSLR that adjusting white balance when shooting indoors or in weird light makes your pictures look much better. When you are shooting, you already have 10 things to adjust for to get that perfect picture, so why not do more at home on your computer when you can? Shooting RAW lets you adjust the white balance at home at your leisure.
3. Other settings such as sharpess, saturation, contrast. Shooting jpeg means all these settings are decided by your camera and burnt into the jpeg image. RAW means you can adjust them later with no loss in quality. 99% of you the time you can use the native RAW decoding your computer uses and not worry about a thing. But if you see a case where you want to adjust an image further, you know you aren't going through another generation of quality loss.
4. Non destructive editing! Ok, this isn't RAW specific. Non destructive editing is standard on high ends apps like Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack, and Pro Tools. When you mess with an image, you don't want to actually alter it. What if you change your mind later? This is the overall best feature of Aperture. I can open an image in Aperture, mess with the crop, white balance, sharpness, shadows, etc. and it never alters my image or saves another copy of the image. It just remembers what changes I made. The next time I select that image, I see what changes I made and i can undo or modify any of them.
RAW rules, Aperture rules. Digital photography is incredible and changes everything.