If I had taken this photo in JPEG format, I would have had a tough time to recover the details without botching up. Mind you - asking my friend to pose for the shot again was not possible! The point is that the image sensor of my camera (Nikon D90) is actually sensitive enough to capture a lot more detail and it did. But it is not apparent on the JPEG because the JPEG processor used only part of the dynamic range of the data to render the image, thus sacrificing on the detail.
I toook the RAW image into Capture NX2, I pumped up the exposure compensation to +2 (This brings out the detail in the dark - just like 'pushing' ISO 100 film to behave like an ISO 400 film). I set shadow protection to 10 (brought out more detail and more noise with it) and then a noise-reduction to minimise the effect of noise. I then converted it to a Black-and-white image (for the feel) and this is what I got.
If I hadn't used the RAW option, this image would have been unusable.
I totally understand that shooting in RAW takes a lot of precious memory space, and the amount of work involved is a lot. I bought enough memory (memory is cheap) and I use the processing power of my laptop at night (many a times, my laptop runs overnight to convert my NEFs to JPEGs using my specific settings. 95% of the photos look good with batch-processing and then I dump the associated NEFs. The rest of the 5% can be vastly improved by manually developing the NEFs. Then there's the 1% of shots (like the one above) that have some creative potential in them and I love to spend a lot of time developing and re-developing them till I get the picture the way I want it.
Using RAW, you're using your expensive image sensor to the best capability. Shooting in RAW is not as painful as people portray it to be. You don't even need specialized software because the latest version of Picasa seems to handle RAW files from most of the popular cameras, so maybe you should give it a try. Believe me, it's worth it.
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4 comments:
Hi Sai, interesting picture. I do not claim to know anything about RAW format but the attempt to capture the outline of your friend is certainly interesting.
-Ashish
Nice work, mate! That's a really beautiful image. I do feel compelleted to stress the point, however, that RAW only allows for a certain amount of leverage, and even shooting in RAW follows the GIGO principle. It’s not the magic bullet but it offers a lot more flexibility.
The idea is that (again, taking your case) careful metering may *still* have been able to allow you to capture very nearly the final image in JPEG straight from the camera, but in instances where that wasn’t possible (you were in a hurry and didn’t have time to change metering settings etc.) RAW can come in useful.
RAW shooter myself for the same reasons you point out in your blog entry. In fact I took to RAW some 6-odd months after getting my camera and never looked back (for the most part).
Once again, great shot and keep the articles coming!
By the way, any reason why you have both CAPTCHAs and non-anonymous posting of comments?
@Ashish: Thank you.
@Appu:
I agree with you. Shooting RAW is not a magic bullet, but I'll take all the camera-power I can lay my hands on.
Of course, I could have done a better job at metering it better. But getting a perfect exposure is not always easy in one click - especially in such high-contrast situations. I used RAW and that got me out of the ditch for this picture.
When I shoot in RAW, I don't have to bother about exposure compensation, white-balance setting, contrast, saturation etc. and I can focus on the composition, and that's the biggest advantage.
I had someone spam big time on my blog in the past. So, I have all those 'controls' on to deter spam. Does that bother you?
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