Taking a Sunset From Raw to Refined

In the last few months I've been shooting in "raw" file format as opposed to jpeg format. If you aren't familiar with what raw is, raw is basically all of the information your camera sees when you snap the shutter. It creates huge file sizes as opposed to shooting in standard jpeg format. For example, on my Nikon D7100 camera, an image in a raw format is generally 30mb+ in size, while a jpeg of the same image is 12-14mb.

What is the real difference between the two? The easiest way for me to explain it is in old-school printed/developed photo terms.  The raw file is like a film negative, and a jpeg is like a developed and printed photo. The camera internally processes the image and gives you what it thinks you want to see and gives you the jpeg. Sure you can adjust your various camera settings to influence that outcome, but what you end up with is something that has been processed and "unimportant" data, as far as the camera is concerned, is stripped out. That's why the file size is so much smaller. Pretty much all phones and point-and-shoot cameras shoot in jpeg format, while higher end DSLR cameras give the option to shoot in either format, or even both at the same time. You can still somewhat "process" a jpeg after you've taken the picture (think of all of the cute filters and changes that instagram and other programs let you do to your phone pictures), but you're still working with an image that has lost data.

There's a ton of debate in the photography blogger and video world regarding which is better, with hard lines drawn between the sides that none shall pass through. What I said at the beginning of this post is a little untrue: I don't just shoot in raw only. I also have been shooting jpeg at the same time, because I've been afraid to commit. It's because my D7000 and D7100 cameras have two card slots each and I have them set to put a raw version of the image on Card 1 and a jpeg version on Card 2 every time I click the shutter. Why? Like I said its a commitment issue...what if I just need a quick and dirty jpeg and don't want to take the time to put the image into LightRoom and process it? Well, I can tell you that hasn't happened once in the past couple of months..........so guess what? This week I'm setting all of my camera bodies to raw only and not looking back. No more putting peg images on Card 2 and wasting space because I "might" need them. If I need a quick small jpeg I'll use my phone or my old trusty Nikon P90 point-and-shoot.



Set up for the shot.

Friday night after work I convinced Renee to go with me to downtown Dayton near Riverscape to get a sunset photo. I've been wanting to get down there for awhile for the sunset and everything was coming together to make Friday night a good opportunity. None of the nasty winter haze was hanging around and it was a balmy 35F degrees.

I brought my tripod with me along with my wide-angle Sigma 8-16mm lens. It's a great lens for taking images of landscapes, and is usually my go-to lens for this sort of thing. I probably could have done OK with my 16-85mm lens that's on my camera most of the time, but I had time to properly plan so why not bring the right tool for the job?

After taking shots for 15-20 minutes, the sunset was over and the temperature dropped fast! So it was time to get out of there and head home.

Saturday I had a chance to go through the images and started working on processing (ie, "developing") the image. I pulled BOTH the raw image and the jpeg image so I could show a "before and after" comparison of what developing does. Untouched jpeg:

Not exactly as our eyes saw it. The sunset really was more brilliant, and the faces of the buildings had an awesome "glow" to them, especially the glass building near the center of the picture. But this is what the camera gave us in jpeg format. And truthfully, I did just *slightly* underexpose it so that I didn't blow it out and had plenty to work with in the raw file......

.......And below is the final version after putting the raw image in LightRoom and massaging it a bit:

I used the lens correction tool in LightRoom that compensates for the lens and fixes any stretching or distortion. If you look closely at the tall building on the far left it looks more upright and straight compared to the original. I've also obviously cropped the image slightly. In the raw file I was able to bring back the details in the buildings and also punch up the color on the horizon so that it looks like the way we really saw it.

IMAGE DATA: Nikon D7100 with Sigma 8.0-16.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 lens at 11mm, ƒ/14.0, 1/60 second shutter at ISO 100.   

That's it for this week. If you are shooting on a DSLR and have a chance to try out the raw format, give it a try! You can always go back later and change the settings back to jpeg on your camera if you don't like it................but I bet you'll stick with raw.

Jeremy