I’m not actually sure I would process my images on my computer. I have a desktop not a laptop and the quality of the screen is bad compared to my iPad. Images that look great on my iPad look mediocre on my computer screen. I also prefer the apps on my iPad. I do have Affinity Photo but have never sat down to learn the tuning tools on it.
Maybe one day I’ll sit down and really learn to process RAW but at the moment I prefer a wall
Who shoots raw image data captures?
Only those photographers / including smartphone photographers - hoping to capture the maximum image data quality ( highest possible S:N ratio and a 12 bit-depth tonal spectrum of 4096 rather than the paltry tonal spectrum of 256 tones of a piddly 8 bit-depth JPEG image file). That diddly-squat JPEG file might - in a stretch- provide an acceptable 16x20 full frame print, but a properly exposed 12 bit-depth raw capture* will easily yield a TIFF file that prints out at 36”x48” with amazing discernible detail.
But keep in mind that a properly exposed raw capture is a totally different imaging medium from a quotidian JPEG file - and requires a totally different exposure strategy.
A jpeg is exposed by the same strategy as has been used for exposing photosensitive emulsions since the latter half of the19th Century. A subject tone is exposed to produce that same tone in the finished image.
A raw image data capture is properly exposed such that every brightness value in the entire histogram - from darkest shadow detail to brightest highlight detail - has been exposed with the maximum possible number of photons with no saturation of any of the electron wells . “ Expose for the brightest possible image with no clipping of highlight detail; but come as close to clipping as possible without actually clipping!” That’s a totally different exposure strategy from that used for Jpegs and traditional emulsion photography.
The properly exposed raw image file provides an immensely greater potential creative latitude in post processing than can ever be imagined for a JPEG file.
Who shoots raw image files ? Those aware of the above stated principles of optimal raw image data exposure. That’s who (to answer your earlier question).
Dave
of lots of 8in x 8in which is what I am about to do. In that way my images and my DH’s images can both go up without either of us having to sacrifice. Not surprisingly he prefers his and I prefer mine although nice together.
Well, hi there Sinnerjohn, TomHH, and ImageArt, so, yd wanna see proof of the pudding, eh?
Well, you sure won’t get it with display online! And if that’s your level of aspiration re image data quality, I agree that you stick with 8-bit Jpegs for your image display.
But any who decry the ability of a 12 bit-depth tiff file of a raw capture image from any decent 12 bit- depth mobile phone camera to yield a detail and resolution-rich 36”X 48” print to be viewed at NDV of 7 to 9 feet or greater is simply speaking out of ignorance born of inexperience! They have never given it a serious effort!
Best I can do for you is to post three identical tiny crops from a jpeg and two raw> tiff file s that yielded a magnificent 18”X 36” print. Compare the 8 bit-depth jpeg with the ETTR raw exposure and the EBTR exposure that benefitted from the camera’s full dynamic range. Those crops came from the same site in those three image files.
Read ‘em and weep!
Don’t discount the ability of raw image files from smartphones to deliver large prints of exceptional quality.
The nay-sayers who obviously have never actually given it a serious try remind me of the aeronautical engineers who, after careful theorizing, determined that the bumblebee cannot fly!
Best regards,
Dave
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additional consideration!:
Even if you are not into large prints from your smartphone images, you may still wish to capture raw image data simply for the creative latitude that the 12 bit-depth files provide. Consider;
JPEG: 8 bit- depth, low signal:noise ratio, 256 tonal spectrum. Millions of colors.
Raw capture 12bit-depth: high S:N ratio, 4096 tonal spectrum, and billions of colors.
From the point of view of potential creative/ artistic latitude in post processing the difference is immense.
A jpeg is a pre-cooked image with relatively minimal opportunity to exert significant imaginative, creative post processing.
The 12 bit-depth raw image data file, if captured using the camera’s full raw-accessible dynamic range (by use of EBTR) is far more than the oft claimed “digital negative”. It is functionally more akin to an infinite variety of as yet I imagined and unprocessed virtual images - including, of course, the image envisioned by the photographer when the shutter was squeezed.
The caution that exposure of a raw capture use the camera’s full raw accessible DR is crucial. For example if a camera’s sensor has a full stop of “overhead” and it remains unused by exposing as for a Jpeg file, fully 50% or more of the image’s potential image data quality (S:N ratio and tonal spectrum) will have been forfeited. Hence the need to know the amount of “overhead” - and to be sure to use it’
Dave