JPG is too amateurish. Why do photography experts shoot in RAW?

We often hear that the biggest difference between photographers and ordinary photographers is that they understand post-production better. When it comes to post-production, everyone will think of the RAW photo format, which is what photography masters say is the format that only those who really "play" with photography will use. That's right, RAW is something that is linked to post-production in photography, because it gives photographers more room for photo editing. So the photos have been taken, but many people may not understand how to "interpret" this RAW. Today, let's talk about "interpreting" RAW.

RAW format should be a term that was born with digital photography. Its Chinese meaning is "unprocessed", which can be understood as a photo that has not been decompressed by the camera itself when taking a photo. Generally, it is only displayed in the form of data and does not appear in the form of visible photos. As long as the original data is retained, you can find more unexpected details in the compressed and formed .JPG.

Canon's own Digital Photo Professional 4

Regarding RAW itself, each camera manufacturer has its own special naming.

The common RAW format of Canon is (.CR2), Nikon is (.NEF), Fuji is (.RAF), etc. RAW can also be divided into lossy and lossless, but since each camera has different performance support, we will not expand on it here. What we need to study is, how can we make the best use of this RAW? In other words, what kind of software should we use to decompress and adjust it?

There are actually many softwares that can decode RAW, but the most popular ones are still the recognized Photoshop (Adobe Carema RAW) and Lightroom. But are the recognized ones necessarily the best? The author decided to use first-party and third-party softwares to do a test comparison, and we will know the truth after the following experiment.

The process of exporting RAW to JPG is relatively slow

ACR vs. DPP: DPP wins

I used PS CC and DPP to open the RAW files shot by Canon camera. In PS CC, the default settings are used to decode RAW without any processing, which is very soft and dull. After using DPP to decode RAW, I found that the color configuration of DPP looks better, and it also exceeds the quality of the built-in .JPG. However, I think that although the .JPG exported from RAW performs better, if you take a lot of photos at a time and have to export them one by one, the computer processing process will take a lot of time. The .JPG shot in the camera is a little worse, but it is still usable.

Comparison between built-in JPG and RAW exported JPG

There is no doubt that shooting in RAW format gives you more space for photo editing, but as the pixels of photos are getting higher and higher, and the storage capacity is getting larger and larger, you will find that the computer space is getting less and less after shooting. Yes, RAW is so "versatile" that the price players need to pay is to find a bigger computer "villa" to place them. Let's take a look at the situation of other camera manufacturers in decompressing RAW. The author chose the Fuji X-T2 mirrorless camera.

Shooting test with Fuji X-T2

The official software is better than the third-party software

Judging from the PK results, if we compare the colors alone, Fujifilm's own RAW FILE CONVERTER EX 2.0 decodes .RAF and exports .JPG, which is quite good-looking. However, what puzzles me is that the ACR in PS decodes RAW, and it seems that except for the original color data not being corrected, the sharpness of the photo is higher than the original one. The only drawback is that the color of the JPG in the camera cannot be recorded. This also reflects from the side that the official software does not necessarily beat the third-party software in all aspects. The key is ultimately to see what kind of adjustments you want to make in the later stage.

Summarize:

In fact, what we want to see in the end is JPG photos, and RAW is just a tool that can help us see more vivid JPG images. Regarding the resolution of RAW, the situation of each camera manufacturer is very different. Players have to study the decompression software of their favorite camera manufacturer. The test done by the author cannot prove that the first party is definitely better than the third party. Being familiar with the characteristics of your own equipment in terms of hardware and software can also be regarded as a skill of a photographer. Whether you can master comprehensive photography techniques depends on yourself.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.