The power of RAW image processing.

As most DSLR users would know, we have many options of picture formats to process our pictures in. The preset is usually under a large .jpeg setting. But what I realized after hanging around the pros in the Lowyat forums is that most of the pros who do PP(post-processing) shoot in RAW.

I understood a long time ago that shooting in RAW would allow me better PP capabilities, but only to a certain extent. I didn't do it at first because I needed to convert it afterwards and the file size was huge! With a empty 8GB card, I can shoot at least 900 .jpeg pictures, while it was only 250 if I shot in RAW.

But I eventually decided to try it out, and the results were...wow.

By shooting in RAW, your pictures keep most of the settings from your camera when the picture was shot, which I think, allows for better manipulation of the image. I couldn't use my normal editing software to process the picture though, so I had to use Canon's Digital Photo Professional that came along with my 60D. I was astounded by the results.

The colors turned out so much better after minor tweaking, and it was much easier to adjust the WB and exposure there.

Take these pictures of Alicea and Sarah for example:

First a few comments. On Aly's pic, there's an obvious amount of 'softness' in the picture. This is because of my misaligned lens that causes my focusing to be slightly off at my maximum focal length (70mm x 1.6). DPP cannot save the picture. What it did however, is improve the overall color settings of the picture without compromising much of your image quality. On Sarah's picture, I did a previous edit with a jpeg copy of it with my old editor and got slightly okay results, but after I did the RAW version of the picture, things became much more toned. In my previous software, increasing the contrast by a little would sacrifice alot of the images overall quality by adding grain into the picture and causing the colors to be imbalanced. RAW images however, are able to be tweaked without compromising that much.

But I do admit, using a software like DPP to edit is really hard and tiring. Only small changes are needed to be made to get a brilliant picture, and for that, you require a patient and gentle hand along with a sharp eye for colors, something which I haven't yet posses.

Though bare in mind, PP-ing can only get you thus far, the way in which the picture was taken is very important too.

In Sarah's picture, the exposure was imbalanced on one side of her face compared to the other. This was because the sun was pointing at one side of her face and creating a darker side on the other side of her face. I should have did a fill flash to balance the light, but meh, I was just lazy.

Alicea's picture on the other hand, had quite a fair amount of lighting on both sides of her face, so balance wasn't exactly the problem. The problem was of course, with the softness of the image. I could've corrected the WB a little better as the picture looks rather warm (no pun intended).

In both pictures, my composition could have also been better.

Nevertheless, shooting in RAW has really shown me how much potential I have in my camera.