Glenn Butcher Wrote:
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> I did a lot of shadow-lifting on my Fall Classic
> photos. This is a JPEG with shadows lifted using
> the Windows Photos app, of all things:
> [attachment 33583 DSG_3888_2-small.JPG]
> I have the RAWs also, intend to go back and do the
> job right with some selected photos, but when
> you're posting small images to forums, messing
> with the JPEG isn't that horrible...
JPEGs can be fine, but you have to pretty much nail the exposure. Certainly, you can't blow the highlights to any degree at all or you're done. If the shot is dark, you can use the shadows tool, but as Jim Gunning mentioned in a previous post in this thread, if you get too aggressive with that without compensating with other tools, the resulting shot can end up lacking contrast. Certainly, you have nowhere near the latitude to brighten or darken a JPEG that you have with raw. I have JPEGs that I shot years ago that could be nice images if I had shot them in raw, but they were slightly overexposed, with blown sky highlights, and they are toast.....
I shoot raw, simply because the risk of making even a small mistake on overexposure is just too great with JPEG. I also don't let the camera decide on the exposure parameters. I have used both the shutter and aperture priority modes in the past, in combination with the exposure compensation feature that John mentioned, but I have never been happy with the
consistency of the results, particularly on cloudy day shots. Those modes can be useful in situations with rapidly changing light, or ones in which I might have to take spur-of-the-moment shots, but on a classic charter run-by or chase situation, where I have even a few seconds to size up the exposure and perhaps take a test shot, I always shoot manual exposure. When you do that all the time, you start to develop a pretty good feel for the range of exposure settings, particularly for direct sunlight.
Processing is a huge part of digital photography. It makes or breaks the image. But unlike the old film darkroom, anyone who wants to put their mind to it can learn to do it with minimal investment.....and no toxic chemicals.
/Kevin Madore