54 DIGITAL CAMERA^ APRIL 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.comSHOOT IN RAW!JPEG IMAGE
COMPRESSION:
How bad is it really?
2
Saved 10 times
When opened, saved and
closed 10 times over, the
cracks in our JPEG are
starting to show. Banding is beginning
to appear in the sky, and the quality
loss is becoming noticeable.1
Saved once
In this experiment we opened
a JPEG in Photoshop then
saved the file, using the
highest quality setting. Saving the file
degrades it. When saved over once or
twice, the change isn’t noticeable...Developed
by the Joint
Photographic
Expert Group,
JPEG utilises a
‘lossy’ compression algorithm. Each
time a JPEG file is opened, the image
data is uncompressed. Close it, and the
data is compressed down. It’s one of the
reasons why JPEGs have such helpfully
small file sizes – but there can be
long-term side effects...CASE STUDY #4:
Monochrome
landscapes
How to improve
your black-and-
white images
1 Fine-tune the
conversion
Colour can be very important
for black-and-whites. When
you convert an image to mono,
you can control the brightness
of different colour ranges with
the Black and White sliders
in Camera Raw or Lightroom.
Here it lets us lift the trees to
reveal extra detail in an area
that initially lacked contrast.2 Boost the
contrast
Black-and-whites can initially
look a little flat. A boost in
contrast with Curves can be
very effective. Plotting an
S-shaped curve line lightens
the highlights and darkens
the shadows, resulting in
more contrast. The more
pronounced the S, the
greater the contrast.3 Dodge and burn
Black-and-whites
can hold up to greater
dodging (lightening an area)
and burning (darkening an
area) than colour photos.
Here we’ve used the Camera
Raw Adjustment Brush to
darken the sky and lift the
water, before painting in
extra Contrast and Clarity
over the rocks and trees.Before After
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