186 Better Available Light Digital Photography
Making the decision
JPEG images have a lot of in-camera processing done to them
and then the fi le is compressed. RAW images have virtually no
in-camera processing, no compression, leaving that to you in
postproduction. The choice is yours: let the camera decide or
you decide. Is image capture using one method better than the
other? Assemble ten photographers in a room, ask the question,
and be prepared for up to ten different answers. There are times
when the JPEG-compressed mode is an absolutely fi ne choice.
Because each image is compressed, the fi le sizes will be smaller,
and you can store more per fl ash card. For sports and action
photography, you can fi re longer bursts without fear of overrun-
ning the camera buffer. You’ll get quality prints thanks to the
high-quality digital sensors in today’s cameras. You can elimi-
nate the postprocessing step and proceed straight to printmaking,
Internet upload, e-mailing, or client delivery.
One big argument against RAW capture was the increase in post-
production processing time. Software today has greatly reduced
this time constraint, helping to speed the process. Each camera
manufacturer has proprietary information within their camera
RAW settings and the fi le extension makes it easy to tell which
camera was used to take a photograph. Canon fi les have a suffi x
of .CR2, Olympus fi les end in .ORF, Pentax fi les end in .PEF, and
Nikon fi les end with .NEF. All of these camera companies have
their own proprietary software for processing their images and
the fi les are not interchangeable between manufacturers. Fortu-
nately, Adobe and other companies have software that will
process a variety of RAW images. As you’d expect, each new
version or update improves, refi nes, and speeds the process.SilverOxide (www.silveroxide.
com) offers a family of Photo-
shop-compatible plug-ins that
allow digital images to emulate
the tonalities of “real” analog
fi lm, such as Kodak’s classic Tri-X
or my favorite Panatomic-X. Their
16-bit Landscape fi lter includes
typical fi lter options, such as red,
orange, and the ubiquitous none,
but a new, purely digital fi lter
called BANG (Blue Algorithm
Neutral Gray) acts like a polar-
izer. © 2004 Joe Farace.