5/29/11
Shoot RAW for better color and detail.
Most people don’t care about white balance adjustments, smooth color transitions and preserving detail in their images, they just use the auto setting, and forget it. That’s fine for snap shot artists, but people that want to take their photography to the next level should be aware of what can go wrong when shooting in jpeg, problems that develop when using the wrong white balance setting, and how to avoid these mistakes all together. Check out this quick and simple article on color issues using different image quality formats. Additionally, at the bottom of the page is a resolution comparison between a jpeg and RAW image on the Sony A580; it’s the same set I used on the homepage last month.
The two cropped samples below show what happens when you shoot jpegs with the wrong white balance setting, and then try to adjust your way out of it. I know this because I used to do it. Back when I first started shooting digital, I didn’t bother to try and educate myself on the importance of shooting in RAW, especially concerning color balance and correction.
Back in the olden days of digital photography, let’s say five years ago, large file sizes from saving in RAW required expensive memory cards, that was my problem, or excuse. Today, that shouldn’t be a concern as adequate memory cards are cheap, (like this $44.95 16GB Sony Memory Stick Pro HG DUO).
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