Straight out of camera JPG better than RAW+post-processing?

[Einst_Stein]

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Wiseman said, only fools shoot without raw!

In my recent trip to Sedona, my Leica run out of battery, my spare camera was on duty most of time on that day. I did not notice my son set it to Film emulation bracket mode, which did not have raw mode. The landscape is full of red rock and red canyon. The time is around noon with full sun shine. Some of the scenery was in red rock cave, with side light coming from the rock window.

To my surprise, the straight out of camera JPGs are much better (and natural)  than were it RAW + my personal tweaked LR post-processing.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Einst_Stein

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[frame-it]

1 hour ago, Einst_Stein said:

set it to Film emulation bracket mode

but which camera are you talking about?

[SrMi]

2 hours ago, Einst_Stein said:

Wiseman said, only fools shoot without raw!

In my recent trip to Sedona, my Leica run out of battery, my spare camera was on duty most of time on that day. I did not notice my son set it to Film emulation bracket mode, which did not have raw mode. The landscape is full of red rock and red canyon. The time is around noon with full sun shine. Some of the scenery was in red rock cave, with side light coming from the rock window.

To my surprise, the straight out of camera JPGs are much better (and natural)  than were it RAW + my personal tweaked LR post-processing.

 

The answer to your subject is no, but it depends. As you have seen, your post-processing skills are not good enough to match JPEG's image quality. So you can either start shooting JPEGs (or both raw and JPEG) or improve your post-processing skills. Sometimes profiles can be a shortcut, but real knowledge leads to better results.

[Einst_Stein]

1 hour ago, SrMi said:

The answer to your subject is no, but it depends. As you have seen, your post-processing skills are not good enough to match JPEG's image quality. So you can either start shooting JPEGs (or both raw and JPEG) or improve your post-processing skills. Sometimes profiles can be a shortcut, but real knowledge leads to better results.

Your point is intuitively right.

I am curious how many have the post processing skill that makes sense.

[Chris W]

I use Capture One, which recognises the camera and presents you with raw files that are already looking pretty good.

I barely do any post processing and I'm very happy with my RAW results (using a variety of cameras).

 

[250swb]

On 9/3/2022 at 1:28 AM, Einst_Stein said:

Your point is intuitively right.

I am curious how many have the post processing skill that makes sense.

I think in most cases they photographers start from zero skill in the belief they could maybe tweak the photograph just a bit more to make it their own and a truer image of what they saw, or wanted to see. You can start with the 'Auto' buttons in ACR or Lightroom and respond on a 'yes or 'no' basis if it makes things better or worse. That's it really, if you hit 'Auto' in ACR and the image looks better you've done some post processing. You never should need to press all the buttons and slide all the sliders, only the ones that affect you. Just like you don't need to learn all of Lightroom or Photoshop, only learn the few things that will make the photograph yours. The skill in post processing is not how much you know but in understanding the little bits that make the difference. So in ACR (etc.) if pressing Auto gives a better image see where it re-sets the sliders, you'll possibly see it's only changing the contrast or altering the brightness, then you have some knowledge of what to try when there is no Auto button to rely on.

[Photoworks]

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On 9/2/2022 at 4:28 PM, Einst_Stein said:

Wiseman said, only fools shoot without raw!

In my recent trip to Sedona, my Leica run out of battery, my spare camera was on duty most of time on that day. I did not notice my son set it to Film emulation bracket mode, which did not have raw mode. The landscape is full of red rock and red canyon. The time is around noon with full sun shine. Some of the scenery was in red rock cave, with side light coming from the rock window.

To my surprise, the straight out of camera JPGs are much better (and natural)  than were it RAW + my personal tweaked LR post-processing.

 

that sounds like a fuji camera

 

in any case processing it is part of the image process and should not been taken lightly .

It should reflect you intensions and reflect the direction you want the viewer eye to go.

As simple auto profile is useful sometime but do you really want adobe to define your vision?

 

[tommonego@gmail.com]

I don't think I can bring myself to using an 8 bit lossy compression file as my main image, you are losing a lot of whatthe camera sensor is capable of. I was introduced to digital imaging doing medical photography, where jpegs were forbidden or consideredan inferior file type. If an accident happens I could live with it, but I'll keep my cameras on DNG for now.

Edited October 12, 2022 by tommonego@gmail.com

[Chimichurri]

It depends on the photo. Some photos I open the raw and they’re done. Other photos are very hard to expose and I have to edit them. Most require global exposure changes and that’s easy. But photos like this one required me to make 3 masks to expose everything properly. There’s no way I could’ve done it with an already processed JPEG. 

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[evikne]

Maybe a thread where people posted before and after pictures of their edits would have been a good idea?

[Chimichurri]

25 minutes ago, evikne said:

Maybe a thread where people posted before and after pictures of their edits would have been a good idea?

For me this is how I shot it and I knew I had to go to the computer which I hardly ever do anymore. I needed to expose the sky and the birds and the truck the way I wanted. So they each have a mask and I edited them individually. 

basically my idea was to bring down the sky, bring up the birds but keep the truck about the same  

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Edited October 22, 2022 by Chimichurri

[84bravo]

 

It really depends on what you want with the final image. There are times when JPEG are just fine or may look the same as an edited RAW file. However, there are some things that just can't be done in JPEG. Here are two photos that were made from the same RAW file taken with a Leica M8.2. The color photo is SOOC.

 

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Edited November 10, 2022 by 84bravo