Value of Raw

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the processing advantage of raw, but at the same time to put this advantages in perspective. I have taken three images in three different lighting situations using a combination of raw and the highest quality JPEG offered by my camera.

Daylight

P551: f8 @ 1/80  ISO 100  27mm AWB  JPEG

P551



P552: f8 @ 1/125  ISO 100  27mm AWB raw 

P552

P553: f8 @ 1/125  ISO 100  27mm AWB  raw amended

P553

In P553 I increased the contrast, highlights and shadows plus decreasing the black clipping. The result is lighter than the original raw and fractionally lighter than the JPEG version.

Artificial light

P554 : f4 @ 1/5  ISO 200  18mm JPEG AWB

P554

 

 

P555: f4 @ 1/5  ISO 200  18mm AWB

 

 

P555

 

P556 : f 4 @ 1/5  ISO 200 18mm AWB  RAW amended

 

For P556 I increased the highlights and increased the shadows to lighten the image. Looking at the original RAW and JPEG, I can see that the RAW image is darker.






P556



High dynamic range



P557: f9 @1/200 ISO 100 21 mm  WB Daylight

P557



P558:f 9 @1/200 ISO 100  21 mm  WB Daylight

 

P558

 

 

 

 

P559: f9 @1/200 ISO 100  21 mm  WB Daylight

 

P559

In P559 I amended the image by decreasing the white highlights and increasing the shadow which has increased the detail visible. 

Comparing the two versions for each scene, the colours seem darker in the Raw version ( less apparent in the high dynamic range model) and in the case of the image taken in daylight a little more saturated. Not a great deal of difference regarding dynamic range that I can see.