L0n3Gr3yW0lf
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Somerset, UK
- Name
- Ovi
I want to say this is just a personal opinion and is about my current situation, I find it a lot more helpful to put my thoughts in writing and gather as many views and ideas as I can from others because I get stuck in my head to often to find good (or any) answers as I can. (More specific details of where or how I am in life right now will be at the bottom of the post so you can skip it if you are not interested in reading).
As per the title, I am trying to research if I can move from RAW to JPEG to make my workflow more manageable, my data hoarding lighter, and improve my overall enjoyment and motivation for photography. I will start with the psychological issue first. I have realised that I dread the post-processing step because I have grown a backlog that has come to 3 years old with some of the pictures. I still enjoy the making pictures process and I do get that dopamine kick every time I get the "right" picture (it's subjective to everyone's different skill levels, interests and tastes). What I have come to be frustrated with is that I come home, import the pictures, edit a few and life kicks in and takes me away from the laptop if I have too many pictures and the pictures get stuck in no edited state either because I make others or I don't have the time or my mood/interest has fallen off a cliff (which happens all too often recently). And because I am not editing the pictures I don't have the final edits to share and I share less and that's another disappointment with myself on top.
Of course, things are more difficult/frustrating as a wildlife photographer if you shoot burst to catch the right moment of the action ... or trying to do pet photography (with my little dog only for now) and the lens or camera AF/motor can't keep up with a running subject and only trying to burst for the lucky shot of whatever the buffer can muster. Dealing with hundreds of shots that are actually only a handful of pictures really truly worth it (AKA sharp enough and in focus and at the right moment) is annoying as usual. But some types of images only really can be made using burst, more so if you have older generation cameras that do not have the performances and features to help to get the right shot.
(Addendum, what I have noticed is that some people don't really put value in what every new generation brings its features and/or performances that make it a bit easier or increase the chances of getting the shot more than then the previous generation. Of course, skill is always on top of the list that will help you get the shot more BUT it's always a different situation for each person, how much time you have to improve your skill, how much money you have to be able to afford the gear, what kind of results you expect to get, how much you depend on your gear as tools for generating income. Myself, I love photography like nothing else but I can't afford the best of the range nor do I generate any income from my images.)_
Back on topic, sorry about that, the 2nd issue with shooting RAW is the performance impact of trying to edit them. Smaller RAW files like 20 or 24 Megapickle Ricks images are a lot easier to edit than the upper range like 42, 45, 50, and 61s. The reason for that is as simple there's more data to uncompress (if it's a compressed file), to demosaic (all files no matter the brand or size have to do that) and to simply read the data. The first impact is on the Processor (CPU) and the generation (age) of the CPU dictates how well it can do that (so the newest it is the better and the only other factor that matters is raw power, the all-mighty GHz, the more the better, but all of this is a very simplified way of putting it). The 2nd impact is memory (RAM), the larger the file the more space it requires on memory to be able to display in real-time the information and changes (the larger the RAW file the more memory you need to keep the editing snappy and responsive).
My laptop was high-end when I bought it 4 years ago (everything ages and in the computing department, they age quicker than anything else IF your demands/needs increase as well). My ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15" came with the Intel i7 9750H CPU which has 6 cores and 12 threads with a base of 2.6 GHz and boost (on single core performance) to 4 GHz and 16GB DDR4 (probably the slow 2.333 MHz stock, BIOS does not support XMP profiles).
For the last 2 years, it has become increasingly frustrating to edit my pictures, where I am pegging the RAM usage to 15.3 GBs in about 15 minutes with everything shut down from Task Manager, there is literally nothing else I can do to get things better but to switch from RAW to JPEG. RAM usage is an issue because when I switch from one file to another my screen blacks out and Lightroom becomes unresponsive for up to minutes (because it's trying to swap the memory files to the slow Page File System), for the last 6 months I can't even watch videos or listen to music on my laptop while editing pictures, which I always loved to do). Yes, I have reset Windows to fresh install and it still doesn't help even with anything else installed on the laptop and that turns my laptop basically unusable for anything else, which I do, I game on it in my free time, I watch movies and it's my main device for everything else.
The CPU age is also becoming an issue because more and more software and even Windows itself is becoming more threaded competent, where on Windows 10 I used to have 1-2 cores used more often than not it could easily boost to 4 GHz and stay fast, not with Windows 11 it uses 4 or more cores and my boost is dropping to 3 GHZ or even lower than the base 2.6 GHz, which means it's thermal throttling and even power throttling at 6 core usage. When I import files or export JPEGS I see the CPU drop to 1.6 GHz at 6 core usage and if I had anything playing in the background (like Winamp with music or VLC with a movie) it would stutter both audio and video. I have cleaned the laptop fans and heatsinks repasted the CPU and GPU, and change the thermal pads to thermal conductive paste (K-5 Pro) on the VRMs and the Voltage Controllers on the motherboard, the temperatures are averaging at 80 C on the CPU (peak at 95 C when it hits power throttling only) and 75 C on the GPU so it's not an overheating issue. It's quite a frustrating problem that I can't solve unless I can come out with money for a brand new (current-gen or last-gen) PC or Apple's M1 devices. Or stop editing JPEGs.
The last realisation I had was am I really doing justice to the 42 MP RAW files I edit? Of course, I love the output, I enjoy getting as much as possible out of the colours and exposure of an image, and I often push the Shadows and Highlights sliders to the max (unless it's above ISO 6.400). Here's a typical example:
(Of course everyone has different tastes) I think I try to balance the exposure and the outlook in Post-Processing more then out in the field because I know I can get so much more from editing RAW and it leaves me to focus more on composition and the moment then worry about exposure settings. Even the editing slighters you see there are almost defaults to most of the pictures I make. The Sharpness sliders are the default for all my images bellow ISO 3.200, the Presence slighter is mostly the default I use to get the most details out of an image, the Exposure is about default but I adapt those most often depending on the situation. I would like to add that I do have OCD when it comes to numbers and I always put them is divisable values, either by 3 or 4 or 10, I have tried not to many times but it was "itching" my mind so much that I have up trying to change.)
Now where I am going with this is all my images live and are displayed for the internet or my laptop (which is ony 15") and the only prints I do is for my own home or for the Camera Club Competition. I do enjoy large prints and I prefer/consider the minimum print as A3 to be worth doing and looking at. So I am not using the RAW files or the image quality to anything more then average and with all the issues added it's starting to become a really big negative impact on my photography overall (at my current situation, maybe in 10 or 20 years it will be diferent but that's entirely another subject.)
What really "broke" my mindset with prints is when I saw an A3 print when I got my prints of my Little Legs as a birthday gift yesterday and one of the picture was from my Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G main shooting camera with literally no edits done to it:
If I hold that picture to my face I can tell that the sharpness and the definition of her fur are not what I expect from my Sony a7R II with either the Tamron 28-75mm f 2.8 G2 or Samyang AF 35mm f 1.8 ... BUT when I have at the distance viewing of more then a meter (as the picture was made with my phone above) I can't really say anything bad about it, and that picture was made in low-ish light with my phone because she gets very excited when I grab my camera (she thinks she's going out so she get's "activated") and it's near impossible to get candids of her indoors.
Now I am not in a rush to sell all of my stuff just to get a brand-new phone for making images, I will always prefer the manual controls, the lowest shutter lag and the infinite range of focal range of any dedicated camera. But I do think that I am trying to aim for the moon while I am trying to wrestle with all the hurdles of using a "military-grade, state-of-the-art, artillery calibre" device. This might be my worst analogy yet.
So comes the "idea" of instead of shooting RAW maybe I can actually make do with JPEG for most of my images (RAW can always be an option if I am unsure I can get the image right enough). Of course, I will have to be more careful with exposure (especially in extreme contrast or low light situations) and worst of all White Balance since that's very notorious for being uncorrectable if it's way too wrong. And shooting JPEG means I have quicker imports, and it takes a lot less space (I already have close to 4 TB of pictures and I know that's not a lot for some people but hard drive costs still add up, especially if you duplicate your images on multiple drives for backups. F.I.Y. CLOUD STORAGE IS NOT A BACKUP, corporations and companies can take away your data at their own discretion no matter what "the laws or EULA agreements" you might sign.
The benefits would be that my laptop has more years to "live" and breathe on the smaller JPEG files, I have more space for more pictures, and I can even use mobile devices to edit or share pictures (like tablets or smartphones) as an on-the-go alternative to my laptop, I can instantly share pictures without having to think about having to edit them first. RAW + JPEG is always a backup choice, just in case.
Now I do have a difficult problem with Sony specifically when it comes to JPEGs. First is the White Balance, I have never seen such a bad White Balance reaction to artificial light in my life (coming from Pentax, Panasonic and Olympus). The main street lamps in the town I live have a yellow tint to them but the Auto White Balance on my Sony a7R II is so bad at it, it turns the image in almost pure orange and even the Lightroom maximum Blue Tint correction can't even make up for it:
I "eye-dropped" the White Balance on the white PVC pipe on the middle bottom of the screen right next to the edge of the building as I know that's the most balanced are in the image BUT the image has a significant green cast to it now and lifting the Magenta Tint will not help, it will make things worse.
I got some of the colours right here, mostly, as I balanced the White Point to the silver street lamp neck, but you can see on the left image how orange the image was.
The other worry I have with Sony is their reputation with colour reproduction (at least in the first 3 generations of their A7 cameras) and JPEG files. Editing in RAW I rarely do anything to the colours. I try to get a warmer White Balance as that's how I prefer to "see" my images, the Contrast and Dehaze sliders are the only ones that really pushes the colours for me (within reason).
I have tried to shoot JPEGs only last week for one of my doogie walks and after looking at the images I got only one that I was actually impressed with of all of them:
I have done little to no editing to the images because I wanted to see the rendering of the JPEG engine with the Vivid Creative Style at +2 Contrast, +1 Saturation and +1 Sharpness. (To be honest, I can't remember when or why I chose this setting and that profile, I just put the camera in JPEG only before thinking of anything else).
Both of the above images as most of the rest have +1 Ev Exposure in Lightroom because I tend to shoot -0.7 EV on the Exposure Compensation on my Sony a7R II to keep the Highlights from blowing. This is the ONLY image where I feel that is actually sharp and nicely crisp, I don't know if it's the Tamron combo with the Sony camera or just the Sony being old-er that the AF is not as accurate/fast as I hoped (in RAW files I think I can compensate for a tiny bit out of focus better then in JPEGs).
I do quite like the colours on both of these images, not to saturate, though I do prefer the bit warmer White Balance (both were in Auto) on the first. The other issue I noticed with shooting JPEG is that colour fringing is not the best way to deal with, I just tried the Lens Profile Correction, the Manual "Eye-Dropper" AND a brush adjustment with +100 Defringing:
It still leaves some of the orange hallo-ing and a bit of blue in the background. (Not sure if this is nit picking or not.)
With 0 EV Exposure Compensation, the Highlights do tend to get lost quickly, the image has -100 Highlights and +50 Shadows and there's, unfortunately, banding in the middle of the sky with the clouds:
This is why I prefer to underexpose -0.3 EV in very low light, -0.7 EV in daylight (my default) and -1 EV in strong contrast and sunshine.
Things are not getting better in Low Light, unsurprisingly, but such is life with wildlife, I pushed the JPEG +1 EV and -50 Highlights (0 EV Exposure Compensation). I can't say I am surprised by the "sharpness" of ISO 16.000.
Passing it through Topaz DeNoise AI doesn't seem to help much more than smear the out-of-focus noise a bit, the "sharpness" of the duck is still lacking.
High Contrast Low Light situation does not help the JPEG question very much, the noise is noticeable and exposure was difficult to manage, +1 EV, -100 Highlights, and +50 Shadows in Lightroom for ISO 4.000 were a bit much.
The Auto White Balance did okayu for the colours but I am not particularly impressed with the loss of detail in the trees below the monument (it was a pretty cool day so there wasn't any heat haze), the JPEG was pushed +1 EV with -100 Highlights and +50 Shadows.
This was a difficult situation because the sunset was overwhelming the metering of the camera which has -0.3 EV Exposure Compensation, yet I had to push +3 EV in Lightroom which is a lot for a JPEG file and -50 Highlights, the bottom of the image shadows have been posterized and I don't think they would handle printing very well.
I can't make a conclusion on the JPEG question just yet. I do worry that it might end up in another situation like Micro Four Thirds/APS-C VS. 35mm FF/ Medium Format where yes, it can be better and it can show a big improvement BUT you have to accept other downsides as well like cost, weight, size. One would think, but it's not necessarily common sense, that having a bigger/better sensor would give more advantage to JPEG rendition compared to editing RAW of smaller sensors but that can be a fallacy in itself because companies differ in their abilities as well as preferences of how good the JPEG engine they have.
I have never used a Fujifilm, Canon or Nikon system so I can't comment on whether their JPEG file is better or worse (or just different) compared to Sony's. (Though this is the first time I am seriously trying to think about shooting JPEG only/mostly so my previous Pentax, Panasonic and Olympus experiences are not helping to diversify my opinion either.)
(Unnecessary information from this point, just context on what's been swirling inside my head and life). Following Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for the last month and a half in trying to deal with my anxiety problems and the loss of a baby and my partner last year, I have been in a mental state where it's difficult to understand myself or, sometimes, who I am. Photography has been a part (bigger or most of) my life since starting my journey back in 2008. My learning has been very slow for the first 8 years because I could never afford anything beyond the kit lens (and a few adapted lenses) so practice and mistakes have been the greatest teacher I had. After moving to the UK my world has expanded to better cameras, and more lenses, which allowed me to try things I could not do before, like wildlife photography, macro, and action. My photography needs have changed quite abruptly last year as I was getting ready to be a dad and my focus was shifting from my own interests to documenting family and being travel friendly. But that did not happen and I ended up having to deal with a lot of debt (that I am still paying) from a variety of situations that I could not avoid or had to accept to be able to continue living in the UK.
But my photography has been slowly going into the backseat of this ride that my life is right now, from being able to have the free time to actually do it, to the difficulty of finding motivation and (quite literally) the will (to put the camera in my hand or look for a picture to make). I do have days where the excitement and desire for photography (either ideas or projects or just going out) is very strong but it doesn't usually last before the end of the week. Struggling with almost an identity crisis I am afraid (some days) that I might as well abandon photography altogether (I had days where I wanted to sell everything to just be a "normal" and "boring" person and not suffer GAS or "The Photography Itch"). Depression has made it worse with finding motivation, staying at my desk and watching movies with my Little Legs on my chest or just playing World Of Tanks with Little Legs on my lap and trying to be distracted enough from bad thoughts or feelings.
I have tried and I keep trying to find ways to make Photography a bit easier (like the JPEGs) or more engaging (like season ideas), maybe more rewarding (like prints) or trying something new (like portraiture) ... to try and get out of this circle that I found myself in (most of the pictures I have made is of my little Nuggie or the same streets I walk, day in and day out, commuting to work). I might have got my will to live back but I am still trying to find the will to be me right now.
As per the title, I am trying to research if I can move from RAW to JPEG to make my workflow more manageable, my data hoarding lighter, and improve my overall enjoyment and motivation for photography. I will start with the psychological issue first. I have realised that I dread the post-processing step because I have grown a backlog that has come to 3 years old with some of the pictures. I still enjoy the making pictures process and I do get that dopamine kick every time I get the "right" picture (it's subjective to everyone's different skill levels, interests and tastes). What I have come to be frustrated with is that I come home, import the pictures, edit a few and life kicks in and takes me away from the laptop if I have too many pictures and the pictures get stuck in no edited state either because I make others or I don't have the time or my mood/interest has fallen off a cliff (which happens all too often recently). And because I am not editing the pictures I don't have the final edits to share and I share less and that's another disappointment with myself on top.
Of course, things are more difficult/frustrating as a wildlife photographer if you shoot burst to catch the right moment of the action ... or trying to do pet photography (with my little dog only for now) and the lens or camera AF/motor can't keep up with a running subject and only trying to burst for the lucky shot of whatever the buffer can muster. Dealing with hundreds of shots that are actually only a handful of pictures really truly worth it (AKA sharp enough and in focus and at the right moment) is annoying as usual. But some types of images only really can be made using burst, more so if you have older generation cameras that do not have the performances and features to help to get the right shot.
(Addendum, what I have noticed is that some people don't really put value in what every new generation brings its features and/or performances that make it a bit easier or increase the chances of getting the shot more than then the previous generation. Of course, skill is always on top of the list that will help you get the shot more BUT it's always a different situation for each person, how much time you have to improve your skill, how much money you have to be able to afford the gear, what kind of results you expect to get, how much you depend on your gear as tools for generating income. Myself, I love photography like nothing else but I can't afford the best of the range nor do I generate any income from my images.)_
Back on topic, sorry about that, the 2nd issue with shooting RAW is the performance impact of trying to edit them. Smaller RAW files like 20 or 24 Megapickle Ricks images are a lot easier to edit than the upper range like 42, 45, 50, and 61s. The reason for that is as simple there's more data to uncompress (if it's a compressed file), to demosaic (all files no matter the brand or size have to do that) and to simply read the data. The first impact is on the Processor (CPU) and the generation (age) of the CPU dictates how well it can do that (so the newest it is the better and the only other factor that matters is raw power, the all-mighty GHz, the more the better, but all of this is a very simplified way of putting it). The 2nd impact is memory (RAM), the larger the file the more space it requires on memory to be able to display in real-time the information and changes (the larger the RAW file the more memory you need to keep the editing snappy and responsive).
My laptop was high-end when I bought it 4 years ago (everything ages and in the computing department, they age quicker than anything else IF your demands/needs increase as well). My ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15" came with the Intel i7 9750H CPU which has 6 cores and 12 threads with a base of 2.6 GHz and boost (on single core performance) to 4 GHz and 16GB DDR4 (probably the slow 2.333 MHz stock, BIOS does not support XMP profiles).
For the last 2 years, it has become increasingly frustrating to edit my pictures, where I am pegging the RAM usage to 15.3 GBs in about 15 minutes with everything shut down from Task Manager, there is literally nothing else I can do to get things better but to switch from RAW to JPEG. RAM usage is an issue because when I switch from one file to another my screen blacks out and Lightroom becomes unresponsive for up to minutes (because it's trying to swap the memory files to the slow Page File System), for the last 6 months I can't even watch videos or listen to music on my laptop while editing pictures, which I always loved to do). Yes, I have reset Windows to fresh install and it still doesn't help even with anything else installed on the laptop and that turns my laptop basically unusable for anything else, which I do, I game on it in my free time, I watch movies and it's my main device for everything else.
The CPU age is also becoming an issue because more and more software and even Windows itself is becoming more threaded competent, where on Windows 10 I used to have 1-2 cores used more often than not it could easily boost to 4 GHz and stay fast, not with Windows 11 it uses 4 or more cores and my boost is dropping to 3 GHZ or even lower than the base 2.6 GHz, which means it's thermal throttling and even power throttling at 6 core usage. When I import files or export JPEGS I see the CPU drop to 1.6 GHz at 6 core usage and if I had anything playing in the background (like Winamp with music or VLC with a movie) it would stutter both audio and video. I have cleaned the laptop fans and heatsinks repasted the CPU and GPU, and change the thermal pads to thermal conductive paste (K-5 Pro) on the VRMs and the Voltage Controllers on the motherboard, the temperatures are averaging at 80 C on the CPU (peak at 95 C when it hits power throttling only) and 75 C on the GPU so it's not an overheating issue. It's quite a frustrating problem that I can't solve unless I can come out with money for a brand new (current-gen or last-gen) PC or Apple's M1 devices. Or stop editing JPEGs.
The last realisation I had was am I really doing justice to the 42 MP RAW files I edit? Of course, I love the output, I enjoy getting as much as possible out of the colours and exposure of an image, and I often push the Shadows and Highlights sliders to the max (unless it's above ISO 6.400). Here's a typical example:
(Of course everyone has different tastes) I think I try to balance the exposure and the outlook in Post-Processing more then out in the field because I know I can get so much more from editing RAW and it leaves me to focus more on composition and the moment then worry about exposure settings. Even the editing slighters you see there are almost defaults to most of the pictures I make. The Sharpness sliders are the default for all my images bellow ISO 3.200, the Presence slighter is mostly the default I use to get the most details out of an image, the Exposure is about default but I adapt those most often depending on the situation. I would like to add that I do have OCD when it comes to numbers and I always put them is divisable values, either by 3 or 4 or 10, I have tried not to many times but it was "itching" my mind so much that I have up trying to change.)
Now where I am going with this is all my images live and are displayed for the internet or my laptop (which is ony 15") and the only prints I do is for my own home or for the Camera Club Competition. I do enjoy large prints and I prefer/consider the minimum print as A3 to be worth doing and looking at. So I am not using the RAW files or the image quality to anything more then average and with all the issues added it's starting to become a really big negative impact on my photography overall (at my current situation, maybe in 10 or 20 years it will be diferent but that's entirely another subject.)
What really "broke" my mindset with prints is when I saw an A3 print when I got my prints of my Little Legs as a birthday gift yesterday and one of the picture was from my Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G main shooting camera with literally no edits done to it:
If I hold that picture to my face I can tell that the sharpness and the definition of her fur are not what I expect from my Sony a7R II with either the Tamron 28-75mm f 2.8 G2 or Samyang AF 35mm f 1.8 ... BUT when I have at the distance viewing of more then a meter (as the picture was made with my phone above) I can't really say anything bad about it, and that picture was made in low-ish light with my phone because she gets very excited when I grab my camera (she thinks she's going out so she get's "activated") and it's near impossible to get candids of her indoors.
Now I am not in a rush to sell all of my stuff just to get a brand-new phone for making images, I will always prefer the manual controls, the lowest shutter lag and the infinite range of focal range of any dedicated camera. But I do think that I am trying to aim for the moon while I am trying to wrestle with all the hurdles of using a "military-grade, state-of-the-art, artillery calibre" device. This might be my worst analogy yet.
So comes the "idea" of instead of shooting RAW maybe I can actually make do with JPEG for most of my images (RAW can always be an option if I am unsure I can get the image right enough). Of course, I will have to be more careful with exposure (especially in extreme contrast or low light situations) and worst of all White Balance since that's very notorious for being uncorrectable if it's way too wrong. And shooting JPEG means I have quicker imports, and it takes a lot less space (I already have close to 4 TB of pictures and I know that's not a lot for some people but hard drive costs still add up, especially if you duplicate your images on multiple drives for backups. F.I.Y. CLOUD STORAGE IS NOT A BACKUP, corporations and companies can take away your data at their own discretion no matter what "the laws or EULA agreements" you might sign.
The benefits would be that my laptop has more years to "live" and breathe on the smaller JPEG files, I have more space for more pictures, and I can even use mobile devices to edit or share pictures (like tablets or smartphones) as an on-the-go alternative to my laptop, I can instantly share pictures without having to think about having to edit them first. RAW + JPEG is always a backup choice, just in case.
Now I do have a difficult problem with Sony specifically when it comes to JPEGs. First is the White Balance, I have never seen such a bad White Balance reaction to artificial light in my life (coming from Pentax, Panasonic and Olympus). The main street lamps in the town I live have a yellow tint to them but the Auto White Balance on my Sony a7R II is so bad at it, it turns the image in almost pure orange and even the Lightroom maximum Blue Tint correction can't even make up for it:
I "eye-dropped" the White Balance on the white PVC pipe on the middle bottom of the screen right next to the edge of the building as I know that's the most balanced are in the image BUT the image has a significant green cast to it now and lifting the Magenta Tint will not help, it will make things worse.
I got some of the colours right here, mostly, as I balanced the White Point to the silver street lamp neck, but you can see on the left image how orange the image was.
The other worry I have with Sony is their reputation with colour reproduction (at least in the first 3 generations of their A7 cameras) and JPEG files. Editing in RAW I rarely do anything to the colours. I try to get a warmer White Balance as that's how I prefer to "see" my images, the Contrast and Dehaze sliders are the only ones that really pushes the colours for me (within reason).
I have tried to shoot JPEGs only last week for one of my doogie walks and after looking at the images I got only one that I was actually impressed with of all of them:
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I have done little to no editing to the images because I wanted to see the rendering of the JPEG engine with the Vivid Creative Style at +2 Contrast, +1 Saturation and +1 Sharpness. (To be honest, I can't remember when or why I chose this setting and that profile, I just put the camera in JPEG only before thinking of anything else).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Both of the above images as most of the rest have +1 Ev Exposure in Lightroom because I tend to shoot -0.7 EV on the Exposure Compensation on my Sony a7R II to keep the Highlights from blowing. This is the ONLY image where I feel that is actually sharp and nicely crisp, I don't know if it's the Tamron combo with the Sony camera or just the Sony being old-er that the AF is not as accurate/fast as I hoped (in RAW files I think I can compensate for a tiny bit out of focus better then in JPEGs).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I do quite like the colours on both of these images, not to saturate, though I do prefer the bit warmer White Balance (both were in Auto) on the first. The other issue I noticed with shooting JPEG is that colour fringing is not the best way to deal with, I just tried the Lens Profile Correction, the Manual "Eye-Dropper" AND a brush adjustment with +100 Defringing:
It still leaves some of the orange hallo-ing and a bit of blue in the background. (Not sure if this is nit picking or not.)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
With 0 EV Exposure Compensation, the Highlights do tend to get lost quickly, the image has -100 Highlights and +50 Shadows and there's, unfortunately, banding in the middle of the sky with the clouds:
This is why I prefer to underexpose -0.3 EV in very low light, -0.7 EV in daylight (my default) and -1 EV in strong contrast and sunshine.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Things are not getting better in Low Light, unsurprisingly, but such is life with wildlife, I pushed the JPEG +1 EV and -50 Highlights (0 EV Exposure Compensation). I can't say I am surprised by the "sharpness" of ISO 16.000.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Passing it through Topaz DeNoise AI doesn't seem to help much more than smear the out-of-focus noise a bit, the "sharpness" of the duck is still lacking.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
High Contrast Low Light situation does not help the JPEG question very much, the noise is noticeable and exposure was difficult to manage, +1 EV, -100 Highlights, and +50 Shadows in Lightroom for ISO 4.000 were a bit much.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
The Auto White Balance did okayu for the colours but I am not particularly impressed with the loss of detail in the trees below the monument (it was a pretty cool day so there wasn't any heat haze), the JPEG was pushed +1 EV with -100 Highlights and +50 Shadows.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
This was a difficult situation because the sunset was overwhelming the metering of the camera which has -0.3 EV Exposure Compensation, yet I had to push +3 EV in Lightroom which is a lot for a JPEG file and -50 Highlights, the bottom of the image shadows have been posterized and I don't think they would handle printing very well.
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I can't make a conclusion on the JPEG question just yet. I do worry that it might end up in another situation like Micro Four Thirds/APS-C VS. 35mm FF/ Medium Format where yes, it can be better and it can show a big improvement BUT you have to accept other downsides as well like cost, weight, size. One would think, but it's not necessarily common sense, that having a bigger/better sensor would give more advantage to JPEG rendition compared to editing RAW of smaller sensors but that can be a fallacy in itself because companies differ in their abilities as well as preferences of how good the JPEG engine they have.
I have never used a Fujifilm, Canon or Nikon system so I can't comment on whether their JPEG file is better or worse (or just different) compared to Sony's. (Though this is the first time I am seriously trying to think about shooting JPEG only/mostly so my previous Pentax, Panasonic and Olympus experiences are not helping to diversify my opinion either.)
(Unnecessary information from this point, just context on what's been swirling inside my head and life). Following Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for the last month and a half in trying to deal with my anxiety problems and the loss of a baby and my partner last year, I have been in a mental state where it's difficult to understand myself or, sometimes, who I am. Photography has been a part (bigger or most of) my life since starting my journey back in 2008. My learning has been very slow for the first 8 years because I could never afford anything beyond the kit lens (and a few adapted lenses) so practice and mistakes have been the greatest teacher I had. After moving to the UK my world has expanded to better cameras, and more lenses, which allowed me to try things I could not do before, like wildlife photography, macro, and action. My photography needs have changed quite abruptly last year as I was getting ready to be a dad and my focus was shifting from my own interests to documenting family and being travel friendly. But that did not happen and I ended up having to deal with a lot of debt (that I am still paying) from a variety of situations that I could not avoid or had to accept to be able to continue living in the UK.
But my photography has been slowly going into the backseat of this ride that my life is right now, from being able to have the free time to actually do it, to the difficulty of finding motivation and (quite literally) the will (to put the camera in my hand or look for a picture to make). I do have days where the excitement and desire for photography (either ideas or projects or just going out) is very strong but it doesn't usually last before the end of the week. Struggling with almost an identity crisis I am afraid (some days) that I might as well abandon photography altogether (I had days where I wanted to sell everything to just be a "normal" and "boring" person and not suffer GAS or "The Photography Itch"). Depression has made it worse with finding motivation, staying at my desk and watching movies with my Little Legs on my chest or just playing World Of Tanks with Little Legs on my lap and trying to be distracted enough from bad thoughts or feelings.
I have tried and I keep trying to find ways to make Photography a bit easier (like the JPEGs) or more engaging (like season ideas), maybe more rewarding (like prints) or trying something new (like portraiture) ... to try and get out of this circle that I found myself in (most of the pictures I have made is of my little Nuggie or the same streets I walk, day in and day out, commuting to work). I might have got my will to live back but I am still trying to find the will to be me right now.
