RAW vs JPEG in Digital Photography

RAW vs JPEG is a question that is asked by every photographer. There are lots of reasons as to why RAW is superior to JPEG and vise versa. In basic terms JPEG is better due to its ease of use, and RAW is better for its extra options.

For new photographers Jpeg is easier to use because as soon as you take the picture it is processed within the camera. This means that once the images are uploaded to the computer you can then upload the images to Facebook. Where as with a RAW file you have to use a photo editing software such as Photoshop, Gimp or Paint.net to output the image to a usable format.

With Jpeg the settings your camera will set the color temperature and exposure, the camera will also process the image to add blacks, contrast, brightness, noise reduction and sharpening. The file will then be saved as a compressed Jpeg file.

With Raw file instead of all the settings being defined at the time of capture, picture settings can be changed when the file is imported into Photoshop. The image below shows the settings panel that opens in Photoshop when a raw file is imported.

Below you can see what the extra information that is captured can be used for in order to enhance an image.

Composition in Digital Photography

There are a few rules that have to be considered when it comes to the Composition of a shot. You have to think about the Simplicity of the shot, the Rule of thirds, lines, balance, framing and avoiding mergers. When it come to taking a shot you have to consider what it is in the shot you are focusing on. Taking a shot of a something basic such as a daisy allow the viewer to only focus on the one item. This shows a simplistic composition. Below is an image that shows the rule of thirds. The image is divided into three equal parts both horizontally and vertically. You can see in the image a butterfly along the vertical line. Lines make the viewer look into the picture more. Horizontal lines give a calming look to the image and the diagonal lines on the tracks give a dynamic look to the image. Balance gives an impression of equality to the image Framing gives a look through something to focus on the item. It's important to avoid mergers in photography

High Dynamic Range

High Dynamic Range other wise known as HDR, is a process that is applied to the image by the camera to compensate for colour loss, it gives an image a higher Dynamic range. Below you can see the effect in practise, The picture on the left shows how a camera usually captures an image and the image on the right shows a picture with HRD enabled. The way HDR works is by combining three or more photos, one with normal exposure, one over exposed image and one under exposed image. Depending on the lighting of the area it can make an image look more blown out. HDR is very useful in low light areas. If the camera is unable to take a normally exposed image it will instead combine the images to create an effect of normal lighting. Before taking a photo with HDR enabled you have to remove any movement from the shot otherwise the image will come out blurry and you will get a ghosting effect. Some advanced forms of HDR are able to to combat the effect of ghosting. To take a good H

Lighting Setups for different scenes

There are many lighting setups that give you a different effects. When choosing how many lights to use in a scene you need to first look at the subject. You need to chose what it is you are trying to portray in a photo. If you are going for a professional photo that you would use for a work place you would want to take a photo with equal lighting. Incandescent, Fluorescent, Studio Strobe and LED are some of the types of bulbs that are used in the light stands. Most cameras have a built in LED light that the user can use. Large camera such as the Cannon 750D can connect to an external flash and can fire the flash from a remote place this gives the ability to use multiple flashes in one shot. In the below shot you can see the effect of multiple lights give to the highlights in the shots. Another way you can produce a similar effect is by using a reflector which can be used to bounce light of one source to another. You can see below a shot, the light that is set up to the r

Digital Photography

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