Changing from JPEG

[kimapali]

I was reading in lesson 2 about the vulnerability of JPEGs. All of the images I've ever taken digitally have been saved, edited, and viewed in JPEG. The lesson said that every time you do that a little bit of it is lost. Is it a noticeable difference? Should I convert all of my files to a different format now?

[dkippen]

Kimapali -

I think that to an untrained eye, the difference would not be significant, but if the same image is continually changed or edited, it may end up showing the difference. I have found that photographers that will end up selling or showing their work professionally would care about the format and final result, thus many photograhers shoot in a RAW format. The files are of course much larger, but you have more freedom in processing. You can save the RAW format to a JPEG file, and if you later change your mind about the final output, you can go back to the orignal RAW file and make changes without damaging the quality.

Does this help/make sense?

[ladyups]

I was reading in lesson 2 about the vulnerability of JPEGs. All of the images I've ever taken digitally have been saved, edited, and viewed in JPEG. The lesson said that every time you do that a little bit of it is lost. Is it a noticeable difference? Should I convert all of my files to a different format now?

You don't necessity have to convert all the files now...but when you open one of them to edit...save as first and save it to a tiff file or PS file if you are using Photoshop. That way you are not saving the original file again...just close it out and work on the tiff/ps file...I usually open the jpg and duplicate it...close the original and then save the duplicate as a tiff/PS.
Hope this helps. Others might have different opinions.

Mary

[dkippen]

Mary - Do you have the day off today?

[ladyups]

Mary - Do you have the day off today?

Nope, just not left yet..usually head out the door at 7:55...I don't start work till 8:25 and its only a 25 minute drive. Since I'm a satellite route, there's no use getting there early cause there's no one there but me and the other driver and a gas station...:D

Mary

[dkippen]

You must end up working late then? I was watching the weather this morning and it looks like you're still getting lots of snow.

Me - I'm taking a snow day. Got lots to catch up on that I didn't get done over the weekend.

[ladyups]

You must end up working late then? I was watching the weather this morning and it looks like you're still getting lots of snow.

Me - I'm taking a snow day. Got lots to catch up on that I didn't get done over the weekend.

Snow days? What are those? :D I will have an early day today if it snows because they will tell us to be back in by 5:30 so the air guy will be able to get the overnight freight to KC on time. It's when the snows quit that they keep us out till we get cleaned up...usually around 8. It makes for some very long days when you can't drive very fast because of the road conditions. I always wonder what makes people get out when they have no reason to do it....:)

Off to work now...have a fun day!

Mary

[gjtoth]

You don't necessity have to convert all the files now...but when you open one of them to edit...save as first and save it to a tiff file or PS file if you are using Photoshop. That way you are not saving the original file again...just close it out and work on the tiff/ps file...I usually open the jpg and duplicate it...close the original and then save the duplicate as a tiff/PS.
Hope this helps. Others might have different opinions.

Mary


The thing to bear in mind when dealing with RAW or .tiff files is the size of them. They're huge in comparison to .jpg's. If you have an external drive, now's the time to use it. If your main drive is big, you may want to have a dedicated partition for the files. When shooting RAW, there is a noticeable "lag time" when your camera is saving the shot because the file is so much bigger. The lag time varies from camera to camera.

[kimapali]

Wow, lots of info! Mary, I don't think I'm going to convert my old pictures but I know what to do from now on! And Gary, I'll definitely bring out my external hard drive for this, it sounds like all of these files are going to bog my computer down!

Thanks guys!

[Snappers]

One thing that has not been mentioned Kim is that when you shoot in Jpeg, it compresses the image in the camera hense the smaller size, the downside to this is that some of the information for the picture is deleted whereas with Raw, it records all the information hense the larger file size however, say you go out and take a few photographs in Jpeg, and then when you get home you realise that the White ballance was set right there would not be much you can do with it, however had it been shot in Raw, you can change the white ballance in the computer because the information from the picture is there. It is not only White Ballance this is applicable too.

Hope that makes sense. I now shot in Raw + Jpeg. I just have to buy a few more data cards incase I fill them up quicker.

[daltoned]

Hi Kim and welcome to the forum and the course from the Emerald Isle. I see you are already getting lots of help and advice on your question. I've recently changed to a Pentax K10d and it can record in both raw and Jpeg at the same time , as can other DSLR's. What I find now is that whereas before I just fired off shots with little thoughts to composition etc, now I do not take as many snaps. I can then transfer up the pc and can dump the raw's if nothing special, thus keeping storage down. I have a 250GB external drive and back up regularly (very important). Hope this helps.
EddieD

[Snappers]

Kim, in order to help explain what I was saying here are two photographs. I know they are not perfect by any means however, this is a shot I was trying to take whilst on holiday last week. My aim was to get the sea looking silk like. (I Failed!) as you can see, in the first picture my exposure was too much and it blew the photo out but because I shot the photo in Raw I was then able to play about with it in Photoshop and rescue what would have been a potentail disaster if it was a photo I really wanted.