May Meeting

[returnofsid]

Sounds like the meeting went great, with great food, good discussion and the photographs look great!

With the difficulty in capturing the true colors of the corals, if at all possible, set a Custom White Balance, to the tank you're shooting. This will save a lot of editing work, in Photoshop, which will also help save as much of the photo, as possible. Any editing at all, removes "data" from the original photo. So, getting the photo as close as possible, without editing, always helps. Then, even if you do need to edit, there's not as much editing needed, keeping more data intact.

 

[CarlaW]

I still have not figured out RAW photos???

 

[returnofsid]

I've just recently started shooting in RAW. Jpg works just fine, if you never want to shoot in RAW. RAW does "save" more of the image data, in fact A LOT more. For instance, I have been shooting in RAW/Jpg, lately, so the same image is saved in both formats. Let's use this image, as an example.

The original Jpg file is 5.36MB. The original RAW file is 23.04MB. After editing (which is absolutely required, for any RAW photography) the edited RAW file is 14.36MB. Had I edited differently, I'd have saved more of the original RAW file.

Any time you edit any photography, you lose some of the integrity of the digital file. By shooting in RAW, and editing, I'm still able to end up with a final result of 14.36MB, instead of 5.36MB.

RAW photographs require editing and conversion to a Jpg or Tiff file. Basically, our cameras "pre-edit" and compress our pictures, based on settings in the camera. When shooting in RAW format, no pre-editing and no compression take place. This allows you to have the full memory of the digital file. However, since absolutely no "in camera" editing takes place, you have to edit them, yourself, using a RAW converter and editor. I'm still in the learning stages of RAW editing...lol

 

[returnofsid]

For comparison, here's the edited RAW photo and then the un-edited Jpg photo.

 

[CarlaW]

All this does is add more to my confusion, so I am just gonna shoot the way I have been until somebody can walk me thru the whole freaking process

 

[returnofsid]

RAW is confusing lol. Editing it if even more so. I picked up a few books lately, that've helped out a lot, but I'm still just guessing most of the time

 

[CarlaW]

What software you using for editing?

 

[returnofsid]

For a long time, I'd been using Photoshop Elements 7. I have Photoshop CS5 and have been tinkering with it lately. I also have Canon RAW, but have never used it.

 

[CarlaW]

I think that Kim is using Elements 8, and I know she really likes it.

BTW, great flower pics!!!!

 

[kamar]

Yes - I'm using Elements 8. I think you've got 7, don't you Charlie? There aren't a lot of differences between the two. I'm still willing to show you some stuff if you've got an evening free.

I like shooting RAW aquarium photos in particular because there is much more data, the colors look richer, and there are a number of small tweaks I like to make to the exposure, temperature, contrast, etc. that you can do in editing a RAW photo. You can also open a JPEG as a RAW photo and still use the same editing options - you just don't have the amount of data to work with. Let me know if you want to know how.

Aquarium photos just turn out weird sometimes, and the white balance typically isn't all I want to change. Plus, if I didn't get the white balance right when shooting, I can still get it right later if I shot in RAW. When you're done, you'll have to save it in a format that you can use (JPEG for most) then resize it, or whatever. The RAW also serves as a negative that I can go back and manipulate again in a different way.

If super high quality isn't a need, like maybe group photos, or you don't want the hassle of converting to JPEG, just shoot in JPEG. It's still great with the cameras we have.

I don't know all of the ins and outs of using Elements, I just know enough to do what I want to, and I really don't care about the rest. I figure as my knowledge expands, I still have the RAW photos and maybe I can do more advanced stuff later.

 

[CarlaW]

You know, maybe I am using the wrong setting on my camera for pulling this off, should I be using the raw+jpeg setting? Heck, I don't know. I am like you Kim, I know enuf about elements to be dangerous, and that is scary.