After writing recently about shooting raw, I came across this guide to getting the best from out-of-camera jpegs, written by fellow photography blogger Kenneth Koh.
I still think raw is unquestionably the best way to extract the maximum possible quality from your camera, but if you're unable or unwilling to devote the time to process all your pictures there's a lot to be said for sticking with jpeg. Other reasons to consider jpeg over raw include:
- frees up more space on your card and hard drive
- in-camera noise reduction at high ISO settings can sometimes work better than third-party software
Ken's tips are specifically directed at Canon shooters, but equivalent adjustments can be made with any dSLR. His advice seems sound to me, so if you're disappointed with the results you're getting I'd suggest running some tests and experimenting with your camera's settings.
Nikon D2X, 10.5mm f/2.8, 1/50sec f/2.8 @ ISOH1 (1600 equivalent), in-camera jpeg
The light levels on this indoor climbing wall were terrible, but I didn't want to use flash. Because I had hundreds of images from this event I opted to shoot jpeg and turned the in-camera noise reduction setting to 'high' for these shots, which effectively killed the noise. It's one of the rare occasions when I chose to shoot jpeg rather than raw for quality reasons.
Cheers for bringing that to my attention Seb. I'll give that a try.
I shoot a lot of fast-action stuff under difficult low-light conditions, where I need a shutter speed faster than 1/350s, and ideally 1/500 so I shoot RAW and then have to spend ages post-processing. Anything that will help get the JPEG settings right is a boon.
Of course I really should buy a lens that will open up to f2.8 or wider ;-)
Posted by: Nick | March 01, 2007 at 10:06 AM
Hi Nick,
Faster lenses definitely help :) I'm currently eyeing up an f/2 200mm...
The key with low light / high ISO stuff is to make sure you're not underexposing. Noise tends to be at its worst in the most-amplified parts of the image, so it'll show up worst in the shadows. If you underexpose and then try to rescue the midtones in post-processing, you'll simply end up lightening all the noisy bits too :)
So... golden rule with high ISO: don't clip the blacks (left hand end of the histogram). If necessary you can even (gasp!) blow a highlight or two. That way you'll minimise your post-processing and the noise all at the same time (the jpeg example above is straight-out-of-camera, just resized for the web).
Posted by: Seb Rogers | March 01, 2007 at 10:19 AM
I've seen similar recommendations for Nikon kit on the Nikonians forum. For my D70s the recommended settings for punchy out-of-camera JPGs were:
Sharpening +2
Tone comp auto
Color mode IIIa for landscapes, Ia for people
Saturation enhanced
Hue adjustment 0
White balance to auto -3
Set your exposure comp to + 0.3
Lots of good discussion about it here:
http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID86/15189.html
I still shoot RAW, but I use these settings to get a good starting point in Capture NX (which can read the in-camera settings).
Posted by: Graham Stewart | March 02, 2007 at 03:08 PM