Twisted Indifference

This is an old post with a new photograph. I had earlier used my dog Edison’s snap which can still be seen on my flickr page here.

First just to make sure everyone is on the same page, a little information about what a RAW Image File is all about. To put it simply, this is what effectively replaces the film negative. While the negative has to be printed to be of actual use, the RAW file goes through substantial post-processing before it can be converted to a RGB file format. So what is the difference between shooting in RAW and shooting in JPEG when they have to be put through post-processing anyway? Read on…

The RAW file is not a processed file. The JPEG undergoes in camera processing. For example, when you set the White Balance and Exposure while shooting JPEGs, you are more or less committed to that shot. While Photoshop does offer a wide variety of tools to fix errors, they are relatively limited and the editing here is destructive.

RAW processing involves non destructive editing. A RAW file literally holds all possible data for a given shot. If the in camera white balance was set to Daylight, a RAW file will also store the result of that shot had the white balance been set to Auto, Fluorescent, cloudy or Shade etc. It also stores data across 5 tonal ranges. While discussing tonal range is worth a couple of more posts, suffice to say for now that if you have shot in RAW, a significant error in exposure (under/over) is easily correctable.

It goes without saying that one should not develop a dependance on shooting RAW. Good technique and understanding of metering and colour contribute more to the shot than RAW. This photograph was taken while I was wandering around in Ooty. For all the tea estates that it boasts of, Ooty seriously lacks places that actually make a decent of cup of tea.

This was never meant to be a personal blog nor do I write sappy testimonials. My website and my blog mean the world to me. Due to reasons best left alone my hosting account was deleted today. A disaster of mind numbing proportions (to me anyway) was averted due to the presence of mind of a friend to whom I am already indebted to life several times over.

So yes, while this is not a personal blog I would like to take the time to thank Vivek who has not only ensured the uptime of my computers over the past eight years but also ensured that the website and the blog have backups. I could not have asked for a better friend or system administrator.

I realize that the above text reads like a bloody official letter of recognition but I don’t do sappy.