Books have been written on post processing, and the best of them are well worth reading. A complete discusison exceeds the scope of any forum post, so what I'm really tutoring on here is the relationship between in-camera and out of camera post processing. It became apparent in a recet poll that there is a great deal of misunderstanding, and all I'm going to try to do here is eleminate some of those misconceptions.

What I'm going to do is look at a number of camera menu's, and explain how they affect your images, workflow, and the ease of making corrections later on in the process. Most, if not all, of the more recent digital cameras have similar options.

The first menu allows the setting of the most basic of post processing parameters.



If you shoot RAW format and do everything else on your PC, all these settings do is establish defaults. The setting values are stored along with the sensor data, and the post processing is performed every time you use the image. If you change any of the settings, the new settings are then used whenever the image is accessied. If you happen to get these values set in-camera so that they need no later changes, then you don't have to change them later.

If you shoot in any format other than raw, these settings are applied to the image data before it is stored to the camera's memory card, and you cannot remove them after the fact. You can often do limited "correction" using your image editing software, but the amount of change you can make later is limited by the bit depth of the JPG images, among other things, so post processing JPG's is a last resort. If you don't think you can get the setting right before taking the image (or if your camera doesn't use a sufficient bit depth for it's internal processing) then you should probabaly consider sticking to RAW.

However, in spite of what some who "can't do" might like you to believe, there are some people who are very good at getting these settings right before taking the shot, and there are times when working on assignment that it is the only choice (because sometimes you have to send your photos right to the client, directly from the camera, and he may not be able to even view RAW format files). Getting the post processing set up before you snap the shutter takes practice, and is something not everyone can manage or even wants to learn. Nothing wrong with that, as long as such people don't wrongly conclude that the in-camera processing doesn't exist or is useless. If their usefulnees isn't obvious, don't argue about it, just suit yoursel and recognize the fact that not everyone will agree.

It's best to make the best guesses you can before snapping the shutter, becasue anything you get right won't have to be changed later, saving you post processing time, and the more you practice, the more often you'll get the settings right the first time.

The same thing applies to white balance (among other things). If you shoot anything other than RAW, you have to either specify the white balance, or let the camera make the decision for you. If you shoot raw, you can still set the value or let the camera set if for you, but you can change it later without degrading the image. Here's a typical white balance menu.



As with the other settings, some are much better at getting this right before snapping the shutter than others, and pretty much everyone gets better with practice. If in doubt, shoot RAW and tweak it later.

Now many people believe that RAW files actually contain unmodified (raw) sensor data, and at one time that was true. However, it is not always the case today. The last menu contains two examples.



Active D-Lighting and Long exp. NR (in the case of the camera that this menu was captured from) are performed by MODIFYING the RAW data, whether or not it is going to be stored in a RAW file or a jpg/tiff file. In the first case the processing involves the way the sensor data is read from the sensor, and in the second case, the camera actually takes a second "black" image so that the noise in the black image can be subtracted from the RAW sensor data. Then the modified raw data is stored, in whatever format you have selected. It is NOT reversable, even if you save the image in RAW format, because the raw data is altered before it is saved by your camera. There is a common belief that RAW is always unprocessed sensor data, but that is no longer the case. Some things are doen better by the camera, and we'll probably be seeing more of this kind of thing as the technology continues to advance.

If in doubt, don't use post processing that modifies the RAW data. Alternatives on the PC won't produce the same quality (usually), but we've been living with them for decades, and they're usually "good enough."

 

we can read a manual.

sounds like you are trying to prove something more so than actually contribute something useful to the forum

 

[QUOTE=bluextc,Feb 4 2009, 02:50 PM]we can read a manual.

sounds like you are trying to prove something more so than actually contribute something useful to the forum

 

Blue, it seems worthy of discussion to me. In no way are the camera manuals that well written! And yes, he is pointing to some misconceptions in that other thread. You think we should make no effort to educate? I'll chime in depending on the questions & answers.

 

Personally.. I just wanna know hot to be pro without trying and overnight

 

I was going to reply to Nichigo's post but he pulled it out as not to offend the OP.

can you tell me how this discussion is useful?
is it a discussion as nichigo put it? its merely an explanation of RAW and JPEG which can be googled or be found in your camera manual.
it sounds like a manual copied verbatim. its cool if his real intention was to help out a fellow forum member who had difficulty understanding RAW and JPEG, but that's not the case. from his last sentence it sounds like he is telling off the moderator that he knows what's up so stfu, basically. am I wrong?

this is not helpful. not to mention most will not bother reading someone's post about RAW and JPEG that's 10 paragraphs long...unless the topic was interesting.


not to sound like a jerk but if you enjoy sharing knowledge between you two, feel free to email each other. don't list what's already in the manual and call out the moderator.

 

<--- my contribution to this thread

 

Actually I find that insulting. As someone whom has spent more than 40 years shooting a camera and still learning all the time thats just not a cool comment.

But if the means your joking I will understand.

 

Blue, aside from Red's last sentence, you're wrong. Feel free not to read his long posts.

 

This thread got seriously derailed, and the funny thing is, I don't understand why? It seems silly to me. The arguements aren't arguements. They are nothing more than incorrect opinions. So, please, lets posts facts, and THEN, we can dicuss our opinions based on those facts.