Acros v Acros - Blurry Lines
This is a quick one. It concerns the age-old question of raw vs JPEG, in the context of my recent change of heart on the BLACKDOGEYES project. Despite having initially opted for raw files, my X-H2 was in fact set to Raw+Fine. I know: useless, right? Well, not so much as it turns out.
I'd already processed the latest images (raw), but when I started writing the 2.4KM post it quickly made sense to go back to the card, and import the JPEGs I'd left behind. And because I'm lazy, as soon as the operation finished the first thing I did was copy all the edits from one processed raw file, and paste the results on its JPEG version. All settings, masks included. And this is what I saw (raw on left, JPEG on right):
Pretty darn close. The raw files are a tad brighter, but that's an easy fix. Here's another one—it's an outtake that's a bit more complex:
Again: slightly more exposure on the raw, but surprisingly close otherwise. Now what about shadow recovery? Two other originals:
With the same settings applied to both:
Brighter raw on left. Underexposed shadows are relatively easy to adjust on a raw file, but what about the JPEG?
Same setup: raw on left, JPEG on right. I added a linear gradient with raised shadows and lowered contrast. Slightly different values (and I didn’t bother matching them perfectly).
Look, I'll never argue against the value of raw files and the headroom they provide. A raw is always infinitely more malleable, and it's important to keep this in mind when shooting JPEG-only—reflexes should be adjusted, safety net isn't quite as safe, yada yada.
But in reality, the story is never as cut and dry as some would make it out to be.
