I have read a lot... now I am more confused than ever!

Hi friends: I am reading a lot because I bought recently the D80 and it is my

first srl camera. BUT I am confused with so much information. Please help me

with this 4 questions:

 

1) Is it wise to use RAW quality in all my pictures ( portrait, sport,

birthday party and so on)?

 

2) Once I store my pictures in JPEG in my hard disk, does it lose quality

every time I open the picture to look at it? I do not mean working in my

picture with photoshop but just opening and closing it.

 

3) If I am planning to edit my pictures with photoshop should I use raw? Does

it have any advantage?

 

4) Will I have as sharp pictures with my srl camera as I had with my point and

shoot?

 

Well these are my questions so far... I hope they are not too boring for you.

I know there are a lot of experts here that can help me. :-)

 

Thanks in advanced!

<ol>

<li>Yes.

<li>No.

<li>Yes. You have more information to work with; e.g., you can set the color temperature as you please.

<li>If you use it properly.

<ol>

1: Use RAW any time you know you want maximum quality, and/or when the light is difficult. Use JPEG when immediacy of results is more important and you want do a lot of shooting without having to schedule a lot of time for post processing.

 

2. No, only when you save the picture.

 

3. You can get more out of your images in RAW mode so, yes, this is a good idea. JPEG stores less tonal data than the camera's sensor recorded, RAW has access to all of it.

 

4. There are a lot of factors here! A lot depends on the exact situation but, by and large, the SLR is a more capable machine. You may need to learn a little more technique to get the most out of it. It is worth bearing in mind that most cheaper compacts apply a lot of artificial sharpening to their pictures, and most dSLRs don't; initial results may look a little softer, but the actual level of detail captured is better (all other things being equal). This makes it easier to get a good result out of Photoshop's sharpen tools.

Hi Emre: If one day in the future you get the Novel Prize as a writer I am sure it will be in the category short novel :-). Thanks for taking the time to answer. One last question: If I use the lens or filter for Macro +1,+2,+3 can I use them at the same time? or one by one?

Carlos, you can stack the macro filters on top of each other, but you lose image quality with each filter (particularly macro filters) placed in front of the lens. I have used +1 and +3 together when I needed to get a little closer. But, I definitely saw a quality decrease over using +1 or +3 alone.

Doesn't the D80 have a NEF+Jpeg option?

1] you can use RAW for that extra bit of quality but jpg FINE is AOK most of the time.

 

2] You loose information/quality when you use the jpg process to close a file. But copying and moving files using for instance Windows Explorer means you maintain what you have got. You have what the camera captured on the HD, no more no less.

 

3] I have found no problem in editing jpg files becuase as you open the file it becomes a full un-compressed file for operations in the editing programme and only becomes a compressed jpg again when you choose that option by clicking the 'save' button instead of 'save as' and choosing the process you want to save by.[.psd .pspimage .tif etc which do not compress the file]

 

4] You should have better results with the DSLR but becuase you are expected to work them up in editing the DSLR settings are by default less contrasty, less saturated etc so may not look as good straight out of the camera. Most serious people deliberately set the settings to low to have this control in editing when using jpg/FINE.

 

Extra] The DSLR owner has the advantage that they can remove the lens and insert an 'Extension ring' between camera and lens. You can buy 'simple' tubes and more expensive ones which couple the lens to the body electronically speaking. The Ext Tube doesn't affect quality the way adding extra glass on the front does. For convienience the 'Macro 1:1 capable' lens is the best option if you can afford it. You can also use extension tubes with a macro lens for even greater magnification if that is required. The macro lens on its own works between infinity and a subject size about 23mm across filling the sensor. Likely you would have to stack the complete set of CU lens to get more magnification, ie the 7 dioptre total by adding 1+2+4 lens.

Your questions are not boring at all! But I do not understand something: how can you ask question #2 if you had a point and shoot camera before getting a DSLR as you mention in question #4? That is, did you ever observe any kind of picture deterioration simply because of looking at the pictures from your point and shoot camera? Maybe you should start with an introductory book into digital photography.

I did not notice any kind of deterioration but I have read so much these days that I have not got the time to digest all the information. Your answers have been very helpful. Thanks a lot. I understand much better now.

Hi Carlos,

One thing to remember about this site is that it has a large(?) number of pros on it. So a lot of the answers you get will be from a pro's perspective. But being an amateur (am I right in assuming this?), you probably have less demanding requirements than the pros. So here's my more amateur oriented response to your questions:

 

1. Raw is handy for, among other things, adjusting white balance, retrieving blown highlights (depending on your software), and having 16bit/channel as opposed to 8bits/channel for jpg. If you are just going to print your photos to 6x4 most of the time, then none of this is going to matter much. White balance can be set to auto on camera and get reasonbly close results, blown highlights mightn't matter that much as long as your friend or the building or whatever in the foreground is exposed ok (and besides, this can be checked on camera immediately after a shot, and adjusted as necessary), and the extra 8 bits is only going to matter if you plan to make radical adjustments to your pictures (ie. photo art), or if you desperately need to regain some shadow detail in a photo.

 

2. no, only when you resave it as a jpg

 

3. Probably not much advantage to you. see my response to question 1.

 

4. If you jack up the contrast and sharpness settings on camera, then you will get something like a point and shoot look. But most non-amateurs feel that the point and shoot look is not really what you want to aim for. As someone else said, you are best to lower your settings to minimal, and then adjust them in post-processing. But if you don't want to be bothered with pp, then sure pump them up in camera, and they'll look something like a point and shoot. Just a note though, the incamera settings only apply to jpegs. If you shoot raw these settings don't matter, as you can adjust them as you like in post-processing.

 

I guess my point is that unless you are going to make radical adjustments to your images, or regularly stuff up your exposure to the point that the result is not acceptable, then JPEG is going to be more than fine for you. But if you've got a big enough memory card, why not just capture both nef and jpg and then you are covered.