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Picture/Clip Post Magazine

Miss_Rachel said:
I will say this: My wife is a pretty good photographer, she has tried to explain several things to me. I understand "lossless" and a thing called HDR (?) and she has explained that she doesn't take JPEG pictures. Her cameras will take five images and overlay them and the results are quite stunning. Look, I don't really understand what I am trying to talk about, but she says you have to process almost every picture you take with a digital camera just like you must have done with film cameras.

This is supposed to be a gallery, so I'll shut up now. Let's all just enjoy it.
Click to expand...
WARNING: JARGON ALERT. Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger!

Lossless means that the data captured when the photo was taken is stored in a type of file and is the data you see. JPEGs are lossy compression - but what matters is if your eye cares about what is lost. With JPEG, you can compress to a higher level for a smaller file size and that eliminates some detail from the image. The greater the compression, the more is lost. Most cameras offer two forms of photo storage, the lossless RAW format and the lossy JPEG. Nikon's RAW are stored in NEF files. Canon uses CRW. Both are lossless. Generally, you can think of the RAW files as the masters where the data is EXACTLY as the camera captured it. Most cameras allow shooting to store the image in RAW or JPEG or both at the same time with varying detail levels for JPEG. As far as I know, the JPEG files are always 8 bit RGB images. Until the advent of billion color screens, this normally didn't matter too much unless you were photographing with the intent of having the images printed in a magazine or on your wall. In that case, you shot in RAW at 12 bir probably using a Leica, Hasselblad, Leaf Aptus or in medium format with a Mamiya or Fuji and processed the images after. When shooting in JPEG, what most cameras also do is to allow a little "bumping" of color values to make them pop a little more. This makes the JPEGs generally look better and be smaller than the RAW files with the least amount of effort.

What really sings though is when you're able to take the JPEG file compressed a little moderately to serve as a bit of a goal since the RAW files don't jump out as much being closer to reality. With the 12 bit files, there simply is more data to "do math with" and get really crisp images that are dramatic and better looking. I'd started to type up how braketing works yesterday in response to a reply to my other explanation but it really applies here. With these images that are 12 bits per pixel, it's more than you can see - on non billion color screens - but you can see the difference in print. With bracketing, you take 3, 5 or 7 photos in a burst. In the simplest case one photo is at a lower exposure, one is at the expected exposure and the other is at +1 exposure. These are all merged in a way that lets greater contrast and drama come through in that the math can take more extreme values from each photo. Generally, you'll have a 32 bit 50 or 100 MB image. Perfect for getting the most out of areas which need more contrast. And the HDR (short for high dynamic range) technique relies on this to apply color range treatments in a way that can be either astounding or garish. I've used this to get a few photos to what I wished the camera captured. It's also really easy to overdo but when it's done right it can make an image just feel meaty and raw or subtle, rich and beautiful. Hopefully two of mine I plan on posting will achieve the desired effect. Anyway, enough mansplaining for the time being. Back to the perty pitchers.
 
This is an image that I used HDR on. Saw it one day when hiking. Came back the next day. 40 minutes to walk to the site, 40 minutes to take the pic. Who knows how long to get it just right.
 

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OwnThatKinkGirl said:
WARNING: JARGON ALERT. Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger!

Lossless means that the data captured when the photo was taken is stored in a type of file and is the data you see. JPEGs are lossy compression - but what matters is if your eye cares about what is lost. With JPEG, you can compress to a higher level for a smaller file size and that eliminates some detail from the image. The greater the compression, the more is lost. Most cameras offer two forms of photo storage, the lossless RAW format and the lossy JPEG. Nikon's RAW are stored in NEF files. Canon uses CRW. Both are lossless. Generally, you can think of the RAW files as the masters where the data is EXACTLY as the camera captured it. Most cameras allow shooting to store the image in RAW or JPEG or both at the same time with varying detail levels for JPEG. As far as I know, the JPEG files are always 8 bit RGB images. Until the advent of billion color screens, this normally didn't matter too much unless you were photographing with the intent of having the images printed in a magazine or on your wall. In that case, you shot in RAW at 12 bir probably using a Leica, Hasselblad, Leaf Aptus or in medium format with a Mamiya or Fuji and processed the images after. When shooting in JPEG, what most cameras also do is to allow a little "bumping" of color values to make them pop a little more. This makes the JPEGs generally look better and be smaller than the RAW files with the least amount of effort.

What really sings though is when you're able to take the JPEG file compressed a little moderately to serve as a bit of a goal since the RAW files don't jump out as much being closer to reality. With the 12 bit files, there simply is more data to "do math with" and get really crisp images that are dramatic and better looking. I'd started to type up how braketing works yesterday in response to a reply to my other explanation but it really applies here. With these images that are 12 bits per pixel, it's more than you can see - on non billion color screens - but you can see the difference in print. With bracketing, you take 3, 5 or 7 photos in a burst. In the simplest case one photo is at a lower exposure, one is at the expected exposure and the other is at +1 exposure. These are all merged in a way that lets greater contrast and drama come through in that the math can take more extreme values from each photo. Generally, you'll have a 32 bit 50 or 100 MB image. Perfect for getting the most out of areas which need more contrast. And the HDR (short for high dynamic range) technique relies on this to apply color range treatments in a way that can be either astounding or garish. I've used this to get a few photos to what I wished the camera captured. It's also really easy to overdo but when it's done right it can make an image just feel meaty and raw or subtle, rich and beautiful. Hopefully two of mine I plan on posting will achieve the desired effect. Anyway, enough mansplaining for the time being. Back to the perty pitchers.
Click to expand...
and that was necessary here because?
 
6V9A8533+copy.jpg
 
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