NEF vs JPG

[JitterJive]

Pupose
To demonstrate Capture NX2

Environment & Camera
A very cloudy day in the woods of western WA which created a low light situation.
Nikon D90 | Nikkor 50mm 1.8 | ISO 400 | f/1.8 | 1/30 | ev 0 | no flash

In-camera JPG
No post production adjustments made. Photo has a marked cool color cast (especially noticeable on the wood).



NEF to JPG
Using Nikon Capture NX2
Camera Adjustments:
* White Balance adjusted to 6000 K (Daylight \ Cloudy)
* SD: Standard
Quick Fix Adjustments:
* Exposure Compensation: -1.5 (I lowered to exposure to better reflect the "gloomy" feeling of the day).
* Shadow Protection: 12



Granted, the composition of this shot leaves much to be desired. Being relatively new to my D90 and having had no software to process NEFs until recently, my stock of NEF files is limited... that is about to change.

The adjustments took a minute (or two at the most) and, to a newbie such as myself, it is nice to work with a program this intuitive to use. I will be shooting in RAW+JPG most all of the time.

[windrider86]

big difference, thanks for sharing!!!!

[Steve@C4]

I ALWAYS shoot Raw+jpg. Although, I believe the main purpose was to have an easily emailable copy available. Now that I use Picasa, that's an easy task. I may just go to shooting RAW and drop the jpg second.

[Flesheater]

Yeah shooting in Raw is always better in my opinion.
and it's clearly seen here. the color is so much better.

[Kieran2009]

Thanks for the post JitterJIve. Have wondering about post processing. Seems theres so much to learn as a relatively new photographer that the whole issue of post processing seems a little much. Maybe NX2 is the way to go as you say it feels intuitive and probably has the basics to get the job done.

[JitterJive]

Steve, for the price, I think NX2 is a great deal and it is easy to use. You can do a search in youtube and find some training videos. The Nikon site also has training videos and a trial download as well. So if a $300 price tag for Lightroom 2 maked you pause then the $139 (Amazon) price tag for NX2 may seem a better choice.

Being a neophyte myself, I know that this stuff looks a little daunting but once you try things a few times it gets much easier. Good luck.

[JitterJive]

You're welcome, windrider.

[JitterJive]

Good point about the emailable version. Ther may come a time when I drop the jpg and go strickly raw.

[belladoja]

We who live in Western Washington need to add color--as the sky is often grey and no color is reflected in things like water and the trees even seem to be more blah in that light. Nice job!!

[DSImages]

I used to only shoot in Jpeg fine up until a few months ago. I did the same experiment and had the exact same results. I dont like shooting in Raw+Jpeg though. If im just shooting the kids in the back yard im shooting in Jpeg fine. If im shooting anything frame worthy, portfolio work, or for clients it is definitely in Raw.

I use Photoshop for the PP. You can do a 1 minute adjustment to a Raw file and the picture is looking great. To get the same result in Jpeg, your going to spend 15 - 20 mins every time.

As you have posted above, you can turn a flat color casted image into a really nice color corrected dimensional image.

I will say this - i would not shoot everything in Raw unless you have some major gigs on the computer and a really good SD card (also high in gigs).

Nice work.

(Edit - I forgot to add that when shooting in Raw, black and white images turn out ten times better. You should try converting that NEFtoJpeg image into a black and white and post back in this thread.)