JPEG or RAW? -Why Post Processing Is FUN

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks Matti for having me! It was a lot of fun.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks my friend for coming along. It was fun indeed.

[@ChrisBrogan]

So happy to see you on Matti's channel. I'm more or less new to both of you, but talk about a crossover. It's like Spider-Man showing up at Batman for a bit.

[@HarryLewinASR]

Your thoughtful comments have reawakened my inerest in photography. Thank you.

[@WhoIsSerafin]

Post processing can be fun. But in camera processing can also be fun tweaking it here and there over time until you get it just the way you want it out of camera can be super satisfying.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks. Sure, that can also be fun.

[@petemellows]

I’m really enjoying these photo walk conversations you’ve been doing. Please keep them coming!

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks! I’ll try my best now that it’s summer and nice to walk outdoors.

[@seaeagles6025]

Hi Matti, I really enjoyed the chat you had with Peter. I sometimes turn a day photo into a night photo in post processing, it's a lot of fun. It was good to hear Peter say that he spends 30-60 Seconds on editing, some people spend a lot of there time editing. It was good to hear you say that you don't edit every photo you take Matti. I used to think that you had to edit every photo when I started out in photography. Lovely chat Matti and the photos you and Peter took, thank you 😊

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks! We make the editing simple😀

[@seaeagles6025]

Your very welcome Matti 😊

[@GeekyNerdyTechy]

haha! Awesome two of my favorites! Awesome stuff guys.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks bro, much appreciated.

[@SoSaMin1]

Love this video 🙂 Huge fan of the videos you two used to do together 🙂 The banter is brilliant 🙂Can definitely tell you are true friends 🙂Would love to see more from the two of you in the future 🙂

[@mattisulanto]

Awesome thank you!

[@theWZZA]

You two are the best! Great to see you together.

[@mattisulanto]

Many thanks, much appreciated.

[@ruuddirks5565]

Nice to see you two again together.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks!

[@petermcginty3636]

Thanks guys, you always create a great video. Much appreciated.🎉🎉🎉

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks so much!

[@BobN54]

A couple of points. First, a raw file is an unprocessed image, which mean that all kinds of things haven't been baked in. This includes importantly black and white points, tone curves, colour balance and so on. Whet you do to a raw file is processing, not 'post-processing' (which would be what comes after processing). That's a small point. The bigger point is about exposure. Many photographers wrongly think that 'exposure' means how light or dark the image looks. It doesn't, it means how much light gets to the sensor. In a raw file you have complete control over how the exposure translates to how light or dark the final image looks (technically the 'lightness'). With a JPEG (so called) 'correct' exposure is one that produces 'correct' lightness, because the processing is fixed. With a raw file 'correct' exposure is the one that produces most scene information in the raw file, generally the largest exposure (most light) that you can get whilst keeping to your constraints for shutter speed and aperture (generally set by motion blur and DOF). For many scenes, ones without bright highlights this would lead to an exposure that would be 'overexposed' in JPEG. The easiest way to get this is ETTR using a histogram in your VF, if your camera gives that.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks for your extensive tips😀

[@davidmill7289]

Great video guys. I shoot in raw but also don’t spend much time editing generally. I actually start by pressing the ‘Auto’ button in Lightroom, which tends to get the exposure settings pretty much spot on most times. I regularly change the vibrancy & saturation, as Lightroom Auto tends to boost them too much.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks so much for sharing.

[@simrtech3d]

I was at a wedding, and a "photographer" only took photos in JPEG format. On top of that, he used the flash directly in people's faces. Having attended previous weddings, I knew what a disaster this would result in, and indeed, all the official photographer's photos were overexposed, almost beyond salvage. When I saw this (that he was using direct flash without any diffuser, right in people's faces), I immediately started taking photos myself, even though I was a guest. I spent most of my time photographing with my Panasonic S9, which I had brought with me that day. I have a Z8 at home, but since I was a guest, I hadn't brought the Z8 with the 50/85 1.2 lens, only the S9 with the 45mm 2.8 lens. I sent my photos during the wedding via AirDrop (JPEG + LUT) to the groom, and he was amazed :D (I still had the RAW + JPEG on my S9 camera). When they saw all my photos and compared them with the photographer's, they came to see me a few days later and asked if I could edit the photographer's photos because they were too bright compared to mine, which were well exposed. Before they showed them to me, I told them it was normal since he had pointed the flash directly in their faces without a diffuser. When I received the photos (from an old Pentax K10, not even 15 megapixels), the framing was already questionable (making it difficult to crop), the skies were white (even though it was a beautiful blue sky with some white clouds that day), the faces were white, and the photos were flat, as if they had been taken with an early 2000s digital camera with 2 megapixels, like a compact camera... I asked them to tell the photographer if I could have the RAW files, but he said he had copied the folder from his card directly to the PC. So, I did what I could with Luminar (it saves photos, but not all of them). All this to say: RAW + JPEG! I always do it this way. I generally use the JPEG, but I keep the RAW as we used to keep negatives in the days of film photography. If I want to redo it later with different colorimetry, I can do it.

[@mattisulanto]

Sounds like a disaster to me. Fortunately you were alert and managed to save the situation to some extent.

[@daysofgrace2934]

Only thing I would say it save the RAWs to TIFFs at least the ones you want to keep. TIFFs are an open popular format and will be easier for later generations to view. I always convert in Oly software then touch in Luminar/Topaz Denoise...

[@pouchboy1]

Great chat.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks!

[@ProbablyAnAmateur]

can agree that processing RAW is fun. its fun messing with black and white or the colour rendering in photolab. i do it on good photos ive taken but time to time the adjustments i do, when i paste them on to the other photos, they usually sometimes look far better than the initial one. so yeah, its fun iif you have the software you like doing it on.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[@daysofgrace2934]

Good to see you guys together, two real photographers. I liked the darkroom, the tactile, artisan nature, not so much on a computer. I have tried to focus more on waiting for the right light/conditions to get in-camera. Poor man's Q2 - Pen F + Lumix Leica 15mm f1.7

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks so much.

[@formermpc10]

I disagree. Post is not even photography! It's a shame that some formats, like m43, lean heavily on using post to fix images. For those of us who prefer getting it right in the field and working most efficiently, that means using a format that can consistently meet our requirements. M43 isn't it.

[@ddsdss256]

Not just fun, but essential, but you guys obviously have a lot of fun just hanging out and wandering the streets (hey, if it isn't fun, why do it?). Sharing pictures immediately is beyond silly. As you guys mention, reviewing them after some time passes and editing them (and ideally printing them) plays a huge role in producing the best images. I often process/print images that are years (or even decades) old. Sure, SOOC JPGs can "work" to some extent, but editing a RAW image (using the right software on a large screen) usually results in a much better picture. Of course, it depends on the image (for example, street photography has a lot more latitude), but Ansel oten spent hours (or even weeks) on a single image, trying to get the best print (and even then he might re-think/re-print it years later). I do shoot RAW+JPG and often use B&W modes (such as Leica Monochrome on my G9M2) to make it easier to pre-visualize the print, but I only us the JPGs for reference and process/print the RAWs. Re gear, I find one FL too limiting for the type of work I do, so a camera like the GR wouldn't work for me, but obviously it has its advantages in some situations.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks for sharing your insights on this, much appreciated.

[@aviatorman8]

Another fun photo walk and important topic. I shoot Raw + JPG. Sometimes I find the JPG to be good enough if I’m traveling and don’t have time to process. Other times I process the Raw on Lr Mobile while traveling. I knew the HDF was going to be in your future 😂 how did you manage to get one already? They’re not available in the US yet.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks. The HDF is actually not mine it's a loaner demo camera from Focus Nordic who represent Ricoh in Finland. You gotta have connections😀

[@aviatorman8]

@@mattisulanto lol I see. I’d be interested in a video about it showing pictures with and without the diffusion effect.

[@mattisulanto]

@@aviatorman8 Let me see what I can do😀

[@cameraprepper7938]

Hi Matti and Peter, thank you for a nice video 😃 I am also a RAW shooter. I like to wait a bit before I upload and edit the photo images, it is a bit like in "the good old days" when I shot analog color slide film, you get the correct exposure and cropping in the Camera, waited for the film to be processed, which could be from about one hour in express professional processing or the cheaper way, where you could wait for one day or a few days, Black & White analog processing took longer time, which I did myself. When I got the color slide film back, I looked with a loupe or a special viewer for which photos to keep, cut those out of the film strip, set then in a slide holder and watch them in a slide projector, that could maybe take from 5 minute to half and hour, that is about the same time I use when I edit my digital photo images in software on my computer from one shoot, if I will make some photos Black & White I can use a little bit longer to get it "perfect" right. The biggest difference from the analog time to now, that is I have much more fun now with photography and I watch and enjoy my photos much more now.

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on RAW.

[@mk1photography62]

Its true i tend to shoot raw and edit what images i like and delete the rest I like these photowalk chats great fun

[@mattisulanto]

Thank you for watching.

[@veikop]

Matti or Peter? Both!😂

[@jancusters2450]

Hello Matti and greetings from the Netherlands. I am watching your videos since a long time and always enjoyed your explainations. I also use the GR3. I saw on this video you used the GR3x hdf. What are your experiences with it? Can you make a video about that Ricoh camera? Maybe I want to purchase the Ricoh GR 3x HDF! Jan.

[@mattisulanto]

Thank you. I'm going to make a video about the HDF model and share my thoughts in that video soon.

[@ChristopherBonis]

Great video and collab! Do you guys speak together in Finnish off camera?

[@mattisulanto]

Yeah, English is not our first language but we try our best😀 Thanks for watching.

[@hhz5469]

Try to take good photos with your camera is the fun, without any post processing in LR or PS. Our digital cameras are very good, right?

[@mattisulanto]

Whatever makes you happy. There are no rules in photography😀

[@paolopicchel653]

Happy to see you together, thank you 😏

[@mattisulanto]

Our pleasure!

[@short1961]

Thanks!

[@mattisulanto]

Many thanks to you for the support.

[@cameraprepper7938]

How do you know Finnish Photographers ? Just look for those that walk around and wave with Cameras 😉

[@mattisulanto]

😀

[@kurteise3206]

Great to watch you guys again. Very much enjoyed it. But why did you both carry rather sizable camera bags for small cameras?

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks. Don't now about Peter but I had my video gear and some personal items with me and they would not fit in my smaller bag.

[@kurteise3206]

Understand

[@lvca.avellino]

I use raw and jpg for reference

[@madswohlk1170]

Hi Thank you for your always inspiring video. I have a thing that is bothering me: My Lumix G9 I have set to the format 16:9 to fit to my PC screen. But as I see it, this format (16:9) only applies for Jpeg; the RAW format seems to have 4:3 format despite that I have chosen 16:9 in the camera. So when I have developed the RAW picture in DxO it spits out a 4:3 format Jpeg picture which I have to crop afterwards for fitting my PC screen . That is bothering me, because I then have another construction of the picture than I intended to have Bh Mads

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks. That's the way RAW capture works. It saves all the pixels for every possible post processing option. However, at least in Lightroom the in camera aspect ratio is preserved unless you manually change that in post. Nikon is to my knowledge the only camera that does bake in the in camera aspect ratio even to RAW files.

[@madswohlk1170]

Thank you again for your informative answer Bh Mads

[@HarryLewinASR]

Thanks!

[@mattisulanto]

Thank you!

[@kurteise3206]

Thanks!

[@mattisulanto]

Thank you so much!