What Changes What in your Sony A7 camera - Which settings change your RAW files

[@geraldundone]

Hey! Thanks for the kind words and shout-out. Basically, it comes down to the different native sensitivities for each gamma of the picture profiles. So you can have the images be exactly the same, as you discovered, but you need to compensate for the ISO to make the match relatively, not absolutely. For example, To match Still gamma at ISO 800, S-Log2 will need to be at ISO 3200. Some of them are only 1/3 of a stop different though, and I've found they've been slightly adjusted throughout the years so it might change slightly depending on which camera model you use. Keep up the good work! 🤓👍

[@mikesphotography]

Well I’ve definitely learned something today! Thanks so much for the explanation dude, much appreciated. I’m currently out in the desert, waiting for the sun to show itself for some sunrise desert shots...and getting completely sandblasted!! 😆

[@stephenwoodburn2970]

It is good to know what settings affect the RAW files. I love when you deep dive into these comparisons and show us the results. It really helps me to understand the topic better.

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks so much Stephen...I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while...and with my shoulder still being a bit suspect, it was a perfect time to do it! I hope it all made sense! 😁👍

[@thetalkingfly]

good info -thanks friend

[@mikesphotography]

Great to hear you liked it! Thanks for watching 😁👍

[@behnambagherzadeh6773]

Very useful information and you spent so much time to gather these. Thank you

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks so much Behnam, I've been meaning to make this one for a while and I finally got around to it!! I hope it helps!! 😀👍

[@dbaleckaitis]

Wow, Thank you.... As a recent convert to Sony (A7iii) this and your channel has been extremely valuable

[@mikesphotography]

That's great, I'm glad I've been able to help! How are you finding the sony and what did you come across from?

[@dbaleckaitis]

@@mikesphotography I was a long time Canon User 15+ years. I got really frustrated with the Canon 7D II, sent it for service as all my lens weren't sharp, it was sent back saying nothing was wrong. Sent it in again with two of my 6 lenses and one came back focusing tack sharp but not the other, yet I was told nothing was changed. My frustrating reached it's peak because I had no issues with the original Canon 7D so I sold all my Canon gear and switched to the Nikon D500- I struggled from day one adjusting and so missed using magic lantern alternative firmware with Canon. At year three with the D500 I knew something had to change (I was shooting about 500-1000 pictures only)- I had more interest in portraits yet struggled with getting the eye in perfect focus. I made the switch a few months ago and from day one- my portraits with the A7iii and Tamron 28-75 were tack sharp at the eye. There are still some quibbles with the camera but overall I'm having a blast and at ~5,000 images so far. Please, if you have a moment look at my Instagram- you can see my transition from landscapes to portraits because of this camera. instagram.com/danielbaleckaitis/ Thank you for all your videos- they really were a great help switching.

[@mikesphotography]

That's an interesting journey...I went from canon to panasonic (due to a few big videography contracts) and then back to canon before switching to Sony....at one point I had three brands in my camera bag on a hike and didn't take any of the cameras out once...at that point I thought it was getting ridiculous and made the switch to Sony. I'm glad you're having more success with the sony cameras and great to hear my tutorials are helping! Thanks 👍

[@atephoto]

Here is a mindblowing statement since we mention what affects the RAW or not.. ISO doesn't change RAW file or content of it, it just adds metadata tag to RAW file "ISO400", with exception of ISO 100 and 640. Everything shot on Sony is either ISO100 or 640, then digital pushed from there in camera. You can do the same in the RAW converter. It's called a dual iso isoless sensor for that reason. Kasson (google him) have lots of information about this. Check his articles about A7Riii and EDR, and also his articles about ISOLESS. This is not the only setting which is only a metadata tag in the RAW file, whitebalance is too. Only real exposure is shutterspeed, aperture and ISO100 or ISO640. ISO100 is the highest DR ISO on Sony, ISO640 is optimized with more volt to produce higher SNR for shooting in low light, ISO 1280 is only ISO 640 with +1 EV digital push in camera. It's zero difference between ISO 1280 in camera and ISO640 +1 EV in LR, but you can protect highlights better doing the +1 push in LR rather than in camera.

[@mikesphotography]

That is really interesting Aleksander, thanks for sharing all of that info. I'll be sure to google Kasson and check out his info as well. I knew about whitebalance and I know about the ISO invariance but I've definitely learned a lot form your comment. Thanks 😀👍

[@atephoto]

@@mikesphotography Its all cool, I just hope people discover it and take advantage of it :)

[@GrantSR]

2:32 - Although changing the Aspect Ratio setting doesn't actually crop the RAW file, could it fool you into exposing incorrectly, similarly to how using DRO fools you into underexposing by changing the histogram? I mean, practically, I'm never going to shoot photos in anything other than full-frame aspect ratio, but the question is still there. Does it meter for the entire sensor or does it meter for only the "cropped" area?

[@BuzzWorthy]

Mike, if I could remember a fraction of what you and Gerald Undone cover and teach, I'd have a Masters in photography/videography. If I could remember half of what you guys cover I'd have a P.h.D.! I appreciate the education. Keep up the great work.

[@mikesphotography]

Haha!! Thanks so much...Gerald is on another level again though!! He is far more meticulous whereas I sometimes just wing it!!! 😆

[@paulm8157]

Well done and useful info, Mike. Am impressed by your meticulous scientific method. (Did you major in the sciences?). Will use the aspect ratio tip from here on out. I use Adobe color space to future-proof color ranges - can’t go back otherwise. If you are game for another challenge, try creating a lens profile (to add to LR) for a lens that LR doesn’t already have. I tried it once, using the free Adobe tools, for an old Pentax lens - huge waste of time considering the very slight changes using my profile made. Also quite nice of you to acknowledge the referenced YT channels.

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks Paul! Well if you consider Geology as a true science, then yes...although physicists and chemists would probably disagree!! 😆 Apparently lightroom converts the colour space from the raw file into a prophotoRGB colour space according to Klemen, one of the other commenters, which would make sense if the raw file retains all of the colours from the sensor. I'll be looking into this to find out more. I've done the lens profile thing. Before samyang had it's own selection in the dropdown menu, I created one for my 14mm...I destroyed it the other day though so unfortunately that lens is no longer...a perfect excuse for a new lens though!! 😀👍 As always thanks for watching and commenting, much appreciated!!

[@Barnyz]

Very informative and useful video, thanks for sharing

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks so much Barny!! 😁👍

[@doplinger1]

Irene Rudnyk just put out a video showing how to ”fix” the raw files coming from her a73, but I’ve never seen such bad looking files coming out of mine. I don’t know how they can look so different. The colors out of mine look very realistic, but I think it does tend to over expose if I leave it all up to the camera.

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks, I'll go and check out what she does. It's always interesting to see how others edit their files. What mode do you normally shoot in when you get bad looking files, and what do you edit in? Do you expose to the right or do you keep the exposure meter at 0? Thanks for watching Dave!!

[@doplinger1]

@Mike Smith - I'm not sure that I do anything out of the ordinary. Most recently I was shooting a play in an auditorium, so Darkness everywhere but on stage and theatrical lighting. I did a custom WB because it was impossible to get it right choosing another. Maybe it was just because of the nature of what I was shooting that may have thrown off the metering, but I set the aperture and shutter speed manually and left the ISO on auto, and it was very hot. I would shoot anywhere from -.07 to -1.3 compensation just to bring down the white highlights. I've noticed many times it tends to expose to the right if I leave it up to the camera, but usually never THAT much. Obviously , different situations will determine my settings. I shoot in standard mode, 0, 0, 0., AF-C. I do see that I was in Zone mode for AF (I probably should have been in "wide), Metering mode - center,, and I always leave DR off. I'm OK with it typically overexposing a bit, that just means I can compensate and get a lower ISO most of the time. When I'm outdoors shooting in natural light it does really well. But I've never seen the results like what Irene was showing - dark and greenish. My RAW files look pretty close to my jpgs. And I use Lightroom typically if it’s a lot of images, camera raw and photoshop if it’s just a few.

[@mikesphotography]

With photographing people on stage, like you said, there's normally a lot of darkness in the shot so it will tend to really knock the exposure out. I always keep everything on auto for shoots like that...what will happen is that the camera will see all that darkness and try to bring it up...and then that will over exposure the bits you actually want to get good exposure on. Alternatively you could set the metering to spot and as long as that spot was on the lit performer, you would get a better looking image...but as soon as you move the spot away from the brighter parts, you'd run into the same problems. I am the same with you, I haven't had the dark greenish colours before either...my raw files are pretty close to the jpegs when I shoot in both formats...

[@OneTradeMan]

Sick intro! - again very topical because as a hybrid shooter I always wondered if picture profiles would change my raw files

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks so much Taylor!! I've been wanting to do this one for a while and I finally got around to doing it! 😀👍

[@paololarocca7684]

Hi Mike, very interesting test and useful info....have you tried to expand the metadata tab in Lightroom to see if it carries some trace that the photo was taken using a certain picture profile? Because if that is the case it could be a bug of Lightroom which gets confused interpreting the exposure settings together with info about the pp used......otherwise it could be a bug of the camera software....

[@mikesphotography]

Hi Paolo, I did expand this and couldn't find anything different. Check out Aleksander's comment...I'm going to look into what he was saying some more as it's all quite interesting. I'm guessing it might be more to do with the technical aspects of how the camera and picture profiles work over a bug, but I like your way of thinking. It's always good to explore all avenues and there are always little hidden bugs here and there for us to find!! 😀 Thanks for watching and commenting, much appreciated! 👍

[@paololarocca7684]

yes, I have seen that comment and I am going to read about that too, and please let us know the solution of this little puzzle once you find it...

[@Trasshedpanda]

This was so helpful thank you!!

[@mikesphotography]

Excellent! I'm glad I could help, Thanks for watching Rebecca!! 😁👍

[@recepbuyukguzel8203]

Thank you so much for your time and effort for this very informative video!

[@mikesphotography]

No worries, it was fun to make. I hope you got something from it. 😁👍

[@recepbuyukguzel8203]

@@mikesphotography you actually answered my question I asked you before 😀

[@mikesphotography]

Recep Buyukguzel excellent!! 😁👍

[@ilovethismightyfineplace]

Don’t quote me on this, but I seem to remember that the gamma setting in the picture profiles affects the raw file.

[@mikesphotography]

Yep, you got it Scott...I’ve learned something today! 😁👍

[@ccudjoe89]

so is it better to shoot in pp for slog2 for stills? will you get slightly better dynamic range?

[@mikesphotography]

If you were shooting jpegs only, then yes, but for RAW files, it's not worth it. Thanks for watching 😁👍

[@GreySectoid]

Does the original A7 support uncompressed RAW at all?

[@mikesphotography]

I'mm not sure. I never had the original a7, so I can't comment on that. If you check out this link from DPreview, they might be able to answer your question. Thanks for watching 👍

[@Blue172]

Superb video Mike and very informative, I'll be turning my picture profile off.

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks so much William...yep, ever since making this video I’ve been really conscious about it! Thanks for watching. 👍

[@rajeshmuthuswamy7339]

I am not able to import the sony raw file directly into light room. so i am converting it into DNG and then import. Can you let me know how to directly import ARW files to LR. I use LR classic desktop 7.1

[@mikesphotography]

You need to update your Lightroom CC to the latest version as well as adobe raw. Then it should work. 👍

[@laurentc.8952]

01:53 and there is no way to get back to the "jpeg" view ? :/

[@mikesphotography]

Not that I am aware of, but I'll see what I can find out. 👍

[@ajitsaha2971]

Plz make video on...how to shoot self portrait phography in dark room... Without help of anyone...(with entry level dslr) and give some ideas of dark room phography

[@mikesphotography]

Hi Ajit, how dark are we talking!? Pitch black or do you have some light coming into the room?

[@ajitsaha2971]

@@mikesphotography mainly pitch black type...

[@mikesphotography]

Hmmmm...as photography is all about light, you’ll probably need a flash or a window...no light=no photo...

[@ajitsaha2971]

@@mikesphotography ok sir...plz make a video on this topic...how to take self portrait..

[@kdawit690]

Bedankt!

[@mikesphotography]

Dank U! 😁👍

[@digodoyoba2255]

makasih kali ya wak ya udah bantu aku lafyu muaaaaaaaahhhh

[@KlemenLorber]

Color space doesn't effect raw files. When you import a raw file into lightroom it's always converted into prophoto rgb which is a lot bigger than adobe rgb.

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks for the info Klemen, good to know. Colour space isn't my speciality so it's good to hear what happens with it when brought in to lightroom. I've definitely learned a lot today! 😀👍

[@sarimner]

LR use melissa RGB not ProPhoto in the develop Tab.. but melissa RGB are close to ProPhoto RGB.. ;)

[@bioliv1]

Thank you for finding that zebras doesn't change when applying a style! Very good to know when applying a style in your camera:-) Do you consider to switch to Capture One when Pro20 is released next year? I think we then get panorama and focus stacking in C1 too. Next I plan to continue with Affinity Photo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGS1dqCZbttrerM Ps! If you switch to C1 I will really recommend the style package "Infinitive Peaks" by Bryan Minear! I use these 7 styles for almost all my images now, sometimes 10% of the effect, sometimes 100%, and sometimes I do some slightly color editing on an own layer afterwards. But I only know how these styles works for the Lake Mjøsa light though, it might be different other places. But at least I don't miss Nik Collection anymore, as this style package, although small, is just as good. The rest of the style packages from C1 is more or less garbage, and not worth the money.

[@mikesphotography]

Thanks for the info Oyvind!! I am very tempted by Capture one...It'll be interesting to see what changes they do end up making in Pro20 when it does come out! 👍

[@bioliv1]

​@@mikesphotography Yes, I can see people avoid C1 because of these lacks. Filters are in general a big mess, and if you buy into one filter system, you can be sure a better system will be launched just after. And not to be able to make panoramas, especially when having such a lens as the 24 mm GM, with almost no distortion.

[@mikesphotography]

Definitely a few issues they need to sort out! Building panoramas would be a big one for me as I do that every single time I go out shooting with the 25mm. Hopefully they’ll have these issues sorted soon. 👍

[@JohnKorvell]

Raw images look fine in the camera, histogram is right down the middle - then in Light Room, come in over exposed, noisy and nearly pitch black.

[@mikesphotography]

It sounds like you’re trying to shoot a composition with a really high dynamic range. What iso levels are you typically using?

[@REXP5421]

Romainacs! could we see those pics please!

[@mikesphotography]

Ah man, it was such an amazing event, loved it but we only had two days there!! I think we're going to try and go to the whole event next year!! Here's the link: bit.ly/36WTcd4 Thanks for watching!

[@jbzavala8151]

Gerald Undone is Daddy

[@mikesphotography]

Haha! He's the Don! 👍