Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [13]
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Note
Many cameras offer the settings discussed in the “Camera Settings” section. Refer to your camera’s instruction manual to determine if it offers these settings and how to adjust them.
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RAW vs. JPEG
Like many photographers just getting into digital photography, I began my digital photography shooting in the JPEG format. It seemed the best choice for a photographer who used to shoot slide film; what you saw in the final image was what you shot. Tweaking the exposure, the white balance, and so on was not an option with film, so why would I start fiddling with those settings when shooting digital? JPEG seemed to be the answer because it took all the camera settings I had dialed in and processed the image at the point of capture. All I had to do was download the images, edit them, and enjoy my successes—well, at the expense of some loss of quality due to the compression process while saving a JPEG file.
As time went on, I kept hearing about RAW and how it gives a photographer much more control over the end result, not only at the point of capture, but throughout the finishing process as well. With RAW files, I would have more image data to work with and could actually makes changes to some camera settings before “processing” the image.
So, which format should you choose? Do you want the creative control of finishing your images in the digital darkroom? Do you need the greatest image quality and size for large output? Are your images used primarily on the Web and in emails? How much postprocessing are you willing and able to do on your images?
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Note
Some cameras will shoot both RAW + JPEG, giving you the best of both worlds at the small cost of needing greater storage capacity.
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Tables 2.1 and 2.2 compare the advantages and disadvantages of shooting in RAW and JPEG formats, respectively.
Table 2.1 RAW Advantages and Disadvantages
Table 2.2 JPEG Advantages and Disadvantages
Located in the Shooting menu, you can select from several JPEG formats (basic, normal, and fine), RAW, or RAW + JPEG (Figure 2.1). Additionally, you can set the bit depth (Figure 2.2) (the greater the bit depth, the greater the file size and more information) and the amount, if any, of compression (Figure 2.3).
Figure 2.1 The RAW format can be found in the Shooting menu under Image quality on most cameras.
Figure 2.2 Bit depth is found in the Shooting menu (under RAW recording on Nikon DSLR cameras) and is adjustable when the RAW format is selected.
Figure 2.3 Compression options are found in the Shooting menu (under RAW recording on Nikon DSLR cameras) and are adjustable when the RAW format is selected.
Aperture Priority
My camera’s exposure mode is normally set to Aperture Priority, which gives me the greatest control over the way my image will look. By simply turning the Aperture dial, I can control just how much (Figure 2.4) or how little (Figure 2.5) of the image is in sharp focus. And, as a result of the Aperture I select, I can also control whether I capture stop action (Figure 2.6) or blur motion (Figure 2.7) in my images.
Figure 2.4 Great depth of field includes both the subject and background in focus.
Figure 2.5 Shallow depth of field makes the subject stand out from the blurred background.
Figure 2.6 A stop-action shutter speed; a direct result of the aperture I selected.
Figure 2.7 A blur-motion shutter speed; a direct result of the aperture I selected.
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Note
More on the aperture and its roll in depth of field and shutter speed in Chapter 3, “Exposure Simplified.” More on exposure in Chapter 3.