Tokyo Photo Walk 2

No offense Ady, but the original shot just wasn’t shot with the proper metering mode and thus you didn’t get the correct overal exposure to preserve the colours. Ramping them up in LR; you did get the color back, but you incurred heavy “noise” in the process (and LR has _incredibly_ poor de-noise algorithms)

Your assumption that JPEG is an approximation of what you shot is wrong (simple indication is that you can never “post process” a different metering mode), a camera will always shoot a RAW image. It will them, inmeadetly apply the desired user settings in terms of color space, color, tone,hue etc. etc. etc. and save on card to JPEG with the desired compression level. That’s what happens if you shoot in JPEG. If you shoot raw, no compression is applied, retaining either 12, or in Alan’s D700’s case 14 bits of color information (instead of JPEG’s 8 !) and doesnt apply the user’s post processing in the file’; however ! A tiny preview JPEG is made inside the raw file representing the user’s current camera settings. But since that’s not the actual raw, you can still manipulate settings such as hue etc.
Which brings me to the next case. There are mainly two reasons why you should be shooting raw.

1. To configure your custom image settings – Shoot pictures in raw format of common scenes. In alan’s case this would be “Tokyo urban enviroment” “Tokyo street candid portraits (of ppl)” and post process to get the image looking how he wants to further on the computer using Nikon’s propierty Capture NX raw processing software. (reason later) Now that he found the ideal settings to represent his pictures he can use the export settings feature to store these settings in his D700’s configurable memory banks (Nikon pro camera feature) Thus. Next time when Alan goes out shooting either 2 example scenario’s he will switch to the desired profile and get BAM instant win pictures out of them; without bothering to tinker the RAW’s – again.

*To do this you need your camera manufacturer’s own raw processing software. Because it uses the same settings as your camera and is interchangable. Using LR is a really bad idea from the start. Why ? Because it cannot replicate the color a Nikon or Canon camera produces out of the box; as you notice when you load a raw in Adobe LR. It will first look fine, the way you shot it. Then all of the sudden after 2 seconds turn very dull in color most of the times. This is cause LR first reads the aforementioned JPEG preview inside the RAW. Before updating it. See. The way color is read in Nikon or Canon’s color profiles is something of a trademark; thus Adobe has to approximate roughly, and thus LR interpretates the colors differently. So it is effectivly a waste of time trying to first “Get back” the colors as they were, and then enhancing them.
Hence again; use propierty software – yes i know. LR is very handy for sorting pics but you can just adjust your workflow to suit.

The second most obvious use of raw’s is to still have the ability to adjust for unforseen circumstances. When you are shooting pictures for unique moments, or for your job. I.E you cannot mess it up, and you are taking a safer bet with shooting raw to still be able to get something else out of your pictures if; despite your precautions of using memory banks; it still ends up not desirable to bad conditions, or you being forgetfull with the settings.

Think. Wedding photographer, club/event photographer, or shooting pictures on a vacation your not likely taking again in the next few years (for most people here, this would be Japan 🙂

There is a third reason. If you *really* need the utmost highest image quality for delicate printwork or magazine cover work. You’d want the RAW’s ability of 14 bit colors and convert it to TIFF before printing/mastering. This is especially good for FX (Full Frame) sensor camera’s like D700,D3,D3S,D3X on the Nikon side of things. Also brings out more dynamic range this way. But that’s another story.

IN SHORT. Best practices of RAW images. AVOID post processing work. You want to aim to produce the desired images directly from camera.Use RAW as a guide tool to adjust your memory banks to your preference, and then use them to adapt to each situation. Should it be absolutely needed for shots that are critical, shoot raw’s to adjust slightly back home in Post Processing when your results differ slightly from what you expected.

The above is propably going to look messy; the current comment system doesnt like enter/new lines for formatting ^_^:
Alan: If you ever want to dabble with RAW, I can set up a screencast for you (if you use Skype that is, damn handy screen-sharing function) sometime and I can explain the workflow. It’s easier than it sounds.

Nikon’s capture NX is kind of hard to like, it is a slow app, with not that great an interface ^_^;
http://www.capturenx.com/en/lessons/lessons/index.html ; Some online flash videos on Nikon’s site explaining how to use NX 😛 – Mostly what you can try to do with NX is get better colors from your images consistantly with a new profile, but your colors look fine 98% of the time so – Eh . For you there’s no real need 🙂 Especially with the amount of pictures you take.