Salvage Saturday

[JimFox]

Simple and it works - I like the dark skies as a backdrop.

Right after I got my Canon D60 back in 2002 I attended a lecture sponsored by Epson with Vincent Versace as the speaker. He gave a demo of using Photoshop to manually blend layers to get better dynamic range out of an image. I got hooked immediately on the notion of using RAW to make different light in my photos with Canon's Digital Photo Professional and then feed them into Photoshop as layers since ACR and Lightroom didn't exist yet. I haven't shot in jpg mode ever since.

I was using Photoshop already, I had been using it for graphic arts stuff for probably 10 years already at that point, so Photoshop wasn't the issue, it was just my mentality of not wanting to use too much space on my memory cards unless absolutely necessary. I had already been editing jpgs and very comfortable with that.

Back then while there was more dynamic range in a Raw image for sure, bracketing was an absolute must to get full dynamic range. So for that aspect since I would bracket and use layer masks in Photoshop, I wasn't really that hindered by shooting jpgs. It would mean a couple of extra images for bracketing. If a Raw image needed 3 images to bracket and blend, a jpg needed 5 images.

But obviously there was advantages to shooting raw, I just saved those advantages for the really special images. Once I got over the mental block of not worrying about file sizes and space they would use, then I finally switched to only shooting raw. And of course through the years, Raw images and their dynamic range has continued to grow and make the gap between Raw and jpg even more significant. Back in 2005, it was a small gap, but today, the gap is the size of the Grand Canyon.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I ended up digging back in the year 2005. This is from someplace in Utah, I am thinking in Canyonlands NP somewhere since the rest of the images in that folder are from Canyonlands. It was shot with the 6mp Nikon D70 in jpg mode.

I don't know about you guys, but back in 2005 when I go the D70, my first real digital camera I found myself still in a film shooting frame of mind. Even though it was all digital, and what now seems like endless digital. I recall purposely shooting in jpg rather then in raw a lot, and my reasoning was I didn't want to use up too much space on my memory card. I would have to go dig out an old memory card, but man I think they were only like 64kb? Or something like that?

Anyway, I remember I would shoot in Raw, but only when the image was one where I thought it was a real keeper. It took me a year or two to really realize that I didn't have to worry about file sizes, and that Raw was the only way to go. And even then at first, I recall shooting in Raw and Jpg. Looking back I think I must of felt a little scared about Raw images? Not sure why, but jpgs felt more comfortable. It might have been that I had been scanning my film and it always came back as jpgs? Or perhaps the first Point and Shoot Digital cameras I had while still shooting film, only shot in jpg? But in those early years there was a comfort in shooting in jpg. Perhaps the limited DR of jpgs felt more like I was shooting film still?

So it took a year of shooting before I had convinced myself that shooting Raw was an necessary as breathing.

This isn't an award winning scene, but I liked it in it's simplicity.

View attachment 52429

Very nice mood in this image and great processing for the file type. I started digital with the Nikon 990 which supported Tiff so I started without JPG

 

[JimFox]

Very nice mood in this image and great processing for the file type. I started digital with the Nikon 990 which supported Tiff so I started without JPG

Thanks Ben! Starting out with tiff isn't bad at all. I should have started with Raw, but again I was fixated on the file size. Running out of shots was fixated in my head after too many years of shooting film with my only options bring 24 or 36 exposures. I was doing my research, and within about a year I had switched to Raw and Jpg. I had a security blanket I guess with the Jpg as I had been working with Jpg for many years before digital cameras came out. I would guess by the time 2007 hit, I was only shooting Raw.

 

[procam11]

All images are beautiful in there own right!