What makes a good underwater camera ? Part 2 Shooting RAW
Having covered using Custom White Balance in the first part of this series I'm now going to move on to something that can negate the need for Custom White Balance when shooting available light images underwater.
RAW is a format of image produced by many cameras that includes much more information than is in a JPEG. When a camera takes an image, if it is set to take JPEGs it will immediately do a basic edit of the image and compress it to JPEG form. This basic edit does some sharpening,usually gives some vibrance and warmth to the colours, adds contrast and reduces noise. When shooting in RAW the camera leaves all the original information taken in by the sensor within the file.
What this means is that initially you get a much bigger file than a JPEG, but it gives you much more data to play with. Using RAW format allows you to recover a great deal more from your images than can be done with a JPEG. This includes allowing more colour correction than can normally be achieved and also recovering images or parts of images that have been under or over exposed.
It also means that images initially look flat and less vibrant than a JPEG and you will have to edit your images with software such as Adobe Lightroom. In addition RAW file formats are usually specific to camera types so when you have a new model camera you may need the most recent editing software to even view them let alone edit. If you want to share your images on Facebook for example you will also have to export them as JPEGs after editing.
You need to also take into account the increase in size when looking at memory cards and hard drive space.
So here are some examples of the difference shooting in RAW can make.
This is an image taken using available light at about 10-12m depth, as it came out of the camera.
And here it is after colour correction to the Raw file using Adobe Lightroom Classic
This image of a painted goby, in Loch Creran has been underexposed in camera
But because it was taken as a Raw image a couple of minutes editing with Lightroom can retrieve a useable image
The same is true of images with over exposed sections such as this shot of the squat lobster on a sponge taken on a night dive in the Lembeh Straits
As long as the image hasn’t been so overexposed that parts have gone outside the dynamic range of the sensor, known as clipping, the detail in over exposed parts can be retrieved quickly and easily with Raw editing software
So shooting RAW is clearly a big advantage, especially in underwater photography where lighting conditions are often difficult to control and can change quickly. You will need to use editing software but the changes made to these images are very quick with a complete image being produce in a matter of minutes useing Adobe Lightroom Classic.
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Alphamarine Photography runs online photo editing courses along with underwater photography ones. If you'd like to join one of our live online courses check our Events page for dates. We also offer the option to just access the recordings of a previous course. Email us at info@alphamarinephoto.com for more details or to book spaces.
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Coming Next: Part 3 Being able to use a wide angle lens.