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A few taken today...

Paul Abbott

New member
A few images taken today in London with the GR...All these are out of camera JPEG's taken with the B&W Hi-Contrast effect setting, no post-processing has been done to them.






Untitled, London '13 - Paul Abbott
RICOH GR






Untitled, London '13 - Paul Abbott
RICOH GR






Untitled, London '13 - Paul Abbott
RICOH GR
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A few images taken today in London with the GR...All these are out of camera JPEG's taken with the B&W Hi-Contrast effect setting, no post-processing has been done to them.






Untitled, London '13 - Paul Abbott
RICOH GR





Untitled, London '13 - Paul Abbott
RICOH GR






Untitled, London '13 - Paul Abbott
RICOH GR


These work very well together, Paul!

The high contrast setting is so effective in the Ricoh GR as a JPG right out of the camera. (BTW, when opened in Adobe RAW, RAW versions come remain in color.)

Now add to that the bracketing function F2 and see if you like the extra choices. for your slow deliberate style here, it would be little advantage to you unless you wanted to combine exposures to see the girl's face in the 2cd picture, for example. But of course, that's not needed in this case. The picture works perfectly as it is.

Asher
 

Paul Abbott

New member
Hey Asher, thanks for looking and commenting.

I shoot RAW+JPEG all the time. I have never combined exposures they end up looking fake to me, even the JPEGS from this camera are good enough to pick out the detail in the girl's face. They can be worked on to get over or under a couple of stops, sometimes more...
 

Paul Abbott

New member
Btw, in the last image the bust on the wall is of the British newspaper and publishing magnate Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922), entitled here as 'NORTHCLIFFE'.

So this photograph has another level on which it works when you know and consider who the bust is of and what the woman is reading...Of course you'd need to see a bigger version of the image to pick up on the name.
 

Martin Stephens

New member
The girl sitting with the polka dot skirt is really nice.

P.S.
I also shoot JPG+RAW with my Fuji and use the JPG quite often, because it is very taxing to get the raw to look as good the JPG under many conditions. About the only time the raw is more useful. is when there is a mistake in exposure and the LR levers have to be pushed a bit. Then, the JPG will tend to fall apart a bit, and the raw must be processed.
 

Paul Abbott

New member
Hey Martin, it's good to hear someone else think the same in regard to combining images or using a HDR effect. :D
Anyway, enough said on that otherwise they'll be another massive debate on it and then we won't get any images shot at all, for talking too much. :D lol

As for your process with RAW+JPEG images, it's what I do too. Also, I think digital images look too clean for what I want in some cases.
In the second shot here, the light was very contrasty but I did have the dynamic range set to auto which I had forgotten to mention in my introduction to this set. It's done well here. I always watch for keeping detail in highlights and lowlights...even though i'm shooting hi-contrast.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The girl sitting with the polka dot skirt is really nice.

P.S.
I also shoot JPG+RAW with my Fuji and use the JPG quite often, because it is very taxing to get the raw to look as good the JPG under many conditions. About the only time the raw is more useful. is when there is a mistake in exposure and the LR levers have to be pushed a bit. Then, the JPG will tend to fall apart a bit, and the raw must be processed.

Martin,

I also shoot RAW + JPG and frankly ask myself why on earth I take up so much time processing RAW images when the JPG OOTC are so wonderful! I met several wedding photographers who only use the JPG unless there's some disaster, and customers are happy.

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Paul,

You know that I'm a big fan of your photography and these pictures are no exceptions. Well done, as usual.
On the technical/execution side of things, I mostly disagree with you (b&w vs colour, jpg vs raw, gritty vs technical perfection, etc) but that doesn't stand in the way of enjoying your pictures. ;)
 

Martin Stephens

New member
There still exists a "raw bias" out there among photographers. You can hear the conversation everywhere. "Oh, always shoot raw! There's so much more data!" Well, that relates to the earlier days of digital when the JPG engines weren't very good. Now, many camera systems have JPG algorithms that you are hard pressed to duplicate with your own manipulation of raw. My Fuji JPG processor (and I am sure those of other systems too) is just fabulous. I've made plenty of display prints at 12 x 18 from JPG out of the camera, and they are indistinguishable in IQ from prints made from tweeking the raw. The Fuji system made a believer out of me for shooting JPG.

In my system, the JPG also does a GREAT job at sharpening. It is very easy to fall for over-sharpening when working in raw. I see a ton of photographs that I think suffer over sharpening. My JPG applies sensible, useful and subtle sharpening that really looks natural. I rarely change it anymore.

However, I can't wean myself from storing the raw images as archive.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Martin,

Sure, whatever works for you is quite fine. We all have our own ways and there's no absolute right or wrong.
The end result is what we see and judge regardless of the methods used.
 

Paul Abbott

New member
Hey Cem, i'm grateful you enjoy my photography, sincerely. Thanks for your comment in regarding these...

It's obvious that we all take pictures in our own way and apply whatever effects needed, or not as the case maybe. In regard to my use of B&W, it's just down to what I see and shoot, my eye is so tuned into seeing that way. I don't try to enforce the use of it over and above colour it's just how my images turn out.
As for 'grit' and 'grain', I think i'm a traditionalist and have always preferred the look of film images over digital ones.
As for the use of JPEG's over RAW images, i'm in the same camp as Martin. The RICOH GR has made me a lover of it's JPEG where before I just used to rely on the RAW images from my other cameras...

As for HDR, I just think the use of it makes an image start looking like a painting or an illustration and stops being a photograph.
 
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