Baby Sambhar!

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Shot this baby samabhar at Ranthambore recently, for a while she had lost her mom but later got united.

Camera Model Name Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Date/Time 10/17/2009 9:28:07 AM
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/250
Av (Aperture Value) 5.6

[Bibhav Behera]

Cute fella. Look at the big alert ears... The composition works for me. The image feels a tad underexposed. the exposure can be increased more, but then the trade off is increased noise. Are you shooting in RAW now?

[Praveen Siddannavar]

No Bibhav, I am still in JPEG, will it really make a huge difference in post processing in we shot in RAW?

[Bibhav Behera]

Absolutely... In RAW you capture all the details that reach the camera sensor. In JPEG, the data is in alossy compressed format and a lot of details are thrown away. So it is always advisable to shoot in RAW.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image. Liked the alert look. Some more space above and below would have been better.
Agree with Bibhav about RAW format. It is always better to photograph in RAW and do the post processing and convert the image to JPEG. If you need to re-process, the original image in the RAW format is as it is with all the data, which you can process again. Re-processing JPEG images, degrades the image quality further.
So do try shotting in RAW, you will notice the difference in the post processing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Praveen,
I agree that Jpeg is a lossy compression. When you are converting into a jpeg file, you are actually throwing out some amount of data as mentioned by Mrudul and Bibhav.

Raw is like a digital negative. You can always go back and reprocess it later. Our softwares are improving all the time. Their ability to handle noise etc is improving. After a few years, you can using a better software to convert your raw images and get less noise and better details from your image. Also, your ability to process your images will also improve over a period of time.

In RAW files, only the shutter speed, aperture and ISO decisions matter. Rest all ie. the various presets are applied to the image and is written into the file while processing the jpeg in the camera (white balance, sharpening, saturation etc ). So better to use the RAW format.

It is ofcourse true that the exposure has to be correct while clicking in the field. Else, increasing the exposure later during post processing in the software increases noise.

Most of the sports shooters and news paper photographers shoot in jpeg as they have tight deadlines. So the shoot and transmit. These days they have started using jpeg + sRAW.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Thanks Sabyasachi, Bibhav & Mrudul - I did try shooting in RAW for an hour or so over the weekend at Kabini but somehow things are not working out for me, I am totally confused & lost. After I bought my Canon stuff I just started shooting in sports mode in JPEG, only that worked out I thought. But after I registered with Indiawilds I realised that my image quality are low-med. Later just 2-3 weeks ago I thought i will try Av as suggested by Sabyasachi, it has worked for few images and few images were blur becoz of lack of expereince in getting the right aperture or iso, during this time I lost the opportunity of shooting pictures of the male tiger at Bandipur (Scent or Teritory making etc), later some more disasters in Ranthambore but managed few tiger images.

Again last weekend some exciting images of wilds dogs went off blurred at Bandipur, i had some photographers in the same vehicle and they tried to help me by changing my settings to AF AL Servo some high speed or so, my images were a big disasater, next day I travelled to Kabini had excellent birding shots some were ok and some failed. Lost good opportunity to photograph the young leopard on a tree, I had all the time in the world to shot the leopard resting on a tree by trying out various options but nothing worked, probably due low light.

I have now realised that I will need someone help me in person, can you suggest a tutor in Banglaore who can do a crash course for me 1-1 preferred.

Pl advice,