RAW adjustments in Aperture vs adjusting a JPEG

RAW files literally contain much more image data. And, JPEG files have had lossy compression applied to them. Normally not an issue at the very highest quality Saves, but very significant deterioration at less than the best available JPEG.

With JPEG one intentionally tells the hardware to provide less than the best available image data. Shooting RAW (or RAW+JPEG) really is the only way to go with modern gear. Certain unusual workflows may be the exception.

-Allen Wicks

Actually, what you are missing is the color and detail depth. JPEG by definition is 8-bit data set, whereas raw files are 12 or 14, and some 16 bit data set, depending on what camera you are using. Also greater capability to set the white balance correctly.

In practical terms, your ability to recover from blown highlights and shadows are greatly increased in raw, compared to jpeg. Further, color transition is much smoother in raw. Both of these are simply because you have more data in your file. So in jpeg, you have 256 range of shade in each channel, whereas in 12 bit raw, you have 4096 each.

In Aperture, all files are non-destructive, including jpeg files. That said, jpeg is already a processed file from raw within your camera. Many people like the presets that camera company provides for the camera so you may be one of them.

Hope this helps,
Cheers

If your shots look pretty good out of the camera and you're only tweaking them, it may be hard to tell the difference between an edited RAW and an edited high-quality JPEG.

But if you have to apply more extreme corrections to rescue an image that was not shot ideally (clipping, underexposed, etc) the advantage of RAW will be more visually obvious.

Speaking of RAW, I am having all kinds of trouble understanding how to import my RAW images. For some reason, they do not show up when I attach the camera and Aperture opens up automatically. Even if I have a RAW images saved to my hard drive, I don't understand how to tell Aperture to import it, as it doesn't seem to want to import it the way I import y JPEG files. What am I missing here?

If you didn't shoot your images in RAW, do you think that it is even worthwhile making any adjustments to them with the Aperture tool base?

I understand that a RAW file is non-destructive but have not actually ever been able to see the advantage of adjusting RAW images over JPEG images. What am I missing?

In analog colour correction, the original is a viewable graphic which is preprocessed in the sense that the make and model of film introduces a look. The original is colour managed through capturing an IT8 target for the look of the make and model of film.

In digital colour correction, the original is not a viewable graphic. Instead of applying preprocessing in the film medium, it is applied in the camera which incorporates a kind of colour preprocessing which is dependent on the camera manufacturer.

There is no one RAW preprocessing any more than there is one film preprocessing, e.g. see Wikipedia. Image data and the colour preprocessing is coupled in the RAW file format, so to speak replacing the analog original as it is before exposure correction / colour correction.

RAW can be considered the equivalent of the high bit image data captured in a drum scanner before exposure correction in the scanner software, application of the corrections to the capture, saving of corrected and downsampled to 8-bit to disk.

There were intermediary implementations of non-destructive colour correction, the best known of which was Live Picture for which Apple's former John Sculley was in turn CEO. Live Picture started with 8-bit scans and converted into a tiered image data format.

Layers and edits were stored in a resolution independent format that was independent of the image data format. One could manipulate 1Gb image data on a Quadra with a NuBus card, beating Photoshop by many miles.

When one was done with editing, the resolution independent edit file was applied to the resolution dependent image data file in a high-bit calculation using Apple ColorSync 2 as calculation and conversion engine and ICC profiles as device characterisations.

Essentially, Aperture is an implementation of this idea to digital cameras.

With regard to JPEG, then JPEG is a final export format and NOT an editing format. It is not simply a change in the bit, but a change in the colourant data. Internally, the channels are rotated to a CIE-like model and the chroma channels are crushed. Saving to JPEG once for output is workable, saving to JPEG twice in the course of colour correction should always be avoided.

/hh

macorin wrote:
If you didn't shoot your images in RAW, do you think that it is even worthwhile making any adjustments to them with the Aperture tool base?

Yes. There is still ability to change things. Its just not as much as raw (or raw converted to 16 bit tif) files.

I see. So, you would still adjust things such as recovery and black point, exposure, etc even on jpeg's? Also, how do you import RAW files into Aperture? Do you have to convert them to TIFF files first? I can't seem to figure out a way to access the RAW file whether on my camera or on my hard drive.

macorin wrote:
I see. So, you would still adjust things such as recovery and black point, exposure, etc even on jpeg's?

Actually, I've found that recovering blown highlights or shadows is the weakest part of jpeg file. It simply does not have the data to do a good job. It can be done using the slider but not very effective. Alternatively, you can play with highlights and shadows. Chances are you'd be more pleased with the results there. Just remember to also adjust midrange contrast. Nice thing about Aperture is that you can do whatever you want with your image and simply return it to the original state with a single click.

Also, how do you import RAW files into Aperture? Do you have to convert them to TIFF files first? I can't seem to figure out a way to access the RAW file whether on my camera or on my hard drive.

Aperture is a raw converter/editor/database all in one. If your camera file is supported by Mac OS X, then there is no need to convert to tif beforehand. Just to be rhetorical, tif file can be made from raw but is not the same so if you want to have raw files converted by Aperture, converting first to tif would negate the purpose.

Since I don't know how you are trying to import things, it is hard to answer but try this.

1) connect your camera (card reader would be much better) and open Aperture, if it does not open by itself - this is an option you can select in preferences.
2) create an album and select import files
3) pay attention to file handling (copy to location, keep in current location, copy into library and so on) so you know where the file is going.
4) you can change file names and add metadata while importing

Thats all there is to it, really. There are 50 or so video tutorials on Apple's Aperture page on the web, including importing files. If you have not looked at it try it.

Cheers

For RAW, I shoot with a Canon Rebel XSi. I've set it to shoot in RAW+JPEG. The JPEG's show up when I connect the camera, but the RAW files do not. Even if I import the files onto my hard drive and then try to import them into Aperture from there, I still can't. I thought that Aperture was compatible with Canon's RAW. How can I find out?

if you search on raw+jpeg, you'll find the answer quickly. i only shoot raw so i can't recall what you do but the raw files are imported and just needs to be shown. something like new version from master, but i cannot be sure.

macorin wrote:
I thought that Aperture was compatible with Canon's RAW. How can I find out?

RAW conversion by third-party entities like Apple and Adobe is specific to each individual camera. Aperture's list of supported individual cameras is at http://www.apple.com/aperture/specs/raw.html.

The EOS Digital Rebel XSi/Kiss is on the list.

-Allen Wicks

There are many proponents of Photoshop CS3 and later, who tout the feature to Open JPEG as RAW -- this is done to get the same tool set in PS used for RAW images available for JPEG ones. I have tried it, and did (before Aperture) find it very useful compared to the typical tool set for adjusting JPEG images. Aperture makes it easy to have mostly the same tool set, and I think that is great.

Ernie

macorin wrote:
I thought that Aperture was compatible with Canon's RAW.

One camera model's raw data won't be exactly like another. All raw converter software of any brand must be tuned for the specific way that data that comes off each new camera model's sensor, even from the same company.