Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Gato Moteado

(9,935 posts)
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 06:40 PM Jan 2024

PECKER PICS!!!! Photography in the RAW! Hey PEEPERS...You all have got to see this...

....OK, first get your minds out of the gutter. i'm talking about pixel peepers.

if you're a photographer, you should always be shooting in RAW. no not unclothed (though, that would be perfectly fine)....but saving RAW image files to your memory card. if you're gonna process your own images, and especially use AI noise reduction, it's much better to work with RAW files than already highly compressed JPGs.

OK, now that that is out of the way...let's get to the pecker pics...woodpeckers, of course. if you saw my post from yesterday, i got some decent shots of the woodpeckers making their nest in a dried cecropia tree just outside my door. well, today i used the tripod to lower the shutter speeds, in order to cut the ISO, and i got lucky with some nice diffused light for a short time. these shots were taken at ISO 320 and 280 respectively:





both shots were from the same distance....i just did a deeper crop on the first shot...although both are deep crops. but, to give you an idea of how much of a crop was done on the first image, here is the full size image straight out of the camera:



i did my normal processing with adobe cameraRAW, including the AI denoise and then passed the images to photoshop for minimal touch-up and to be saved as high res JPGs. now for the pixel peepers enjoyment....look at the pecker heads zoomed in at over 200%...i don't think i've ever produced images capable of this before.





8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Gato Moteado

(9,935 posts)
2. .xcf files are the native image file format of GIMP
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 06:52 PM
Jan 2024

they probably are uncompressed files but i do not know how much of a RAW file's information they contain. here's more info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCF_(file_format)

bucolic_frolic

(47,018 posts)
5. AI spewed a bunch of stuff, the basic being
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 06:59 PM
Jan 2024

Information Stored: XCF stores information related to the entire editing project, including layers and edits, while RAW files store raw sensor data, providing more flexibility in post-processing.

Compression: XCF files are typically compressed to save space, while RAW files are often uncompressed or minimally compressed to preserve maximum data.

I do know XCF files are typically very large relative to JPG. Like 10x larger.

Gato Moteado

(9,935 posts)
6. yes xcf files probably have a lot of the information from a raw file if a raw file was loaded into GIMP....
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 07:10 PM
Jan 2024

...i just don't know enough about the file format.

AllaN01Bear

(23,056 posts)
3. when i first read your peice title , i thought u were being rude . then i saw the bird . that last series of it
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 06:55 PM
Jan 2024

flinging the chips away was impressive . tack tack tack tack. kadak ack.

Gato Moteado

(9,935 posts)
4. hahahaha.....thanks!
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 06:57 PM
Jan 2024

it's not unlike me to be rude....but this post was fairly tame. just a little clickbait.

CaliforniaPeggy

(152,112 posts)
7. I see what you're doing, my dear Gato, and both photos are amazingly clear and sharp.
Wed Jan 24, 2024, 07:32 PM
Jan 2024

I remember Andy telling me that I should stick with jpegs, and I have. He mentioned that jpegs have lots of information contained in them, and he felt that I didn't need to use the raw image. But he knew that I'm not tech-savvy; maybe he felt it would be too much. Dunno!

This conversation happened a long time ago--maybe two years ago.


Callalily

(15,013 posts)
8. Thanks for the lesson, much appreciated.
Thu Jan 25, 2024, 04:07 AM
Jan 2024

When I was working I'd always shoot in RAW, but I don't anymore. To clarify, I'd shoot events, candids, which doesn't necessarily take a lot of skill. Just have to know what the client wants. I actually worked for a non-profit and they'd ask me to shoot events, rather than hire a professional photographer, as I'm just a hobby photographer. I do minimal processing with my photos now.

I've been enjoying your photos and your explanations. Thanks for taking the extra time for your posts.

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Photography»PECKER PICS!!!! Photograp...