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Digital BW, The Print

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Re: Am I destroying image quality

2008-01-05 by pglombick

I think it depends on what you ultimately want to use the image for. 
If you plan on doing more than just elementary adjustments in PS or 
plan to use the image for professional or fine art purposes, I 
strongly recommend shooting in RAW.

As Shoshanna has pointed out, your camera applies in-camera 
processing such as sharpening, etc. that you have no control over. 
While this may may your images look better out of the camera 
intially, it offers you little in the way of control to optimize an 
image and it can be difficult or impossible to reverse some of these 
adjustments.

Also, if you are making prints with fine tonal gradations, with 
repeated contrast adjustments or extreme adjustments, you will start 
to see gaps in the histogram which may or may not be detectable in 
the final image.

Certainly, if you use JPEG, your first step in the workflow should be 
to save the image as a TIFF or PSD as you lose data each time you 
save the image in JPEG format. 

You are also missing out on the advantages offered by such as 
increased dynamic range, noise reduction, white balance, etc.

Again, it depends on the intended use of the image. If you need to 
get the most out of your images, switch to RAW.

Paul G.

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