Towards the end of 2020, I headed out to The Roaches in the Peak District. It’s a popular area with climbers and gives excellent views over the Staffordshire countryside.
You may recall that 2020 was when the world was in lockdown with COVID. Because of this, I hadn’t been out much with the camera and made the mistake of leaving a flat battery in it. Although I had spare batteries, the flat battery was enough to cause the camera to lose all my settings. Fiddling around in the dark before sunrise, I reset everything. At least that’s what I thought.
Here is one of my favourite shots from that morning.
It was taken using the Panasonic Lumix G9 with a Panasonic 45 to 150 lens set to 138 mm. The exposure is 1/60 of a second at F7.1 and ISO 200.
As this marvellous scene unfolded, I put the Panasonic into high-resolution mode. This is where the mistake occurred. Although I had reset the quality of the camera to shoot in RAW format, I hadn’t realised that the high-resolution mode had separate settings. Those defaulted to shooting JPEG images only and didn’t capture a RAW file.
When I got home and downloaded my images onto the computer, I was disappointed to see only JPEG images. I ignored these for a long time, and it was only yesterday that I decided to try to process one.
I made my initial adjustments in Lightroom. Honestly, I didn’t really need to do much because the camera has done most of the processing already. All that was required was a minor tweak to the contrast because I wanted the mist to be more defined. I then exported the image to Photoshop, applying Topaz DeNoise AI. If you’ve ever used Topaz DeNoise AI, you know that it also applies a small amount of sharpening to the image. Again, nothing much was required to improve this image.
Looking closely at the image at 100% magnification, the quality seems extremely good. It’s not quite what I could achieve with a RAW file, but it will still produce a fantastic print.
This entire story has made me realise (yet again) that I make many assumptions when it comes to photography. I frequently don’t try things simply because I think they probably won’t work. Therefore, I tend to ignore shooting in the JPEG format and instead shoot RAW. Whilst that’s good practice, there are times when the camera produces excellent colour in the JPEG that I prefer to the RAW file.
The same is also true of my photo editing. I tend not to try techniques because, at some time, I’ve disliked the result. This week’s YouTube video is another example. In it, I explained how to create an abstract artistic effect using Affinity Photo and multiple exposures. The result, whilst not to my taste, can easily be modified and improved. It would just take a little bit of effort and thinking.
I hope you like this week’s image and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Today I had the same experience: although I never, never use JPEG, somehow I did today. I don’t have the faintest idea how my settings have changed on my GX9, I came home with just JPEG’s instead of RAW-files.
And I needed these images, because it was a model shoot, something I seldom shoot since my retirement as a professional photographer.
My experience was the same as yours. My Panasonic JPEG’s were pretty good and just needed a little correction to satisfy the model.
It’s surprising how good the images are. The colours are pretty much spot on as well. That has caused me many problems recently with the Panasonic RAW files. I’m pleased to know that I’m not the only one surprised by this.
Robin, I love this image, it really has a mood! I usually shoot raw+jpeg and in the majority of cases the jpeg is satisfactory, perhaps with some contrast adjustments; when I really need it, I can process the raw file, but I seldom achieve a better result than the jpeg.
Thank you. While I tend to shoot RAW almost exclusively, I may begin setting my cameras to record both. I’m glad you like the photo.
About two years back I was shooting JPEG as there was no raw converter at the time. I found the results to be excellent and shot both raw and JPEG for awhile, but now mostly just JPEG. I shoot mostly wildlife and of course get caught occasionally on some subjects like white feathers, but now, after some experience, if I keep the exposure for the whites, its not often that I have to abandon an image that is unusable.
I often wonder if all the web horror stories about the smaller file size have to do with user error rather than a a technical issues.
FWIW
It’s a good point. You do see a lot of problems in photography due to misunderstanding. I tend to use RAW files rather than JPEG because in the early days of digital the JPEG images from the camera were not very good. Today the JPEG images are a lot better in terms of image quality. I’ve also noticed the colours in the JPEG are often more natural compared to the RAW file. I suspect part of this is due to the profile curve a lot of RAW editors apply. This increases the contrast and as a result saturation. Taking the time to apply a linear profile tone curve as a starting point often leads to better colours. I need to investigate this more. Thank you.
Hi Robin,
The Picture Control I mainly use for field work, is a slight variation of the orginal Nikon D2S Mode 1
in the control editor, it shows a slight bump up in midtone and shadow area. Gives a slightly less saturated result, but I can always tweak it to a desired level in Lr.
Big deal of course is getting exposure right, but as i used to shoot sheet film on a Linhoff I get really happy if I can get within 1/3stop on the day. 🙂
There is a German guy who has a site with lots of simulations for Nikon, (not much help for the Panasonic), but he does show the film curve simulation as a starting point.
here tis https://nikonpc.com
regards
David
Thanks for sharing David. There is some interesting information on the website.
I’ve been tinkering with a linear profile for the Panasonic that I got from Tony Kuyper. It’s a good starting point for the Panasonic images when I can remember to use it.
I know that disappointing feeling, when a few months back I thought I’d twisted the dial to up my ISO and had somehow managed to turn the one that rotated from RAW capture to JPG High. Fortunately I guess I turned it that way and not the other way which would have lead me into shorting JPG Lo, but much like you I felt so deflated afterwards that I didn’t even want to look at them 😔. That’s a remarkable photo though, you are very talented 🙂
I’ve been following your recent posts regarding the EM5 MkIII. I’m a current G9 owner having previously owned both Gs, GHs and OMDs (EM1 Mk1 & EM5 Mk2). I love almost everything about the G9 (handling, viewfinder, AF, IBIS, balance with my 12-60 etc ), but when ever I go back and look at OMD shots I just prefer the colours. Can’t really describe it, but there’s a yellowy-beigeness about the Panasonic colours that I just can’t seem to tweak away.
I’m seriously considering trading it (again) for a EM5 or EM1 (cant afford to go to OM Systems much as I’d like to). Is there any chance you could post a few side-by-side shots with your EM5 & G9 to help at some point? Cheers, Adrian.
Your experience sounds very similar to mine and is one reason that I decided to get an EM5 again. I opted for the EM5 over the EM1 because of its size. If size hadn’t been important, I would probably have opted for the EM1. As for posting some side-by-side images of the EM5 and G9, I will see what I can do. First, I need to shoot some worth sharing with both cameras.
Hi Robin, you have a nice capture with beautiful colors. I can imagine your disappointment about accidentially shooting in JPEG. I switched a few years back to a Linux system, meaning I could no longer use easily Lightroom and Photoshop. I really did abondon those tools and that meant for me shooting only in JPEG. I share your amazement of how good the files are most of the times. Yes, for some pictures with high contrast it is impossible to achieve the same results. But it also gives me more time to do other things than just sit at my computer and edit filess.