Improving the Digital Negative

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Improving the Digital Negative

The image taken by a digital camera is referred to as a 'digital negative'. Every camera will take a Raw file, which will contain as much digital information that camera, lens and sensor can capture.

All but the cheapest cameras will have the option of saving the Raw file. The cheaper cameras will process the Raw file and only save the resulting JPEG.

Very often journalist and sport photographers will elect to save only the processed JPEG and not the Raw file. This is because they can take several hundreds of photographs a day and there is just not the time to retain and handle the Raws. In general, the Raw file should be kept and processed later in order to achieve the best results.

But there is more to taking a digital photograph than just clicking the shutter. With a little care, the digital negative can be much improved which makes later work in Photoshop easier and more successful.

When the quality of the Raw file is as good as possible, it will require fewer adjustments and the quality of the final image is better.

Whether the Raw file or just the JPEG is retained, both can be improved with a couple of actions prior to taking the picture.

White Balance
Transparency film had a built-in neutral colour balance, either for Daylight colour or Tungsten colour. As long as the light was within a certain range, the greys would be neutral and colours accurate. Digital does not have such built-in colour balance; we have to set it for each circumstance and adjust the colour balance of the image during editing.

Most cameras have a number of settings for the white balance, which aim to make the image neutral and the colours as true as possible.

One white balance setting to be avoided is 'Automatic'. It is certainly convenient to have everything set automatically, but the results can be inconsistent. The colour balance will fluctuate from subject to subject. Photograph a group of people and there will be one colour balance setting. If someone joins the group wearing a blue shirt, the colour balance will change. This can make later matching of the images more awkward.

Common alternative settings for the white balance are:

Incandescent
Flourescent
Direct sunlight
Cloudy
Shade
Flash

Sometimes there are settings for individual Color Temperatures.

If at all possible, select the most suitable setting for the conditions.
The results will be more consistent and nearer to the final image.

Checking the Histogram
The second action worth taking is to look at the histogram and then adjust exposure accordingly. A histogram is a graphic display of all the tones the camera has captured in the photograph.

On this site is a full tutorial on the Histogram . It explains what a histogram is and how it can be useful at the picture-taking stage. The histogram is a good guide to the accuracy of the exposure. By referring to the histogram, exposure can adjusted and this will ensure that all important detail is recorded.