Always shot deep space in raw, finally tried JPG last night

I've been stacking and processing raw frames from my ZWO camera for 2 years, thinking it was the only real way to get good detail on nebulae. Last night I shot M42 in JPG out of curiosity and the final image looked almost identical after some quick curves adjustments in GIMP. Anyone else found raw processing to be overkill for bright targets like Orion?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy62826d ago

The 8-bit depth in JPG literally clips your data right out of the gate, so you're throwing away 4 bits of dynamic range per channel. That means on a bright target like M42's core, you've got way less room to pull back the blown-out center without it turning into a blocky mess. I've got stacks from my 1600MM that look like muddy gray pancakes in JPG compared to the 16-bit linear data where I can actually stretch the faint outer dust lanes. Plus the compression artifacts start showing up once you push the curves hard enough.

mila_campbell2526d ago

Oh GREAT, so my phone is basically lying to me about stars now?

morgan_martinez26d ago

Oh yeah, same thing happened to me with the Orion nebula, JPEG just murdered all my detail in the core.