RAW or JPEG?

Which one do you prefer? I found this old dirty car. I wanted to bring out the dirt and grime on this thing. I processed one photo in Silver Efex Pro and the other using the in camera processing on the Ricoh GR. Boosted everything to the max using the High Contrast Film Effect.

The left is using Silver Efex Pro and the right is the high contrast film effect.

The Silver Efex photo turned out to me 19.5mb while the film effect was 13.5mb. A big difference. You can see it in the photo on the left there’s a much wider range of tones.

Ricoh GRiii Street Photography Settings

I’ve been experimenting with GRs for three years now. This is the easiest setup for shooting on the street you’ll find.

  • Snap Focus
  • Full Press Snap Off
  • Exposure Mode P
  • AE Metering Multi Segment
  • ISO Setting Auto Lower Limit 3200, Upper 12800
  • Program Line Deep
  • ND Filter Auto
  • Snap Distance Priority On
  • File Format RAW
  • Shake Reduction On

These are the basics. The most important settings are using Snap focus and Snap Distance Priority. This way you control your distance using the front scroll wheel. I will adjust the distance accordingly. Experiment with the different DOF modes by turning the front wheel between DOF 1 to 3. I’m using DOF 3 for largest depth of field at 1m. This allows me to get very close to people and still have them relatively in focus. Compose and press the shutter button. Too easy.

I use Multi-Segment metering and shoot RAW. Using this method, you don’t have to worry about too much over or under exposure and you’ll be able to process your photo and retain all detail.

Another thing I like is programing the FN button to AE Lock. In a high contrast scene, I’ll point to a bright spot and lock exposure. It will stay locked for as many times as you press the shutter until you review your photo. This is great during golden hour when shooting for the light.

You can probably lower you ISO to 400 and still be perfectly fine. I’m liking the grainy photos and large depth of field and high shutter speeds though.

I also make my JPEG setting into High Contrast BWs so I can see a similar look to how I’m processing the RAWs in post. Don’t worry if you review your photo and see the highlights blown. They are fine. HC mode is so strong but the detail will be there in the RAW.

For the below photo, since I wanted to expose for the light, I pointed my camera to the sky and locked exposure. Then moved my snap distance to I think 3.5m. I did this after I heard the motor bike coming towards me one block away. I was able to change the settings within a second to take this photo.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/195573219@N08/53030705514/in/dateposted-public/