What does JPEG actually do? (in camera)

I watched this video recently about a subject that frequently crops up in Photography on the nature of JPEG compression, and just how much compression should be applied, and what resolution you should use (in camera) if you’re a JPEG-shooter.

Even though the video was a bit turgid in places, it got me to thinking about what a JPEG image looks like coming out of my camera against the RAW image I process. I watched it right to the end which showed some sticking power. I’ll give you what I interpreted as the main points of interest.

Pixels are more important than the Quality slider when saving a JPEG for the best image. So save with loads of Pixels – original number if possible, don’t drop the resolution therefore – and use a lower quality setting to reduce image size if that’s an issue for the card in your camera. Then in post-production, as suggested in what I consider (imho) to be the best written expose of JPEG and Lightroom by Friedl, when you drop below 72-80% quality (compression) there’s not much decrease in image size, and very little drop-off in visual presentation.

I’m fortunate to have two card slots in the Sony A7r MkIII and have set it up so that a JPEG image is sent to the second slot. This image is configurable by Quality (ie resolution – X-Fine, Fine, Standard) and Size (ie relating to the amount of compression applied – high 42m, medium 18m and small 11m). I thought it might be interesting to see what the images looked like when taken in a challenging lighting situation that required ISO 4000 to get a shot at 1/60@f4 on a 24mm lens. I thought I’d look at the RAW image as well to see how “superior” it was!!!

Well that was interesting. Out of the camera all the JPEG images were sharper and that really puzzled me. Why? It took me a short while to realise that I’d forgotten the reason why I shot in RAW in the first place. Duh! RAW just captures what the camera sees. It doesn’t apply any corrections. It just sees the image and records it. Phew! I realised I had to look at Noise Reduction and Sharpening to get the RAW image close to what the JPEG was giving me, but I have to admit the JPEG taken at Xtra-Fine and High gave a very good image straight out of the camera (that’s the one on the right above), and if I didn’t want to do any post-processing, I’d have been happy with it.

[Note the shot on the left is the unprocessed RAW image saved with no compression; the one in the centre is the processed RAW image at 80% quality (compression)]

Some statistics for the JPEG shots:

Size of image from camera Original Resolution Cropped Resolution Saved at 80% compression Saved at 100% (no) compression
XF-H 23.4MB 7952×5304 2137×2137 946KB 2.8MB
XF-S 7.3MB 3984×2656 1070×1070 365KB 886KB
Std-H 7.6MB 7952×7952 2102×2102 901KB 2.4MB
Std-S 2.7MB 3984×2656 1088×1088 384KB 824KB

Key:
XF = Xtra-Fine (high resolution)
Std = “standard” resolution
H = High File Size (ie little compression to reduce file size)
S = Small (ie considerable compression to reduce file size)

I cropped all the images including the RAW image (originally 85.8Mb in size) to a square to get a comparable image at each resolution. For the RAW image this was 2126×2126 – comparable with the XF-L and Std-L JPEG images. I then saved the images at 80% Quality and 100% Quality (ie no compression) in Lightroom. For the RAW file this gave figures of 4.9Mb for the 100% Quality, and 1.5Mb for the 80% Quality. So you end up getting a JPEG from a RAW file (at this resolution) that is not greatly different from the JPEG taken from the camera.

How did I get the RAW to outperform the JPEG? I had to look at a number of sliders in Lightroom. Starting with Noise Reduction and then moving on to using Texture to arrive at an image that I liked. So the question is … is it worth using JPEG to just capture the moment. The answer is most definitely YES. I’ve always said that, and this piece of empirical research suggests that JPEG in the Sony camera is very good at noise reduction and sharpening. You may lose the colour information and the tones are not represented quite as well; but in this poor lighting situation where the ISO is very high (ISO 4000) the quality of the JPEG image is very good. So, armed with this information I just need to make a decision on how I set the camera up. Do I want to save a JPEG image as a backup to the RAW, in which case I need to set it to XF-H (in my notation), or for taking the card out of the camera to share on social media, in which case I would probably set the camera to record the JPEG shot as a Std-S image.

These are some of the test shots taken whilst I had my feet up! You can download the originals from the [Download] link under the photo if you want to more closely examine them.

The uncropped Std-S JPEG image saved at 100% [Download]

The cropped JPEG image saved from Lr at 100% reducing the file size to 2.8Mb; a loss of detail, but generally excellent noise reduction. [Download]

The cropped RAW image, grain and noise present because of high ISO [Download]

The finished RAW image at 80% Quality, after Noise Reduction – luminance and sharpening applied, as well as a bit of Texture added. Image size now 1.7Mb reduced from 6.4Mb cropped image. [Download]

So a final conclusion … if you’re a JPEG-man, I guess you should do the minimum amount of compression in camera, and you should shoot at the highest possible resolution. Then in post-processing you can safely save your JPEG at a reasonably high-rate of compression (lower quality setting) whilst keeping the resolution as high as you can. Does that rather obvious statement make sense?

The settings on my Sony A7r III, with explanations

Another of my “posts to self” to help me first of all understand why I’ve set my camera up the way I have, but secondly to keep a record of those settings when I set them up initially.

The Sony A7r III has an “interesting” menu system – let’s describe it that way. It’s getting much better, and as I’ve been a Minolta, then Sony shooter for quite a long time now, I’ve grown up with it and have adapted as Sony has adapted.

First the Custom Keys …

Rotation of the  Control Wheel is not assigned to any function; this is to allow it to be used as a selector with the other functions available on the Control Wheel (see next section).

C1 is set to Metering Mode – multi; centre; spot; entire screen average; and highlight.

C2 is set to Focus Mode – single-shot AF; automatic AF; continuous AF; DMF (direct manual focus); and Manual Focus.

C3 is set to Focus Settings – which are changed by rotating the Control Wheel, and in some modes the front and back wheels on the top of the camera.

C4 (trash) is set to Focus Hold – which allows the focus point to be selected (AF, or MF) and then held whilst the composition is re-framed.

Pressing the Multi-Select Centre Button allows you to switch between Auto Focus and Manual Focus. In other situations the button is a joystick to move around the eyepiece or display screen when using certain functions.

Pressing the Centre Button of the Control Wheel will select Eye AF, where the auto focus searches for an eye to focus on.

Pressing the Left-side of the Control Wheel will enable Drive Mode to be selected – Single; Continuous; Self-timer; Self-timer (Continuous); Continuous Bracket (EV – 3 images); Single Bracket (EV – 5 images); White Balance Bracket; and DRO Bracket. The last two won’t be used. This is the default setting.

Pressing the Right-side of the Control Wheel will allow ISO to be selected (incl. setting for Auto ISO). This is the default setting.

Pressing the Down Button will enable the Focus Magnifier in Manual Focussing Mode. [I’ve also set Manual Focus Assist to On, so this button is probably superfluous and could be re-assigned, however it is quite useful in Auto focus to just check on the focussing on the main subject.] Pressing the Up Button will cycle through the Display options (menu choice) for the eyepiece and display screen – this is not customisable.

The AEL Button is set to AEL hold to lock exposure.

The AF-ON Button is set to AF On which means that the auto-focus process is started independently from the pressing of the shutter. If you’ve disengaged auto focus from shutter release (to use back button focus), this is how you’ll need to auto focus the camera/lens.

The Focus Hold Button is present on some of the lenses and is set to Eye AF – the default is Focus Hold (not used yet).

Next the Function Menu – reached by pressing the Fn button. It has two rows of options, set from two screens. First the Upper Row

White Balance – my default setting is Daylight – a fixed Kelvin value of 5200. I use this as it’s a known quantity. I can change the white balance very easily in Lightroom, or could apply some of the Profiles now available.

Zebra Display – set to On, so that I can see the effect of applying Exposure Compensation (EV) to reduce highlights.

Peaking Display – set to On, so that in Manual Focus, or DMF mode, you can see the sharp edges of what is in focus. You might wish to set Peaking Level to Lo , so that you don’t have too much “noise” on the display/eyepiece. I’ve chosen a Peaking Colour of Red, but Yellow and White are alternatives.

ISO AUTO Min. SS – set to Standard which ensures that when the camera detects the current focal length/zoom setting and selects a minimum shutter speed, it takes into account the effect the focal length has in magnifying the degree of blur. That is a 200mm lens calls for a higher shutter speed than a 50mm lens. [Alternatives would be Faster/Fast and Slow/Slower.] This ensures that the risk of introducing blur when hand-holding is reduced.

Live View Display – set to On partnered by Creative Style set to Neutral. This is to counteract the fact that the Live View Display shows a JPEG rendition of the image, and so with Creative Style set to Neutral, with Exposure and Saturation wound down to -3, the highlights won’t be blown and I almost have a guaranteed “expose to the right” histogram with as many tones represented as possible.

Not set.

In the Lower Row

Steady Shot should be switched Off when the camera is mounted on a Tripod. My default value is On.

Centre Lock-on AF allows the camera to focus on a subject in the centre of the frame and then follow it as the camera tracks. My default value is Off, so that this tracking does not occur.

Face Priority in AF does exactly what it says, the camera looks for a face to provide the Auto Focus point. My defaul value is Off.

Touch Operation enable the Screen to be used in touch mode to determine focus point, for example. My default value is On.

Creative Style is a way of enabling Live View (the option above it) to represent the image better (rather than the default – which would be JPEG). I’ve dealt with this above.

Not set.

So this is what my Fn button screen looks like …

Finally, the options  from the Menu system I’ve chosen to add to the My Menu screens – options that are often used and are somewhat difficult to get to in the normal way.

The first option is the way of selecting/deselecting Back Button Focus. When it’s set to On (my Default) auto-focus is engaged when the Shutter is depressed half-way. When it’s set to Off, then you can use the AF-ON button to focus independently from the Shutter.

The Format option is the way I clear the card after uploading the images to Lightroom. I prefer re-formatting a card, rather than deleting images.

Cleaning Mode is the way the sensor can be cleaned. After a few shudders and whirrs the sensor should have had the most obvious of particles dislodged.

Bluetooth Settings are here for when I might wish to connect the camera to another Bluetooth enable device.

Airplane Mode is just a quick way of switching off the wireless capabilities of the camera.

I’ve also added APSC/Super 35mm to Page 2 which enables me to change the options should I add a non-FE lens, or choose to crop the image in camera. I’ve set it to Manual so that I can choose whether to get the extra 1.5x reach in camera, so that it’s not selected on the basis of the lens that’s mounted (ie an E-mount lens, or an A-mount with a LA-4 adapter). I’ve set it to Off by default.

I’ll update this page later after I’ve decided how I’m going to set up my M1, M2 and M3 buttons. Initially I copied Mark Galer’s settings into the positions on the Mode dial but I want to examine how best I can use them myself, developing the settings from first principles. I’ll want to set one for preferred Tripod settings (Landscape), one for walking around hand-held (again Landscapes) and one possibly for portraits I should think, but that’s for another day.