Noob RAW and Lightroom question

[lordrobs]

Since getting my SLR I've only taken Jpeg shots for fear of not getting RAW files to look even as good as an out of the camera jpeg.

Now I've been having a play with the trial of Lightroom 4 so at least now I can do something with the RAW files should I take some. My question really is, does Lightroom automatically add the missing sharpness and blacks that I'm lead to believe a RAW file lacks?

I've been reading up on the differences and completely confused myself but the general consensus seems to be that you should be taking raw shots unless you have no intention of doing any pp? I've also seen automatic adjustments being done by Lightroom mentioned but I can't find anything conclusive.

Also one of the big advantages of being able to shoot raw is the ability to adjust white balance in pp... But Lightroom let's me do that with my jpegs, I simply don't get the presents like tungsten etc.

I think I may be trying to run before I can walk by taking raw shots now but with 25 days left of a Lightroom trial I guess now is the time to see if it is something I want to invest in (lightroom that is). If Lightroom can get me to a minimum of jpeg standard automatically then I can shoot in raw without any concerns what so ever.

I have done a fair bit of reading on the subject but have just totally confused myself, as I say, probably trying to run before I can walk!

TL/DR- in laymans terms what would I gain from shooting raw when Lightroom seems to let me make changes to wb with my jpegs anyway? Secondly does Lightroom automatically add blacks and sharpness to raw files?

 

[lordrobs]

Thanks for the advice. So far my pp has only got as far as cropping, spot removal and playing about with some of the presets.

I've been watching some YouTube videos of Lightroom processing tonight and it seems that just playing with the sliders is the way to learn!

I'll rattle off a set of raw files and get stuck in

 

[lordrobs]

OK... so now I get it

I went out to a local church that is beautifully lit at night with the intention of taking a set of raw shots to process later. I took a few but on the camera they didn't look great so I tried a few on camera HDR shots which looked pretty good. To take these I had to set the camera back to JPEG Fine... and then forgot to switch it back

Anyway I had a few RAW files to play with and all I can say is... wow! I now 'get' what people mean when they say that with a jpeg the detail simply isn't there to recover. The only ones that came close were the HDR shots but they just didn't have the clarity of the pp'd raws.

Unfortunately I really screwed up with my settings (4s shutter at ISO 100 ) so while the photo looks great the sky is quite... fuzzy which I assume is due to the excessive shutter time?

I must admit that I started by hitting auto wb to give me a clue what direction to go and then tweaked myself to my taste. I repeated the same for the tone and then had a go with the clarity. Far from the finished product but I plan to go back and shoot the church again next week so I'll have a bit more of a play then.

Anyway...
Before

DSC_0003-2.jpg by Rob Stirling2012, on Flickr

After

DSC_0003.jpg by Rob Stirling2012, on Flickr