Why is my RAW image grainy?

[Meta4]

Ive been doing lots of research, which has mostly said you need to shoot RAW images in order to get better results

Before you let them convince you, have a look at this.
Every shot in this gallery was done with jpg images.

Shipping Photography Examples - Above & Beyond Photography

This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

abovephotos.smugmug.com

By all means investigate using raw images if you are interested, but don't feel that you must shoot raw to get good results.
Particularly if you are new to photography, there are a lot more important things to learn first before you need to get into the issues of manipulating raw images.

 

[boblui]

..... mostly said you need to shoot RAW images in order to get better results in Lightroom.....

Raw is definitely better in terms of room for editing but do you really need that additional room ? it depends on the picture. For the picture you have posted, JPG will be just fine.

 

[James_3183]

Thank you all for your help.
currently I am just having a play about with editing. I’m just learning about Lightroom and photo shoot. I just didn’t want to be using JPEG for editing if it was going to make it more difficult etc.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Hi Chris,
I have been downloading the images from DJI 4 and then opening them into Lightroom On the iPad, however the image still looks grainy.
I don’t have an SD card in the drone as of yet so I’m just using the drones storage. Could this be why?

Yes, the images from DJI 4, stored on your controller device (the phone/tablet you use with the standard controller, or the smart controller) and not full rez images. Those are just cache images.

You want to use the SD card option to get full rez images.

I don't know how to get SD card data to an iPad—I use an SD card reader on a PC desktop or laptop.

Chris

 

[Meta4]

I just didn’t want to be using JPEG for editing if it was going to make it more difficult etc.

You can edit jpg files, just as you can edit dng files.

 

[Saladshooter]

Hi, yes I am very new to this. Ive been doing lots of research, which has mostly said you need to shoot RAW images in order to get better results in Lightroom. I can fly the drone just fine, I’m just trying to get into the editing side of this now.

James....I think it's worth exploring what RAW can do for you, even if it is just for curiosity. Get yourself an SD card and SD Card reader that will work with your iPad. Then you can transfer the files much easier. The RAW files will be labelled nicely as DNG files so you you don't have to worry about mixing them up with the JPGs. When you import from the cloud, Lightroom initially shows you low res photos, then gives you the RAW file once it is available... if you open them directly from the SD card, you won't have this problem.

Additionally RAW files often look horrible until some amount of noise reduction is applied. Until you are used to working with RAW, the full size JPGs that the camera produces will look better.... its your choices that influence the RAW images to make them look the way you want instead of the camera software.

If you are going to work with the iPad, you likely will also need a portable hard drive to give you enough storage.