Comparing Photo Edits with a Picture of an Ant Eating a Mulberry

 In my garden, I spotted an ant—likely a Lasius japonicus—eating a ripe mulberry. Since the color of the mulberry and the ant are quite similar, the photo ended up being a bit hard to see clearly. So, I decided to compare how the image turned out after processing the RAW file using two different tools: Adobe Camera RAW and DxO PureRAW 2.

For the Adobe Camera RAW version, I applied auto adjustments, boosted the shadows, noise reduction and enabled lens corrections. The DxO PureRAW 2 version was corrected automatically with no manual tweaks.

The Camera RAW version showed more detail in the ant’s wrinkled body, which was interesting. The colors in both versions came out almost the same, but in the Camera RAW version, the small white debris on the mulberry got tinted blue due to the correction.

All in all, it’s a reminder that taking a well-exposed shot in the first place is better than relying too much on post-processing!

Processed with Adobe Camera RAW
This version was developed using Adobe Camera RAW with auto adjustments, shadow recovery, noise reduction and lens correction applied.

Processed with DxO PureRAW 2
This version was automatically corrected using DxO PureRAW 2 with default settings.

Original (Unprocessed)
The original RAW file without any processing or corrections.

Cropped Detail of the Ant
A close-up crop showing the part of the image where the ant is eating the mulberry.