One Big Cheese Ball

Moon, Waxing Gibbous, 87% Illuminated, 9-5-2014

Ok, it's not really a cheese ball.  It's the moon.  Again.  But it's different.  It's 87% illuminated this time.  And it's a jpeg out of the camera that I processed in LR, not a raw.  My little experiment yesterday really got my attention and I've looked at the raw vs jpeg images again and again since then and can't get over how much better the jpeg looks than what I'm able to get from the raw image.  Try and try as I may I just could not get the raw to look as detailed. Oh, it looks pretty good when viewed by itself but when compared side by side with what I could get from the jpeg image it just doesn't measure up.  And this is very unusual.  I do these comparisons from time to time and until now I've always preferred what I could get from the raw image vs what I could get from the jpeg.  So I'm not sure what it is about the moon that changes that.  It could be as simple as my post-processing skills not being up to snuff.  I am self-taught, after all, and have no doubt there's plenty of room for improvement.  But, for now it's a mystery and I'll post what I think the better of the two.