[GEli]

Originally Posted by smc1377

While I do shoot in RAW about half the time, I fear that many are using RAW as a crutch. Instead of taking the time to get it right the first time, they just shoot and correct later. While I do appreciate all the benefits RAW gives me in the post-processing stage, I've learned that getting it right from the get go is a lot easier than trying to color correct 500 images.

However with that said, I'll still shoot the very important stuff in RAW *just in case*.

What's wrong with a crutch? You say it like it's a bad thing, but if the person isn't shooting digital with plans to eventually going back to film (it could happen...), being able to fix WB/exposure/etc. after the fact will be a constant for any camera they shoot with from hereon in.

You can only use it as a partial crutch for correctly exposing too. Underexposing by two stops will still yield a terrible image if you try to push it up to properly exposed in PP, even if you use a noise reducing plugin to remove noise (and detail). Within about a ±1 EV range, though, you can push or pull to your heart's delight and still retain most of your detail. With JPEGs, any attempts to change the exposure will do terrible things to an image, though it does still have an acceptable operating range (but it's more like ±0.10EV).

RAW seems to mimic what's possible in a real darkroom more closely, in that you can do a fair bit of push (or, rarely, pull) processing and you'll only see a slightly enhanced grain. As camera tech improves I'm sure the useable window will increase, but for now most traditionalists can be placated by stroking them soothingly while whispering, "It's just like the dark room, just like the dark room..." until they fall asleep .

In case it's not obvious, I shoot only RAW for its flexibility and the superior resultant image quality. Space is not an issue in these days of cheap memory, so the only reasons people seem to be able to come up with for shooting JPEG is laziness. PP is and has always been part of of the photographic process, and leaving the tiny processor in your camera to guess at what you want and do all the work for you is, as I said, lazy!