first time shootin RAW

[kntrygurl]

Hey ya'll this is my first pic that i have taken in RAW. I have to say its very interesting. It's gonna take some gettin' used to! Please don't be to harsh on me, after all it is my first one.

Before you look at them i will tell you i am not to sure how i did it. I know i played with the hue and saturation in Digital Photo Professional. I played around with curve a bit just see what it would do, but i believe i put it back to where it was.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

[arlon]

Welcome to the world of RAW. I shoot all in RAW/med JPG.

Once you start to see how much more latitude you have with a RAW file (and learn to use it), you'll probably shoot a lot more of them. Difficulty is in disciplining yourself to delete the duds. They will take up a lot of space in a hurry if you can't learn to delete all but the best.

[candleman]

good work.

i only shoot raw=jpeg if i know its going to be a once in a lifetime moment.. otherwise 99.9% of the time i only shoot .jpg norm.
PLUS my HD is wasted so cant upload more than 5 Gb at a time .. .raw eats space like homer at a pie eating contest

[arlon]

I've learned to delete all raw files but the "wall hangers". I don't have any storage issues yet but I doubt I keep 1 raw file in 100.. I also consider what I might be able to do with them down the road as PP technology evolves.

A BIG USB hard drive is SO cheap these days when you compare them to the cost of other equipment, there's no excuse for running out of disk space. Also 2 years of shooting and I can still put all of my "wall hanger" RAW files on one DVD. I've also had more than a few "wall hangers" that came from processing a RAW file. I couldn't have gotten the effect I wanted with a JPG. HDR and "exposure stacking" are good examples of that (I do a lot of subtle HDR). It's also perfect when you know there is a WB issue and you don't have time or ability to get custom WB.

RAW has so much more dynamic range than a JPG I feel like someone is stealing from me if I don't capture and use it.

Basically RAW is like a free insurance policy to me. Storage is so cheap, I shoot about everything in RAW/normal JPG (fine if doing wildlife) and just do a lot of deleting when I get home. I'd rather delete 100 RAW files than not have one available when I have that perfect shot (subject) that wasn't perfect (exposure).

I'm far from a perfect photographer and RAW has just saved too many shots for me to ignore.

[jfeely]

I was reading Ken Rockwell's website about raw vs jpeg and he says that its really not that big of a deal and the pictures come out the same (SOOC). Sooo, my question is, if I were to shoot in RAW:

1. What program do I use to open them with?
2. What do I do in that program to fix up the picture? (Why is this better than using regular curves to a jpeg in photoshop).
3. Is it really that big if a difference in the after photo? Can someone post a before SOOC picture, then an after RAW and after jpeg all of the same picture so I can see?

I am really trying to move up in photography and I never thought shooting in RAW was for me until I saw a few forums...is it really necessary?

Please write back for much needed advice!!

Thanks- jfeely

[marcal]

Originally Posted by jfeely

I was reading Ken Rockwell's website about raw vs jpeg and he says that its really not that big of a deal and the pictures come out the same (SOOC). Sooo, my question is, if I were to shoot in RAW:

1. What program do I use to open them with?
2. What do I do in that program to fix up the picture? (Why is this better than using regular curves to a jpeg in photoshop).
3. Is it really that big if a difference in the after photo? Can someone post a before SOOC picture, then an after RAW and after jpeg all of the same picture so I can see?

I am really trying to move up in photography and I never thought shooting in RAW was for me until I saw a few forums...is it really necessary?

Please write back for much needed advice!!

Thanks- jfeely

To open the RAW files you can use different programs. I use the plugging Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) in Photoshop. I'm also very new in this hobby and I don't know if this is the correct way to do it, but I use ACR to fix up the Withe Balance, exposure, Brightness, Shadows, and Hues/Saturation and I leave all the rest for the Photoshop. For instance, I believe that the noise reduction and sharpening tools are far better in photoshop than in ACR... not sure though. What I also do when working in ACR is to save the resulting picture as a TIFF file which is the file I keep working in Photoshop with. After all the Photoshop work is done, I save the Photoshop file and I save a copy in JPEG format. That way, if I want to modify something a posteriori, it's not necessary to go all the way down again as I can go on with the Photoshop file. That being said, this is what I do as for a training since I'm also new at that...

I hope it, somehow, helps.

[blarg]

I've just started shooting in RAW (after buying a new higher capacity SD for my camera), and what I am doing is after a shoot is keeping "the shot(s)" in raw format, and then the poor ones just get deleted and the rest that aren't poor enough to delete or good enough to work on, I'll convert to jpeg. Not sure if this works yet for me as I'm new to this too.

[marcal]

Originally Posted by blarg

I've just started shooting in RAW (after buying a new higher capacity SD for my camera), and what I am doing is after a shoot is keeping "the shot(s)" in raw format, and then the poor ones just get deleted and the rest that aren't poor enough to delete or good enough to work on, I'll convert to jpeg. Not sure if this works yet for me as I'm new to this too.

But, do you do any processing to the RAWs or you convert straight away to JPG?. Because if you do the later, I think (not sure) that there is no difference from taking the JPEG directly... I mean, the RAWs are powerful for their capability to be processed...

(I think)

[blarg]

I've just done the one "shoot" so far and the one image that's worth keeping, I had a play in a raw edit program then opened it in PS. Since then I have just saved it in PS format and probably won't bother with jpeg unless it goes on the net.

I always used to convert all to tif format many years ago in an old graphic design job I had.

[jfeely]

When I do photo shoots (I am an amateur) I usually take 500 pictures so that it guarantees me some good shots for the client. I would be worried about shooting in RAW because it takes up so much room for something that may or may not make a difference in post processing results. I have 2 SD cards and they are great for my jpeg needs, but until I am convinced otherwise that shooting in RAW can produce amazing results...better than my results with jpeg...I will stick with jpeg. So, someone, please prove me wrong!! (I would love better pictures if it were true!)