What do you do with your RAW photos?

[rouxster]

I shoot in RAW, mainly becasue my skills are not that good now and sometimes the photos can really use some post processing. I have an Olympus, so after I shoot, I convert them to DNG files. Then in order to upload them to Flickr, they need to be converted to JPG. So, my question is, do you keep both your JPG's and your RAW files? Do you upload your photos to Flickr and keep your RAW and delete JPG? Do you convert to JPG and delete RAW?

[Elmo]

I complicate things. I save ALL raw images, no matter what. The usable images are then converted to TIFF. All post processing is done on the TIFFs. The Tiffs are then converted to Jpeg as needed I do not save the jpeg but I do save the tiff's.

[Major_Small]

I sorta do what Elmo does - just replace the TIFF with .xcf (GIMP's native file format). I do save the JPEGs though (some of them)

[oldwolf]

I go through all the RAW images. The ones that I don't think can be salvaged I just delete. The ones that are left are converted to JPG then I work with the JPG. If I have to use a lot of layers and stuff I save them in the psp format (native format for PSP X2).

I save all the RAW, psp and JPG files just in case I'm lazy and don't want to redo any of the pp.

[briandee]

1. start with raw
2. make any adjustments and PP as needed
3 convert to jpg
4 delete raw
5 save/backup/archive/post the jpgs.

[Laurence]

I don't have a program to convert it yet so I haven't had a chance to try it. I would love to but not sure what program to get.

[Cuchulainn]

I have Adobe Bridge Photo Downloader convert RAW images to DNG on import. I also have ABPD save copies to an external drive.

From that point I do pretty much as OldWolf does. Sorting through the RAW images, deleting the ones that are not salvageable or I just flat out didn't like the shot in retrospect.

Once I get the JPEG's where I am happy I archive the DNG files to DVD and delete them from the main hard drive, but leave them on the external (at least for now).

[chrismar]

I delete the RAW images I don't like or don't turn out well after PP. I then convert to JPG for sharing and viewing in Picasa. The RAW file (and PSDs) go to the external drive and then eventually to Mozy.

[Klaidas]

Edit them, then convert to JPG. Delete the RAWs that are not going to be JPG'ed (I know there shouldn't be an apostrophe, but JPGed looks... unnatural?).

At the end of the day I have RAW files in one folder, and JPG in separate folders: good photos go to "[Shoot Name]-QA" ("Quality Assurance" - yeah, I know... ), and other stay in a simple [Shoot Name].

I don't delete RAWs. Space is cheap, RAWs might be used some time later. If not... well, as I said, space is cheap.

[Digidave]

I use Nikon's Capture NX. I save all the edit steps taken on a RAW image & back up those files along with the original RAW files. That way I can always go back & edit the original exactly the same way every time or change any editing I've done.