Shooting in RAW

[abhodges]

I am newer to the photography field and have not used RAW too much. I have a Nikon
D40X and it has that capability. I shot one time in RAW and did not notice much different and had a very hard time uploading them to my computer. When I uploaded them I could not edit them in photoshop or anything and it was like they disappeared from my computer. I cannot find them now (that's probably me and my lack of computer skills ). What are the benefits of shooting in RAW and if I do how should I upload them on my computer?

Thanks in advance!!!!

[wchamilton]

Originally Posted by abhodges

I am newer to the photography field and have not used RAW too much. I have a Nikon
D40X and it has that capability. I shot one time in RAW and did not notice much different and had a very hard time uploading them to my computer. When I uploaded them I could not edit them in photoshop or anything and it was like they disappeared from my computer. I cannot find them now (that's probably me and my lack of computer skills ). What are the benefits of shooting in RAW and if I do how should I upload them on my computer?

Thanks in advance!!!!

A Raw image is basically a negative... the camera has done no image processing to it at all. The benefit is it gives you tremendous leeway in correcting manipulating white balance, saturation, white balance, and other aspects of the photo.

The drawback is you have to convert the Raw image to a readable format (tiff, jpg, psd, etc) before you can print or share the picture. Raw images are also significantly larger than jpg's, so if you're shooting in Raw you can fit fewer images on your memory card.

As far as not being able to see the images in Photoshop, depending on the version of Photoshop you're using, you'll need to download a free plugin from Adobe called "Camera Raw". This will enable Photoshop to open and manipulate the Raw images.

I hope this helps.

[arlon]

I shoot raw almost all the time but I delete 99% of them when I get home. To me RAW is useful for HDR, fixing WB and gaining back some signal in blown highlights or finding detail in shadows.

I had a good bird shot, one in a lifetime. White bird, REALLY blown highlights on the .jpg but NOT on the raw. Able to recover most of the feather detail in the of blown highlight area (nothing on the jpg). Happy me. Shooting jpg only the pic would have gone in the trash. Here's a good example of saving the day with a RAW file. You can still see where the jpg was totally blown but detail recovered from the RAW file.



Shooting clouds/scenery a single image HDR (tone mapping the RAW file) can give you something you could get with the jpg. Shooting multiple file at different exposure, RAW is the far better choice for me.
Here's a shot created in photomatix by tonemapping a single RAW file. Could not get this tone range from a jpg. Especially the shadows under the porch.


WB can be changed dramatically in RAW file, not in jpg.
This was an old ektachrome slide that had gone basically red. I reshot it with a macro lens and adjusted the WB on the RAW file to get the color back (yes, that's me). Made a huge difference.



Just some examples where RAW helped. Not always useful in normal situations but in any really trick lighting or for special effects RAW is cool. I use Elements 5 for all of my PP.. Good luck. Arlon