which settings affect RAW

[rbickel]

I have a NIKON D90, but I assume this question is the same for all DSLRs. Which of the settings affect what the RAW capture looks like? Obviously Speed, aperture, and ISO all effect the exposure, but since RAW ( I believe ) is what the sensors see, and many other camera features, such as white balance, sharpness, vibrancy, contrast, etc. are provided by the in-camera post processing, do any of these affect what I would see in RAW mode in lightroom. Do they have anything to the default OOC RAW exposure, or do they not even come into play if I only shoot RAW mode?

[candleman]

(very important to get right)
shutterspeed, aperture and ISO.. govern exposure

white balance is often neglected,, but very important, it should be set before the shot but it can be adjusted in post processing,

(not much you can do)
sharpness it still dependant on how good your glass is... but it can be adjusted in post.
contrast is also somewhat lens dependant... but is mostly adjusted in post


i hope i've interpreted your question correctly

[rbickel]

that helps some

I'm trying to learn which are critical in camera, and which aren't. Depending on if I think the camera or the computer can do a better job of PP

[candleman]

correct exposure and white balance is critcal.
also any motion blur, or incorrect focus (you focus on the wrong thing) is near impossible to fix.
so keep an eye on that.

have a read on the DpS blog about Histograms and "highlights".. that will help you a little,
your D90 will have the abiulity to show "blinkies" of the areas that have been overexposed.

minimise noise by exposing correctly, dont overexpose, (you loose detail) dont underexpose.. you create noise.

above all this technical stuff.... if your concept/subject or composition stinks.. no amount of PP will suddenly make it awesome.. so check out the "guidelines" for composition too.. that will help you a bit.

[fletch]

Correct exposure is critical. White balance is also crucial but I find it way easier to fix in Lightroom than worry about it while shooting. Auto is close enough to judge if the shots is OK in the viewfinder and then I adjust in Lightroom.

Other than exposure there is not much else you need to get right appart from framing and focus of course, you can change that in PP. Lots of the camera settings are designed to help you focus and expose properly. Things such as metering modes, AF areas, the mode dial etc. etc. are all important if you shoot RAW or JPEG.

[Quo Fan]

I shoot manual, but with auto white balance. I find it easier to fix white balance in post.

In camera critical are, for me: exposure, focus, rough composition, depth of field.

[dcclark]

I'll answer this from the other direction: what can you change when editing RAW files, without losing or destroying data? The answer is, honestly, not much. White Balance is one, but it's best to get that right in the first place. You can tweak a few settings such as the vibrance/saturation settings as well, depending on which camera you use. But any time you start messing with exposure (trying to "push" more detail out of hilights or shadows, for example), then this cannot be helped much in RAW. RAW files give you more latitude, but when you edit (for example) the exposure curve, it's just as likely to clip off important data, as if you were doing it in jpeg.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by dcclark

[...] But any time you start messing with exposure (trying to "push" more detail out of hilights or shadows, for example), then this cannot be helped much in RAW. RAW files give you more latitude, but when you edit (for example) the exposure curve, it's just as likely to clip off important data, as if you were doing it in jpeg.

You can actually reduce exposure and recover highlight detail very effectivly in RAW files without creating noise. This is becuase you are not trying to invent data or amplify anything, infact you are doing the oposite. It is a lot harder to increase shadow detail as this requires inventing data and thus creates noise. Hence why it is best to expose to the right when shooting RAW.

Basically the things you can ignore in camera when shooting RAW are all of the camera settings that control the JPEG compression. They differ from camera to camera but usually control white balance, contrast, saturation, sharpness, tone curve, resolution, and compression

[Ray Dockrey]

The only thing I worry about is exposure, ISO and focus. Most of the time I leave it on auto white balance and correct it in Lightroom if needed. Lightroom does an outstanding job of allowing me to correct white balance so much that I don't worry about it at all.

[rbickel]

Originally Posted by fletch

You can actually reduce exposure and recover highlight detail very effectivly in RAW files without creating noise. This is becuase you are not trying to invent data or amplify anything, infact you are doing the oposite. It is a lot harder to increase shadow detail as this requires inventing data and thus creates noise. Hence why it is best to expose to the right when shooting RAW.

Basically the things you can ignore in camera when shooting RAW are all of the camera settings that control the JPEG compression. They differ from camera to camera but usually control white balance, contrast, saturation, sharpness, tone curve, resolution, and compression

Originally Posted by Ray Dockrey

The only thing I worry about is exposure, ISO and focus. Most of the time I leave it on auto white balance and correct it in Lightroom if needed. Lightroom does an outstanding job of allowing me to correct white balance so much that I don't worry about it at all.

This getting to the point of my question. Hopefully my photos are better composed and more focused than my question.

What I was wondering about, is the process of takeing a photo, composes of 2 phases,

The first phase is the image capture, where apeture, speed, and ISO come into play. Also composition and focal point.

The second phase is where the image data is post processed, either by the camera or by the computer. I think this would include, setting white balance, tone curves, contrast, etc.

If you shoot in raw, the camera stops after phase 1, and stores the RAW capture data.

If you shoot in jpeg, the camera does the post processing from you based on the camera settings.

Which is the best process for post processing depends on your camera, your PP skills and software avaiable to you.

Sooo, given, if you think the computer (with your help) gives better PP results. What camera settings are applied in the image capture phase of photo taking beside;

Everyone seems to agree on: appeture, ISO, shutter speed, composition (not a setting) and focal point

Split opions on white balance