Question From a Newbie

[marymoon]

I'm new to this site, so I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this question (sorry if I should be elsewhere!)... I just got my first DSLR and I'm shooting in raw for the first time. Since I'm used to just working with JPEG, I have no clue what to do with these files. Should I save them as tiffs? Since they're so huge, how do you save them to flickr? Should I just buy a pro account for more storage space?

Sorry if these are dumb questions... total newbie here!

[dcclark]

Raw files are not images yet -- they're the raw data from your camera's sensor. The have to be converted to an actual image. You can think of them as the digital version of a film negative, which has to be "developed".

There are many programs which can "develop" your raw files -- some may have come with your camera. Photoshop works, as does Gimp, Lightroom, etc. They all allow you to adjust many things. Then you can save the new image as a jpeg and do what you like with them.

All of this said -- if you don't know what you're doing with raw files, and if you're just starting with DSLRs, I highly recommend that you just shoot in jpeg mode for now. Learn about your camera, its controls and modes. Learn about composition, lines, and light -- and aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. and forget about raw files for now. You'll become a much stronger photographer in any situation if you do that.