 Mandy Hank |
A stupid question about shooting RAW I feel stupid asking this but I don't understand what "shooting raw" means and I hear a lot of photographers talking about it- maybe I do know what it is just don't know it's called that. Can you help?
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Paul Tobeck |
Hi Mandy. Shooting RAW basically means that the digital file created contains only the "raw" sensor data as captured by your camera. All other forms of capture have something done to them by the cameras software, like color adjustments, sharpening, white balance refinements, etc. The RAW format in essence gives you a "digital negative" that you then process in another application (like the one provided by your cameras maker, Adobe Camera Raw plugin, or Rawshooter, etc.) before moving it into Photoshop or some other editor. This allows you to tweak the image just the way you want, without some software making those decisions for you. If you are a serious shooter and are looking to squeeze the absolute best out of each image, then shoot raw and learn the process of tweaking your images (and have a LARGE HARD DRIVE AND MEMORY CARDS!!- Raw files are huge). If you shoot mainly for fun or for stock and portraits, I'd stick with jpeg's because the workflow is much more efficient. Some cameras allow you to simultaneously capture Raw+jpegs on the same shot. You may try this for awhile and see what you can do with the Raw files. Hope this helps! Paul
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Christopher A. Vedros |
To add to what Paul said . . . Not all cameras give you the option of shooting in RAW. Many cameras, including most mid to low-range point & shoots, will only save images as JPEGs. Higher end compact digitals and digital SLRs will give you the option of saving the image as a RAW file instead of a processed JPEG.
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roberthambleyphoto.com - Robert Hambley Contact Robert Hambley Robert Hambley's Gallery |
Greetings, Technically, all cameras shoot in RAW (RAW is just that, the RAW data from the sensor). Not all cameras save the RAW format, and do the processing in camera saving as JPG (etc). The phrase should be 'Saving RAW'. Thanks,
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roberthambleyphoto.com - Robert Hambley Contact Robert Hambley Robert Hambley's Gallery |
And there is no such thing as a dumb question. Everyone who is Shooting/Saving RAW has had to find that answer at some point. Later,
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Dan C. |
and have a LARGE HARD DRIVE AND MEMORY CARDS!!- Raw files are huge This is true. But the one good thing is although each manufacturer's RAW files are proprietary, they tend to be puffed with space and compress well. The raw files I use will zip to 40% their original size. A savings of 60% is substantial. So if you get a good compression program such as winzip, you can recover much of that space. Zipping files when you are done working with them may add one additional step to the workflow, but many will agree the increase in quality is worth it.
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Paul Tobeck |
Dan's right about the compression factor with raw files. Good point and a good way to save space. I was referring to the initial hits when shooting and uploading. At 30-35mb (uncompressed)a pop, a 1 Gb card is about equal to a 36 exposure roll of film. Mandy, if you're seriously considering shooting raw, make sure your computer has at least an 80 to 120gb hard drive, and a dvd burner is a must for backups.
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Justin G. |
Paul I think 30-35mb a pop is a little high would ya say? The largest resolution DSLR (35mm) has files roughly 14.6mb RAW. And the average user doesn't have a 1DsMkII. On a 20D the RAW size is roughly 8.7mb on a 30D and 5.0mb on a D70s, equalling a lot more than 36 shots on a 1 gig card. The average is going to be about 150 shots on a 1024 card. just my thinking.
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Paul Tobeck |
Sorry, my bad. Don't have a DSLR (yet), just going by what a pro said at a recent seminar. He shoots a Nikon D200 and said his uncompressed raws were 35mb. Should've checked that out before stating as a fact. Please don't hurt me.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
If he converts his RAW files to TIFF files, they could easily get to 35MB.
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Justin G. |
lol I'm sorry Paul, my apologies. ya know I really gotta go through my responses and make sure they don't sound mean or insulting. I really didn't mean to come off that way. I don't shoot digital either, I just happened to notice the specs the other day. My apologies, again, hopefully no harm done. -Justin
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Paul Tobeck |
No problem Justin, it's just that my wife beats me with a cane switch whenever I'm wrong (and thats a lot apparently!) Now that Chris mentions the TIFF conversion thing, that rings a bell. I know one thing for sure, no more multiple program one day seminars. Too much info from too many different people. My tiny little brain can't handle the overload.
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