What is the advantage of shooting in RAW mode ??

[Raj]

Hi,

What are the advantages of shooting in RAW mode compared to superfine compression mode giving jpegs ?

1. Is the noise (@ high ISO) any less in RAW than in jpegs or inverse is true becase no noise reduction is applied ?

2. OR, noise will be less because no in camera sharpening happens ?

3. Is it really possible to change white balance of images shot in RAW mode only ? or can be done with jpegs also ?

4. Is post processing, example color correction etc is better with RAW pics ?

5. Is the compression level while converting from RAW to jpeg controllable ? My 4 MP G3 shots are usually ~1.75 MB at full resolution, however if I convert RAW into jpeg with PSCS, size was just 800 KB ! why so ?

6. Lastly, is there any software to to batch onvert from RAW to JPEG ? I have PSCS recently but know how to convert only one at a time.

Thanks for taking time to read this.
If there is more to add, please point out.

Thanks

[PhotosGuy]

You might do a search. RAW has been covered many times. As for my input, see:
"Why I love RAW - '53 Ford Sunliner"
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43761&highlight=sunliner

[scottbergerphoto]

Editing 16 bit files
White Balance
Color Spaces
Highlight Recovery
Fixing Exposure - much less damage to file then Levels in PS.
Scott

[tim]

For me, it's white ballance and pulling details out of shadows. Highlight recovery doesn't usually work as well as bringing up shadows, so I always expose for the highlights in RAW. I shoot RAW 98% of the time now - you spend that much money on a camera you want to get as much quality out of it as you can.

[Raj]

Thanks for sharing the information & knowledge. I really appriciate it.
Can you please respond to these two queries:

5. Is the compression level while converting from RAW to jpeg controllable ? My 4 MP G3 shots are usually ~1.75 MB at full resolution, however if I convert RAW into jpeg with PSCS, size was just 800 KB ! why so ?

6. Lastly, is there any software to to batch onvert from RAW to JPEG ? I have PSCS recently but know how to convert only one at a time.

[Bodog]

Capture One does very well at batch processing RAW. (http://www.pictureflow.com/)

[Avalonthas]

Irfanview is another free software that is good for all sorts of image stuff, including batch processing. Easy to use

[Avalonthas]

I got a question about RAW format. I got a Canon Pro1, and I noticed when I shoot in raw the picture looks ery choppy especially the edges around objects look very choppy. I just dont see the advanateg of shooting RAW. And how do all you pro's get such good looking pics out of RAW's when the quality of a raw atleast with my cam looks terrible.

[Raj]

I dont exactly understand what you mean by ery choppy but my RAW pics look tooooo soft ! i guess because it is RAW, that is, none of the image processing algorithms kick in.
Since I am learning both PS & digital photography, i initially wanted to shoot everything in RAW, but i backed out because:
1. images look very soft
2. post processing & converting each RAW file to jpeg was on singular basis.
3. I got confused with image size too less after converting to jpeg in PSCS.

However after starting to get a feel of both photography & PSCS + looking at ppl's posting here, I am inclined to learn whats best/has most flexibly, so I am thinking of shooting in RAW again. Memory is no problem for me as I have tow 1GB ultra 2 cards, more than enough for a 4 MP camera ....

[tim]

Get this book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/032127878X/qid%3D1104901326/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-6508699-0011309), it'll answer every question you could ask and more.

5. You either resized the pic down or saved the jpg at low quality. I typically save at quality 11.
6. Yes, PS CS using the file browser and the batch mode. The book I linked to will give step by step instructions, google can help you find a site for it too.

(next batch)
1. RAW images aren't sharpened in camera, you need to do it in photoshop yourself. You can use the unsharp mask or the "TLR Sharpening Toolkit" action set, which is free. Either that or "JB's Smart Sharpeners". One of them's free, if you look at image sharpening threads around here it'll tell you about them. Sharpening's very complex, but those actions make it easier.
2. See the book.
3. See answer above.

Another good book is this one (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735714118/qid=1104898472/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-6508699-0011309?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). This one's (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735713537/qid=1106893666/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6508699-0011309?v=glance&s=books) pretty cool too, for tricks and cool effects.

Hope that helps.

[KennyG]

If you shoot in RAW mode, convert to TIF, not JPG. TIF is the best format to work with in PS. You can produce JPG's for web use from the TIF, but use the TIF for print.

Any problems you see when converting from RAW are either the software or you not getting it set up right. I process 1,500 RAW images at a time in Capture One and have the workflow pretty much nailed, much faster than working with JPG.

I convert my wife's RAW images from her Pro 1 into TIF and they are excellent, a lot better than JPG's from the same camera. As sharpening is not done in-camera (along with everything else), the removal of noise is much easier.

[Markus]

Maybe it's just me, but when I view RAW in another browser (ACDSee) and I zoom in, I think the image is shown compressed and I see all kinds of anomalies I do not see in Photoshop. Maybe that's what happens when you mention "choppy"?

[Jesper]

Thanks for sharing the information & knowledge. I really appriciate it.
Can you please respond to these two queries:

5. Is the compression level while converting from RAW to jpeg controllable ? My 4 MP G3 shots are usually ~1.75 MB at full resolution, however if I convert RAW into jpeg with PSCS, size was just 800 KB ! why so ?That depends on what RAW conversion software you use. Almost all programs that can save JPEG images have some way to change the compression ratio. Photoshop CS certainly has it.

6. Lastly, is there any software to to batch onvert from RAW to JPEG ? I have PSCS recently but know how to convert only one at a time.There are lots of software packages to convert RAW images, although many of them only work with RAW images from DSLRs (not the G3). You should have gotten CD-ROMs with software from Canon with your camera. Canon File Viewer Utility can convert your RAW images in batch. It's also possible with Photoshop CS; you'd have to create an action that does it automatically.

[Jesper]

Maybe it's just me, but when I view RAW in another browser (ACDSee) and I zoom in, I think the image is shown compressed and I see all kinds of anomalies I do not see in Photoshop. Maybe that's what happens when you mention "choppy"?Canon RAW files contain a small size JPEG preview image. Probably ACDSee is just showing you that preview image and not the real, converted RAW data. If you zoom in on the preview image, it might look "choppy" and you might see JPEG compression artifacts.

[Raj]

Sincere thnaks to all of you for responding to my queries. I have got some basic understanding now. Also to learn more I have got two books
Adobe PS CS one on one
Down & dirty tips & tricks for PSCS
These focus mostly on PS but cover RAW processing also...

Cheers

Cheers