When to use Raw . . .

[RJSorensen]

I would like to open a discussion on when and or for what to us Raw capture on my 20D, or one would suppose any camera that would support it. Is it just the important things, that those of you whom use this feature on a regular basis. Do some of you shoot Raw full time? Does the extra functions in the work flow choke up you production? You shoot with Raw and what level of jepg?

Please if you can . . . share your thought of when and for what to use this option.

My kind regards as always.

[KevC]

I always shoot raw. It's just a regular part of my workflow I guess.... sure it may take longer, but I like the fact that all the info's there ;)

[tim]

My default is to shoot RAW. I switch to JPG if they're just muckaround photos or I need more than 6 photos in a sequence. Buying the "camera raw with adobe PS CS" book really helped my workflow, as did upgrading my PC :)

[markubig]

Because I'm still a complete moron when it comes to determining proper exposure, I always shoot raw. I'm already used to the RAW processing in post, so having it as a part of my workflow doesn't bother me.

I also love the control of the photo temperature as my custom WB always seems to be just slightly off.

[robertwgross]

I've never shot a JPEG, ever.

Nor have I shot a RAW+anything.

RAW. Period.

I can see the purpose behind some shooters using RAW+Small JPEG, and I can see why some sports shooters use only Large JPEG.

---Bob Gross---

[Maureen Souza]

I've never shot a JPEG, ever.

Nor have I shot a RAW+anything.

RAW. Period.

---Bob Gross---

Okay, you now have me convinced to try a shoot on RAW. Fortunately, I have a bridal shower to photograph this weekend so there will be a whole gaggle of beautiful young ladies as my subjects. It will also be my first time to shoot a group of people with my 20D.... I am struggling in my mind with the focus factor and how to make sure everyone is in focus. I am planning on using my 50mm/1.4 and Tamron 28-75/2.8. Any suggestions to ensure everyone stays in focus other than to stop down my aperture?

Maureen

[symes]

Okay, you now have me convinced to try a shoot on RAW. Fortunately, I have a bridal shower to photograph this weekend so there will be a whole gaggle of beautiful young ladies as my subjects. It will also be my first time to shoot a group of people with my 20D.... I am struggling in my mind with the focus factor and how to make sure everyone is in focus. I am planning on using my 50mm/1.4 and Tamron 28-75/2.8. Any suggestions to ensure everyone stays in focus other than to stop down my aperture?

Maureen

If you have a 20D why not shoot both Large Jpeg plus and Raw...that can make sure that you ease into it...I am on the 300D and that makes the choice slightly more painful... :)

Good Luck this weekend...

[RichardtheSane]

I'm a RAW + nothing shooter too.

I actually like and enjoy the RAW workflow, and because I have got my workflow so finely tuned now I can view, process and file RAW''s much quicker than I ever could jpegs. Decent RAW software also seriously reduces my photoshop time as I can do all my sharpening, and colour corrections during conversion.

[symes]

I'm a RAW + nothing shooter too.

I actually like and enjoy the RAW workflow, and because I have got my workflow so finely tuned now I can view, process and file RAW''s much quicker than I ever could jpegs. Decent RAW software also seriously reduces my photoshop time as I can do all my sharpening, and colour corrections during conversion.

What Raw software do you use?

[Big_B]

I'm a RAW + nothing shooter too.

I actually like and enjoy the RAW workflow, and because I have got my workflow so finely tuned now I can view, process and file RAW''s much quicker than I ever could jpegs. Decent RAW software also seriously reduces my photoshop time as I can do all my sharpening, and colour corrections during conversion.

I'll shoot raw if the lighting conditions are difficult. Otherwise I always shoot JPG as I can't see the difference in quality and it allows me many more exposures. I should add that I generally do very little editing to my pictures, which might explain my lack of need for RAW.

Richard, I'd be interested in hearing more about your workflow. I find that RAW files are much slower to load etc and, without much/any visible gain in quality, that puts me off using it. If you have found a way of dealing with this, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Kind regards,

BB

[PhotosGuy]

I'd be a "RAW + nothing" too, if the 300D had that option. About .1% of the time I'll shoot a small jpg in the "studio" for WB, or just to check something in the shot out. After wet-processing, RAW is a joy to use & I just don't understand why people spend big $s on a cam & lenses, & then short change themselves by shooting only a jpg. RAW has saved my butt, as I commented about in several threads. RAW means that you can return to a "negative" at a future time & reprocess a pic after you've learned more about photography.

The exception to this would be people like Kenny who needs burst mode & are shooting for an editor who wants jpgs, but I suspect that, if time allowed, I'd go with RAW & convert before sending the pics out. I like it that much. ;)

Any suggestions to ensure everyone stays in focus other than to stop down my aperture? Figure out how “deep” the average group, front person to back person, will be. Go to the DOF calculator at…http://www.rbarkerphoto.com/DOF2.html… and see how much depth you have at each aperture/shooting distance & try to use the one that corresponds to the depth of your groups. Note that DOF extends 1/3 toward you & 2/3 away from the point of focus, (except in close-ups, where it's 1/2 & ½), so you can fudge it a bit by not focusing on the front row. So, if 3 rows, maybe focus on the 2nd one.

If you're 10 feet from a subject and have a DOF of 3 feet, then everything from a distance of 9 feet to 12 feet will be inside the DOF, regardless of how far away something is from the subject. Even if something is 5 feet to one side, if it's 10 feet from the camera it will be in focus.
BE CAREFUL with this! You can sort of see the depth by using the DOF preview on the cam, but it’s usually difficult to see just what you’re getting so I’d try some test shots before you go out & try this. See what the acceptable sharpness that you need for a given print size is, and maybe give yourself an extra “cover your butt” f-stop.

And shoot RAW, so you don’t have to worry about WB & exposure issues, along with everything else.;)

[CyberDyneSystems]

RAW + nothing...

If i need little jpegs from images I have not,. or am not going to post process,. I can just extract the small jpeg from the RAW file itself.

[hickory]

I just started to use RAW recently and even though I'm still learning the workflow, I'm amazed at the results. Now my 1 GB CF card seems too small......I'll probably continue to shoot some jpegs of non-important items that I just need to document for the short term. But for all else it'll be RAW.

tom

[Maureen Souza]

Figure out how “deep” the average group, front person to back person, will be. Go to the DOF calculator at…http://www.rbarkerphoto.com/DOF2.html… and see how much depth you have at each aperture/shooting distance & try to use the one that corresponds to the depth of your groups. Note that DOF extends 1/3 toward you & 2/3 away from the point of focus, (except in close-ups, where it's 1/2 & ½), so you can fudge it a bit by not focusing on the front row. So, if 3 rows, maybe focus on the 2nd one.

If you're 10 feet from a subject and have a DOF of 3 feet, then everything from a distance of 9 feet to 12 feet will be inside the DOF, regardless of how far away something is from the subject. Even if something is 5 feet to one side, if it's 10 feet from the camera it will be in focus.
BE CAREFUL with this! You can sort of see the depth by using the DOF preview on the cam, but it’s usually difficult to see just what you’re getting so I’d try some test shots before you go out & try this. See what the acceptable sharpness that you need for a given print size is, and maybe give yourself an extra “cover your butt” f-stop.

And shoot RAW, so you don’t have to worry about WB & exposure issues, along with everything else.;)

Thanks PhotosGuy... I'll give it a whirl.

[robertwgross]

I am struggling in my mind with the focus factor and how to make sure everyone is in focus.

I don't know what is meant by focus factor.

If you want to make sure that all of your subjects are in focus, then consider using the depth of field preview button. I think that's what it is for.

Or, set up your shot and let your camera give you an exposure solution in whatever mode. Check the depth of field preview and see that it is good enough. Then close down the aperture one more stop (which will likely change the shutter one stop). Check the depth of field preview again, and then shoot.

---Bob Gross---

[timmyquest]

I never shoot...anything but raw ;)

[nat869]

I shoot exclusively raw+nothing. All post processing is done in C1 Pro. I prefer raw sice I can create a high quality tiff image that I use for printing purposes. If I need jpegs, I can export them at the resolution and file size I want.

[kawter2]

When ever I have enough CF space i will shoot RAW + JPG L(fine)

I rarely shoot RAW by it self due to workflow, I use raw as a backup and or for those photos that I am going to blow up.. I can get a little more freedom when editing them

[Jon]

Okay, you now have me convinced to try a shoot on RAW. Fortunately, I have a bridal shower to photograph this weekend so there will be a whole gaggle of beautiful young ladies as my subjects. It will also be my first time to shoot a group of people with my 20D.... I am struggling in my mind with the focus factor and how to make sure everyone is in focus. I am planning on using my 50mm/1.4 and Tamron 28-75/2.8. Any suggestions to ensure everyone stays in focus other than to stop down my aperture?

Maureen

A-DEP (p. 82)?

[gramps]

I just started to use RAW recently and even though I'm still learning the workflow, I'm amazed at the results. Now my 1 GB CF card seems too small......I'll probably continue to shoot some jpegs of non-important items that I just need to document for the short term. But for all else it'll be RAW.

tom

that's pretty much where I'm at. 99% of what I shoot is in raw. JPG's are for "snapshots" only...............now I just nee to get a bigger CF card.

[Hellashot]

Use RAW when it matters. For a contest, printing. If it's for something you'll email or for a website, JPG is more than fine.

[Jesper]

I want to get the maximum out of my camera, so I always shoot RAW. I would hate to make a great photo in JPEG and regret later that I could have gotten a larger photo with better dynamic range and better white balance.

I have 2 GB CF card space (one 1 GB card, two 512 MB cards) and a 40 GB FlashTrax drive (http://www.smartdisk.com) to store my photos on when I'm travelling. For me, the 2 GB is more than enough for a day of shooting - it's enough for approximately 320 RAW photos from my 10D.

[symes]

I want to get the maximum out of my camera, so I always shoot RAW. I would hate to make a great photo in JPEG and regret later that I could have gotten a larger photo with better dynamic range and better white balance.

I have 2 GB CF card space (one 1 GB card, two 512 MB cards) and a 40 GB FlashTrax drive (http://www.smartdisk.com) to store my photos on when I'm travelling. For me, the 2 GB is more than enough for a day of shooting - it's enough for approximately 320 RAW photos from my 10D.

How much bigger can you print a Raw imgae vs. a jpeg image?

[pcasciola]

I shoot RAW 90% of the time, but I shoot large fine JPEG sometimes when shooting sports, for the speed. I understand that RAW is better, but it's worse if I miss a shot because of the small RAW buffer. I can only take 6-7 RAWs in a sequence, but I can take 35-40 consecutive JPEGs if a big play develops.

[Belmondo]

For a while, I was shooting JPEG when I didn't feel the photos were likely to be important. I soon realized that I was doing just as much post processing, and maybe more. There are some things that are much more difficult to do to an image that has already been converted to JPEG, even when it comes out of the camera that way.

Now, it's JPEG -- never,

RAW -- always.

Unlike Bob Gross, I cannot say I've never shot JPEG, but I wish I could. I wasted a lot of time fiddling with JPEGs.

[RJSorensen]

After much 'soul searching' last evening and today . . . I decided to shoot only Raw today. The card is downloading as we speak, but time will tell if I am ready, or not quite yet. One must push and try things, or you just stay the same, Ground Hog Day style. Either way I advance my knowledge and so there will be no losers here. I kidded myself that I 'Went Pro," today, what with shooting Raw only. It was fun to pretend, if even for a day. I did feel different and I was more careful, even erased several shots, I have never taken the time to do that, shooting with 2G cards, I just don't need to. But with a limit on the days 'shots' and what ever this new feeling is, well perhaps you folks know all about it. It was exciting and new for me.

I shot for a while with my G5 & Raw . . . but the work flow was just too much. My Photoshop skill were worse then, than they are now, lol. Thanks and I would like to see people continue to respond, this is, at least for me, an interesting thread.

Kind regards as always.

[pcasciola]

Workflow is still the biggest problem for me with RAW. I can blow through hundreds of JPEGs in an hour or two, cropping, scaling, sharpening, etc., but working with RAWs in Photoshop I still find a little cumbersome, even on the dual CPU Athlon machine I am running. What I normally do now is, download all the RAWs, start up file browser and then go get something to eat while it creates all it's previews and metadata. One little Photoshop trick is "Allow background processing" for File Browser. This will allow File Browser to do it's thing in the background as you work. It's in Photoshop's Preferences for File Browser. But be careful, because it will go through all your image directories creating metadata whenever Photoshop is open, sometimes consuming 50% of your system resources.

Hopefully Photoshop CS2 will address some of these RAW workflow issues.

[PhotosGuy]

But with a limit on the days 'shots' and what ever this new feeling is, well perhaps you folks know all about it. It was exciting and new for me. Years ago when I was typically shooting 40-60 rolls of 36 a day, I went to the zoo on the weekend with 1 roll of 20exp Tri-X. It made me visualize & predict what might happen for each shot, but I still had to decide fast to shoot or not when/if something happened.

[symes]

Two questions:

1. How much bigger can you print your pictures if you shoot in RAW?

2. What do you folks use to convert your pics from RAW to jpeg?

Thanks...

[RJSorensen]

I have posted my first Raw photograph. If you might have the time to take a look and tell me if I was . . . lol. My thanks and I hope this works our well. Both for me and those whom find this thread.

Northern Pintails . . . (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=475652#post475652)

[tim]

pcasciola, have a read of this book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/032127878X/qid=1107482395/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-1058892-7018242?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), or wait for it's sucessor on CS2 in a while. I won't bother to buy the new book, that book gives you a great grounding and I should be able to work the rest out myself.

symes, it's not so much a question of how much bigger you can print, it's more the control you have over the shot, and you can get a little more detail out. From my 300D I made A1 sized prints that look great, I have two that size hanging in my lounge.

Ass for which software to use, there are probably half a dozen different packages in common use. RawShooter Essentials 1.1.1 is free and pretty good, I use Photoshop CS myself, plus there are others like Capture One and BreezeBrowser that some people use. If you don't have a preference, use Raw Shooter, you can't beat the price! :)

[Maureen Souza]

A-DEP (p. 82)?
Thanks Jon.... A-DEP will be used , planning on it.

[jfrancho]

I shoot RAW for everything except live bands, and even then I sometimes shoot RAW if the subject is a little more stationary. It isn't unusual for me to shoot 2 to 3 GB worth of JPEGs on a "lively" band to get 50 or so keepers. I've been using Capture One to process the RAW files. It appeals to the "curves" guy in me. As far as workflow, RAW has cut a TON of PS out. My only bottle neck is the time to batch process to TIFF, and then do 8 bit JPEG conversions for the web. Kinda reminds me of compiling builds (Tim will get that analogy...). Oh well, gives me time to post here.

[Jesper]

How much bigger can you print a Raw imgae vs. a jpeg image?It depends. If you use the large / fine JPEG setting (full resolution, 3072 x 2048 pixels on the 10D) you get just as many pixels as with RAW. At the fine setting, you probably won't notice any JPEG lossy compression artifacts. It's impossible to see from a print if it was made from a RAW or large / fine JPEG by just looking at the sharpness and detail in the print.

But if you shoot in a JPEG mode smaller than the full 6 megapixel resolution, the quality difference will ofcourse be more noticeable when you want to make a large print.

[Todd Jacobsen]

RAW + JPEG

I like to always cross check my RAW skills vs what the camera does automatically.

[sdommin]

JPG 99.9% of the time. My cameras know what they're doing better than I do!

[ssim]

Go RAW or go home. Never shoot anything but RAW. Everyone have their own reasons for shooting either JPG or RAW and in their own rights this is valid. For me the latitude that the RAW files give me is the justification that I need.

[RJSorensen]

Are the Owls you guys have been shooting . . . been captured in Raw format? They are so, well nice. I love the high bar . . . it is good for everyone.