Have you ever shot an un-usable RAW?

With all the RAW Vs Jpeg threads around, I just wondered, did any of you RAW shooters ever shoot an un-usable RAW shot? and if so, What went wrong? I know that RAW retains more data than jpegs & can certainly be used to great effect, but are there any situations where even RAW doesn't work?

Anyone who is honest has shot an unusuable raw. Raw can only help you correct exposure to a minor extent. RAW isnt magic, but it is so much better than jpg its amazing.

Absolutely.....shoot in studio and forget to turn on the pocketwizard or skyport.....it results in no flash and a completely un-usable image. Shooting it RAW expands your ability to correct an image but it's certainly not so magical as to result in never creating an un-usable photo.

I find that a very odd question. As noted above anyone that says they have never had a RAW shot that was unusable is not being honest. I go through my shots after a shoot and tag them as keepers or not and I don't think that there has ever been a time where all of them were keepers. Whether or not the shots were JPG or CR2 it is human nature to try and push the limits of your camera which will undoubtedly end up with some garbage images.

RAW is definitely good in many situations but JPG also has its places. If I know that I can control the exposure and have a confidence level that they will be good then I will shoot JPG. Things like shooting in the studio where I have total control over the lighting I will almost always shoot in JPG. I am not trying to make a RAW versus JPG, that has been beat to death, simply telling you what my approach is to shooting and even then you will still end up with some unusable shots. Could be a misfire of the strobes or any other reason. It would be great if every shot could be a keeper but that is an unrealistic expectation.

When shooting with a high ISO, it's easy to clip one or more channels even when shooting raw. It's definitely not foolproof. Shooting stage shows with lights that change in color and intensity very rapidly, I blow the red channel WAY more than I like.

gonzogolf wrote in post #13538168
Anyone who is honest has shot an unusuable raw. Raw can only help you correct exposure to a minor extent. RAW isnt magic, but it is so much better than jpg its amazing.

Exactly.

Thanks folks. I guess that RAW isn't a magical cure-all solution for a bad shot. From reading some posts, I was under the impression that jpegs were just junk left over from RAW processing & that RAW will ALWAYS fix any mistakes. Now I have a clearer understanding.

Miki G wrote in post #13538154
With all the RAW Vs Jpeg threads around, I just wondered, did any of you RAW shooters ever shoot an un-usable RAW shot? and if so, What went wrong? I know that RAW retains more data than jpegs & can certainly be used to great effect, but are there any situations where even RAW doesn't work?

Of course. Nobody hits focus perfectly every time, and blown focus is almost always unrecoverable. It's also easy to try to shoot a scene with too much light range for a single exposure, and unless you bracketed it and know how to merge the images to get a single image, blown highlights can't be recovered. You can't put detail in where none exists unless you move a selection in from another image.

Then too, even if everything is perfect, the composition may not turn out anything like what you thought you saw in the viewfinder. At least that sure happens to me sometimes.

Miki G wrote in post #13538374
Thanks folks. I guess that RAW isn't a magical cure-all solution for a bad shot. From reading some posts, I was under the impression that jpegs were just junk left over from RAW processing & that RAW will ALWAYS fix any mistakes. Now I have a clearer understanding.

If you have any experience with film, think of the available exposure latitude this way:

RAW = Negative Film
JPEG = Transparency Film

OF COURSE

Sometimes your exposure can be WAY off to recover the photo.

Example say I'm outside switching between AV and Manual mode. I switch to F/2.8 and I accidentally forget to turn OFF my flash. On a Sunny day with my flash turned on my Shutter speed will be maxed out at 1/250th and on the image will blow out even at ISO100. Almost always have my speedlight on so its totally easy to do.

Also indoors when using the remotes, they can miss a flash which is really not uncommon and you get something WAY too dark.

Not to mention focus problems which I would get using RAW or JPEG. I do a ton of event photography so you have to be super fast about composing a shot and focusing on a subject. No one around you is stopping and allowing you to compose your shot and get the focus right.

many many many unusable raw images...

motion blur...

Even with RAW, severe overexposure is unrecoverable! Underexposure is not as unforgiving as overexposure.

Missed focus in JPEG = un-useable
Missed focus in RAW = just as un-usable.

The thing to take away is that SOME things that can be recovered from a raw file, may not be able to be recovered from a jpeg file. If a highlight is too hot (but still recoverable) in the raw, it just might be unrecoverable from the jpeg. Similarly, fine-tune adjustments can be made more easily if you start with a raw file.