What is RAW format?

I've been doing some fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants digital photography for a while now, but its becoming stagnant, and I'd like to get better !!

I keep hearing about RAW format editing, and I've done some research on it, but cannot find the answer to one simple question.

What are the benefits of RAW format, and why do people use it?

I do use Photoshop CS2 when editing my photographs, but it seems I'm missing out on something pretty big here

Any insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!

You will find out for yourself when you start shooting in raw, but the big advantage is the ability to fix some things that maybe were not quite right at the time of shoot.

Assuming you always take perfect exposures, the biggest advantage to shooting in raw is the higher bit-depth (meaning more precise colors available).

The lesser advantages are for those of us that don't quite get the shot perfect.

- You can usually "fix" exposure by about 1 f-stop better then if you had shot in jpeg only mode.
- You can correct white balance significantly easier then if shot in jpeg

- You have more control over contrast, saturation and sharpness.

The only real disadvantage is file size and the little bit extra processing time on the computer to fix.
a lesser disadvantage is you have to convert to a common file format for others to see.

Thank you so much. I understand a bit better now.

I currently have a Canon SD400 .... How would I go about shooting in RAW mode??

I don't think you can.

Search on this forum and you will find more than enough answers to your one simple question to keep you busy for weeks.

Trust me, it is all here

N

aww bummer!

I guess I'll just have to get my 20D sooner than later then so I can try this out

-=The RAW Faqs=- RAW Processing info and links
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=80337
DIGITAL CAMERA RAW CONVERTER COMPARISONS
http://www.sphoto.com …verters/rawconv​erters.htm
Free RSE 2005 (RawShooter Essentials) links at the bottom of this review:
http://www.outbackphot​o.com/artofraw/raw_18/​essay.html
RawShooter | premium 2006 info on v. 1.0 $100US
http://esd.element5.co​m/product.html?product​id=545270
RawShooter | premium 2006 video Quick Start Tutorial
http://pictureflow.fil​eburst.com …hooter_premium/​index.html
LOTs of other opinions here, if you like being confused:
The best RAW software
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=116925

Don't forget JPEG is lossy meaing everytime your open and save your image your degrading it alittle (eg. let's say your working on an important file and it's a JPEG. You make some adjustments and then you have to go out for awhile so you save the file. You come back later and reopen the file and finish your adjustments and save again. Well you just knocked down your original twice. Everytime you save a jpeg you degrade it alittle.

After a few saves it not even the same image anymore .

Palladium wrote:
Don't forget JPEG is lossy meaing everytime your open and save your image your degrading it alittle (eg. let's say your working on an important file and it's a JPEG. You make some adjustments and then you have to go out for awhile so you save the file. You come back later and reopen the file and finish your adjustments and save again. Well you just knocked down your original twice. Everytime you save a jpeg you degrade it alittle.

After a few saves it not even the same image anymore .

Or you could open the JPG once and then save it as a TIFF or PSD so it doesn't lose anymore quality while you work.

It's still not as good as RAW but it will certainly make do for people who don't have the RAW option or people who don't print and merely size down to share online.

Equally consider whether RAW better serves your photographic interests and preferences than does high quality JPEG. It is swings and roundabouts. RAW can require more time tweaking in the digital darkroom than you may wish to spend ...

I think I spend less time as all the tweaks are right there at the side where I can go back & forth without committing to any, & I can snapshot to view between changes. In PS it's, make this change. Now make that one. Hmmm, maybe I should undo in History & start again?