Question About Post - Processing

Hi all,

I know there is a PP section of the forum, but this isn't really a technical or software related question. If you still thing this is in the wrong place just let me know and I'll move it on over.

I have pretty much no knowledge of post production. I have loved photography for a while but have not really had the funds or opportunities to really get into it until recently. I am having a lot of fun building up my gear and learning more and more, but I keep wondering if I am shooting myself in the foot.

I have always shot RAW under the theory that eventually I will have the time to learn something about PP and maybe go back and re-touch some of my favorite shots, but I have started to wonder if I am losing anything by doing this. My normal method will be to shoot all RAW and then use DPP to batch convert everything over to JPEGS. Are my images suffering because of this? Would I be better off just shooting JPEGS on my camera if I have no intention of processing the images? It's my understanding that shooting JPEGS the camera will do some of its own sharpening of the images, which is why most people shoot RAW so that they can do their own sharpening in post.

Eventually I would like to learn something about post production to be able to get the most out of my equipment, but I just don't have the time to dedicate to it right now. So would it be better for me to shoot in JPEGS or is sharpening relatively easy and something that I should start learning now so as not to waste my equipment.

As always, thanks for your help!

P.S. - I am cringing waiting for replies to this thread where I get yelled at for my methodology. I am well aware that there is potential that I have been seriously shooting myself in the foot all this time. haha.

The only issue with what you are going is using up disk space. Apart from that DPP will render the .jpegs just as the camera would with whatever settings you have. In the odd shot you might want to tweak, you can always increase noise reduction or saturation or something.

Basically the raw file has the camera settings embedded and DPP will use these as the default for processing the raw file.

So in essence on way of thinking about it without too much PP, is that shooting raw simply allows you to change all the in-camera settings (including sharpening, contrast etc.. that come with user defined picture styles) after the shot if you want to, rather than having it fixed during the shot.

In fact many would advise that if you start PP, you always produce a .jpeg from DPP with the camera settings to gauge against and try to improve upon.

As far as just sharpening goes though, I guess you can't undo the in-camera sharpening, but you can always add to it on a .jpeg. Basically, if you don't mid keeping the raws and can catalog them so you can find the ones that you made the .jpegs from, I would keep them. Or at least keep the ones you think are 'decent' - whatever that means to you. For instance I personally would not keep 1000's of unprocessed raw files. If you get to 5000+ or so, I doubt you'd ever go back and process them all.

ejenner wrote in post #15418793
Apart from that DPP will render the .jpegs just as the camera would with whatever settings you have.

AWESOME! This is what I was hoping to hear. It looks like I have already basically been doing that. Every once in a blue moon I will find an image that doesn't look quite right and I will play around in DPP to try to make it look better. But yeah, that's great to know. I am fine with using up the extra space. Space is cheap, memories are forever. haha.

I like the idea of holding on to all of the RAW's so if i finally get around to learning post production I can go back and have some fun with my favorite images.

singer.rick wrote in post #15418809
AWESOME! This is what I was hoping to hear. It looks like I have already basically been doing that. Every once in a blue moon I will find an image that doesn't look quite right and I will play around in DPP to try to make it look better. But yeah, that's great to know. I am fine with using up the extra space. Space is cheap, memories are forever. haha.

I like the idea of holding on to all of the RAW's so if i finally get around to learning post production I can go back and have some fun with my favorite images.

Don't wait too long or when you finally will be ready to edit images you will have such a big backlog that you won't have the time to get to some images that really could benefit from editing. My own experience recently has been similar: I use Lightroom and about 9 months ago a new version was released which is significantly better than the previous version. I know that I have many old images that would be better if I were to rework them in the new version, but so far I haven't found the time to do more than a few. DPP, precisely because it has fewer features than other Raw converters, is not difficult to learn, nor does it take long to make a real difference in your photographic output. It seems a shame to be sitting on a HD full of potential that is never realized.

tzalman wrote in post #15419459
DPP, precisely because it has fewer features than other Raw converters, is not difficult to learn, nor does it take long to make a real difference in your photographic output. It seems a shame to be sitting on a HD full of potential that is never realized.

Any pointers on how/where to get started? I don't really have the first clue. I am sure there is a link or sticky somewhere on this forum on "Where to start post production for newbies" but most of the ones I see are for photoshop or pay softwares which I am not sure if I am willing to purchase yet until I know I will use it. Especially since they release new versions so when I get a pay software (IE when I am ready to do some editing) I'd like it to be the cheapest / best of the time.

singer.rick wrote in post #15419908
Any pointers on how/where to get started?

Since processing of RAW files is non-destructive, feel free to experiment. The basic elements are white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpening.

Grab a slider and move it all the way one direction and see what happens. Then move it the other direction all the way. Then move it back to where you have what you want.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the optimum settings for one image may be quite different from the optimum settings for another.

The great thing about RAW is that whatever you do to the image can very simply be undone, without affecting the image in any way. I think that all RAW processing software has a revert to default settings option, which instantly undoes all the changes that you might have made. As others have said another advantage of starting with DPP is that it uses all of the camera settings for any image as the default starting point. DPP is the only RAW processor that can do this. This is something to remember if you consider moving to another processing program. The Adobe products for example, although probably being more powerful features wise, start from a very subdued and basic set of default adjustments, as Adobe expect their users to have a basic understanding of the techniques involved and to want to apply their own settings to their images.

Alan

singer.rick wrote in post #15418760
My normal method will be to shoot all RAW and then use DPP to batch convert everything over to JPEGS.

Have you considered shooting raw +JPG and save yourself the DPP batch step? You still get the same end result, but It saves you a biter time.

singer.rick wrote in post #15419908
Any pointers on how/where to get started? I don't really have the first clue. I am sure there is a link or sticky somewhere on this forum on "Where to start post production for newbies" but most of the ones I see are for photoshop or pay softwares which I am not sure if I am willing to purchase yet until I know I will use it. Especially since they release new versions so when I get a pay software (IE when I am ready to do some editing) I'd like it to be the cheapest / best of the time.

Rick, it's true that the "world" of post-processing can be intimidating, especially when we see some of the incredible "stuff" people put out in a forum like this!

You are making a good start with shooting Raw, you just need to get some understanding as to what you can do in the "digital darkroom", stuff that doesn't involve fancy "photoshopping", but that is about developing your Raw "film" to bring out the best of your image!

You might want to take some time to check out our RAW Conversion Thread -- a bunch of folks have really enjoyed posting "projects" of Raw-only processing.

You will note that there are a variety of Raw processors being used, Photoshop has Camera Raw, which is also used in Lightroom, very popular but not "free". However, if you really take your time to see what can be done, you can then go to DPP and play around to get similar results.

One cool thing about DPP and Raw is that when you open a Raw file to Edit in the Raw tab, all those in-camera settings are used, but with Raw you can freely change them around, I'd take one of your images and play with that -- change the Picture Style to Neutral, then to Landscape, to Standard (which is where many people stay since it's the Canon "default"), and as you switch things around pay attention to the settings such as Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness -- and then you can go ahead and adjust those settings yourself, see what you can do!

duane0524 wrote in post #15420396
Have you considered shooting raw +JPG and save yourself the DPP batch step? You still get the same end result, but It saves you a biter time.

You just blew my mind. For some reason I thought the RAW + JPG setting meant that it shot both, depending on what dial setting you had the camera on. I didn't realise it meant that it captured both!

singer.rick wrote in post #15420979
You just blew my mind. For some reason I thought the RAW + JPG setting meant that it shot both, depending on what dial setting you had the camera on. I didn't realise it meant that it captured both!

I always have my camera set to RAW plus Large JPG. Often I can use the .JPG files as-is but I always have the RAW file which would be my basis for any editing beyond cropping.

singer.rick wrote in post #15420979
You just blew my mind. For some reason I thought the RAW + JPG setting meant that it shot both, depending on what dial setting you had the camera on. I didn't realise it meant that it captured both!

Whether you want to shoot Raw+jpeg is, well, entirely up to you. In practice, there are some who have good reasons to shoot that way, in fact, there are some who have good reasons to shoot jpeg only!

For me, there was only one time that I decided to shoot Raw+jpeg, using my 1D3 body that not only handled the shooting well but that had a second "slot" for an SD card and could drop the jpegs in there so that my CF card was Raw only. I was shooting an event out of town, and at the event the various shooters were invited to submit jpegs to a "contest".

Well, in that sense sure, it was handy to have the card(s) of jpegs right on-hand (over 1,000 shots). However, I did have my laptop, a high-quality "portable workstation", on hand, and so I could both download/Import Raws into my Raw processor and could do a reasonably quick conversion/Export to jpegs. That way I could quickly process, crop, etc...

Like I said, that was the only time I've shot Raw+jpeg. Since then, it's been Raw only.

singer.rick wrote in post #15420979
You just blew my mind. For some reason I thought the RAW + JPG setting meant that it shot both, depending on what dial setting you had the camera on. I didn't realise it meant that it captured both!

Glad to help.

SkipD wrote in post #15421035
I always have my camera set to RAW plus Large JPG. Often I can use the .JPG files as-is but I always have the RAW file which would be my basis for any editing beyond cropping.

Sounds exactly like what I will be doing from here on. While looking into playing with the RAW's more.

singer.rick wrote in post #15421151
Sounds exactly like what I will be doing from here on. While looking into playing with the RAW's more.

RAW+jpg eats up card space. it's a one step process to convert RAW to jpg without additional processing