raw images

ok so i have read a lot that shooting in raw is the best way to shoot? what does raw mean? what are the other ways too shoot and if raw really is the best way to shoot how do i make sure my xti is shooting in raw?

thanks.

babos02 wrote in post #6361438
ok so i have read a lot that shooting in raw is the best way to shoot? what does raw mean? what are the other ways too shoot and if raw really is the best way to shoot how do i make sure my xti is shooting in raw?

thanks.

if you go to your menu you can set your camera to shoot raw, select the setting that says RAW

ok so i found the raw image selection butt..........

what is the difference between RAW and RAW+ L?

thanks

RAW+L means the camera will save each image in two forms - raw and a large jpeg.

Some people like this setting for one main reason. Raw files do have many advantages, the main one being that it's possible to recover images where the settings (exposure and/or White Balance) weren't quite right when the shot was taken.

When your camera captures an image it acquires a lot more data than it's possible to store in a jpeg file. Some of that data has to be thrown away. When you shoot jpeg you're letting the camera decide what data to throw away - guided by the settings you've dialled in. When you shoot raw then you get to decide what data gets thrown away. The problem is that you've got to spend some time sitting at your computer processing all of your images.

By shooting in RAW+L you get the best of both worlds. If a shot has been taken with the correct settings you can use the jpeg straight from the camera. If, however, a shot does need extra tweaking you have the raw file to work on.

Personally I, like many others, shoot in raw only. After all, almost all images will need some post-processing on the computer (cropping, sharpening, etc.) so you might as well do the other processing as well. Also, you can tell most software to process a batch of raw files automatically - using the in-camera settings. That'll give you a set of jpegs that should be the same as the ones you'd have got if you shot RAW+L.

Big disadvantage of RAW+L is that almost twice as much data has to be written to the card as with raw alone.

hollis_f wrote in post #6362884
Big disadvantage of RAW+L is that almost twice as much data has to be written to the card as with raw alone.

Actually, since JPEG uses lossy compression and only saves an 8-bit, rather than 12- or 14-bit colour depth, you'll find JPEGs are between 1/2 and 1/4 the size of RAW files depending on the camera. RAW+JPEG will affect your burst size, depending on the size JPEG you save though.

ok thanks. it helps a lot

First off, your camera ONLY shoots RAW. When you select JPG, the camera takes the RAW data and pipes it into it's on-board JPG processor to generate the JPG "image" to save to the card.

When you shoot RAW, the RAW "data" goes directly to the card and is not an image.

To generate an image, you use a RAW processor (software on your PC) which turns the data into a viewable image, much like the camera's JPG processor. The difference is that YOU have complete control over the image generation process. You can change the white balance, adjust the contrast/brightness/bl​ack point/etc....

So you can leave these decisions up to the camera's little processor (and hope it makes the right decisions since they are irreversible), or save the decisions for later where YOU have complete control over it.

Think of film, do you want to just drop the roll off at the pharmacy and get a bunch of 4x6 prints back (and NO negatives)? Or do you want the negatives?