Am I missing the boat in post editing?

Hmm, I've had them both in trial and picked Aperture myself. I found it much faster than lightroom, at least on my mac? I think they are both great programs. The only thing that made the deciding choice for me was the speed. While it wasn't drastically faster, it was still very noticeably faster. If you're curious, I'd say download the trials and give them both a test spin and see what you think.

LowSpark420 wrote in post #9174033
I shoot in RAW now (even though I am a novice)...but when I edit a picture and want to put it on my blog or share, I always convert the final product to a jpeg and delete the RAW file to save space...is that the wrong way to go about things?

This has been discussed before & the argument I generally see (and agree with) is that the RAW is the digital equivalent of your film negative. Would you throw that away?

Also storage is so cheap now, its hard to justify throwing away shots for the sake of space. A 1.5TB hard drive is $100... I have a 30D which produces 7MB RAW files. 1.5TB can store 224,000 of my RAW files. For most people, I'd say that'll last you awhile.

LowSpark420 wrote in post #9174033
I shoot in RAW now (even though I am a novice)...but when I edit a picture and want to put it on my blog or share, I always convert the final product to a jpeg and delete the RAW file to save space...is that the wrong way to go about things?

Lightroom huh? I will have to see if it is available for my Mac

Dont throw your RAW away - it will probably happen that you develop more skill in your editing over time and that good edit you did a year ago looks distinctly average by your current standards. Been there, done that and wished i had kept the RAW.

Jpegs just doesnt allow the scope for editing that RAW does.

I use CS4 (eductaion license) for my editing. All catalogueing is done in Bridge, RAW conversion done in ACR with any further editing in CS4 (which is admittedly minor).

Elements would probably be enough for me, but i had the opportunity to get CS4 and i had the money at the time so why not?

LowSpark420 wrote in post #9174033
I shoot in RAW now (even though I am a novice)...but when I edit a picture and want to put it on my blog or share, I always convert the final product to a jpeg and delete the RAW file to save space...is that the wrong way to go about things?

Lightroom huh? I will have to see if it is available for my Mac

A better practice is to save the editing instructions (for instance, 'Save' on DPP) and the RAW and delete the jpg after you have uploaded it. You can always make another one if you need to.

I personally never delete any photo I've ever taken, even if I edit it and save it as a JPEG. these are all pictures I know i'd love to look back at one day, and I probablly have over 10,000 RAW files saved. Storage space is super cheap these days.

gorgon2k wrote in post #9177970
I personally never delete any photo I've ever taken, even if I edit it and save it as a JPEG. these are all pictures I know i'd love to look back at one day, and I probablly have over 10,000 RAW files saved. Storage space is super cheap these days.

Saving every photo is kind of rediculus. I do save all the RAW files of my keepers but shots with missed focus, motion blur or whatever are gone for good. Plus when I shoot a volleyball tournament and end up with over 2,000 shots, it would be crazy to keep them all, I just keep the good RAW shots and toss the rest.

gh patriot wrote in post #9177995
Saving every photo is kind of rediculus. I do save all the RAW files of my keepers but shots with missed focus, motion blur or whatever are gone for good. Plus when I shoot a volleyball tournament and end up with over 2,000 shots, it would be crazy to keep them all, I just keep the good RAW shots and toss the rest.

yeah, I understand that, but there's never a time where I'll shoot 2000 shots at a time. like i said, I only have like 10,000 pictures total, and thats 2 years of shooting. at about 12mb a picture, that means thats like 85,000 pictures per TB, which for a portable 1TB drive is like $150. not bad at all.

I think I will start saving my "good" RAW files on my external HD. Good advice.