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Shooting in RAW

Damo

Short One Marshmallow
Sep 7, 2006
4,603
27
French Alps
Who here shoots only in RAW?

I'm still a bit nervous about making the switch. I know I can get decent images shooting in .jpg, but everyone is telling me to go RAW. I feel that if I get home from a shoot with RAW only images and something is not right, I'll freak.

I'm using Lightroom 2 FYI.
 

RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
I shoot nothing but raw. I never went to raw and was scared as well until I made the switch.

jpg is so limiting and post processing is severely burdened. I don't shoot knowing that I have a backup but it is nice once the photos are downloaded that if one came out a little underexposed, I could change it in lightroom without affecting anything else.

Raw is not something completely different just better. Your images aren't going to be any different as you shoot and download just bigger and ready for post processing if needed.
One tip, download all raw photos with the CF card in your camera and the usb cable not a card reader. Download times are cut in half.

DO IT!
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
I shoot about 50/50.

Stuff that I know needs to be processed asap gets shot jpg. Other stuff gets shot RAW, even though it doesn't need to be.

Honestly, I'm fine shooting jpg 99% of the time. A lot of it depends on the subject matter. Portrait session? RAW is fine. Motorsports? I'm shooting jpg, because the client doesn't want me to spend 2 hours waiting for LR to download and build previews :D
 

RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
I shoot about 50/50.

Stuff that I know needs to be processed asap gets shot jpg. Other stuff gets shot RAW, even though it doesn't need to be.

Honestly, I'm fine shooting jpg 99% of the time. A lot of it depends on the subject matter. Portrait session? RAW is fine. Motorsports? I'm shooting jpg, because the client doesn't want me to spend 2 hours waiting for LR to download and build previews :D
Lightroom 2 downloads 300 raw images in 7 minutes. Apply me presets, make sure everything is good to go, export to jpg and enjoy.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
I should shoot JPG more but I usually forget to switch the camera. So I shoot almost exclusively in RAW.

You're commenting about freaking if something isn't right - that should actually be the opposite reaction, if your RAW file isn't right it's a lot easier to make it right. If your JPG is screwed up, you don't have nearly as much latitude.
 

Quo Fan

don't make me kick your ass
I shoot RAW all the time. I sometimes shoot in tricky lighting, and RAW is invaluable in post. Much more latitude for exposure adjustments, white balance, and anything to do with color.

It is especially easy if you use Lightroom, also.
 

Andyman_1970

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2003
3,105
5
The Natural State
All my aviation stuff I shoot in is shot in RAW. I've got a pretty lean workflow down so it's not too bad, and I really like Adobe Bridge to use for editing as well, alot easier to check an image at 100% cull the bad shots. Weddings, senior pictures, and sporting events I shoot JPG.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Lightroom 2 downloads 300 raw images in 7 minutes. Apply me presets, make sure everything is good to go, export to jpg and enjoy.
Yeah, but let's say you had 2500 images and they had to be sorted, processed, the best 100 or so of them uploaded to an ftp site and a slideshow made.

It's 2 pm, and you have to have that done by 5:45pm so you have time to shower and put on a suit to get the slideshow running at 6pm.
 

highrevs

Monkey
Oct 13, 2005
827
0
NC
I can honestly say i have never, ever, ever had the urge to shoot 2500 images of anything. I can only imagine how much of a suckass task it would be to go through and make a first cut.

100% raw for me also.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
I can honestly say i have never, ever, ever had the urge to shoot 2500 images of anything. I can only imagine how much of a suckass task it would be to go through and make a first cut.

100% raw for me also.
That's where the time pressure is actually nice. If something doesn't jump out at you, it gets binned. No time to linger over shots.

Processing a wedding is hell because you have (comparatively, usually) all the time in the world...
 

Damo

Short One Marshmallow
Sep 7, 2006
4,603
27
French Alps
Just got home from an afternoon shoot. Entirely done in RAW.

I am now going through the images...

I can say I can't notice anything different. But I guess that's a good thing.

I have noticed, however, that Lightroom 2 seems to place it's own presets onto each image.
 

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
i shoot RAW 100% of the time
Same here. Any .jpg affects that you can do in-camera you can recreate on your computer, particularly if you're using your camera's software (DP Professional, for Canon). The ability to not have to worry about WB is what does it for me, as if I forget that I was shooting something inside under fluorescent lighting, all the shots taken the next day come out screwed. With RAW it's "batch process, custom WB, done". Then again, I'm not shooting 2500 shots per day, or getting pics to a client on a deadline.
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
Yeah, but let's say you had 2500 images and they had to be sorted, processed, the best 100 or so of them uploaded to an ftp site and a slideshow made.

It's 2 pm, and you have to have that done by 5:45pm so you have time to shower and put on a suit to get the slideshow running at 6pm.
Batch processing! It ads maybe 10 mins for 100 images?

That said, I don't now what cameras you guys are using, but I've never seen a camera DL images faster from a CF card than from a card reader.
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
I can honestly say i have never, ever, ever had the urge to shoot 2500 images of anything. I can only imagine how much of a suckass task it would be to go through and make a first cut.

100% raw for me also.
I'll typically shoot about 2000 images in a world cup weekend. 3 days of practice, DH, 4X and then podiums. I mark favorites as I go though to make the task slightly easier.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Batch processing! It ads maybe 10 mins for 100 images?

That said, I don't now what cameras you guys are using, but I've never seen a camera DL images faster from a CF card than from a card reader.
I batch as much as possible. I remember when I use to do the process in PS. That was horrible, especially dealing with metadata. LR makes that so much nicer too.
 
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Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Who here shoots only in RAW?

I'm still a bit nervous about making the switch. I know I can get decent images shooting in .jpg, but everyone is telling me to go RAW. I feel that if I get home from a shoot with RAW only images and something is not right, I'll freak.

I'm using Lightroom 2 FYI.
LR treats jpgs and raw the same. You just have more latitude to tweak exposure and wb after the fact. Besides that the only difference you'll notice is less images on the card and longer download times.

Try it, you'll be fine. One thing to remember is that the raw file in LR won't look exactly like the jpg on the back of the camera unless you tweak your import settings like Rufus mentioned. This is not something most people notice.
 
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IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
That said, I don't now what cameras you guys are using, but I've never seen a camera DL images faster from a CF card than from a card reader.
plus, with the my 40D, if i use the camera to export the RAW images, Windows wont recongize them as true RAW images. it usually shows up as another JPG.


when i shoot i usually do JPG and RAW simultaneously. shooting in JPG lets me send pictures to someone easily before PP.
 

WhoRyder

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2007
1,834
0
NYC
I use a Nikon D300, shoot raw 90% pf the time and use Lightroom 2.4 64BIT.... I batch Process ALL the time.. Saves me so much TIME!