Days of shooting RAW+JPG.. almost done.

[Silverstangs]

I've always shot RAW+jpg, but I think that time is coming close to an end. I was going back looking at the images that I've worked on, and I noticed, I have not touched a jpg file in a while. Every image I edited was originally RAW (CR2) converted over to JPG. I'm thinking about not shooting RAW+jpg and just keeping nothing but RAW.

I don't think it will affect my workflow too much, but I think I can save some serious disk space. I have about 4.5TB of harddrive space, all full, and another 1.5 free. I looked at deleting all the .jpg images from the hard drive, and it would free up another 1.8TB of space.

So what do you all shoot? and

[windrivermaiden]

I'm right there on the fence with you. I shoot RAW+jpg...Sometimes my CS2 will open the RAW and sometimes it fusses...

[isaiahbrink]

Very similar to yourself, I first started out shooting just jpeg's, it progressed to testing out RAW and after that, I was hooked on just shooting RAW, but I did try shooting RAW+jpeg. I took a look at the same image in both RAW and jpeg, and the RAW gave me much better results hands down, so that's what I stuck with. I also usually end up converting to jpeg afterwards, but always start in RAW due to the fact that there's just a ton more control in the inital steps of the process, and you save some disk space.

[Hikin' Mike]

I never shot RAW + jpeg. I've always show RAW and then converted them.

[Silverstangs]

O.K. I decided, I'm gonna try to just shoot RAW only for the next two weeks to see how it goes.

[RochinPhotography]

If its a paid gig I shoot RAW only. If its something I'm just shooting to shoot I shoot jpg only. As my images get better my goal is to be able to shoot jpg only and not have to do much editing :) (Hey I can wish can't I)

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Originally Posted by Silverstangs

O.K. I decided, I'm gonna try to just shoot RAW only for the next two weeks to see how it goes.

Please report back, I'm interested how your experiment goes.

_/oe

[Silverstangs]

Originally Posted by Joe_Lorenzini

Please report back, I'm interested how your experiment goes.

_/oe

Will do!

[isaiahbrink]

Hey Scott, good luck with shooting RAW, I hope you have the succsess I did.

[Abel]

i always shoot RAW... i just love the extra added ability to fine tune my images after theyve been shot. ie. exposure and white balance etc.

i shot one football game all in jpg to try it out and i regretted it after doing so. shooting concerts in dark arenas etc i always shot underexposed in order to freeze the action knowing i had the ability to bump up the exposure in post in order to make the shot.

not only will you save spave on your hd but you will also get more images per memory card shooting only RAW

[Silverstangs]

So far so good, I've taken about 80+ images all Raw instead of RAW+L.

[imported_Marc Kurth]

Originally Posted by Silverstangs

.......
....I have about 4.5TB of harddrive space, all full, and another 1.5 free. I looked at deleting all the .jpg images from the hard drive, and it would free up another 1.8TB of space.

So what do you all shoot? and

Scott,

You’ve made me curious. How many images is that? Something like 20-30,000? Assuming three complete redundant backups and lots of different edit versions of the shots – that’s still a lot images.

I’ve been shooting RAW+jpg for several years and I don’t have anywhere near that, even doing a lot of huge full resolution composite image posters. Do you really have that many "keepers"?

Thanks,

Marc

[Silverstangs]

Originally Posted by Marc Kurth

Scott,

You’ve made me curious. How many images is that? Something like 20-30,000? Assuming three complete redundant backups and lots of different edit versions of the shots – that’s still a lot images.

I’ve been shooting RAW+jpg for several years and I don’t have anywhere near that, even doing a lot of huge full resolution composite image posters. Do you really have that many "keepers"?

Thanks,

Marc

Well, I can tell you that half of the space is taken up strictly with ALL the images that came off the CF and SD cards, regardless of the quality of the image. That is what I use for backup. I get about 129 RAW and about 189 JPG images per GB give or take a few images each on average.

I use another set of drives that are for working and editing my images. From there I upload the images and I delete the non-keepers.

Now I shoot a lot of SPORTS, so I burn thru GB of space like fish drinking water. To give you an example a few weeks ago during a youth football championship, I filled up four 8 gig cards and two 4 gig cards. That's 42 gigs of images in one weekend over 8 games.

Seems like a lot, but you have to break that down to each shot. If I do a 2 second burst at 8.2frames per second, with both RAW+L (JPG) I get a total of 36 files. The average RAW file is 8.2mb in size and the average JPG file is 6.4mb in size. So between the two, one image is using 14.6mb of space and you have 18 sets of images which means that two second burst used up about 262.8megs of space. You get about 4 or 5 plays every two minutes which means that I can litter tear up 1 gig every two minutes.

As far as keepers, maybe one image per burst is what I really get, but I have to offer all the images that are "decent" because that's what the parents want to buy. They don't care if it's just one image right after the next for the entire burst.

I used to try to delete images while out on the field, but I found I was missing shots when I did that because I was too busy viewing instead of shooting. I always try to anticipate the players and where they will be.

If I am out taking images that are not sports related, then I might take a few images here and there, but not anywhere near the massive amount that I do during a sports day. I can spend a whole day at a scene and only us about 60 Megs. Basically, when it comes to sports vs. other stuff, sports is a massive beast. That’s part of my motivation for going straight to RAW and dropping JPG all together.

[Silverstangs]

I have gone thru and deleted every JPG that had a matching RAW files on two of my backup drives. It was a total of 1.1 TB of files deleted--massive.

[Cliqit]

I used to shoot jpg then I woke up.. Started shooting in RAW.. Sooo big a difference. Especially knowing that you loose information when you are adjusting jpg. Even though it is not that noticeable. It is far better to adjust your RAW stuff, convert to jpg, then (even though it really doesn't need it), I usually run it through a noise filter). I'll leave jpg shooting for people who just want to have fun... BTW I've never shot both, (as you found out.... too much space).