Ok, Why am I shooting Raw?

[Tammie]

Hello,
Am I the only person who keeps asking this question...for some reason I keep forgetting. Why am I shooting RAW when it takes up half my hard drive and I still have to convert the images to jpeg to print them???

Thanks!

[Lghtning4u]

Originally Posted by Tammie

Hello,
Am I the only person who keeps asking this question...for some reason I keep forgetting. Why am I shooting RAW when it takes up half my hard drive and I still have to convert the images to jpeg to print them???

Thanks!

The answer to the above question is simply, control over the interpretation of the image.

[engstrom]

Tammie, if you alway get perfect white balance/exposure in camera and do little post processing then there's not much reason to shoot RAW.

[sbp]

Originally Posted by engstrom

Tammie, if you alway get perfect white balance/exposure in camera and do little post processing then there's not much reason to shoot RAW.

I used to shoot raw-manual. Just did first wedding with 5D last weekend and raw was about 15MB. can't keep up so at half way in wedding I had to switch to jpg. It did turn out good.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by Tammie

Hello,
Am I the only person who keeps asking this question...for some reason I keep forgetting. Why am I shooting RAW when it takes up half my hard drive and I still have to convert the images to jpeg to print them???

Thanks!

Why are you converting them to jpeg for print? That not needed. I print directly from 16Bit PSD files and a serious lab should be able to handle Tiffs with no problem.

[kenw]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

Why are you converting them to jpeg for print? That not needed. I print directly from 16Bit PSD files and a serious lab should be able to handle Tiffs with no problem.

because she has to convert them to something to print them, RAWs do not print.

Converting to JPG takes no longer (and probably less time) than converting to Tiff, makes smaller files and prints just as well.

I too quit long ago messing with RAW unless the situation warranted.

[JamesB]

Tammie if you are not printing a lot of large files (over 8x10) and you are NOT using a pro lab there is really no need to use RAW. Also if you are NOT selling your photos, or you are NOT in the business to make money with photos then RAW may not be for you.

RAW is not for everyone, but many people will tell you, you must use RAW or the world will end and your prints will suck seriouslly if you dont shoot RAW.

I have always shot in jpg and printed jpg, and guess what, they look GREAT!!!!

I really dont care to shoot raw and waste my time converting this to that and resizing that to this to print a 4x6 or 5x7.

To ME its not worth it and I really dont care enough about it to shoot RAW. I have been in this argument for years and I still dont see the need for RAW for what I do on a daily basis.

Now I do shoot a few RAW frames a year for critical photos where I must ensure I have the best possible data for my image that I can. you know like the new born baby, a special anniversary, meeting someone famous or some junk like that.

James

[riteflyt]

Originally Posted by engstrom

Tammie, if you alway get perfect white balance/exposure in camera and do little post processing then there's not much reason to shoot RAW.

Case in point Raw image converted and resized only


after corrections


and that is why I shoot raw

[MRCPix]

ok so why couldn't you set the WB before you took the shoot?

[riteflyt]

so what wb would you use shooting at night with tungston and floecent and sodium lighting??

thats why there is not one.

so you shoot raw and auto wb that way you can warm it up or cool it down, just gives you more options!

[engstrom]

Hey Norm, not to sidetrack this thread but...nice shot. It looks familiar.

[riteflyt]

Originally Posted by engstrom

Hey Norm, not to sidetrack this thread but...nice shot. It looks familiar.

I put some more here http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=47972

[CaptainTom]

If I am shooting something that is going to eat up a lot of CF real estate, I shoot in .jpg
If I am not confident that auto white balance will get the colors close enough, I shoot in RAW.
RAW gives you some more lattitude to manipulate the final output, but if you routinely get proper exposures and WB is OK, you would be wasting your time with RAW files.

If you are shooting products commercially in mixed lighting, and need to eventually put them on a billboard,,,, RAW is your friend. You can also get the same results by shooting .jpg .

[johnastovall]

When you shot RAW you aren't throwing away data that you may want in the future.

Don't assume the way you like a picture today is the way you'll like it in the future or you won't learn new techniques or new software will come along which will make you wish you had keep that data.

[crfitchjr]

.....
RAW is not for everyone, but many people will tell you, you must use RAW or the world will end and your prints will suck seriouslly if you dont shoot RAW.

I have always shot in jpg and printed jpg, and guess what, they look GREAT!!!!

.....

I'm like James. I have tested raw and find that the bottom line, raw prints look no better than jpg. I find that I can just as accurately adjust the white balance in jpg as in raw.

I quit using raw 2 years ago.

Bob