I got a Canon T1i a few months ago and so far I have the kit lens and a 50mm F/1.8 that I have been playing around with. A few of my co workers say that I should be shooting everything in RAW. So far I haven't really seen any benefit of RAW. It takes longer to write to the card and can take a long time to convert the pics to JPEG on the computer. A few pics I took the brightness was off so I altered that on the file but that's something I could do with the JPEG as well.

Im sure there is a good reason for them or else it wouldn't be there. So why should I continue to shoot in RAW?

 

Want to see the benefit of shooting RAW? Take a look at the Post Processing Thread.

jpeg= the camera telling you how the image should be.

RAW= You making the decision how it should be.

 

Just use "save as" and choose jpg., takes about 3 seconds. I only use raw myself, using Photoshop 5 to post process (PP). I find that you have more control of all aspects of how you make adjustments to the photo. Jpg. format is a compression form used for internet viewing and printing ( I prefer tiff. for printing). Raw isn't compressed, and holds all info that your sensor grabbed.

I would say to experiment first with raw and form your own opinion. Some here are well versed on this, and am sure they'll be able to enlighten you much more. Congratulations on your new camera

 

I don't think I would even bother using a dSLR if I couldn't shoot RAW... I'd just use a p&s

 

If you don't spend any time in post-production, then go with jpg. But, if you want to tweak more.. then RAW is the way to go. I shoot in RAW, but understand it's not the solution for EVERYONE.

 

It can take a long time, but most of what you shoot, you might not mess with.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

I've read and hear a lot on this subject being new to photography. It seems if you want to edit every picture shoot raw. I also heard that if your shooting tons and tons of exposures and you don't want to edit them all shoot jpeg.

I just watched "a day with Jay Maisel" and when asked what he shot he said jpeg + raw. Asked why he shot raw, he said "because everyone told me I had to."

 

When I switched from Canon to Nikon, I shot jpeg+NEF for over a year. I kept deleting the jpegs after I processed the NEF files.

If I have a lot of images that I want to process at once, I use Lightroom, using the same setting for all.

 

you can also shoot RAW + jpeg... and just decide later which ones you want to PP... but make sure you have a lot of memory because RAW + jpeg will use up a lot

 

To be a bit more specific, RAW files basically contain much more data than jpegs. This is why they are huge. Yes, you can adjust the brightness of jpegs. But you can adjust brightness MUCH more with a raw file.

A picture is a thousand words - here is an example that I shot back from yellowstone. Typical high dynamic range scene, exposed for the sky.

The jpeg looked like this:


The RAW, after adjusting brightness/shadows:


Try downloading the first jpeg and try to adjust it to get the second. It's not going to happen. I could give another example for the other huge RAW advantage - adjusting white balance. Infinitely easier and real looking with RAW.

That being said, If you do very little adjustments to your pictures after the fact, then RAW doesn't gain you that much versus superfine Jpeg. So a pro who knows how to set their camera correctly may find the RAW overhead needless.

A reasonable compromise is to shot jpegs most of the time, but in 'tougher' situations (tricky lighting, usually) shoot RAW.

- Frank

 

Lightroom 3... one of the best things I've bought (for photography), ever...

 

I think my camera is one of the best things I've bought for photography

This made the rounds on the Internets a while back:

 

Is that one legit?
I've never been able to push my brightness that far.
Even trying to save very underexposed pictures (aka not black) can lead to some really off colors.

RAW is fantastic and a life saver sometimes, but it's not magic.

- Frank

 

you know what I meant

 

Here's an example of a shot I found in my LR library that I just spent 5 minutes on...

Before:
bZnua.jpg

After:
Y0tm5.jpg

Still underexposed, but that probably wouldn't be possible with JPG.

 

Process it as jpeg, as is and then try to pull it out.

 

this.

everyone who has asked me raw vs. jpeg, I say if you aren't going to touch every image you want in PP then shoot jpeg.

a jpeg SOC is going to look 'better' than a raw SOC.

 

to my understanding a jpeg file has 8 bits per color channel.
that allows 256 brightness levels.

when you goto a 12 bit RAW, that gives you 4,096 brightness levels
and 14 bit raw gives you 16,384 brightness levels.

 

+1. I am not as hard core as some of you guys here but I love Lightroom 3. Someone posted link to lighroom 3 $150 off last week!

 

You know, I've actually never tried that! Here's side-by-side:

Attachment 118139 Attachment 118140
(RAW, Edited RAW, Edited JPG)

Thanks for the tip, I'll need to try this on a few other photos
So, to the OP - yet another reason to shoot RAW!

 

OK... here a noob question for yall RAW pros... I am having the hardest time (impossible) opening my CR2 Raw files in PS CS5. What gives? cant open in iphoto either.

Camera is a Canon 60d

 

You should have any problems opening a RAW file with CS5 for a 60D file. You my need to upgrade Adobes Camera RAW that has the latest camera profiles if you haven't done that. From what I can tell you should be using Camera RAW 6.2.

 

I just bought it an got it pretty cheap using my girlfriend's teacher discount

 

I take primarily RAW. Although I do also shoot jpeg basic to a Eye-Fi card in my second card slot on my camera to quickly send pictures to my iPad.

I process just about all my pictures it seems. One thing I do it just leave the white balance set on the camera and adjust in ViewNX2. In Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, he mentioned that for outdoor shots, he always sets the white balance to Cloudy. It is a great tip and I always make the adjustment PP. That would not be possible with Jpeg and if I forgot to change the white balance on the camera I would be losing out.

 

Wait, what?
You said: Still underexposed, but that probably wouldn't be possible with JPG.

What jupitersolo suggested was actually trying it.
I.e. open up your first image above (i.e. https://i.imgur.com/bZnua.jpg)
and edit that and see what you can get. That basically emulates what you wuold have gotten if you shot jpeg to begin with.

I'm not sure what you did but there's no way you got 'Edited JPEG'.

- Frank

 

Ooooh... I misunderstood his suggestion. I thought he said edit it as RAW as much as you can, then export as JPG, then import the JPG and edit as JPG.

Haha I'm an idiot. Yeah if I open up the original and edit as JPG the best I could do was this:
1XxRI.jpg

 

Thanks gentlemen, I'm shooting in RAW this weekend.

 

RAW....exclusively. On both my D3 and GF1.

My iPhone shoots jpegs...so I'm locked into that.

I put everything through post, so RAW is the way to go for me.

I also feel that RAW + jpeg is such a waste of space...but I do understand the need for certain applications.

 

^i'm learning from the best.

 

I have been shooting raw + jpeg and can get a decent amount of pics on my 8g card. I will probably switch to raw only but the jpeg's are nice for my wife when she wants to email the pics to her family instantly after taking them

 

I leave to D90 on NEF+jpeg because that's the camera the wife uses and she wants instant access to the pictures. Then I get the NEFs, if I want to process them.

 

My wife knows she has to wait for me to process

 

and that's never fast enough, is it? At least, not in my case.

 

Here's a noob question.....
LR3 doesnt recognize my .NEF's



how do I open them!!?!?!?!??!?!

 

Make sure you have the latest version of LR3, which body you shooting with?

 

As long as SHE can see the pics whenever she wants as I'm working on them, she's fine.

With the exception of this last trip, I usually have them done within a day anyway.

 

I'll have to update LR3 when I get home, I most likely dont have the most current version.
I'm shooting with a D7000

 

great thread guys. really learned alot

 

I had the same problem as you by the way, and I also shoot with a D7000. Jupitersolo was right on. I updated LR3 and it now imports the RAW images fine.