A bit of advice on shooting in RAW

scottduffy

scottduffy

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Guy's,

I normally shoot everything in fine jpeg as i am a bit scared of shooting in raw(don't understand it) and i was wondering if someone could tell me what exactly i had to do to view my pictures straight out of the camera shot in raw. Do i need some special software on my computer? Can i view anything as soon as i've uploaded the pictures via the usb? Any advice appreciated.

Regards

Scott
 
main difference is RAW = a negative of everything the camera sees, you then need to add processing to it.

JPEG, camera applies built in processing.

RAW is the easier to work with and is more forgiving, however, takes slightly longer in processing.

You will need a special program to view them. Lightroom, adobe bridge etc can all see RAWs.

You can also get some freeware software to view them and convert. I use lightroom myself but I am sure others will suggest others :D
 
Your camera came with a disk for DPP and ZoomBrowser. Both of these allow you to view raw files.

DPP is the better tool for post-processing (doubly so if you download the updates from the Canon web site). When you are finished, you can convert and save as a jpeg so that other people can view them.
 
Scott,

Firstly you'll need something such as Adobe RAW which can view the RAW files and also a software programme that can edit the RAW file.

Essentially with a fine JPEG, the Camera processes the RAW file into what it thinks is best given settings / algorithms etc, a RAW file, is essentially a "digital negative" and allows you (if you have the software) a lot more flexibility in the outcome of the shot..... should you screw up and have the wrong WB setting, this can easily be corrected on the RAW file.....

I always shoot JPEG + RAW, that way I can have a quick look at the jpegs to see what are "keepers" and then process the RAW files...... probably not the most efficient way but for me photography wise, time isn't money - it's a Saturday evening processing whilst the other half watches crap on TV!

What do you use to process any images you take at the moment?
 
I have photoshop cs4 which i'm not to clued up about as mainly i crop and adjust curves/levels at most. I have a canon 50d so if it has software with it to view raw then it will be on my laptop too. I have always been a bit scared to go over to raw as i thought the pictures the were depending on me being able to post process them well.
 
Scott you're CS4 can update at the adobe website to ACR 5.6 i think and it will then be able to process your raw images.

Or if you want to keep things simple and spend your time taking great pictures rather than geeking around with computers - Buy elements 8 from Morgancomputers for £32 if they still have any, It will be equipped with the correct raw decoder for your camera and will allow you to seamlessly download, view, organise adjust, and edit your pictures.

John
 
No need to be intimidated, Adobe's Camera Raw plugin doesn't even require you to actively do anything, if you simply open the RAW file and then save as JPEG, it will make a few small automatic corrections, and produce a slightly better quality version of the JPEG you would ordinarily have had.

It does, however, allow you a significant amount of creative control if you do choose to give it a go.
 
Since I started shooting in raw its reasonably rare for me not to adjust the image by changing the exposure by a 1/3 of a stop or tweaking something. There are definitely pictures I took in jpeg that I now wish I'd taken in raw as the white balance is wrong or something else could do with altering.

The way I see it - I'm not a great photographer technically, I can't look at a scene and know the correct exposure and white balance etc so raw lets me concentrate on capturing the image and then make a few adjustments later at leisure (allowing me to compare different treatments of the same image too).

Helps me a lot I reckon, especially as most of my photos are action pictures that can't necessarily be repeated if I get something wrong the first time!
 
It depend what you want from your images really. If you want something straight from the camera, that doesn't require any post processing and hopefully looks good enough (holiday snaps), then JPEG is probably ok. Every camera does its own JPEG processing to varying degrees of success.

If you want an image that is basically as you saw it, without any in camera jiggery-pockery, which you can modify to your hearts content on your PC, then RAW it is.
 
scottduffy said:
Guy's,

I normally shoot everything in fine jpeg as i am a bit scared of shooting in raw(don't understand it) and i was wondering if someone could tell me what exactly i had to do to view my pictures straight out of the camera shot in raw. Do i need some special software on my computer? Can i view anything as soon as i've uploaded the pictures via the usb? Any advice appreciated.

Regards

Scott
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Hi Scott, have a look at this to see if it may be of some help to you http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=189613 one or two people found it useful you might too, hope so.
 
Scott, I use Faststone as my quick RAW preview programme and DPP (comes with the camera) to do the actual processing, once I've chosen which ones I want to use.

I really would get into the habit of using RAW as, like has been said above, it's essentially the digital equivalent to a negative. It's a bit fiddly at first, but once you're used to it, you'll never look back! :)
 
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