Getting Started with RAW

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5thumbs

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Edit My Images
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I know this is something i should have done a long time ago but I've been pretty happy with jpegs to be honest. I'm just moving to lightroom, and this together with my starting to concentrate more on landscape photography has convinced me to take the leap.

I'm a bit concerned about file size, both in terms of my camera card but also my computer storage. As I understand it RAW files can be 50-100mb! I'd be grateful for any advice people have in terms of how they deal with this. For example what size card do most people use (I currently use a Sandisk 16gb extreme storage card)?

Are there any other factors I should consider?

I should say that I'll probably still use jpeg for 'casual' photos - kids, holidays etc...so hopefully that will limit the size issues.

cheers
 
Hi, Firstly 16 GB is well big enough for what you need although in saying that remember 'Don't put all your chickens in one basket'
Sometimes cards can get corrupted, not often but it does happen and with the price of cards get yourself some back up.
As for Lightroom go and have a look at
http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html
you will find more or less all you need to no there.
Russ
 
Camera is either a Lumix LX5 or Nikon D7100 (which I've just got). The 7100 has two card slots and I do use one for a back up card.
 
Thanks for the link by the way - hours of happy learning there!
 
The D7100 you have is capable of doing RAW & Jpeg together.

Slightly different camera, but for comparison, I have a D3100 and with a 32gb card offers around 1200 photos (RAW + Jpg). 32gb cards arent too costly now either...

With both, I find its great to be able to review the shot and send/share it quickly should you want etc (the wife like to take photos of her pets and post to facebook but isnt bothered by PP...), but also have the flexibility to PP the image with minimal loss in IQ when I get 10 mins...
 
I also have the d7100 and my raws are around 32mb. My edited tiffs are around 160mb. Thay doesnt bother me as I have a couple of 2tb hdds. But as for cards I only use 8gb cards as id rather carry more cards and stand to lose less if a card failed. For me ive never understood shooting jpeg unless its for quick turn around work but even my jpegs are 15mb? Bigger than my old raws off my previous camera
 
George, I was aware of the dual capability just haven't seen the need to use it. Instead I use the 2nd slot as a backup. Barratt - I guess I have always shot jpeg as that's what I came to first and its only now, seeing videos showing how much detail Lightroom can recover from RAW that I figure its time to make the shift. You're right about D7100 jpegs being large although I had feared that RAW Images would be 4 or 5 times bigger.

I guess I 'll go price up hard drives. I assume most people use external disk drives? If anyone could recommend a place to buy/model I'd appreciate it.
 
5thumbs said:
George, I was aware of the dual capability just haven't seen the need to use it. Instead I use the 2nd slot as a backup. Barratt - I guess I have always shot jpeg as that's what I came to first and its only now, seeing videos showing how much detail Lightroom can recover from RAW that I figure its time to make the shift. You're right about D7100 jpegs being large although I had feared that RAW Images would be 4 or 5 times bigger.

I guess I 'll go price up hard drives. I assume most people use external disk drives? If anyone could recommend a place to buy/model I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...
I recently got a seagate 2tb off ebuyer for £52. Search around because there are always some on offer
 
5thumbs said:
I guess I 'll go price up hard drives. I assume most people use external disk drives? If anyone could recommend a place to buy/model I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...

If the images are worth keeping, I'd recommend looking into some form of RAID redundancy - drives fail, after all, and your copy may be the only one in the world. There are a few approaches, if you're so inclined:

- "soft" RAID, where the computer's OS takes care of treating two drives as a single RAID volume. In OS X, that's configured via Disk Utility. For other OSs, I'm sure others can assist.
- a basic 2-bay RAID enclosure, into which you place two drives of whatever capacity you're wanting. A simple solution, relatively cheap, though sometimes coming, particularly on older models, with caveats such as 2TB maximum drive sizes, or only USB2 connectivity - be sure to check the specs. (Example)

Myself, I used to use the second option, with two 1.5TB drives inside, until my archive outgrew that capacity. With the enclosure only offering USB2, and internal and external drives often being similarly prices, I went for a pair of 3TB externals, as a soft RAID volume under OS X. That way, I retain use of the older volume, albeit still only at USB2 speed, whilst gaining room to grow the collection, without any additional enclosure cost.

(Needless to say, depending on the value of the photos and their replaceability, you might also choose to use one of the online backup services, and/or a separate copy kept in a safe place. It all comes down to: if the drive dies, or is stolen, how much would it matter to you?)

I've found Amazon useful as a window shopping venue, then going with places like CCL Online or eBuyer for actually making the purchase.
 
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