Shooting RAW

[naveen.nag]

Is shooting raw equivalent to shooting with exposure bracketing? When i shoot raw , i could increase or decrease brightness contrast etc while processing. So in that context, does that mean i dont have to do bracketing if i shoot raw?

 

[Yellowbelly]

No.

RAW files are not images in the way that JPEGs are. They consist only of a collection of data captured by the camera. Unless you wish to enable it in your camera, the data undergoes no processing between your camera and your computer. That's why you cannot see RAW files on your computer without using other software such as Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) which is built into Lightroom, Elements, Photoshop etc.

The data collected within the RAW files consists of the full range of colours and tones that the sensor has recorded which when processed by your chosen software can reveal far more detail in shadows and highlights than could be recorded in a JPEG. It is this which gives huge flexibility and control over the final image.

However, there are limits as too much "pushing" or increasing the exposure introduces noise. When you use noise suppression, you then lose some detail. Shooting in RAW can reduce the need for bracketing in some situations, but not eliminate it entirely.

Another advantage of shooting RAW is that you can always revert to the originally captured file no matter what post processing you do, whereas each time you save a JPEG, you lose some information.

Hope my greatly simplified explanation helps.

 

[naveen.nag]

Thanks Bob, that was useful. Though raw helps to alter exposure etc it does not really replace bracketing.

Btw, like your biography. Lol.

 

[Andy_S]

Prety much. Jpeg files have a relativly limited range of colours and is a lossy compressed format so every time you edit and save more detail is lost.
Raw files store the original data the sensor captured and have more image/colour/brightness information than a compressed jpeg file. This makes them more versitile if you want to edit and recover detail lost in the shadows or highlights or set the white balance. Mis-exposed images can be recovered up to a stop or 2 and still look good although bracketing and getting the correct exposure would be better.
Once the image had been edited from the raw file the image can be saved in your chosen format (jpeg/tiff etc.) The raw file will be left intact for future edits.

 

[m4drx]

with the price of memory nowadays, it just makes no sense to shoot jpeg unless you are doing a lot of timelapse imo

 

[Scarecrow]

The greater latitude you get with processing raw files is because they are 12 or 14 bit (dependent on camera model) whereas jpegs are only 8 bit. Simply put, you have more data to play with in a raw file, which gives you the extra flexibility.

 

[ernesto]

while you get more data you don't get as much data as 3 different shots at -3, 0 and +3 which is where exposure bracketing would come in for tricky situations.

 

[TCR4x4]

while you get more data you don't get as much data as 3 different shots at -3, 0 and +3 which is where exposure bracketing would come in for tricky situations.

Exposure bracket and and use RAW, then you get a massive range of EV to play with from a 3 frame bracket. Assuming you have +\- 2 stops with each RAW to recover or gain, plus the original exposure, plus 3 RAW Files. I'm rubbish at maths, but that's about 5EV per shot, x 3 = 15 EV to play with. There will be some overlap on each image, but it's still pretty good!