Journal Entry for Tuesday, Dec 6th

RAW vs JPEG? Here are some of the information behind making the decision to begin capturing pictures in RAW as one of my new photography goals as noted in yesterday's post. As I have another of my regularly scheduled shooting sessions, in the form of another hike, coming up in just a couple of days, I have made the necessary settings on my camera, and anxiously await the opportunity to post what will be positive results. Today’s Photo Tip: (Almost) Always Shoot in RAW. RAW is an image file generated by digital cameras that contains uncompressed, raw image data as captured by a digital camera's CCD. Why you should use the RAW setting to capture pictures. Simply put, RAW will record the maximum information from your camera's sensor. There are several disadvantages to shooting in RAW, so let's look at the biggest drawbacks now. (1) RAW files require post-processing and conversion before they can be viewed and shared, which adds a significant amount of time to editing workflow. (2) RAW files are much bigger than JPEG, requiring higher capacity SD Cards and HD Storage. (3) Shooting in RAW can drastically slow capture rate, thus if your are shooting any type of 'action' sequences, or feel the need to shoot in 'burst' mode, you should probably switch to shooting in JPEG mode only. With all this being said, buying a larger capacity SD Card and Hard Drive for your computer will clear the way for shooting in RAW. Consider dynamic range, the difference between the darkest and lightest parts of a scene. A RAW file will capture a dynamic range of around eight stops, roughly two more than a JPEG. NOTE: Unlike JPEGs, the camera is doing no processing to the file; no sharpening, no fancy tricks to boost the colors, no nothing. As a result the previews on the camera's LCD screen and when you bring up the image into your editing program will have a tendency  to look flat. However, the best thing about RAW is the post processing that can be done. With the proper editing software, you can make endless adjustments to the exposure, white balance, contrast and just about anything else you could do in a real darkroom and change your mind later. These programs never touch the original RAW file. They create a small text file which contains the adjustments you have made. Even cropping, dust spotting and sharpening can be undone, years later, with the original file unaffected. A RAW file isn’t called a digital negative for nothing. If you're still not convinced, learn more by reading these three articles, Raw vs. JPEG and Advantages of Shooting in RAW and DPS-RAW vs. JPEG. It basically boils down to this; if you are serious about your photography and want to be able to sell or showcase your work in the future, you should shoot in RAW. If you just take pictures for fun, then shoot in JPEG. You know you want the best pictures possible, so what are you waiting for? If your camera has a RAW setting, go switch it on now. If you are lucky enough to have a camera like mine, you can set it to store both RAW+JPEG at the same time. STORAGE NOTE: If you use an 32 (GB) card, you can store roughly 1640 images in the RAW+JPEG format.