RAW, huh! What is it good for?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lamicool on April 23, 2012 at 2:33am

Great Thread!!

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Permalink Reply by David on April 28, 2012 at 1:24am

Excellent thread,

Learning about RAW so now all pics are taken in RAW format,

Nice1 Matt Sciba, Appreciated 

from a new Picture Social user.

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Permalink Reply by peter wolledge on April 28, 2012 at 7:56pm

Hi Matt, In my view you should not delete the original RAW after saving as jpgs. this gives you the option at any time of re-editing the image in original quality if for any reason the need should arise.The RAW image contains far more data than the jpg and when you reopen in the RAW interface gives you the option of reverting to the camera RAW defaults at the time of shooting.

 

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Permalink Reply by Matt Sciba on Monday

So let's say I have edited a picture in RAW, what is the best format to save it for sharing online or for ordering prints?

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Permalink Reply by CameraClicker on Monday

Online your choices are generally JPEG, PNG or GIF depending on use.  JPEG is probably best for ordering prints unless your supplier accepts TIFF, some do, most do not.

You can get a good print from a JPEG, and it displays well.  JPEG, holding 8 bits, just does not give you as many editing options as raw, TIFF, or PSD which are typically 16 bit formats.

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Permalink Reply by Claude B. on Tuesday

Matt, I thank you for your question on RAW, because the excellence answers we have served a lot of people like me with my news DSLR.

I have the choice in my camera to used JPGS, RAW, JPEG + RAW.

Till now (one month. Ouf!) on every pictures I used both JPEG + RAW until I had more informations on their used witch I found here from this great site.

Now, only RAW because I will be able to converted in JPEG if need-it.  :)

Thanks everyone.

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Permalink Reply by Navid Qureshi on Tuesday

There're all good things about saving pictures in RAW. But remember a few disadvantages:

1. RAW pictures are bigger in size than JPG, so if you save picture you take in RAW it will fill your card and the computer quickly.

2. RAW pictures need to be converted to JPEG or similar format prior to sending them to programs like Facebook, Picassa, Flikr or Picture Social. Not every program can process RAW pictures and you need a special software to do this, after tweaking your pictures to your satisfaction.

3. Most camera manufacturers use a different type of RAW file. So same RAW file may not be readable by another software, or even an older version of the same software.

4. The same manufacturer continues to change the format of RAW files as the sensors get bigger and more sensitive. So a RAW file that you may save as archive for the future may not be readable by further softwares. It's like keeping a negative of old pictures safe and discovering years later when trying to print pictures that the negative has become faded.

5. Minor degrees of photo-manipulation, like cropping, adjusting hue saturation brightness or contrast etc can be done on JPG files without a great deal of deterioration of quality, especially if you wish to use the pictures online or for emailing etc. It is worth playing around the JPG file as much as you like and then save it, instead of editing and saving again and again.

6. Many cameras these days give you option of saving pictures in RAW+JPG which is a worthwhile option to try. You can immediately view the JPG picture and even try doing some editing it. If it meets your requirements you don't need to fiddle with RAW file, and believe me, for most online uses and JPG will do the job.

7. Digital age has meant taking unlimited pictures, contrary to max 36 exposures we used to do in film cameras..During my recent trip to Paris I discovered around 3000 pictures which I took in four days! Now try manipulating these RAW pictures and saving them as JPGs! It's a job for weeks...

8. At the end of the day it depends how entheusiastic you are with your post-processing of pictures...If you take RAW+JPG and after processing both look the same to you then RAW is not the need for you. For pros or serious amats or for printing special pictures it's worth selecting some pictures and tweaking the RAW data to get the best possible prints...

9. If you're new to DSLR world then you should concentrate on more important things first, getting to know the changes with ISO settings, aperture and shutter priority modes, getting the right moment for a shot, trying different techniques like panning and practising to shoot hand held shots in low lights, and with practice you'll get far more pleasing results than straightaway jumping in the deep water and start processing RAW data..enjoy your DSLR, you won't look back...

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