Question about RAW (photos, programs, light, my photos)
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Don't all cameras that support raw come with the software to adjust and convert the raw to jpg? I know Canons do. Once converted, any old image editor of choice will work fine.
I have started to experiment with RAW format and I have a question. You can probably place this question in the ' If you need to ask, you do not need to know' file, but I am gonna ask any ways.
My JPEG's come out of my camera at up to 4 MB. I thought that was a pretty big file. The RAW shots are like upwards to 12MB. Just what the heck is going on in there? I have done some editing and the only difference I see is a "finer tuning" ability. When I say "finer" I think I mean 'subtle'. I have yet to see any big difference in my tweaks... of course I just started playing around last night. Can anyone with hands on experience explain the reason to eat up so much space on cards, cameras and computers?
From what I read, JPEG even in its least compressed state in your camera is still compressed. RAW is as its name implies is a fully uncompressed state of the photo. It's a pain to even view and load, and the software that came with my Panasonic only has an online manual. It is sooooo difficult to understand since the terms are so technicl in nature. I'm not sure that for what I do with photos that I would be inclined to use RAW format a lot. I've been reading up on GIMP, but I thought GIMP cannot process RAW. It can process TIFF, but not RAW.
I've used Elements for years, and early this year switched to PaintShop Pro Photo X2. I was experimenting with some photographs, and needed to use some features that were not available with Elements - I would have had to upgrade to the full version of Photoshop. No way was I spending $600 for that. I found that PaintShop Pro was able to do what I needed, and a lot more, and it only cost $79.
I'm much happier with PSP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bulldawgfan
I have started to experiment with RAW format and I have a question. You can probably place this question in the ' If you need to ask, you do not need to know' file, but I am gonna ask any ways.
My JPEG's come out of my camera at up to 4 MB. I thought that was a pretty big file. The RAW shots are like upwards to 12MB. Just what the heck is going on in there? I have done some editing and the only difference I see is a "finer tuning" ability. When I say "finer" I think I mean 'subtle'. I have yet to see any big difference in my tweaks... of course I just started playing around last night. Can anyone with hands on experience explain the reason to eat up so much space on cards, cameras and computers?
I'll try to answer your question in a way that makes sense. The RAW file is exactly what your camera captures, without any changes whatsoever. You could say it's like the negative, before it has been processed. The reason RAW files are so much larger than JPG is because RAW is completely unprocessed and is the original size, while a JPG file has been compressed. When you shoot in JPG, your camera processes the photo and compresses the file.
The one thing I am sure of... is that I have lots to learn! With the few pictures I took last night (none of which were any good to start with) I did not see a big difference in tweaking. I will continue to experiment... bet your flash card on it!!
I use Adobe Lightroom 1.4.1, I don't believe in paying for software btw as most of it is available through P2P programs like Limewire, uTorrent etc....if somebody wants to share their files with me I have no problem with it!
Well I just realized I needed a plug-in. I have a Nikon D40... I haven't installed the software that came with the camera yet (I just got the camera).
The plug-in seemed to fix it with Gimp though. Gimp is a free editing program similar to Photoshop (I'm sure there are features it's missing), but I've been happy with it.
Thanks anyway for your help.
After a visit with the Canon rep at a photographic trade show, I use the software that Canon supplied with the camera to do a raw conversion to tif or jpg depending on what the image is to be used for. Once I have the tif or jpg I use photoshop. The reason for this 2 step approach Canon software knows about the Canon camera and how best to read the raw file and covert the to tif or jpg. Now Photoshop has the editing power I need after the conversion. I would think this system would apply to Nikon also. This would be a pain for a 1000 images but when you are taking must be good images it is something to consider. You may want to try it. I also shoot in RAW+JPG. That gives me a choice when I need advanced salvage mode. RAW will let you make something much better out of an image that is not exposed as well as it should have been. It is a safety net with a few holes in it. Even with RAW if it's really bad then it not going to help make it a good image. I have to shoot under adverse conditions much of the time and RAW is a must for me. See if you can shoot both at once and try it. And a word about file size, they can get big with RAW converted to tif. Whatever softare you are using for editing if it uses a scratch drive then by all means if you use one properly configured it will speed up the editing process greatly. I have not seen this commented on before. The scratch disk config is a big bottle neck is not done properly and RAW files will find it. Have fun learning and shooting that new toy.
My main reason to shoot raw is for White balance adjustment. Especially if you're shooting people, you need that white balance to be perfect.
Exposure is another great feature that will greatly improve picture quality, along with other editing options such as saturation, shadow/highlights and contrast.
Photoshop comes in for a finishing touches, crop,curves,levels, sharpening.
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