Shooting in RAW

**genese** · #1 (**permalink**) 28-02-2008, 09:47 AM

Thought i would post this.. i actually wrote it for a few people i have been tutoring so i hope it helps someone.
Shooting in Raw for DSLR users

Why shoot in Raw?
Well for one the quality of the image is unmistakably better!
If at anytime you wish to sell your images which i presume you all do as you are here! you will need to keep that image looking as good as the day you first took it! jpegs degrade in time the more compressions added the worse the image gets!
When shooting for magazines, advertising and most professional organizations they will ask for a TIFF file (i will explain more in a moment)!
A Raw file is a file that has not been processed by your camera so rather than the camera saying ohh this is what i saw and then processing it to its own specs, You will be processing it to your own... really not as complicated as it sounds!

So go into your menu settings and change from Jpeg to RAW or to (RAW & JPEG which will give you a jpeg file and a RAW file..) If you are just starting out, which i presume you are if you are reading this then i would recomend RAW & JPEG so you have a jpeg to compare your RAW file to!

Right you have now changed your camera to shoot RAW & Jpeg and you have gone out and taken your photos what ever they may be off and downloaded them in the normal way onto your computer.

Double click on your RAW file and it will open in your editing program ( i use photoshop CS3 ) but paintshop and other adobe programs work in the same way, You file has now opened in your editing program in your RAW CONVERTER.

This is your basic untouched photo! in the top right hand corner of this box should be "white balance" now if you click on this box and pick different white balances you should be able to see your image change (when shooting in JPEG your camera decides these settings for you , which is not always the best option)
I Use the following white balance settings for:
sunsets "shade or cloudy" this will boost the colours of your sunsets/ sunrises
Night shots " tungsten " this will turn your orange lights to a nicer shade of yellow and turn your dark sky to a more suitable blue colour.
all the white balance settings are worth trying on each image... you never know quite will work best at the beginning but playing is good! and if you do not like it you have both the " as shot option " and the " default option to put it back to the way it first came out of the camera!

In photoshops Raw image converter you have the "auto" options where the program decides what the image should look like based on your cameras settings... this is perfectly ok but there is nothing quite like your own eye for deciding what you wanted from that image.

moving on you have exposure ... use this slider sparingly as large changes in exposure will cause noise/ grain on your image!

the rest of the sliders ie.. saturation and contrast are great to adjust as suitable to your own eye ( you are your own best critique )
you cannot go wrong because you have the all important "as shot" and "default" settings in your white balance and just below the white balance box to fall back on!

i will give more details on using raw such as adjusting vignetting at a later date as i think too much at once could be daunting ( i prefer the little and often approach to teaching )

happy with your image? click open in the bottom right hand corner of your box!
this will open your image in your editing program..
this is where i prefer to straighten my horizons and add those few finishing touches!
Now presuming you have finished editing your image for now or you are completely happy you can save as "TIFF" or "JPEG" i prefer to save as "tiff" to keep for future use and to send out to clients and then save as "JPEG" for the web.
Why TiFF? when saving as TIFF it gives you the option of saving as a uncompressed image (too much compression as with JPEGS can ruin the quality of your image)
This will take up more space on your hard drive there is no doubt about that so i save all my RAW files and TIFF files to disc ( i actually have three copies of every image i take as a back up.. as i lost a complete collection of a few years images a while back, it was heart breaking!)

cyclone · #2 (**permalink**) 28-02-2008, 10:54 AM

Nice one Genese,
I like the Tungsten at night tip, going to have to give that a whirl.

philippa · #3 (**permalink**) 28-02-2008, 11:18 AM

very useful info, thank you - definitely like the idea of little and often.
philippa

**genese** · #4 (**permalink**) 28-02-2008, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyclone

Nice one Genese,
I like the Tungsten at night tip, going to have to give that a whirl.

glad it helped ....

whatt · #5 (**permalink**) 28-02-2008, 08:43 PM

Thank you Genese .. this is all so helpful .. I wondered . what all that was about in RAW .. I have just started using raw/jpeg .. a big light bulb just went on ... Hope that no one was blinded by the light ..lol . Going to print this out so I can refer to it when I am in CS3 ..

Cheers
Else

**Ogofmole** · #6 (**permalink**) 28-02-2008, 09:08 PM

Hi Genese, nicely written, must try out that white balance for low light photography and street lights, always willing to learn something new.

**genese** · #7 (**permalink**) 29-02-2008, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatt

Thank you Genese .. this is all so helpful .. I wondered . what all that was about in RAW .. I have just started using raw/jpeg .. a big light bulb just went on ... Hope that no one was blinded by the light ..lol . Going to print this out so I can refer to it when I am in CS3 ..

Cheers
Else

thats how i felt when i first started with raw .... followed by DOH all those great photos i have in jpgs could have been better, shout if you have any problems

hi barry i love my night shots more than sunsets now .... and it seems that not many bother with nightscapes which i like too

LoopyLou · #8 (**permalink**) 29-02-2008, 05:23 PM

Oh Genese, thank you, thank you, thank you for this posting. I had an attempt at going Raw the other week when shooting, got in a complete mess with it all and hence switched back to jpg. Think in reading this, i'm certainly more confident at giving the Raw another go, and hopefully won't get to "damsel in distress" mode this time

**genese** · #9 (**permalink**) 29-02-2008, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoopyLou

Oh Genese, thank you, thank you, thank you for this posting. I had an attempt at going Raw the other week when shooting, got in a complete mess with it all and hence switched back to jpg. Think in reading this, i'm certainly more confident at giving the Raw another go, and hopefully won't get to "damsel in distress" mode this time

hi lou... glad it helped! if you need any help just shout!

LoopyLou · #10 (**permalink**) 29-02-2008, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by genese

hi lou... glad it helped! if you need any help just shout!

Be warned, you could get shouted quite often lol. I ended up downloading a free conversion thingy so PS 5 could read the files, so at least i've conquered that bit before, if i can remember what i did lol