Something that often confuses serious amateur photographers as they progress from compact digital cameras, through low-end DSLRs to the Pro choices is whether or not to shoot in RAW. Most Pros will speak of the advantages but the hassle involving in shooting in this format can often seem to be too much a price to pay. Let's discuss why RAW is usually the way to go and when it's not.
You only need to bother with RAW once you're rich enough to buy a high-end digital SLR. Until then you probably weren't given the choice. As you first start to experiment with RAW you find it hard to see any real advantage as the JPEGs you end up with are often very similar to the ones you'd have got if you'd just selected JPEG to begin with. So why bother?
In its journey from world to lens to memory card, your image normally goes through a fair number of transformations. Once it reaches the mini-processor build in to the camera it's usually converted in to JPEG format. This is a great choice if you don't intent to get creative later. JPEG can be shared with just about everybody.
There's a problem though. In color correcting, sharpening and compressing your image some of the original data is destroyed or altered for good. This is detail or subtlety that you can never get back. If you decide later that the image should have had less sharpening, the color correction was inaccurate or the detail in the shadows needs lifting, it's too late. That detail you now want back was discarded by the camera the instant after the image was saved on the memory card as a JPEG.
The great thing about RAW image format is that if it was there on the image sensor, it's there in the RAW image file. High-end image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop, will import it and give you access to it. Using RAW you can adjust the color correction without strange 'crossed curve' type effects appearing in the shadows. You can be creative with your sharpening and use the dodge tool to reveal unseen detail.
There are downsides to shooting RAW. First, you have to spend time on them before your friends can see them. As few people have RAW image converters on their devices you must, as a minimum, convert them to something better supported (such as JPEG). RAW files are also huge - taking up valuable space on memory cards and computer hard disks. A side effect of this massive size in memory is that it takes more time to save them to memory card while shooting which means your camera may not be ready to take the next shot when you need it to - not great for rapid fire photography.
You only need to bother with RAW once you're rich enough to buy a high-end digital SLR. Until then you probably weren't given the choice. As you first start to experiment with RAW you find it hard to see any real advantage as the JPEGs you end up with are often very similar to the ones you'd have got if you'd just selected JPEG to begin with. So why bother?
In its journey from world to lens to memory card, your image normally goes through a fair number of transformations. Once it reaches the mini-processor build in to the camera it's usually converted in to JPEG format. This is a great choice if you don't intent to get creative later. JPEG can be shared with just about everybody.
There's a problem though. In color correcting, sharpening and compressing your image some of the original data is destroyed or altered for good. This is detail or subtlety that you can never get back. If you decide later that the image should have had less sharpening, the color correction was inaccurate or the detail in the shadows needs lifting, it's too late. That detail you now want back was discarded by the camera the instant after the image was saved on the memory card as a JPEG.
The great thing about RAW image format is that if it was there on the image sensor, it's there in the RAW image file. High-end image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop, will import it and give you access to it. Using RAW you can adjust the color correction without strange 'crossed curve' type effects appearing in the shadows. You can be creative with your sharpening and use the dodge tool to reveal unseen detail.
There are downsides to shooting RAW. First, you have to spend time on them before your friends can see them. As few people have RAW image converters on their devices you must, as a minimum, convert them to something better supported (such as JPEG). RAW files are also huge - taking up valuable space on memory cards and computer hard disks. A side effect of this massive size in memory is that it takes more time to save them to memory card while shooting which means your camera may not be ready to take the next shot when you need it to - not great for rapid fire photography.
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