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.
It's difficult to justify the time RAW takes. It's not the shooting - most never notice the extra time a camera takes to write RAW to a memory card. It's the post-production. Running the converter to get the JPEGs you need to share with family seems unnecessary. Is it? Couldn't you just shoot JPEG and be done with it?
A digital camera captures images by converting the light that falls on an internal light sensitive plate in to electrical signals. These signals are moved from the plate to a small computer built in to the camera. At this stage these 'raw' electrical signal data are normally converted in to a format that's easy to view and share by the majority of the population - namely JPEGs. The RAW image data is color corrected and sharpened before being compressed using the JPEG standard. As the JPEG standard is supported by just about every computer, smart phone, web browser and printshop in the world, it's a pretty good choice of format.
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.
It's difficult to justify the time RAW takes. It's not the shooting - most never notice the extra time a camera takes to write RAW to a memory card. It's the post-production. Running the converter to get the JPEGs you need to share with family seems unnecessary. Is it? Couldn't you just shoot JPEG and be done with it?
A digital camera captures images by converting the light that falls on an internal light sensitive plate in to electrical signals. These signals are moved from the plate to a small computer built in to the camera. At this stage these 'raw' electrical signal data are normally converted in to a format that's easy to view and share by the majority of the population - namely JPEGs. The RAW image data is color corrected and sharpened before being compressed using the JPEG standard. As the JPEG standard is supported by just about every computer, smart phone, web browser and printshop in the world, it's a pretty good choice of format.
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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