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  • beginnerīs question on RAW

    Hi fellow aviation fans,

    Yesterday I opened Digital Photo Professional on my pc, because I couldnīt remember what it was. Itīs a programme that you get with the EOS 400D. Now to my own surprise it opened some RAW files which existence I couldnīt remember. (I must have pushed the wrong buttons once )

    I opened them with Adobe Photoshop CS3 and found out that you can do a lot with RAW files.

    I had some good results with it which I uploaded, but I am not sure if this is due to the then good weather conditions (summer, sunny) or that these RAW pics in general are of really good quality.
    I guess I have to shoot in RAW one day when itīs not that sunny to find that out for myself.

    Two questions:

    1.) Do you find it better/easier/safer (whatever!) to shoot in RAW or not?

    2.) What "operations" can you perform on RAW that you cannot (or hardly) perform on JPG?

    Thanks and greets,

    Hinkelbein
    Last edited by Hinkelbein; 2009-01-14, 19:57. Reason: I wrote RPG which is actually a weapon, so I made that to JPG ...

  • #2
    I exclusively shoot RAW. Reasons:
    1) I have far more informations (12 bit) as with JPG (8 bit).
    2) I have more possibilities to correct under- or overexposure. An overexposed JPG has lost informations.
    3) My results show far better quality.
    4) I don't shoot JPG, ..... as I usually forget to switch back to RAW until it's too late
    My photos on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/geridominguez

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    • #3
      What memory card do you use: 4 GB, 8 GB ?
      Is that enough for an avarage day of spotting and shooting in RAW?

      Do I understand correctly that a bad picture in RAW can more easily be restored than in JPG?

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Hinkelbein View Post
        What memory card do you use: 4 GB, 8 GB ?
        Is that enough for an avarage day of spotting and shooting in RAW?

        Do I understand correctly that a bad picture in RAW can more easily be restored than in JPG?
        4 should be enough depending how much you hold the shutter down.

        You can't correct a bad picture, you can fix a incorrectly exposed picture

        I shoot Raw & Jpg, 95% of my shots I upload I use the jpg. If it's cloudy or under exposed I'll work off the Raw file.
        Last edited by Top_Gun; 2009-01-14, 21:44.

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        • #5
          You can correct something around -0.5 to +1.0 in exposure more or less. With my Canon EOS 40D, I get something around 380 photos or so on a 4 GB card. If I need more, I have more such cards and a 16GB card

          Gerardo
          My photos on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/geridominguez

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          • #6
            Originally posted by LX-A343 View Post
            You can correct something around -0.5 to +1.0 in exposure more or less. With my Canon EOS 40D, I get something around 380 photos or so on a 4 GB card. If I need more, I have more such cards and a 16GB card

            Gerardo
            Youīve done it ... you made me jealous!

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            • #7
              Originally posted by LX-A343 View Post
              I exclusively shoot RAW. Reasons:
              1) I have far more informations (12 bit) as with JPG (8 bit).
              2) I have more possibilities to correct under- or overexposure. An overexposed JPG has lost informations.
              3) My results show far better quality.
              4) I don't shoot JPG, ..... as I usually forget to switch back to RAW until it's too late


              Working in JPEG mode with a DSLR is like buying a car with a V8 engine and running it on two cylinders.

              When you work in JPEG you are invariably working with an 8bit image but in RAW you can work with a 16bit image. This means that Photoshop has far more data to work with in order to allow you to make adjustments to exposure, saturation, white balance etc before you introduce noise and other unwanted degradation to the image.

              The other main point is that from the start you are working with all of the RAW Data from the sensor and which has not been reinterpreted by software to turn into a readable format i.e. .JPG. This is important because of what happens with JPEGs in the way they handle shadow and highlight detail. Each pixel records light in three channels, red-green-blue and if any of these channels are blown out, JPEG software will default all channels to white and similarly to black in the case of underexposure. This does not happen in RAW, which will still have the values for any channel that is within range and Photoshop can then interpret this data to come up with the right colour. As a result you will have far more leeway to deal with highlights and shadow detail and therefore less shots going in the bin because of too much contrast / insufficient dynamic range to handle the conditions.

              In short converting your image to JPEG should ideally be the final step in your workflow not the first.


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              • #8
                Originally posted by Hinkelbein View Post
                Youīve done it ... you made me jealous!
                Oh, I forgot to mention, that I also have a 40GB Image tank to save the photos and empty the card for my next batch......
                My photos on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/geridominguez

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by cja View Post


                  Working in JPEG mode with a DSLR is like buying a car with a V8 engine and running it on two cylinders.

                  When you work in JPEG you are invariably working with an 8bit image but in RAW you can work with a 16bit image. This means that Photoshop has far more data to work with in order to allow you to make adjustments to exposure, saturation, white balance etc before you introduce noise and other unwanted degradation to the image.

                  The other main point is that from the start you are working with all of the RAW Data from the sensor and which has not been reinterpreted by software to turn into a readable format i.e. .JPG. This is important because of what happens with JPEGs in the way they handle shadow and highlight detail. Each pixel records light in three channels, red-green-blue and if any of these channels are blown out, JPEG software will default all channels to white and similarly to black in the case of underexposure. This does not happen in RAW, which will still have the values for any channel that is within range and Photoshop can then interpret this data to come up with the right colour. As a result you will have far more leeway to deal with highlights and shadow detail and therefore less shots going in the bin because of too much contrast / insufficient dynamic range to handle the conditions.

                  In short converting your image to JPEG should ideally be the final step in your workflow not the first.
                  Very well put indeed. I was going to write a little something but I don't need to after you wrote that!

                  Paul
                  Seeing the world with a 3:2 aspect ratio...

                  My images on Flickr

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                  • #10
                    One little warning on the subject of memory cards.

                    Not all camera's can accept the larger capacity HC cards of 4GB or more. Similarly, some computer card readers cannot read them as well. Check with your camera operators manual and computer operators manual.
                    If it 'ain't broken........ Don't try to mend it !

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by brianw999 View Post
                      One little warning on the subject of memory cards.

                      Not all camera's can accept the larger capacity HC cards of 4GB or more. Similarly, some computer card readers cannot read them as well. Check with your camera operators manual and computer operators manual.
                      You are absolutely right! The same goes for older pcīs that canīt handle too large harddisks or extended disks.

                      I guess my 400D can handle 8GB cards but for now Iīll work with the 4GB, the 1GB and the 412MB cards that I have.

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                      • #12
                        The only problem shooting in RAW is memory space. But I managed to find a 16gb CF card with which can fit way over a thousand RAW shots with my Canon 400D (XTi). And everything has been told already about the quality and editing possibilities which are endless comparing to shooting in JPG. Once I tried shooting in RAW I never used JPG again, even for non-aviation pictures.

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                        • #13
                          Is it visible in a photo if it's a JPEG, made from an original RAW file, or a photo that is shot in JPEG straight from camera?

                          Freek

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                          • #14
                            I donīt think so. I have worked with few RAW. After editing them I saved them as jpg. Nothing strange noted.

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                            • #15
                              From what I've read and heard, if you have a camera with a capacity on the memory card as has been said. On my original 1D the limit was 2GB. However when the counter hit 0, you could keep shooting because you still had more space. It just would not show up on the counter as how many you had left.

                              Not sure if it would be the same, but you should be able to at least shoot to what it is capable of shooting (up to the limitation).

                              I use RAW when it's an important image (weddings, senior portraits, and other commercial work). I use jpeg at everything else (sports, wedding receptions).
                              Tanner Johnson - Owner
                              twenty53 Photography

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