Camera Raw

Kitten On Rock Looking Back © Jim Miotke All rights reserved

Hi Everyone!

I see Camera Raw (and/or the newer DNG Digital Negative file format) as the wave of the future, at least for serious hobbyists and professional photographers.

If you're curious about Raw, I do highly recommend it. Also, see if your camera will let you save both a Raw and a JPEG with each shot. I do this myself and, if you have the memory space, I recommend this double-duty option. Sometimes it is easier to just get at the JPEG - to email it to a friend, for example.

In fact, even if you don't have the memory space, I recommend the Raw+JPEG option (or at least Raw if you don't have this two-in-one option on your camera). Save up and buy enough memory cards to handle any session of shooting. The only reason I might recommend using JPEG only is if you're busy, have limited time, and crave less complication. If shooting in Raw will frustrate you, then use JPEG until you feel ready to take on more.

Regarding memory space, I take a storage device (such as my laptop or the Epson P-4000 portable storage device) and offload the large files in between shoots.

It's cumbersome at times but I am so glad to have all these Raw+JPEG files of everything I shoot. I can't tell you how many times I've been able to pull photos back from the dead (over or underexposed) because I shoot them in Raw.

Have some fun experimenting with RAW!

Comments

[Rafael]

I recently downloaded a trial version of Phase One Capture One Pro, this software lets me do all the many adjustments to a RAW file and more importantly lets me correct the exposure (for some reason my canon 20D almost always under exposures in AV mode). I am still trying to get my head around the histogram as i am still learning, practice and more practice is needed. I find your blog and podcast to be the most useful in regard to photography and have learnt a great deal from them.
Many thanks

[Jim Miotke]

Hi Rafael,

Thanks for your kind comments - I appreciate that.

Many times, camera meters are a little off. You may want to use the exposure compensation feature and set your camera at +2/3 to see if this helps with the underexposure problem.

But isn't it such a delight that you can adjust the exposure so much with Raw? With the histogram, I just remember that the "hump" on it can be anywhere. My main concern is that the very first and very last points on the histogram do not spike up. In other words, when shooting I don't want the hump to be touching either end. As long as I avoid that, then I can do so much enhancement and correction in Raw when I open the file.

Have fun with Phase One!

[rafael]

Thanks for your help.

I know Phase One is expensive, £300 in the UK and about $500 in the US, but which RAW processing software do you find to be the best?

[Jim Miotke]

I prefer to use the Camera Raw feature in Adobe Photoshop CS2. This doesn't work for everyone. Adobe PS is a difficult program to learn. Also, Adobe is always trying to keep up with new cameras but cannot read some raw files.

For me, though, I just love the power and the flexibility, as well as the fact that it drops me right into the working environment that I am most familiar with.

[Philip Hodgkins]

I use CS2 for my RAW files as well. I have Nikon Capture 4.X, but it is much more cumbersome and slow. I do use Nikon View 6.x with CS2 as my preferred viewer and file transfer program, rather than Adobe Bridge. NV and CS2 make for a very smooth work flow. I especially like being able to use previous settings on similar photos.