Advice - shooting RAW

T

the_b_man

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 5, 2007
Messages
185
I've shot JPEG for years. I'd like to start using RAW. On top of its technical advantages, I think it will "force" me into better workflow habits.

Right now I'm dumping the card's contents manually (copy/paste) into a folder with the 'dump' date in the name. The files stay named IMG_xxxx. Ones I photoshop get _PS tacked on the end of the filename. It bothers me that the Windows preview ignores EXIF and shows half of my photos "sideways". To fix it would be to re-write the JPEG (which I understand lossy+lossy = slight derease in quality).

I'm looking for advice on a better way to do this. Particularly in terms of filenames, proper photo orientation, and which program I should be using to process RAW files. I would probably archive all the RAW files, and output JPEGs of the 'keepers'.

The camera is a Canon 30D. I believe Canon bundles a RAW program but I'm open to other software as well if it will 'streamline' the process. Thanks everyone.
 
I use Lightroom 2 for my workflow. I really do not use Photoshop anymore due to LR. I have been shooting RAW for about 4 years now and have tried all the raw converter programs...
 
windows would show your image in the rotation YOU took it, your camera may auto-rotate but what if you take a landscape picture, how does windows know that.

RAW is great if you like to post process since you get the RAW image,. if you dont process images, stay witjh JPEG..rotating an image shouldnt decrease quality that much and if you were worried about quality, you would of already been shooting in raw :)

what camera do you have? with my 40D i shoot in both raw+jpeg so i get both.

i just use photoshop myself for everything.


what i do is create 2 folders and manually copy, first i take all my images to my computer via explorer, then i have 2 folders RAW and JEPG and i copy each to their folders, then i edit.

if i edit a RAW file i save it as TIFF to keep, so i dont loose quality as i would with Jpeg.
 
The camera's auto-rotation is actually just an EXIF parameter that says "this side up". The JPEG is recorded the same direction 'across the sensor' no matter how the camera is held. The EXIF tag is the only thing affected by the 'gravity sensor' in the camera. Windows always just shows the file top-down, ignoring the EXIF marking the top. Hence portrait photos appear sideways. Meanwhile some software is smart enough to read the EXIF and compensate (I think Photoshop does this). If you manually rotate in Windows, it breaks the EXIF since it would then be marking the wrong side. (Windows re-writes the JPEG side-to-side without updating the EXIF) I'm hoping a RAW processing program would also have the intelligence to read the EXIF, then save the JPEG the right way up. Minor quibble but when you've got a big batch, it's a real pain to rotate by hand, knowing you're breaking the EXIF, or tilting your head the whole time ;) Plus I don't think Windows is the best photo managing tool.

I don't typically process images but I'd like to start. And since RAW gives a bit more latitude in doing so, and because I can't have my JPEG until I've gone through the steps, I was thinking this would be a good way to start. Perhaps it would get me more involved in the final product (it was all to easy to just upload JPEGs without processing them, many photos no doubt could have been much better with some TLC). Primarily interested in cropping, changing colour temperature, brightness, etc.

I have a 30D but I'd probably not do RAW+JPEG since that would slow the camera down and use a lot of space. I'm thinking I'll be upgrading to a bigger card at some point anyway but if I'm trying to 'force' myself into post-processing, best not to have JPEGs.

Thanks for the input so far guys I appreciate it. +1 for Lightroom it seems
 
I shoot everything in RAW. I dont edit all of my files though. The ones I edit I will use in Light Room or Photoshop. If I am just keeping the shot images I will batch process them all in in the software Canon gave me. The program works very well for that, and has some very good sharpening tools. Other wise it is just another photo viewer.
 
I believe Canon bundles a RAW program but I'm open to other software as well if it will 'streamline' the process.
Click to expand...

Canon's DPP "digital photo professional" is EXCELLENT.

Shooting in raw has a ton of advantages - the biggest in my eyes is that you no longer need to set a white balance. Set it to auto and then in DPP select the proper one. Adobe's camera raw is similar, but I think Canon has a better implementation. I really like the photo scenes and the pre-photoshop bright/contrast/histo stuff is aces.

You'll note that every picture coming out in RAW is softer than when you shot in JPG. RAW doesn't do any sharpening. You are expected to process and add sharpening with a RAW. This is normal post-processing.

At the least I think every photo thats a keeper needs histo checked and a bit of sharpening.
 
That sounds great. In regards to sharpening, I'd really like to do it in a "batch" (ie. not fussing with each photo individually unless I want to) Rotation should be done in the batch operation as well. If Canon's software supports these simple batch operations it sounds perfect. Haven't installed it yet but will definitely take it for a spin. Sure is a lot cheaper than Lightroom if it'll meet my needs.
 
Since I got the D90 that actually shoots raw, I still haven't gotten in the habit. Out of the 3+ computers I like to view my photos on, only one of them has a version of Photoshop that can handle the Nikon raw format, and that is still one of my slower machines.

Once I get my copy of CS4 and put it on the newer machine, I plan to shoot nothing but raw, but 'till then I’ll probably just continue to suffer through the poorer IQ jpg format. I should really see how much it slows the camera down to just shoot raw+jpg, that way I won't be missing out on future usefulness of the images I’m shooting now.
 
madFive said:
Since I got the D90 that actually shoots raw, I still haven't gotten in the habit. Out of the 3+ computers I like to view my photos on, only one of them has a version of Photoshop that can handle the Nikon raw format, and that is still one of my slower machines.

Once I get my copy of CS4 and put it on the newer machine, I plan to shoot nothing but raw, but 'till then I’ll probably just continue to suffer through the poorer IQ jpg format. I should really see how much it slows the camera down to just shoot raw+jpg, that way I won't be missing out on future usefulness of the images I’m shooting now.
Click to expand...

Go to photoshop's web page and download the Nikon RAW driver for your other systems.
You might even have to do that to get CS4 working. I did with my Canon RAW's.
 
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