So, this is Camera Raw....
The folks on the Ohio Valley Camera Club rave about it, some people are snobs about it and some people pick and choose when they use this thing called RAW when shooting photography. I recently took a workshop that introduced me to this bit of the craft.
This is what I gather...
-RAW is not at acronym (which is why I have stopped spelling it in all caps most of the time, because if it's not an acronym, then there is no reason to capitalize all the letters. That's confusing....But I digress). Raw is, just that, the raw information that is given to the camera when you press the shutter release. It is like a digital negative. It is unprocessed information. In fact, there is actually no such thing as a raw image. There is only raw data. It only becomes an image when the data has been processed through a program (such as Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Photoshop or Picasa) that converts it into an image file.
-Raw files are HUGE. If I set my camera (her name is Natasha and she is a Canon Rebel T3i) to shoot only in JPEG I can shoot over 500 photos to an 8GB SD card....If I set it to shoot raw, then I can get just under 200.
-JPEG files are smaller because they are basically your camera's attempt to process the raw data for you. It makes guesses as to what saturation, white balance, color temperature, etc you PROBABLY would like for any given image. Kind of like having little Foto Mat elves living inside your camera developing your pictures for you. Because of that, you lose a whole lot of information that you can't ever get back. Yes, you can tweak JPEGs in your imaging software, but you have quite a bit less to work with. And as I discovered when I shot a batch of photos in both raw and JPEG, often the JPEG image is overblown - not to the point that the picture is ruined, but enough that side by side with the image shot in raw, you notice it, and it's annoying!
- JPEG is very handy for general photography. Snapshots, parties, stuff you want to throw onto Facebook or send hard copies out quickly. But if you're looking for reveling in the art of photography or simply want the best pictures you can possibly have, Raw is the way to go.
The workshop took place at Fernald Nature Preserve (yeah, Fernald that used to be a leaking nuclear power plant!). It is gorgeous out there. From those pictures I got a real taste of Camera Raw and I was utterly stunned at the beauty!
Here is one of the raw 'images' before processing:
Here is the same shot after I boosted the colors in Picasa:
I mean, LOOK AT THAT!
And that's just some basic trees. For more raw loveliness, feel free to drown in the richness of a few other shots from my Day at Fernald.
Let me know what ya think!
This is what I gather...
-RAW is not at acronym (which is why I have stopped spelling it in all caps most of the time, because if it's not an acronym, then there is no reason to capitalize all the letters. That's confusing....But I digress). Raw is, just that, the raw information that is given to the camera when you press the shutter release. It is like a digital negative. It is unprocessed information. In fact, there is actually no such thing as a raw image. There is only raw data. It only becomes an image when the data has been processed through a program (such as Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Photoshop or Picasa) that converts it into an image file.
-Raw files are HUGE. If I set my camera (her name is Natasha and she is a Canon Rebel T3i) to shoot only in JPEG I can shoot over 500 photos to an 8GB SD card....If I set it to shoot raw, then I can get just under 200.
-JPEG files are smaller because they are basically your camera's attempt to process the raw data for you. It makes guesses as to what saturation, white balance, color temperature, etc you PROBABLY would like for any given image. Kind of like having little Foto Mat elves living inside your camera developing your pictures for you. Because of that, you lose a whole lot of information that you can't ever get back. Yes, you can tweak JPEGs in your imaging software, but you have quite a bit less to work with. And as I discovered when I shot a batch of photos in both raw and JPEG, often the JPEG image is overblown - not to the point that the picture is ruined, but enough that side by side with the image shot in raw, you notice it, and it's annoying!
- JPEG is very handy for general photography. Snapshots, parties, stuff you want to throw onto Facebook or send hard copies out quickly. But if you're looking for reveling in the art of photography or simply want the best pictures you can possibly have, Raw is the way to go.
The workshop took place at Fernald Nature Preserve (yeah, Fernald that used to be a leaking nuclear power plant!). It is gorgeous out there. From those pictures I got a real taste of Camera Raw and I was utterly stunned at the beauty!
Here is one of the raw 'images' before processing:
Here is the same shot after I boosted the colors in Picasa:
I mean, LOOK AT THAT!
And that's just some basic trees. For more raw loveliness, feel free to drown in the richness of a few other shots from my Day at Fernald.
Let me know what ya think!
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