Photo Class Online: Shooting in RAW
What is a RAW file? Why is it intimidating to some camera users? Maybe because they simply don’t understand what the RAW format is or can do? A RAW file is an uncompressed, proprietary file. In other words, a file that captures all of the information your camera is personally capable of grabbing out of a scene. RAW files are proprietary for each camera model. A Canon would shoot a file with the extension .CR2 and a Nikon would shoot a .NEF file extension, however an Olympus would shoot .ORF (what’s up with that, am I right?). These files can all be read by your camera’s proprietary software that sometimes comes with your camera purchase, however, you can also edit and process these files through Adobe Photoshop or another likeminded program (I’m looking at you Lightroom, you user friendly she-devil… Lightroom and I don’t always get along).
What are the benefits of a RAW file? For starters, a RAW file will allow you far more flexibility when it comes to editing your photograph. Using Adobe Photoshop’s RAW editor screen allows for non-destructive (non-destructive editing = editing that does not damage the original file) editing where a sidecar file is written with the .XMP extension. This sidecar contains a whole bunch of garbled gook looking text, or called coding by my digitally inclined friends, holding the information for the edits you applied. One downside? You MUST keep the original file and it’s appropriate .XMP side car saved in the same location and with the same main file name in order for the side car to read properly. If you do all of your image moving and renaming in Adobe Bridge, my favorite way to organize files, it won’t be a problem, because Bridge will move and rename your files together.
A RAW file also creates a larger file size. A larger file size ultimately leads to a larger possible print size and higher quality print. However, if you are OK with trusting your most beloved memories to the corporate giants stalking the world wide web, then by all means, never print those bad boys. However, if you’re like me and tend to trust your own capacity to protect your memories and photographs over a large company’s cloud servers (Facebook, Amazon, and Google alike) print those bad boys! It’s also never a bad idea to back them up on an external drive and/or cloud server program like those offered through Amazon Prime, Apple’s iCloud or Google. I have stacks of photo albums of my children’s photographs. Yes, my house could burn down, then I can rely on my online backups. In a prefect world, my house won’t burn down on the same day my cloud servers crash. But, I’m digressing. Larger file sizes do mean you need more space to save your photos on an external or online cloud space. You also need to process your files in order to print them, aka edit and save as a jpg. That means potentially saving a RAW version and jpg version of every photo you print (which I do). So plan accordingly. These files also take more space on your SD or CF card in your camera. You will ultimately get less photos per card, so looking into purchasing a larger card and/or secondary memory card for your camera will not be a bad idea, particularly if you frequently fill your memory cards while shooting jpeg. I personally use San Disc’s Extreme Pro cards for the speed, efficiency, and reliability of their cards. They also come with a free, time sensitive, subscription to Rescue Pro to help salvage lost files on a corrupted or formatted card. You don’t think you need that service now, but you will… eventually.
RAW files are the magical unicorns of the photo file formats. Ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but they are pretty cool. So, next time you are out, try changing your camera’s image quality to RAW and experimenting a bit!
P.S. Beware of the RAW+jpg options offered in most DSLRs (DSLR = Digital Single Lens Reflex), which will shoot two files at once a RAW and JPG, it could be a good backup if you’re nervous about using your RAW file, but will ultimately use a lot more space on your card, and it’s a bit overkill, but who am I to rain on your file making parade?
Good luck out there!
Best,
Your Friendly, Local Photo Professor and Photography Professionalhttp://lamorerose.com/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=101350&type=image&TB_iframe=1&width=753&height=769
