What are the advantages of shooting in RAW Mode?

[Scottwdw]

I've only had my Nikon D70 for a couple of months so I haven't really explored it fully. On my trip to England, I was more concerned with the quantity of images I could shoot with good resolution without running out of compact flash memory. I took two 1GB CF's with me. I set my image size to NORMAL JPEG, LARGE which got my about 575 images per card. I ended up shooting 830 images so I had room to spare.

Okay..now to the question for this thread. If I set the D70 to RAW, I could only get about 127 (going by memory here so I will check when I get home tonight) images. Do you need special software to work with RAW images and what is so special about them?

Thanks!

 

[ducklite]

I've only had my Nikon D70 for a couple of months so I haven't really explored it fully. On my trip to England, I was more concerned with the quantity of images I could shoot with good resolution without running out of compact flash memory. I took two 1GB CF's with me. I set my image size to NORMAL JPEG, LARGE which got my about 575 images per card. I ended up shooting 830 images so I had room to spare.

Okay..now to the question for this thread. If I set the D70 to RAW, I could only get about 127 (going by memory here so I will check when I get home tonight) images. Do you need special software to work with RAW images and what is so special about them?

Thanks!

Yes, you need special software to effectively and optimally work with RAW data. Photoshop CS is the current state of teh art. It will allow you to adjust lighting levels and color spectrums without the overall grainines normally associated with this.

Personally I seldom shoot in RAW, only when I'm shooting a concert with VERY poor lighting.

Anne

 

[MICKEY88]

PAINT SHOP PRO X will also let you work with raw files, it will do pretty much everything that photoshop will do, for a much lower price...


did you get any software with your camera....My Minolta came with software that accepts raw files...

 

[Razor Roman]

your camera also probably comes with software to interpret the RAW files for you as well.

the main advantage of saving as RAW is that basically the RAW files stores the information exactly as the camera's chip sees it, which means you can actually adjust the white balance and other settings after you've shot it. It is also uncompressed, so if you are cropping or printing super large the picture will look sharper, since JPEG introduces some quality loss, even on the best quality settings, and the mosquito noise and other artifcats can become noticable when blown up very large.

Shooting RAW gives you the ultimate in quality and versability, but for vacation shots, unless you are processing with a laptop or have TONS of CF memory, I'd recomment JPEG shooting.

If you want to take a picture of some, I don't know, of the guards in front of Buckingham because you love england and want to print it up 20 x 30 or something for your living room, you might want to shoot a few of those in RAW to see how they come out, but shoot in best quality JPEG. And buy a few more CF cards before your trip. I got 1GB for $30 after rebate on black friday... they're not high speed, but for trip snapshots they work great.

 

[Anewman]

I set my image size to NORMAL JPEG, LARGE which got my about 575 images per card. I ended up shooting 830 images

If I set the D70 to RAW, I could only get about 127
Thanks!

That right there should tell you something.

ALL CAMERAS SHOOT RAW even when set to jpeg after the shot inside the camera it makes adjustments like brightness, contrast, color, sharpness and some noise reduction.
After it makes those adjustments it THROWS AWAY all data and detail that it(computer in the camera) decides is no longer needed.
It then compresses it into a JPEG witch also loses data.

Now if the final jpeg produced is EXACTLY what you wanted to end up with, all if fine and dandy, shooting raw would probably not have given you better results.

So that is fine if you do not like editing and are satisfied with all you images straight out of the camera, JPEGS rule.

But if you are a perfectionist and need to adjust every single image(by choice) why not start with ALL OF THE DATA and not just the data that the camera decided to keep.

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

RAW does provide you the opportunity to work with the data as the camera sensor captured it. It will also add steps to your digital workflow to convert from RAW (which is manufacturer specific and perhaps even model specific for a given manufacturer). Photoshop does have a RAW converter but so do many other applications. Adobe is also attempting to standardize the RAW format with a new file type called DNG (Digital Negative). This will help as it will mean that all RAW files could be compatible. The important thing to remember as has been stated in previous posts, you are dealing with the sensor data without manipulation or compression. If you plan to change the resolution of an image into enlargements especially above 11x14 I would suggest using RAW so that you don't have to deal with the JPEG compression artifacts that sometimes show up as colored blocks especially in blue areas. There are many pros and cons to using RAW and in the end it becomes a personal preference based on your shooting style. Are you the kind of person who is meticulous before pressing the shutter to make sure the white balance, f-stop, color space is all set just the way you want or are you someone who shoots the pictures planning to adjust things once you download the photos to your computer. If you are of the latter type I would suggest you try RAW. If you are more of the former then the additional steps of RAW may not make that much of a difference to your finished photos.


Jeff

 

[Geoff_M]

Others have done a good job describing what the RAW format can do for you, but as to your question about the RAW images from your D70... you will need special software to work with them. Except for Nikon Capture, other editing software must first convert the NEF (Nikon's RAW format) file into the type of image it can edit internally. Adobe offers a free RAW to JPEG converter known as Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) that will allow you to adjust NEFs and save them as JPEGs or import them into Photoshop. However, most people that I've read of that have looked at how Adobe and Nikon Capture interpret NEFs think that Nikon (not surprisingly) software does a better job with the interpretation and conversion to JPEGs.

 

[Scottwdw]

Thank you all for clearing up the mystery of RAW images and what you can do with them. I think some testing is in order.

I don't have Nikon Capture and am hoping Santa brings me Paint Shop Pro X I am very pleased with the JPEG's I am getting. I can only print up to 8x10 at this time. In the future, I will be getting a printer capable of 11x14 or better. I am still a neophyte when it comes to post-processing and have a lot to learn on that front.

 

[Charade]

If you decide against RAW, I recommend you change to FINE LARGE JPG instead of NORMAL LARGE JPG = less compression

 

[Scottwdw]

If you decide against RAW, I recommend you change to FINE LARGE JPG instead of NORMAL LARGE JPG = less compression

You are correct. Just changed it. Again, the reason I choose the NORMAL setting was to get the most of the CF memory I had on my trip since I did not take my laptop.

 

[MICKEY88]

Thank you all for clearing up the mystery of RAW images and what you can do with them. I think some testing is in order.

I don't have Nikon Capture and am hoping Santa brings me Paint Shop Pro X I am very pleased with the JPEG's I am getting. I can only print up to 8x10 at this time. In the future, I will be getting a printer capable of 11x14 or better. I am still a neophyte when it comes to post-processing and have a lot to learn on that front.

you can download a free 30 day trial of Paint Shop Pro X from the corel website, I bought my copy of it from Amazon, they had it on sale for $99 with $40 in rebates.....might want to tell SAnta to check there...