Do you save the originals?

[Bobby Ironsights]

Absolutely, I cut them into strips of five, or bag them as singles of course when doing 4x5, slide them into sheet holders, and then when I have a binder full, I put them into the freezer.

 

[crownlaurel]

I don't have a 16 bit RAW converter and I am not shooting for money or fame, so most of my shots right now are jpegs. Since my only public use of my photos is in powerpoints and occassional church bulletins or personal greeting cards, I don't generally have any problem doing it this way (or if I do I toss the photo). Whether I keep the original depends on how much editing I do.

A basic levels and color fix will be saved over the original "if" I am satisfied with the outcome. If I think I need to come back and play more with levels or I am not sure, I will save as and add a "b" to the end of the edited jpeg. Most cropping will warrant a new file with a "b" or subsequent letter after the name. Then when I have finished, I go back a few days later and pick the best edit and often delete the ones I don't want.

Eventually I will need a good RAW converter and a better editing software, but for now, this works for me.
More important photos I do have in RAW and/or I do save the original.

 

[THORHAMMER]

the beauty of lightroom is as long as you backup your database file and have your raws somewhere, thats all you need.

you can reassemble EVERYTHING in minutes if you have a failure.

I always try to keep the files and database twin on another hard drive or external.

eventually I might even buy a 100GB external just load it up and store it as a third saftey net. sure its 60 or 70 bucks, but it beats burning and labeling 25 dvds.

 

[shundaroni]

It depends entirely on the shoot.

For most intents and purposes, I shoot at the highest quality JPEG. I don't often need to edit much beyond a bit of contrast for my own personal tastes, and even when I do get the urge to go post-process crazy, I never print large enough to notice any serious detorioration.

In fact, short of portraits, I don't shoot in RAW very often. I used to when I first got my camera...thought it was necessary and, honestly, pretty novel. Eventually I got tired of the mandatory post-processing, especially when it came to shooting sports. In fact, when shooting college baskbetball, I have to unload all of my shots straight from the memory card to the Atheletic Dept. computers, and they don't want to bother with RAW either.

So far I've never had a problem.

 

[Oblivious]

I do. It's good to keep the originals. You may decide you want to rework an image, or perhaps work on a series of various approaches to the same image. If a copyright dispute should happen to spring up, it is good to have the originals and their kin to establish that you are in fact the original creator.