More JPGs or Less RAWs??

N1C0L3 · Oct 10, 2009

My boyfriend and I are shooting a pro bono wedding tomorrow. We both have 5D Mark II cameras. With a 21 megapixel camera we have discovered that the file sizes are really huge. We have three 4 GB cards and one 8 GB card to share. We've already accepted the fact that we don't have enough space to shoot full RAW images. My question is, should we shoot the smaller, 9.9 Megapixel RAWs (which will give us a total of 1250 shots) or is it ok if we shoot 21 Megapixel JPegs (which will give us 3,000 shots)?

JayClark79 · Oct 10, 2009

It might depend on how much editing you plan on doing for the probono wedding. If none or next to none go JPEG's ... if you like editing go RAW

rub · Oct 10, 2009

RAW. Pro bono or not, these are wedidng photos and you want to present your best. If you need to salvage shots, RAW is going to be more flexible.

If anything, I would just go buy a few more memory cards, and they you dont have to worry about running out of space. 1250 is not much for 2 people, unless you are only there a short time.

CrazyCanuck · Oct 10, 2009

I'm gonna agree with Rub, 3 cards between 2 people in my opinion is not going to cut it for a wedding. 1250 shots may, as long as you don't machine gun it, but what happens if you find a card stops functioning? you only have one backup...between 2 people. With 4gb CF cards costing as little as $25 (cdn) for Sandisk Ultra II's, I think it would be wise to invest a little more in memory. $200 in memory for a $3k camera is small potatoes.

Overread · Oct 10, 2009

Like the others I encourage you to try and get hold of more card space for the shoot. If you have a laptop (or can borrow/hire one) that might give you backup bit of extra storage onsite if you can't get hold of more cards in time. It's less than ideal as it will take time to write the data over and it does mean being organised and knowing which cards have and have not been written over and are safe to clean off (format the card in camera) and resuse.
Idealy I would really encourage you toward more cards and leave copying to computer till after - when there is far less time pressure on you both (since there are 2 of you there is of course more time for confusion to take place)

On the JPEG and RAW front you're going to want (and probably need) RAW. Even with the impressive high ISOs you will have with the cameras you are still going to be shooting in tricky lighting situations - with key shots you need to get - with little time to setup and plan. For that RAW is the safest mode to shoot in and its what I would want to shoot in

usayit · Oct 10, 2009

My vote is to purchase more cards and shoot RAW. You can go only in one direction... RAW to JPG not the other way around. You can also bring a laptop and reader and start offloading to free up cards for more shots.

N1C0L3 · Oct 10, 2009

Did I mention we're just out of college, trying to live on our own and reallllly poor right now? I'd buy more memory if I was getting the tiniest bit of money for this, but I'm not. And we have to travel 2 hours to get to it as it is. I do have a laptop so I will consider dumping the images so that I can shoot RAW. I think we might shoot RAW for the really crucial shots, and high res JPEGs for the rest.

astrostu · Oct 10, 2009

RAW.

I actually shot 22GB of photos at a wedding last month ... on only 10GB of cards, 2 4GB and 1 2GB. I had 2 cameras. When I filled up a 4GB card on one, I would take it out, put a 2GB in. I'd put the 4GB in a card reader and transfer it to a 1TB external drive. When the transfer was finished, I took the 2GB out, put the 4GB in, zapped it, and kept shooting.

tirediron · Oct 10, 2009

N1C0L3 said:
Did I mention we're just out of college, trying to live on our own and reallllly poor right now? I'd buy more memory if I was getting the tiniest bit of money for this, but I'm not. And we have to travel 2 hours to get to it as it is. I do have a laptop so I will consider dumping the images so that I can shoot RAW. I think we might shoot RAW for the really crucial shots, and high res JPEGs for the rest.

Have the bride and groom stump up for a couple of 16 Gb cards; that's still a damn cheap price for a wedding photographer.

craig · Oct 11, 2009

If you knew what you were doing you would shoot all jpg... Joking of course. Just had to throw that in there.

I fully understand your situation and buying more cards is not an option or needed. Judging from your website you guys are on top of your game. There are lots of creative ideas you can come up with. Consider 1 Raw in case something goes wrong followed by a bunch of jpgs for each grouping or location. Maybe raw for the formals and jpg for the candids. Maybe always shoot with your falsh and try and overpower any funky lighting temps.

I think if you go into the event with a serious game plan you will be able to maximize your card space as opposed to shooting everything in raw.

Love & Bass

RyanLilly · Oct 11, 2009

I'll trade you a 20D and 16 gigs of memory for one of your 5Ds.

But really find some way to get more memory cards, maybe borrow some, sell some blood, knock over a gas station, whatever.

Derrel · Oct 11, 2009

I vote for the smaller-sized RAW images on the 5D Mk II...those smaller 9.9 megbayte sized RAW images look superb, especially at the highest ISO settings. Still, this is somebody's wedding.

I have no idea why anybody would even consider shooting a 21 megapixel JPEG image for a wedding when the sRAW is smaller, and looks better,and has more headroom and less noise at higher ISO's. I would really,really hope that two people could manage to cover a wedding with a paltry one thousand, two hundred and fifty photographs. Do you have any concept of what it's like to hump around a 4 pound,manual focusing 120 rollfilm camera with three lenses 50-80-150, a mega potato masher flash, and three or four film magazines that hold "twelve frames" per roll of film? And you're worried about the difference between three THOUSAND photographs and one thousand two hundred and fifty photos? Are you serious? Set the camera advance on single frame. Look through the finder when shooting. Think about making memories and not just mashing the shutter button.

1,250 versus 3,000. Wow.

Have you seen how affordable medium-speed 2-gig and 4-gig CF cards are at Fry's? I would never consider "dumping" my cards onto a laptop and then shooting over the cards, no matter what. Laptops get dropped, and walk away sometimes. Seriously, $5,000 worth of camera bodies and not even $40 for CF memory? Do the bride and groom have parents or family that can pony up a couple of twenty dollar bills?

astrostu · Oct 12, 2009

Yeah, I actually forgot about that option in my post (though I still like my idea). Use a smaller RAW format. 9.9 Mpx should be find for almost everything.

Moonb007 · Oct 12, 2009

As long as you can process in RAW then you should always go with RAW. Even if you don't plan on doing any real editing, what happens if that great shot is just a little off. Its always better to have the better quality of the RAW file then the compressed JPG file.

Santo · Oct 12, 2009

astrostu said:
RAW.

I actually shot 22GB of photos at a wedding last month ... on only 10GB of cards, 2 4GB and 1 2GB. I had 2 cameras. When I filled up a 4GB card on one, I would take it out, put a 2GB in. I'd put the 4GB in a card reader and transfer it to a 1TB external drive. When the transfer was finished, I took the 2GB out, put the 4GB in, zapped it, and kept shooting.

Wow. Impressive.