Shooting in Raw

[gtbike72]

question regarding Raw I'm starting to venture off and explore my other options other than the P mode, I found myself shooting and I couldn't get the white balance right.
so here's my question if I'm shooting in raw mode do I still need to adjust the white balance or can I do that in my laptop with software it came with?
thanks

 

[Provo]

One of the benefits of raw is just that you can make adjustments to the photo in software exposure compensation, white balance etc.. "RAW files also allow one to set the WB based on a broader range of color temperature and green-magenta shifts"{Source Understanding White Balance"}






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[TJ K]

Raw is a completely unaltered picture. You can do the WB and saturation and all that fun stuff custom in PP. You also have more control of saving some under/over exposed areas. GL
tj

 

[Josh66]

if I'm shooting in raw mode do I still need to adjust the white balance or can I do that in my laptop with software it came with?

It depends.


If you're just using the presets (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, etc) it doesn't matter which way you do it.

If you're using a custom WB, you're most likely going to want to do that while you're shooting.

 

[KmH]

You also need to be aware the camera LCD image and histogram are from a basic JPEG image that is embedded in the RAW data file so the camera has something to show you for composition purposes. They are not a converted RAW image.

As O|||||||O pointed out, the image will open in your RAW converter "As Shot" and the white balance you had the camera set to is what will be used at that time.

You can easily change the white balance setting to something else once the image is open in your RAW converter. Setting a custom white balance is particularly important if you are in a situation with mixed lighting.

If you're really interested in maximizing the usefulness of RAW and whether you should use a scene-referred or output-referred approach to image rendering read this article by Karl Lang of Adobe, it's very informative.

 

[IgsEMT]

WB: with flash, set it to either flash or daylight/sunny - both are pretty close with later one being more pleasant to my eye on Nikon and Canon bodies.
Alternatively, you just preset it and have a great time.
3rd option, is using Kelvin. For flash on Nikon sb800 with stofen I used 5560K and sb600+stofen I use 5300K. When using my DIY foam paper/sotbox/bouncecard (its a DIY ) I set it to 4550K.

What I like about RAWs is leeway I have when processing (especially if I hand the camera over to someone while it is all in M mode). What I hate is time it takes me for processing individual file.

 

[musicaleCA]

Eh, I'll just add that setting the correct WB while shooting is part of speeding-up your workflow. It can save valuable time. That and when shooting RAW+JPEG it's very important, and can be VERY important in sports. Shooting under a fluorescent at high speeds, you get crazy WB shifts, and sometimes you may require the RAW file to correct for it. But maybe you'll get lucky and be able to file the JPEG and it'll look reasonable. What fun. >.<

 

[Moonb007]

If you can, always shoot in RAW as you can do more changes to the image without affecting the quality. If you open the JPEG and RAW images you will see the difference.

 

[bengtb]

If you are unsure shoot raw because you can change white balance....and alot of other thing later

 

[rocdoc]

unless you shoot hundreds of pictures and you plan to use ALL of them, there is not reason to shoot anything BUT raw. (even with hundreds of pics you could batch process). Raw allows you to process everything after the fact, within limits. Agree with the post about the custom white balance, getting it just right may take time in raw processing, but it's still do-able. If you happen to have white surfaces in your shot raw is then really easy, as you just pick the surface that needs to be white and the software does the rest.