Shooting RAW, thoughts?

Great info, however, I still have one unanswered question. If you were doing a photo session with a teen for example, taking unlimited photos, because RAW files are so large, what type of memory would you need to have to hold 200 photos for example?

Do you really want to PP "Unlimited files"? That is ridiculous! Set a reasonable limit and stick too it (200?). And don't give them all of them... make them pick 20 to 40 shots. Better to give 20 to 40 top end shots, than 200 semi crappy ones! If you can't get 20 to 40 top end shots out of 200, then you definitely need more practice! ;)

Concerns about hit percentage aside... I don't like setting limits. I would never say "I'm only going to take 200 shots today, or I'm only going to take 1000 shots today". If I see something, I shoot it, and I don't think about how many shots I've taken unless my memory card is full. Shoot everything, pick the ones you like... I certainly don't PP every shot, or even half of them. Deciding that there's a "correct" amount of shots in a particular situation is such an arbitrary limit. Maybe it made sense when every click was expensive, and had to be developed whether you liked it or not. But digital has removed those limits for us, no sense putting them back for the sake of it.

(if taking more shots means you're thinking less about each one... i.e. spray and pray, that's a different story obviously)

My point was ... that there are many "Fauxtographers" out there that offer a session for X amount of money with unlimited images on a cd with full rights. Who in their right mind is going to do GOOD PP on "Unlimited Images? Especially when the money amount is VERY low... (and those IMAGES need TONS of PP)

For a session.. you have to keep it reasonable, unless you are the Spray and Pray type.. that shoots a massive number of images to just get a few keepers. (God knows there are enough of those!) :) You have to go with the flow.. if a session is going well, you might shoot more. If the session is stagnant.. take what you need and get the hell out of there. My "limits" were suggestions.. guidelines... not true "limits"!
 
I'm kinda late to this discussion, but I loved KmH's explanation, and kundalini's visual analogy!

As someone who only recently started shooting RAW (around last October), here's my take on it:
Yes, you SHOULD try to get it "right" in camera. And it is precisely BECAUSE you've taken the extra effort to get it right in camera that you should shoot RAW, so that after YOU controlled the camera to get the image YOU want, you don't then allow the CAMERA to control the resulting image by processing the image for you.
It's exactly the same as film--back when I first shot film, I loaded the film, chose my settings, and took the picture. Then I promptly filled up a roll, took it out, and SENT IT OFF to be developed by someone who didn't know me and didn't know what my vision was for those images. So, they processed it according to their own standards. I really thought that was "good enough" back then. Then I started developing my OWN photos, and discovered that *I* could take that same picture that the processing place did one way, and I could process it so that it more closely matched the vision I had for it.

Letting your camera "develop" the photos for you is just like taking a roll of film and sending it off to Walmart to be developed. You lose the ability to control the processing.
 
Do you really want to PP "Unlimited files"? That is ridiculous! Set a reasonable limit and stick too it (200?). And don't give them all of them... make them pick 20 to 40 shots. Better to give 20 to 40 top end shots, than 200 semi crappy ones! If you can't get 20 to 40 top end shots out of 200, then you definitely need more practice! ;)

Concerns about hit percentage aside... I don't like setting limits. I would never say "I'm only going to take 200 shots today, or I'm only going to take 1000 shots today". If I see something, I shoot it, and I don't think about how many shots I've taken unless my memory card is full. Shoot everything, pick the ones you like... I certainly don't PP every shot, or even half of them. Deciding that there's a "correct" amount of shots in a particular situation is such an arbitrary limit. Maybe it made sense when every click was expensive, and had to be developed whether you liked it or not. But digital has removed those limits for us, no sense putting them back for the sake of it.

(if taking more shots means you're thinking less about each one... i.e. spray and pray, that's a different story obviously)

My point was ... that there are many "Fauxtographers" out there that offer a session for X amount of money with unlimited images on a cd with full rights. Who in their right mind is going to do GOOD PP on "Unlimited Images? Especially when the money amount is VERY low... (and those IMAGES need TONS of PP)

For a session.. you have to keep it reasonable, unless you are the Spray and Pray type.. that shoots a massive number of images to just get a few keepers. (God knows there are enough of those!) :) You have to go with the flow.. if a session is going well, you might shoot more. If the session is stagnant.. take what you need and get the hell out of there. My "limits" were suggestions.. guidelines... not true "limits"!

I would never show a client 200 photos if I took that many. Key word..PRACTICE, so yeah at my level, I may take more than needed. In all my practice sessions I have done, and lots more to do comiing up, and another real estate, I do only pick about 20-30 out. I burn them to a CD for the sole purpose of them picking out prints, telling me which ones they want and sizes and the only thing they re-imburse me for is what the lab charges me for prints. Im doing this for free, but I am not going to pay for their prints. I know, I suk so bad I should probably pay for their prints too. I use NPL for prints....
 
Great info, however, I still have one unanswered question. If you were doing a photo session with a teen for example, taking unlimited photos, because RAW files are so large, what type of memory would you need to have to hold 200 photos for example?

Depends on what you're shooting with, camera body-wise.
 
raw_work.jpg


Joe

Who makes a view camera with a digital back? :drool:
 
Great info, however, I still have one unanswered question. If you were doing a photo session with a teen for example, taking unlimited photos, because RAW files are so large, what type of memory would you need to have to hold 200 photos for example?
For still photos 4GB was the largest card I used. Though I could get about 225 - 12 MP Raw files on a card, I usually changed cards every 50 shots or so, so if a card went bad 50 or so shot would be the maximum number of shots I could lose.
 
Sinar. Horseman too, and the Sinar back will fit on a field camera -- I'm saving up.

I'll not bother........... I won't live that long.
 
Mostly I shoot RAW+JPG. If a JPG is lacking I like to know I have a RAW copy to fall back on. :thumbup:
 
Once I started shooting in RAW I never looked back. Be prepared though. even if you have enough CF space, you'll be storing them somewhere after the fact too :lol: Ive got an insane amount of photos on my computer's HD.
 
Every good image is post processed in some way. ^^
I believe people telling you to get it completely correct in camera have too little experience with post processing.
Sharpening, slight contrast changes, noise reduction... All part of post processing. Shooting in JPG just lets the camera do those for you, the image will still be post processed.

I know a lot of GREAT photographers but really stink at PP.....just sayn.... ;)

READ TUTORIALS!

This is what we all do. You are not going to be a photoshop wiz overnight. It takes lots of time but there are so many tutorials online that it is much easier to get up to speed now a days.
 
Once I started shooting in RAW I never looked back. Be prepared though. even if you have enough CF space, you'll be storing them somewhere after the fact too :lol: Ive got an insane amount of photos on my computer's HD.

External HD is a must! They are cheap now anyways.
 
Once I started shooting in RAW I never looked back. Be prepared though. even if you have enough CF space, you'll be storing them somewhere after the fact too :lol: Ive got an insane amount of photos on my computer's HD.

External HD is a must! They are cheap now anyways.

Yeah.. I will be investing in one soon. Ive got about 300 GB of photos on my 500 GB HD.
 
Once I started shooting in RAW I never looked back. Be prepared though. even if you have enough CF space, you'll be storing them somewhere after the fact too :lol: Ive got an insane amount of photos on my computer's HD.

I'm generally not a 'spray and pray' type of photographer, but when i'm shooting motorsports, I can get a lot since I do shoot them moving with a short burst, but even then, I still try to delete the crappy photos that I know i'll never use for this very reason. Why have a ton of photos wasting space on your HDs if you're never going to use them?
 

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