Strategy Advice Needed for Handling RAW+JPG Files

[StandingBear1983]

Hi Everybody,

Until now i shoot RAW+JPG, and until now i saved everything i shoot. i shoot a lot and would like to ask you when you select the best photos from your shoot (edit, delete the unwanted photos), what would you do, make a selection and delete the jpg's you don't want and save the RAW files? or save all the JPG's and delete the RAW files i don't want?

 

[greybeard]

I use to save both but after a while I found I never had any need of the jpegs so now I shoot Large RAW. I have my photos organized in my computer by by folders by year->month->day. In the day folder I make a RAW-tiff-PSD folder and a JPEG folder. I then copy the RAW files from the camera card into the RAW folder. Then I import them into LightRoom. I then preview the new shots and delete the bad ones and edit and correct the good ones. I save the corrected tiffs in the RAW-tiff-PSD folder and I crunch down the JPEGS into the JPEG folder. works for me.

 

[Overread]

Personally I'm very reluctant to delete anything that isn't a total write-off. A totally black shot where the flash didn't fire, for example, is fine to delete as I lose nothing at all. The rest of the shots that are so so or boarderline I keep. There might not be anything special about them; then again they might be something that reminds me of the day; or something that I didn't get a better shot of; or might well show that, with a little editing, they are perfectly decent.


I also would advise not deleting shots straight after shooting - often its a time when we are at our most judgemental and thus very prone to deleting shots that are perfectly fine or which only need slight adjustment. It's a time when we can see a lot more faults than are often actually present - so I make the longer term choice not to delete at that point and to save them for later when my mind is more objective and more impartial to them.


I think the real key is to setup a good storage and archiving process, by which you can then sort through and also not have to worry about storage space. For a keen photographer external harddrives are easily bought - a 1 or even 2TB hard drive should give you a wealth of storage space. Couple that with a second drive to mirror the first (as a backup!) and you're good to go.



Myself for storing I currently use folders with:
Year (contains all the shots from a year) --- shoot event (a short title describing the shoot - the folder then containing all of the photos from that shoot) --- Keeps (my edited versions in PSD form of the shots from the shoot)

If you shoot a lot more then adding in a month folder would be very suitable between the year and the shoot events.

 

[SCraig]

Much the same as others. I shoot everything in RAW only and if I need a JPEG of anything I create one on my computer. RAW+JPEG is a waste of space for me so I don't do it.

I also never, ever, delete anything unless it's total junk (i.e. an accidental button press and I can't even tell what it is). Everything else gets written to (2) disk drives and when there is enough to fill a DVD it gets written to (2) DVD's. One DVD says at home and the other I keep at my office.

 

[KmH]

Add me to the just-shoot-Raw, convert-to-whatever-is-needed-for-output crowd.

When I upload images I rate the Raw files into 3 categories - *****, ***, and *. (* = star)
All the * get deleted.
All the *** get a second look. Some of those become * and get deleted.

 

[480sparky]

I'm shooting raw only these days....unless the shot is strictly a 'resize-for-web/email' only and will not be saved on my hard drive.

 

[nmoody]

I dont keep any JPG's, I can create more from the Raw file if I have to.

 

[shmne]

I follow the same process KMH does for deleting files and Overread does for storage. My folders flow like this: "Work > Photography > Client > Year > Month > Event." Rating is 1 / 4 / 5 star where 1 gets deleted.

Shooting RAW only saves a lot of space later down the road, most of the time I don't even need JPGs of every image as I only use what I need. I generally save the rest for stock purposes, or to see if there is any way to repurpose them down the road. Pictures of people where I have releases are perfect, sometimes I take the clothes people are wearing and use it as texture, there is a lot you can do with old photos.

 

[Aloicious]

I shoot only RAW too, I do the process and convert to whatever format from the RAW, for whatever is needed either by myself, or a client or something. then I keep and backup all the RAW files for practically everything like overread mentioned, I keep some hard drives and external enclosures to store the backup files so that it doesn't use up space on the primary drives on my computers. TB's are (relatively) cheap nowadays, especially if you only need bare drives...

 

[12sndsgood]

I have been shoothing in RAw+jpg. but i'm finding I don't really have a need for the jpg's so i'm thinking of switching. i generally keep everything, though in reality ive just been avoiding going thru and doing some housecleaning. i give everything a name and then the date. then i go thru and rate the photos starting at 3. then going thru the 3's and rating the 4's and then the 5's for my best shots.