To those who shoot in raw...

[ann]

Reg,

i have been doing this for over 60 years, and no not everything is always perfect; however, sometimes even things that one thinks aren't what they wanted can with time be viewed with a different intent.

storage is cheap and i realize that 4 copies is over kill, but it is my decision and my business to ensure that i have all bases covered. It is not "if" something will go wrong but when.
With my students i recommend that they keep no less than 2 copies.

If people aren't careful they are lossing their family history or will do so it they don't maintain their files.

i have one "hardcopy" (cd or dvd) and 3 external drives. the hardcopy is kept off site in another location
not only do i make 4 copies every two years i re-burn any cd's or dvd's and toss the old.

Raw gives me a similar control that i have over my negatives, i can change them with editing as one does with developers with negatives.

Also, i don't want a micro chip to make any decisions for me, but again this is my decision and eveyone can choose what they want and what they like.

I would suggest you be careful about judging what other people choose to do or not do especially when you may not know about their work or the quality of the work.

 

[manaheim]

Always raw, delete redundant frames or ones that are horrible for whatever reason, process everything, keep all RAWs that I like.

Can we plllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeaaase not turn this into another JPEG vs. RAW thread?

 

[Dave127]

I always shoot in Raw. It gives you more control and a better picture because it is a larger file with more information than a Jpeg. When you shoot your family, don't you want a better photo? It doesn't cost any more to shoot Raw so why not reap the benefits.

I don't delete a lot and file most away using light room. Light room allows you to rate and attatch key words to the photos so you can find the shots you want when you want them. Of coarse backing up the photos is equally important.

 

[three_eyed_otter]

I shoot in RAW, but sometimes delete redundant photos...E.g., I went to a rodeo and took a ton of photos during the barrel racing. There are 3 barrels for the rider to round and I was snapping away @ each barrel. When I reviewed the rodeo photos I eliminated anything lacking, for example, if the riders head was down and I couldn't see their facial expressions (eyes). Photos like these that are lacking get the ixnay. On the otherhand I took photos of my daughter on the corral wooden fence. Although they were redundant I did not trash all of them, only the bad ones. I chose the one I liked most archived the rest in their RAW format.

have a good one
3Eo

 

[PuppY_K1ck3R]

I shoot everything in RAW -- I just convert those I'm specifically working with (printing, posting, etc.).

Same here. I just wish there was a simple raw viewer for vista (xp has a raw viewer) It would be much easier than going to bridge then PS just to view the image full size.

 

[Easy_Target]

Really? You *never* delete anything? And keep 4 backup copies? Where do you keep the backups? That sounds like it takes up a LOT of unneeded space to me.

Same. I only do three backup copies though. DVD + Internal HD + External

 

[lockwood81]

I shoot everything in RAW -- I just convert those I'm specifically working with (printing, posting, etc.).

Yep I shoot everything RAW...

Same here. I just wish there was a simple raw viewer for vista (xp has a raw viewer) It would be much easier than going to bridge then PS just to view the image full size.

I have Vista and use a viewer, I can look at all my RAW pictures in the folders and in Microsoft Photo gallery.

 

[Samriel]

I shoot in RAW, unless it's necessary to shoot in JPG to get a better continuous burst rate where shooting sports and action shots (because the buffer fills up fast when shooting RAW). I delete everything I don't like or find useful. I do post processing in Lightroom on most (around 80~90%) of the ones I keep, but I do not export them to JPEG or TIFF unless I'm going to take them to print, or give them to somebody, put them on the net etc.

 

[Resin42]

When my cam came in the other week one of the first things I did is set up a still life I'd had an idea for for a few weeks. I spent ages on it experimenting with different focuses and light positions etc. When I went to process them I ended up picking my 3 favourites (as they all looked a bit samey) and in a moment of foolhardiness I can barely remember, deleted the rest of the RAWs. Now that I've progressed a bit I started thinking about what I could now do with some of the shots, then I remembered I scrapped the file. Why ffs? I've got 800gb of storage here plus dvds.

My new policy? Delete nothing

 

[MBasile]

unless I am taking pictures of something to sell I always shoot in RAW and I only export it to JPEG after I do my editing, I don't bother converting stuff I'm not going to use.

 

[notelliot]

sidenote: "why do you keep so much?"

last night I was asked to duplicate a portrait I did last year. I remember exactly how I set up my lights, but not my camera. So, I pulled up the file, had a peek at the exif, and now the shot will take me 2 minutes. 1/250sec, iso200, F11 @ 28mm.

my old, ****ty, over/underexposed files that I never processed are now helping me shoot better. if I'm shooting something similar to a past screw-up, I can assess my mistakes and prevent them.

not only is it useful to have your old files for a print, but it helps you smooth out your workflow if you pay attention.

 

[sabbath999]

I can't imagine how overwhelmed I would be if I kept everything but the best shots... then again, I generally shoot 2K to 3K per trip I make. My website currently has about 7K keepers on it, with another 500 or so to get finished from last weekend.

I have trouble enough dealing with just the keepers.

 

[cszakolczai]

I keep all of my files and just go through them and take the ones I like process those and keep the unedited files in a folder I call "edited photos" its very simple and if I want to process an image over again I know where to look.

 

[Punkterra]

Always shoot in RAW or u will scream in anger why u didnt set RAW for a surprising photo...

For me there are 3 reasons why photos are bad.
1.Bad lighting or dull colors
2.Soft focus or blurred (moved)
3.Bad composition

I always delete 2 and 3. Soft focus or blurred subject makes photo crap and brings a huge quantity of dissapointment to my face. Bad composition that cannt be recovered by crop turns the photo into an amateur with compact camera one. WHy bother keep them then?

 

[Vautrin]

Do any of you shoot in RAW even if your not going to make a print or post online? Just for messing around etc...

For the people who do shoot in raw, when do you and when do you not shoot in raw.

Also what percentage of the pictures you shoot in raw, do you actually process them in photoshop or something similar.

My olympus lets me take pictures simultaneously in JPEG & RAW. When I download them I have my pictures organized in folders naming what I shot(e.g. trip to NYC on _____). I then put the RAW photos in a subfolder. When my friends want a copy of the pics I took, I send out the JPEGs.

This is great in the sense that I have the RAW photos, but I don't need to spend time processing every single photo.

Plus I'm still not really very good processing raw so at some point (when I get better at photoshop) I think it will be nice to have the option to go back into the RAW photos