Wedding Photography...JPG/RAW.

[Markw]

Hi all. One of my family members has asked me to shoot photos at their wedding. This will, of course, cover the ceremony and the reception. I was wondering if anyone on here shoots weddings in JPG Fine instead of RAW. I have never had any issues with being able to fully edit my JPG Fine images in CS5..so I figured Id ask. Just thinking about memory capacity and how much to bring. This is basically just for experience purposes for me..but it would be great to show them that I did as well as their photographer.

Mark

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Do it in raw so you have more room for recovery when you'll need it, and trust me, you'll need it in that white dress.

 

[dmfw]

I would shoot in JPEG + Raw. Then you will have a RAW backup!

 

[Garbz]

The wedding should be no different than any other case you can think of. Why shoot JPEG at all unless you're working a paid job which is entirely dependant on quantity not quality?

The question you should ask yourself is, I have $3000 worth of gear, why won't I spend $40 on an additional memory card if I'm always out of space?

Also a good tip is to stop and think. You'll find if you spend more time taking good photos rather than taking many photos your post processing (most boring part in my opinion) is faster.

JPEG+RAW is disingenuous in a world where I can create JPEGs out of all my RAW files in one go all within a few minutes that I don't need to spend staring at the progress bar anyway.

 

[mrmacedonian]

about a year ago I discovered RAW and started shooting RAW + Large Fine JPEG. Since then I've realized I haven't touch a JPEG all year because they all go into Lightroom and I make .tiff's and .jpeg's anyway.

save space, but not by losing the RAW; lose the JPEG

bring extra memory cards!! best of luck

 

[IgsEMT]

Not to start a JPG vs RAW debate...
Over 90% of the time I shoot JPG. My goal is to get 95% of the final image out of the camera and the rest of the 5% (filter, contrast, etc) to do in PP. On occasion though when I'm outdoors and/or time is an issue I'll shoot Fine JPGs + RAW or just RAW <- BUT thats about 10% of the time if not less.
Generally speaking After a 10hr wedding I might come home w/ no more then 20RAW files, all others will be jpgs.

Which to use - depends on you, your style, your expertise and bunch of other reasons.
Good Luck

 

[mrmacedonian]

Yeah, I'm fairly new at photography so I appreciate the editing of the RAW file. I suppose as I advance I may one day get to the point where I'm comfortable with a Large Fine JPEG because I'll know I won't need to do much.

It'll be a while before I leave the safety of RAW files though!

 

[Big Mike]

Why Raw -- Part I

RAW + JPEG is a waste of space IMO. You can create jpegs from the RAW files with a few simple clicks...but you can't get RAW from JPEG.

 

[Overread]

My goal is to get 95% of the final image out of the camera and the rest of the 5% (filter, contrast, etc) to do in PP.

The same is also true when you shoot in RAW mode - if you fail in camera in RAW or JPEG you've still failed and RAW dosn't make any difference over that fact. RAW or JPEG you have to shoot the initial shot well in order to progress and if you make a mess of things no amount of editing will fix things for you (and most would say that if you do edit enough to fix the problem you've probably spent far far too long - certainly the case if you are being paid for your time as a pro).

RAW does however give you a greater latitude with what you can do in editing and further it also gives you a greater ease with many things (correcting the white balance for example is infinity easier in RAW than it is in JPEG).

RAW is all about giving you more to work with when you take a shot and also about producing an end "negative" that won't degrade with saves and that also contains the most data possible from the camera sensor.

 

[michaelleggero]

i havn't done weddings in many years, but don't worry about the raw vs. jpg that's minor and the bride dosn't care one bit
what you do need to worry about is what you take pictures of.
even though you are family they will expect you to act like a pro and give them pro pictures. and i'm not talking quality.. i sure hope your quality is up to the task though

what i am talking about is the content. there are many things that are expected in wedding photography that you might not have thought of
a VERY brief example is groom alone, groom with best man, bride portrait, bride portrait with the dress, there are many different combinations of family members that you will be expected to produce as well

years ago there were some great books that had checklists of these sort of things. this is a once in a lifetime event (hopefully) ha ha. go spend $20 on a book and learn about wedding photography, you owe them that much.

if you get a good book it should tell you about posing, what to avoid, and then how to deliver the album and prints afterwards

good luck and have fun

Mike

http://www.michaelleggero.com

 

[IgsEMT]

Quote: Originally Posted by IgsEMT
My goal is to get 95% of the final image out of the camera and the rest of the 5% (filter, contrast, etc) to do in PP.


The same is also true when you shoot in RAW mode -

Definitely is. But very often today you hear and read "shoow raw and fix later" Thats why mentioned that.

 

[andrew99]

Quote: Originally Posted by IgsEMT
My goal is to get 95% of the final image out of the camera and the rest of the 5% (filter, contrast, etc) to do in PP.


The same is also true when you shoot in RAW mode -

Definitely is. But very often today you hear and read "shoow raw and fix later" Thats why mentioned that.

It's not about being lazy, it's about being able to recover from small mistakes in exposure. In weddings you have a bride in a white dress and a groom wearing all black, the camera's meter is easily confused, so you'll probably be shooting in manual, but the light is always changing.. Anyway, with RAW you can recover details which are lost in JPG. And at a wedding, you have to do everything possible to give you the best chance of getting good images.

 

[IgsEMT]

It's not about being lazy

Who ever mentioned being Lazy?
Seriously, we can go on on this raw vs jpg 4ever
Its about a style and timing.

 

[Big Mike]

Some people buy Corvettes just to look nice, not to drive fast.

 

[iskoos]

OP is doing wedding for the first time and it seems he hasn't worked on RAW files before. So from that point of view, it make sense if he would like to have JPEG files in hands just to be sure.
Yes, JPEGs can easily be obtained from RAW files. It may be as easy as pressing a few buttons on keyboard but ONLY if you know how to process them. If you don't know and wedding people waiting on your door to get the pictures, this will put lots of stress on you.
If I was OP and didn't have experience with RAW, I would shoot RAW + JPEG just to be safe.
This is NOT saying RAW is better than JPEG or vs. I don't think they can even be compared to each other. This is just to make the photographer feel more comfortable. It may cost some extra space to store all those images but really how much would this cost? I would pay an extra $50 if it's gonna make me feel safer...