Camera Raw Defaults for Best Quality

[AndrewRodney]

Originally Posted by Mike Hallock

I hate to interrupt this discussion about RAW image setting, but WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?

Its a long article but worth taking the time to read to clear this question up for you:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe...enderprint.pdf

[John_G_Walter]

Originally Posted by Mike Hallock

I hate to interrupt this discussion about RAW image setting, but WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?

I shoot 100% RAW.

Early on, it was explained to me that a RAW file was like a 'negative' from the days of film. The negative being the data that the camera produced, and the work in the darkroom making a print being the adjustments that can be made. Shooting a processed file like a jpg or tiff is more like getting a simple machine print from your film.

Except, it is really better than that. For example, when shooting film (color), you really have to have the color balance exact at the time of exposure, through the use of the correct film, or added filtration over the lens or lights. Correcting later during the print process is certainly possible to a somewhat acceptable degree, but you can never really correct 'completely' a mis-balanced exposure on film.

With digital RAW, it really doesn't matter what your white balance is set to, because you can easily change it during processing later to anything you want, and then back again.

With the new programs such as Adobe's Lightroom or Apple's Aperture, you can even do this in a non-destructive way to your original RAW file, as your changes are written to a small 'sidecar' file that is referenced everytime you access the original.

There is an added data-load to shooting RAW, as RAW files are considerably larger than jpg files. There is also the additional step in the workflow to do the processing functions that you have been relying on the camera to perform.

However, with programs such as Lightroom and Aperture, the workflow addition is really eliminated, or at least combined with whatever PhotoShop type of step you were already doing.

[Mike Hallock]

Originally Posted by John_G_Walter

I shoot 100% RAW.

Early on, it was explained to me that a RAW file was like a 'negative' from the days of film. The negative being the data that the camera produced, and the work in the darkroom making a print being the adjustments that can be made. Shooting a processed file like a jpg or tiff is more like getting a simple machine print from your film.

Except, it is really better than that. For example, when shooting film (color), you really have to have the color balance exact at the time of exposure, through the use of the correct film, or added filtration over the lens or lights. Correcting later during the print process is certainly possible to a somewhat acceptable degree, but you can never really correct 'completely' a mis-balanced exposure on film.

With digital RAW, it really doesn't matter what your white balance is set to, because you can easily change it during processing later to anything you want, and then back again.

With the new programs such as Adobe's Lightroom or Apple's Aperture, you can even do this in a non-destructive way to your original RAW file, as your changes are written to a small 'sidecar' file that is referenced everytime you access the original.

There is an added data-load to shooting RAW, as RAW files are considerably larger than jpg files. There is also the additional step in the workflow to do the processing functions that you have been relying on the camera to perform.

However, with programs such as Lightroom and Aperture, the workflow addition is really eliminated, or at least combined with whatever PhotoShop type of step you were already doing.

Well, I'll have to read more about it. I have a wedding in the morning and I'm chicken about changing those setting without some more testing. I did notice that when I set the camera to RAW the number of images that I could take decreased to less than a hundred. So nothing is going to change now.

Thanks for your input.

Mike H.

[Dennis_Vied]

I think this is not the time to change procedures now. Wait until after the wedding. However, when you think you've got most of what you need shot in jpg, you might want to take a few in RAW so you can experiment with them and see how they match up to the jpgs you shot.