RAW Shooter

25 06 2009

A lot of people get confused when I say that I shoot RAW. Most of the time they shoot me a blank a stare or sometimes a confused look. That is fine.

First off, what is RAW anyway? According to Understanding Digital RAW Capture

…raw isn’t one single thing. Rather, it’s a general term for a variety of proprietary file formats—such as Canon’s .CRW and .CR2, Minolta’s .MRW, Olympus’ .ORF, and the various flavors of Nikon’s .NEF, for example—that share important common features.

A raw file is a record of the data captured by the sensor. While there are many different ways of encoding this raw sensor data into a raw image file, in each case the file records the unprocessed sensor data.

Basically RAW is a file format just like a jpeg, tiff or gif.

The next question would be why shoot RAW and not just use jpeg?

Since RAW is unprocessed sensor data, I have control over several camera parameters before converting to JPEG–like saturation, white balance, sharpness, digital exposure etc. For me, the biggest factor is my ability to remove most color casts when I shoot RAW via its custom white balance. Then I just apply the same parameter to a set of photos and I am good to go.

Is there any down side of using RAW?

When shooting RAW, you will most likely be using the full resolution of your camera. Say if you have a Canon 5D with a 12MP, your photos will weigh in something like 12MB per photo!! Imagine the amount of CF cards your photos will gobble up in one wedding. Not to mention the hard drive space you need to store them while post processing them photos. Add to that about 3-5hrs of conversion for a batch of 500 photos [depending on your PC’s capability]. This does not even include the time of tagging and setting your parameters per photo.

I must say that I am rethinking my post processing workflow. Yes, I do love the features that RAW provides, but I do not like the way that it takes so much of my time.

I did some mix-matching with my shooting style and post processing and found out that I can shave several days off my regular schedule. Sweet.

In fact in a recent event I covered I was able to deliver the photos with full packaging right after their dinner. I am hoping to do the same for my wedding gigs . . . soon! 😀