RAW vs Jpeg

[Cyberman]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

this is the one i can't get my head round being a mac user for over 10 years now ,the photos (raw files) just open up on my machine without the need to mess around converting them .i know what your talking about but it seems so crude in this day and age. i suppose we just have to work with what we have available

I use use an iMac, it's great. I've been a convert for about 4-5 years now and would not go back to a Windows PC but I appreciate that's a personal opinion.
I only convert to JPG for files that are being used elsewhere or in other files such as word, video's etc.

[Tigger]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

this is the one i can't get my head round being a mac user for over 10 years now ,the photos (raw files) just open up on my machine without the need to mess around converting them .i know what your talking about but it seems so crude in this day and age. i suppose we just have to work with what we have available

I only moved to Macs last year and I "think" I can agree with you, although for the first few months I very nearly launched my Mac out of the door in favor of my trusty old PC

[Nathaniel]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

This was a great question to pose Nat. I was very interested to read all the replies, and advice. I'm definately going to go back to raw, without a doubt!!.

Very much looking forward to meeting Jeff again, (next week) to see what I can learn.!!. That's if I can take it in of course, could be lots and lots of notes I reckon.

Especially like the idea of raw and jpeg, where you can see at a glance (thumbnail) which shot is likely to be worth keeping.

As I said, great question Nat.

Wayne, I am sure you will learn a great deal from Jeff as he knows a lot. He had his own business, his own yacht etc at one time. The only difficulty is that he is so far ahead with his thoughts and advice that it is sometimes difficult to follow. Anyway good luck next week.

[the black fox]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

I only moved to Macs last year and I "think" I can agree with you, although for the first few months I very nearly launched my Mac out of the door in favor of my trusty old PC

i know that feeling well tigger ,luckily our lad still lives at home and is a puter whizz ,especially on macs ,i have to admit i sometimes still struggle but its always my user error thats caused the problem ,usually when i,m tired and shouldn't really be doing the job .got to set one up for my friend over the weekend ,dave who was also at the meet .
the worst problems are caused when you try to apply windows thinking to a mac ,so i told him not to touch it till i do

[Tigger]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

the worst problems are caused when you try to apply windows thinking to a mac ,so i told him not to touch it till i do

agree, as more than a few people told me when first working with it "its not a PC"

[Opifex]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

I always use RAW simply because it is so much more forgiving when I make mistakes and I can hopefully recover some of the damage.

I'm puzzled by some people saying that you can't view RAW files in Windows. I'm on Windows 8 and often use Windows Photo Gallery to quickly scan through a folder and eliminate the obvious duds before using DPP for inital processing and converting any worth saving to JPEG.

Graham.

[kelly200269]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

I'm puzzled by some people saying that you can't view RAW files in Windows. I'm on Windows 8 and often use Windows Photo Gallery to quickly scan through a folder and eliminate the obvious duds before using DPP for inital processing and converting any worth saving to JPEG.

The whole 'RAW OR JPEG' debate is irrelevant. Just set your camera to record both, then you have both a JPEG and the 'digital negative' for if you want to revisit it later.

And there is also a Canon RAW codec for MS Windows that allows you to view CRW/CR2 files in the explorer window. I'm on Windows 7 and it works seamlessly and allows me view all my RAW files before booting-up DPP.
Just Google 'Canon RAW viewer Windows'. I think it's a Microsoft add-in?

[Opifex]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

The whole 'RAW OR JPEG' debate is irrelevant. Just set your camera to record both, then you have both a JPEG and the 'digital negative' for if you want to revisit it later.

And there is also a Canon RAW codec for MS Windows that allows you to view CRW/CR2 files in the explorer window. I'm on Windows 7 and it works seamlessly and allows me view all my RAW files before booting-up DPP.
Just Google 'Canon RAW viewer Windows'. I think it's a Microsoft add-in?

Yep, same applies to Windows 8.
I seem to remember having to download the Codec from the Microsoft website but read that it would be included with a later update and, presumably, in Win 8.1.

Graham.

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

And there is also a Canon RAW codec for MS Windows that allows you to view CRW/CR2 files in the explorer window. I'm on Windows 7 and it works seamlessly and allows me view all my RAW files before booting-up DPP.
Just Google 'Canon RAW viewer Windows'. I think it's a Microsoft add-in?

The key difference for me is that OSX includes by default the software required to view in an "explorer" pretty much all image types, including RAW though I suspect all it does is parse the small jpeg that's included in raw files by default. It used to be the case that Windows didn't do this and as a result you had to find and install various bits of additional software. When my wife moved to shooting raw, we had to do the download and install trick and even for me as someone that makes their living from computer systems, it was none to clear what I had to install to get it to work. My wife by herself would have been more likely to just give up and go back to jpeg.

Apple extend this to including automatic updates for new cameras as they come out so the support is much better. Or it is unless Microsoft have got their act together and started providing this capability out of the box.

[kelly200269]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

When my wife moved to shooting raw, we had to do the download and install trick and even for me as someone that makes their living from computer systems, it was none to clear what I had to install to get it to work. My wife by herself would have been more likely to just give up and go back to jpeg.

Apple extend this to including automatic updates for new cameras as they come out so the support is much better. Or it is unless Microsoft have got their act together and started providing this capability out of the box.

Without getting into a 'PC Vs Mac' debate (which I'm sure has been debated many times on this forum before), IMO installing the Canon RAW CODEC for Windows was a cinch. Dead easy :)

[AlexR!]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

Although I have an iMac I don't view my RAW files using the OS. I just leave PSE running in the background, upload everything straight into that and do all of my culling from within PSE. Any that I think are worth keeping I edit and save off as a JPEG on the basis that if I don't think it is worth 5 minutes of my time to tweak it that tells me it's not worth keeping. I don't think I've ever taken an image that hasn't benefited from some pp (but maybe that is just me!) and RAW lets me recover more detail, so why wouldn't I use that?
But I know I have a very simple workflow which I'm sure wouldn't work for everyone.

[AndyA]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

Hi Nat,
Me personally i shoot both JPEG + RAW, i know this takes up more storage space, but the reasoning behind it is as follows;

1) When i upload photo's to the pc, i have instant photo's to look at, in which the misses likes to look at, this is where the JPEG is handy.
2) RAW format is for my favourites, where i can adjust and manipulate to my likings.
3) So shooting in both formats i have best of both worlds.

Cheers Ian

This is pretty much how I do things, although I make the decision of which images to edit myself. If the jpeg looks interesting, I'll edit the raw file.

I'm using Windows 8.1 and despite all my updates and attempts, I still cannot view the raw files natively.

[Woolley]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

Another one for 'everything in RAW', although it took me a while to move over.

I use a programme called ACDsee which I originally picked up as a freebee and then steadily upgraded. Originally it was just a database for managing the pictures, but it did the downloading and display functions and allowed you to add ratings and keywords and a few processing tools. Gradually it's become more sophisticated and my changeover really coincided with the improvements in the processing side of that.

In reality my processing is fairly minor as I'm not into making huge changes, I want the picture generally to look as it was. Like others, I first flip through and rate the images, especially picking out the losers which aren't worth processing (but I never delete any, just move them to a sub folder). I then set black and white points, and make any helpful adjustments to exposure, levels and contrast, and then finally add sharpening as a batch process, just finishing with a final check through for obvious problems where a few may require less sharpening. I then export the whole lot to jpg and move the RAW files into their own sub-folder. Only then do I let anyone - including my wife - see the results!

It sounds like a long process, but it's not. A good day's shooting on holiday is processed in about the same time as my wife takes to get ready to go out to eat, and then she looks at the results while I get ready! When I shoot a stage show which usually requires a little more effort I'd say the whole lot takes around an hour. Not long in order to achieve a big improvement in the end results.

Having said that, I have no interest in moving up to the Adobe suite. I'm not going to start layering, cloning, selective development, etc. If I wanted to do that I'd take up painting.

[Stan]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

This is pretty much how I do things, although I make the decision of which images to edit myself. If the jpeg looks interesting, I'll edit the raw file.

I am similar - the jpeg does give a reasonable idea of the worth of processing the image properly, eg, sharpness, blown areas, background distractions etc

To my mind buying a DSLR and not making use of all the extra information available from a raw file is just a waste of money - you might just as well get a point and shoot.

Stan

[AndyA]

Re: RAW vs Jpeg

To my mind buying a DSLR and not making use of all the extra information available from a raw file is just a waste of money - you might just as well get a point and shoot.

Stan

Absolutely!