Topic: Do you use RAW ?

You guys and gals from the Ozoneasylum, when shooting with your digital camera, do you use the RAW format always, most of the time, sometimes or never?

I'm just curious. They are huge, they slow the camera but they seem to give more control when processing the image in the computer.

Absolutely. There are good discussions about it over at dpreview.com if you want to get some insight.

I also use Phase One's C1 to do the conversions. Wonderfully fast, with great control.

I never use RAW. JPG give high enough quality and I can always put more pictures on the card without worrying about space.

Well, I'm testing this Phase One C1 RAW converter, it was well recommended by the luminous landscape, and it's really due to this converter that I started liking to deal with RAW files. It allows you to play with the file without performance concerns even in my P3-733MHz, since it deals with a sort of a proxy file to show the image real time, like Sound Forge and other audio apps deal with audio files. Very smart.

What I found to be a big advantage for RAW files is to get sharper images. I was always using JPG format, full resolution. Than, if I wanted to make a wallpaper, that's 1024 x 768 pixels for my current configuration, I had to downsize a lot the file and then apply USM.

But I found that if I use the RAW format with Capture One, I can already crop and resize the RAW file, with sharpening applied directly to the RAW file. I get pictures much sharper this way. The drawback is that all further adjustments in the file in Photoshop will have to be applied to the already sharpened file, and this is not recommended. Anyway, for a wallpaper, it doesn't seem to make a difference and I do get very sharp images.

I have to learn how to use curves. If I can master this, the picture can get out of Capture One almost ready. Little Photoshop would be required.

I don't think my 10D has been out of RAW mode since the day I bought it. I'm spoiled by the benefits: the ability to change the white balance, to adjust for minor exposure errors, etc. etc.

It also gives you a lossless maximum quality file that's lots smaller than a TIFF, so photos take up less space archived.

I love raw, but when I practice a technique I will use jpeg, like lighting, motion blur, macro, etc. When I'm shooting for real, then raw is the only way to go. I like the converter in PS cs. Tomorrow I will shoot up in the mountains while my Dad hunts for mushrooms, and I will be shooting in the raw.

Frank