Help with RAW format

[Shawn Davis 0]

While we're pretty comfortable in general with the quality of the images we get of my flies, my wife (the photographer) and I would like to start going to RAW images if we can get them looking good. The problem has always been obtaining vibrant colors - the flies and background always look dull when we shoot in RAW. I tie artistic salmon flies, so capturing the color contrasts and making sure they really pop is essential.

 

Are there particular settings adjustments one should make differently with the camera itself while shooting in RAW vs. JPEG, or should color adjustments be made later in Photoshop? I personally dislike the idea of messing with colors much in Photoshop because I want my flies to be accurately represented, but I don't know enough about the technical differences to know if color-adjustment is a must for RAW images.

 

Regards,

Shawn

[Guest]

While we're pretty comfortable in general with the quality of the images we get of my flies, my wife (the photographer) and I would like to start going to RAW images if we can get them looking good. The problem has always been obtaining vibrant colors - the flies and background always look dull when we shoot in RAW. I tie artistic salmon flies, so capturing the color contrasts and making sure they really pop is essential.

 

Are there particular settings adjustments one should make differently with the camera itself while shooting in RAW vs. JPEG, or should color adjustments be made later in Photoshop? I personally dislike the idea of messing with colors much in Photoshop because I want my flies to be accurately represented, but I don't know enough about the technical differences to know if color-adjustment is a must for RAW images.

 

Regards,

Shawn

 

Hi Shawn, I'm not sure how much this will help. But I was told to change my setting on my camera to use "adobe color". Once I did that and I changed my Photoshop Elements to use the same coloring I noticed a big difference in coloring. Also of course you will want to have good lighting for your photos. Maybe a light box would help you in that area. I shoot in Raw all the time.

 

Jim

[Peterjay 0]

Shawn, see if this helps.

 

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial...raw-files.shtml

 

[Shawn Davis 0]

Thanks, guys. That's helpful. I should have mentioned more about the set-up before. We use a tent and two pretty nice studio lights on stands.

 

It seems that post-photo color adjustment is the whole point of RAW images - the computer merely gets the camera data and you have to then tell it what to do with it. Might take knowing what the software can do and doing a little tinkering to get the colors right. I'm guessing that once you figure out certain settings you like for the types of images you shoot, they can be applied each time and then tweaked to the specific shot. Might be more time-consuming, but might also be worth it.

 

I'm wondering if changing the settings on your camera sort of defeats the purpose of shooting with RAW - because part of what makes it effective is that the camera is not making the adjustments. Would making those adjustments on the camera cause the image transmitted to the computer to be more like JPEG and less like RAW? It sure seems that way.

 

Again, thanks.

-Shawn

[Wulff 0]

Shawn changing exposure settings on your camera will have zero little impact on your images colours. That said lower ISOs and slower Shutter Speeds increase saturation.

 

Take a shot on an overcast day at ISO 400 and 1/400th.

Then take the same shot at ISO 100 and 1/100th.

 

The difference is that when shooting jpeg the camera applies adjustments for you to things like contrast, saturation, sharpening dependant on the presets youve chosen. With RAW it doesnt.

 

It just takes a little time playing round and before long you won't look back.

[WYKnot 0]

Hi Shawn,

 

I learned quite a bit from Jon Canfield's book RAW 101 when first starting out; just learning the terminology and understanding the adjustments possible in ACR was very helpful. I needed that primer to better understand the web-based tutorials.

 

NEF (Nikon's RAW format) took some getting used to. I was disappointed initially, without color adjustments and sharpening added to JPG images, my pictures seemed dull and soft. I actually add a little in-camera sharpening to my D200 when shooting RAW, allows me to evaluate critical focus on macro images and weed out pictures more efficiently.

 

As noted by the others, play around with your settings (in-camera and post-processing), keep good notes on what works (and what doesn't).

[Shawn Davis 0]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Perhaps I'll check out Canfield's book. So am I right in assuming that, when shooting in RAW, any in-camera adjustments you make don't affect the image file sent to the computer but only the image displayed on the camera display itself?

 

-Shawn

[Peterjay 0]

Shawn, I try to steer clear of as much of the technical stuff as I can, so I'm probably in over my head here, but I've been operating under the premise that in-camera adjustments won't show up when you convert RAW files on your computer. I think white balance may be an exception under certain circumstances, but I don't really know, (or care) since I print 99% of my stuff in grayscale anyway. My understanding is that all RAW files are, is the original data that the sensor captures. Technically, it's not an image, it's just data. That's why you have to convert the files to JPEG or TIFF (or whatever) to put your pictures on the web or to make prints. The tech wizards here can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the image you see in playback mode is a JPEG preview or thumbnail that the camera creates. There are a lot of advantages to shooting RAW, and few disadvantages other than increased file size or maybe slower writing speed. One huge advantage is that you can take any creative decisions out of the camera's hands and tailor the image to your needs. If you shoot JPEG, the camera is doing its own (permanent) RAW-to-JPEG conversion within pre-set parameters, (yours and/or the manufacturer's) and you're already losing data that will affect your image to some degree. Whether or not the loss is significant depends on your needs. JPEG is inherently a "lossy" format, and every time you alter an image, you're going to lose some data. I'm mainly concerned with printing, so I usually convert the RAW files to TIFF files, which don't lose data when altered. If I want to post something on the web, I make a JPEG copy just for that purpose. Another good thing about RAW is that when you do your conversion, you'll always have the original RAW file safely tucked away, so you can go back to it and start over again if you screw up the image beyond repair. Like I said, I'm in over my head most of the time, but my system has been working well for me, so I guess there's something to be said for ignorance, or maybe just keeping it simple. Hope this helps. I don't know how you tech guys can think about this stuff all day long without getting migraines.

[rich5665 0]

Proper lighting is essential when shooting indoors. ISO and Shutter Speed are still important along with Proper Flash settings. Prior to digital pocket cameras and DSLRs, photographers used lens filters to enhance their photos. Since the advent of Digital Photography however, everything is now done within Photoshop or Gimp. When shooting RAW try taking the Auto setting out of the equation. The cameras computer will never truly replace the human eye. As with tying flies. practice, practice, practice. See if the local community college offers a photography class, even if you have been taking pictures for years a class never hurts.

By the way Gimp is free a download, if you use Photoshop then Gimp should be easy to learn and saves you a few hundred dollars.

[JayMorr 0]

Excellent post and replies. I will just echo a lot of what everyone said and add a few things that I currently do.

 

I almost always shoot in RAW. The benefits far out way the disadvantages. When shooting in RAW format I almost always stick to a 2gb or 4gb card. Although I only get 150 or so images on a 2gb card in RAW format, it sure beats losing a lot of images. (I can't imagine losing 8gb of recent eagle shots!) I find that getting in the habit of switching out 2gb cards works well with post process uploading and protecting my data. (Sorry this was a little off topic but I thought I would mention it).

 

I have used several RAW editors but I still keep going back to Lightroom or Canon RAW editor. There is a plugin for it with CS photshop. RAW allows you to crop out original parts of the image and save the images as TIFs. RAW has some huge advantages when doing full crops and zooming in on a photo. The data in the RAW file is soooo much better. And I can only select the parts I want and do a crop without damaging my original file.

 

When I am done working with my RAW data I save it as a TIFF, which is a 16bit file. I can further tweak my TIF image. Shots that go out on the web are then converted to JPG.

 

Like Wulff was mentioning, try and shoot at lower ISO's and a longer shutter speed. This will help with your color. If it continues to be a problem, minor color and saturation fixes are done easily in RAW editor or Photoshop. Example of some of the color issues I had with sky backgrounds on my eagle shots this past weekend were due to fast shutter speeds and poor afternoon light conditions. Some of these corrections can be made in RAW.

 

Rich, also mentioned Flashes. I use flash on almost all my indoor photographs and it has changed my photos 10 fold. Flash light can be harsh and if you do not have the proper camera setup for it I would shy away from it on your fly pics and use other lighting for fill. My "DayLight" lamp and light box help when I am not using camera flash.

 

SRAW is another format used. I use this when I am specifically shooting smaller stuff and I know I will not be blowing the images up for print. It gives me RAW format but on a smaller scale. Typically SRAW is great for print sizes of 5x8's or less and it frees up some card space. Again, I only use this in certain circumstances but if you are concerned about card space it is an option.

[Shawn Davis 0]

Thanks, guys. Very helpful.

 

-Shawn