Raw Image Advantages

Photography Tips

There are many different ways to perfect your photography. First, you can use a high-quality lens. Secondly, you can invest a small number of hours editing your images in Photoshop or Lightroom. These ways will certainly make a big change to your photography. Is there anything else we know how to do to progress our images? Yes, there is.

Another approach to capture tack sharp and high-quality pictures is to photograph in RAW. Working in RAW is equivalent to generating a negative of the photo. The camera will photograph the image in a manner that is a whole lot  more detailed than JPEG. Let me explain.

RAW is a kind of photo file. When you capture images in RAW you achieve much more quality and have the potential to see more sharpness. You acquire this contained within regions of light and shade, vibrancy, and hue. This excellence and definition simply means that the digital camera is gathering more information. When you photograph in RAW the camera is able to handle this information a lot faster and more effectively.

Let’s take the case of a flower. In reality the flower is a rose-pink red color (this is what our eyes observe). When you take pictures of the flower in JPEG you may lose some of the pink in the color. The bloom may appear as a sturdy red color instead. That is for the reason that JPEG basically cannot reproduce the mid tones of color as fine as RAW can.

JPEG might discover in-between hues and colors tricky to identify. It simply isn’t seeking for the finer, subtle detail in your photo and this is why it does not distinguish it. However, when you change over to shooting in RAW format, you will find that the camera picks up reddish pink tone of the flower. Simply put, the digital camera replicates much finer details when you capture in RAW.

There is one downside though. RAW image files cannot be seen in just any program. You need special software to see raw photos. Depending on the kind of camera model you have, the software will be different. Canon has special software called Digital Photo Professional. This software allows you to see your RAW shots. As a Canon user, I’m only able to use Canon RAW software. If I capture a photo with a Nikon camera I’m not able to use this software program. Nikon has RAW platforms that are available to Nikon users.

Should you amend your RAW pictures? Many people ask me if you should generate a JPEG file duplicate in order to persevere with the RAW file untouched. My answer is that it depends on your personal preference. Many photographers do this different ways. I like to create a copy of the raw file for editing. That way I have the untouched original photo. If anything happens to the JPEG photo then I still retain the original as backup. The only reason that I will create a copy of the raw shot a JPEG is if I like to keep it on a website or upload it.

RAW files are fairly large. The JPEG photo might be about 3 Mb. Lots of the raw images that I capture in are about 30Mb. What is the advantage of this? This is massively useful because when the raw file is larger it means it has photographed terrific quality, definition and sharpness. The better a photograph, usually, the better quality it will be present.

Shifting your working mode over the raw is so easy. It is done using the menu in your digital camera. When you open the menu go to “image size” you will typically find it effortless to change over. This will mean that you can select to shoot in RAW only. Then again you can concurrently shoot in RAW and JPEG. Be mindful that when these two shots are created at the same time you will eat through your memory cards. The camera just needs more space if it is to create two shots at once. The JPEG file might only be 3Mb but your RAW file will be 20Mb. After a few hours of photographing, the space on your memory card will begin to lessen. Always take two memory cards when you shoot to avoid running out of memory space.

Many professional photographers, like me, will only photograph in RAW. This is because we want the quality. If we desire to produce a JPEG file for assessment purposes we can simply create a copy later on. In the meantime we know that we are producing superior quality. The pictures look sharper and clearer. We also know they will stand the test of time.

Raw is more interesting from a creative sense. Colors are very sharp, landscapes clearer, and your pictures are better exposed. The shade and highlights are not as prone to exposure problems as they would be in JPEG. RAW seems to balance out the lighting. In truth, it’s simply picking up more finer details in the scene. This is ideal for photographing people and wedding ceremonies, night, and dim light shots.

Wedding photos can be fairly complicated when you have many different regions of light. Some of these highlights can work in opposition to somebody’s skin tone. Shooting in raw can help retain beauty in skin color tones. A person’s skin and natural coloring will look warm and soft when you photograph in RAW. This is why lots of wedding and portrait photographers photograph in RAW alone.

I recommend shooting in raw all the time. Not only will it be better than a JPEG shot but you will love the quality. Your photos look sharper, clearer, and more crisp. You get a healthier variety of vibrancy and light. It will dramatically improve your photography. Happy shooting!

About the Author:
Amy Renfrey writes for DigitalPhotographySuccess.com. She is a professional photographer and photography teacher. She shows you how to take the most breathtaking, brilliant and incredibly stunning photos every single time you press the shutter button, even if you know nothing about photography and have never used a digital camera before.