Shooting both JPG and RAW
Albert Pedrosa
Photo Mania
THERE was this one forum that I was following about post-processing and somewhere in the middle of an in-depth discussion, one photographer posted that there is no reason to edit your photos anymore. Plain photography skills plus JPG format is all you need to nail the money shot.
I think the admin deleted the post after all the forum members went ballistic and flooded the forum with novel length posts. In my case, I actually shoot both. I love to tinker with the settings of picture style or control and find the tone that I want the shot to come out. I need to be motivated by the photos that I see in my LCD during the actual shoot.
The only way for you to remember how the shot was made is to set your camera to shoot JPG. If you want the Raw and complete image without editing, you need to set your camera to shoot both. The picture style or control in your camera is only applied to JPG, which is also the same file displayed in your LCD, while the Raw is saved untouched in your memory card.
There were few occasions where I submitted JPG with just few adjustments directly to my client. I don’t always start my workflow with Raw file. If I like the JPG already and have no plans of dissecting the image, then I stay with JPG. If I’ll put some numbers on the frequency of JPG against Raw, I think I use 85 percent Raw and the rest is JPG.
However, in my workflow, JPG’s tone and color are important to me as a reference in developing my Raw files. For serious editing, Raw files have 10 times more detail and dynamic range compared to JPG. Just make sure to use 16-bit when exporting to Photoshop to get the full advantage of using Raw.
Note that the reason I can afford to shoot both JPG and Raw formats is because I’m not shooting events. When shooting both formats, your camera takes time to write the data and will slow down until the buffer is cleared. Of course, if you’re using top-of-the-line camera bodies with fast processors, this is not an issue.
I also don’t think that it’s advisable to shoot Raw when shooting events, since these are documentary in nature. I’m really not sure. I don’t shoot events since I can’t handle the pressure. I love to take my time and plan every bit of detail when shooting.
SINULOG PHOTO CONTEST. Good luck to all who joined the Sinulog Photo Contest. For those who are still trying to beat today’s deadline, don’t forget to label your files and CD properly.
Keep on shooting everyone!
photomania.sunstar@gmail.com www.grp.ph
