These Photos Are RAW!!

Yesterday I coaxed you along your mode dial to the M mode. Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Well for at least thinking seriously about shooting manually today I'm going to show you how you can shoot in the RAW.

If your DSLR was purchased in the last 4-5 years you probably have the ability to select a file type called RAW.

I'll give you a comprehensive look at the difference between a RAW file and a more common JPEG file after the jump.

A clue: I edit my RAW files in software like this Adobe Camera RAW editor in which you see my granddaughter, Lily, and her friend, Weezie, the boxer.



The basic difference between RAW and JPEG files is, for me, twofold. (I love using words like "twofold") RAW files have a greater tonal range and more can be done with them in editing. Look at my web site, pictureneworleans.com, and you'll see that I do a whole lotta editing of my fine art photographs. RAW files are also much larger.

JPEG files are smaller, readable by most operating systems and software, useable in email and blogs, etc. They are also higher in contrast and sharpened and compressed a bit when they are finished in the camera. JPEGs don't have the tonal range of RAW files which limits how much you can adjust them on your computer.

A short way to think of the differences is: if you want to make great snapshots and don't plan to work on the photograph on your computer, may as well use an automatic mode on the camera and shoot JPEGs. Most of the time you'll get a well exposed photograph.

On the other hand, if you want to see what you can do with the photograph, if you'd most likely be buying darkroom supplies if we were still shooting film, I recommend a more manual shooting mode and RAW files.

In the Adobe Camera RAW editor you can see so many different tools that you may think that's way too much work to do to get a pretty picture. Of course, it depends on how much you want that picture to be pretty. On most images you'll use a few of the tools.

The most valuable of the tools, to me, are the exposure tools on the right of the photo. There you can fill in the shadows, bring down highlights, change the color temperature and basic exposure or brightness and contrast, and we're just getting started.

Actually that may be all you want to do but you have the option of making targeted adjustments to just part of the photograph, cropping, fixing red eyes, leveling and so many other adjustments that, if you're at all like me, you'll waste a lot of time exploring before you ever get in to a sort of routine for processing your photographs.

Here's also where you sharpen your RAW files. They aren't sharpened in camera nor are they compressed at all. Because RAW files are more like data files than JPEGs you'll need to sharpen them in your RAW editor. The good news? When you do sharpen them you'll get some great looking photos if you've done your exposure correctly when you took the shot.

I've really just glossed over the subject here. Here's a good article comparing RAW to JPEG from the Digital Photography School.