aellman Loc: Boston MA

Forgive my ignorance. I don't post process with any software. Is there still an advantage to shooting RAW files?

Thanks!
Alan

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Absolutely. It is, in reality, a digital negative, containing all the information you need to correct any mistakes in the histogram you make when shooting. So, what then do you consider no post processing?

aellman Loc: Boston MA

Very rarely do some minor tweaking of gamma or contrast with Paint Shop Pro. So there would be an advantage in this case before converting to JPG or TIFF for printing? Thanks very much. >Alan

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

If you don't intend to process, perhaps the need is not too great. If your ever might want to process, perhaps it would be good to save RAW + JPEG. Use the JPEG now and perhaps later, use the RAWs to get even better results.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

8-bit jpeg files don't allow much room for adjustment w/o showing its limitations. You can recover and work raw files so much more. One thing I like to do is revisit some of my older images with new skills I have learned (and software upgrades) to see how much more I can get out of them. Went to Europe a few years ago and at that time couldn't open the raw Fuji files I shot. With my latest PS upgrade, I can now work with the raw files. (yes, I know about dng and the Fuji software) I've learned a few things since then and have a couple of my rediscoveries up on the dining room wall.


(Go Cubs!)

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

I still have all 128 foul balls and those tossed up to me from the 69 season. We won. Yay! That was a long drought. I always sat 10 rows back behind the 3rd base dugout (our dugout). I grew up on the west side.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

It is not that bad of a question. If you do absolutely no post processing, then all your are doing if you shoot in raw, is wasting disk space on your SD card. Today's processing engines in all brands of cameras do a more than adequate job of Jpeg conversion.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you are happy with your results, then there is no need to learn post processing. If you feel that you can improve on what comes out of the camera - like better detail rendition, color and white balance adjustments, sharpening and noise reduction, selective color and tone treatment, local (micro) contrast adjustment, etc, and if you have situations where you will need to make the same adjustments to a series of images, then post processing is worth investigating.

As far as the suggestion to shoot raw+jpeg goes, it can work if you have images that are of average contrast - not too many shadows and not too many bright highlights. But to be certain, when you do have wide contrast and tonal range, shooting jpegs will likely result in loss of highlight detail, but with middle tones rendered fairly well. When you shoot raw, you can adjust your exposure to preserve the highlights (expose less) which results in darker images, which can be processed in such a way that you can reveal, without much noise, the shadow detail. If you were to shoot raw+jpeg, the jpeg would be unuseably dark, but the raw would be correctly exposed, with the intent of working the image later in post processing.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

There is no point in shooting raw unless you intend to process at some later date. If that date is never, shoot Jpg Fine.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Personally I like to do post processing and that's why I shoot RAW always, it gives me a lot more creative control over my photographs. Some people, however, hate to do any post processing and for those people I guess .jpeg would be the way to go. It's a personal preference.

Jim Bob

How 'bout them Cubbies! Nice reply by the way.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Even if you don't care to do any post processing, you don't know that in a few years you will be more serious about photography and realize the difference RAW can make. I wish some of the shots I did in JPEG when I first started in digital were in RAW and I could go back and improve them. There's no downside to shooting RAW + JPEG with storage being so cheap, even if you don't mess with the RAW files right now.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Zero Value. In fact, even if you plan on post processing you can easily do so with out shooting raw.

The value of shooting raw is massively overstated by many on the hog. I enjoy post processing more than taking pictures, so everything I do is post processed and I quit shooting raw almost completely. There may be times to shoot raw, but certainly not if you are not going to post process the image.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

I have one up on Bill Murry. I bet he can not name all of the players on the 69 Cubs roster! That was the year that they were supposed to take it all; but I am not complaining one bit. 2016 is nice!

aellman Loc: Boston MA

Thank you! >Alan