Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I would never try to talk you into working with raw files. Why do you try to talk people out of it?

Mike

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

I dont.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-413507-2.html

"Who needs raw?" is the title of the thread you started there.

In response to a member saying this:

Every .jpg image has compression artifacts. These often make enlargements or severe crops problematic. RAW images have none of these. I always shoot in RAW as it assures me of getting the technically best possible image from the camera.

You posted this:

Balogna.

So, as I said, why do you try to talk people out of it?

Mike

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

I dont.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

You did. I am just curious as to why you did.

Mike

anotherview Loc: California

Scott Kelby puts it this way: Fix it in RAW and finish it in Photoshop. He assumes some editing in Adobe Camera Raw.

I've found ACR very powerful, and Adobe keeps adding to its capability.

Typically, I spend as much or more time in ACR than in Photoshop editing my photographs.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

15 or 20 seconds is typically the most time I spend in DPP (Canon's raw file rendering program). What are you doing in ACR that is time consuming? When a Canon raw file is opened in DPP, it rarely requires any adjustments at all. When adjustments are needed, it is much easier to do with a raw file than with a jpeg.

The question asked is what is the "worst digital photography suggestion/tip" we ever got. I have thousands of images that I shot in JPEG, because some people claimed that using raw files would be more difficult, was not really necessary, etc. I regret listening to that "tip" and I now know that the "tip" was wrong. Raw files are not more difficult to work with, they are much easier to work with, and at least for me, the results are vastly superior. I know that jpegs work fine for many people and for many applications, and I wouldn't try to tell anyone who is happy with that to change what they are doing. But I regret letting people steer me away from working with raw files.

Mike

anotherview Loc: California

You bring up another issue which few touch on but I have noticed in my reading of the history of photography, especially in more contemporary readings. Some experienced photographers insist on this or that approach to doing photography. Beginners take this insistence as guidance, and follow it.

I notice this phenomenon because I taught myself to do photography. So I did it my way not the way of another with fixed notions. I developed no bias. I followed my bent and my eye instead.

No, my time in ACR is not time consuming. In fact, my editing goes right along, depending. Some photographs do require more attention.

And Adobe keeps adding new tools. For example, only very recently Adobe added a filter for isolating the sky by selecting its coloration which typically differs from the foreground and surface. The user can then adjust the selection apart from the rest. A little more tweaking my prove necessary in Photoshop, but the grunt work gets done in ACR.

I could go on but I stop here. I encourage others to strike out on their own to struggle with learning photography. A workshop in basic camera operation and in basic photo editing could speed things up. Overall, I can recommend this general approach: Learn composition and exposure along with the importance of subject.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

True. Good point.



Well said. Thanks.

Mike

anotherview Loc: California

Thanks.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

When an instructor tells me, "There is only one true way to do yadayadayada..." I just want to leave. Procedural absolutes are usually based on ignorance, laziness, low priority, and an incomplete understanding of photographic principles — and a lack of understanding the industry's reasons for developing alternatives.

Just as there are often 16 different ways to do the same thing in a computer operating system, there are usually lots of ways to get to the same point in photography (or anything in life, so long as you obey the laws of physics and mathematics). Question Authority! Exercise your right to ring your own bull$#!t alarm! Look stuff up in multiple places!

blackest Loc: Ireland

I rember years ago my mother was doing an essay and she had been on a course for "word" i think it was and she wanted a change made I think i used a right click context menu item , she had only been taught to go to menu bar and select the menu category and then the menu item.

She was quite annoyed they hadn't mentioned any of the alternative options. It was handy in a way that I showed her an alternative option as i'm sure she has found plenty on her own now.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

Brings to mind the old saying that "There is more than one wau to skin a cat."

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yeah... I've seen that a lot. Funniest thing I ever saw, though, was when a lady in one of my software training seminars picked up a mouse, and tried to use it like a game controller! That was 1993... I kindly showed her what to do.

Most of the Boomer generation grew up with a lack of typing skills, so adopting computer skills in the 1980s was particularly difficult for some. I was very lucky — my Mom taught me to type when I was 8, so when the Apple II came along, I jumped on it! Few others in my company (a large professional portrait lab) could type. They were still using secretaries, administrative assistants, and typists. Sloooooooowwww way to work... A wave of manager types retired in 1997 when we networked our office and required every manager to use a PC for email, reports, payroll, purchasing, production control and tracking... Another, much larger wave of folks "retired" (permanent layoff) when we killed off film and went to digital imaging between 2000 and 2003. So sad... Only one out of 15 of our existing employees had computer skills, or would go to the community college — at our expense — to get them!

MaryFran Loc: Front Royal, VA

I am a Boomer. In high school, none of the college-bound students took typing except for me. Wish I'd taken shorthand too. I remember being in the office at Sears where I worked about 10 years ago, astonished to see one of the managers using two fingers to type an e-mail. I don't think any of the managers could type. When I exclaimed about it, she responded, "I was never in that line of work." (That in itself is an insult). To which I replied, "Neither was I." And I thought to myself, "It's a basic skill everyone should have." When we home educated our girls, I required them to learn to type, something they hated at the time, but have been forever grateful for.