Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

I am interested from the sports shooters. Do you shoot RAW or JPG? I am posting this here instead of the general section because I am interested in JPG vs RAW for sports only. I have been shooting raw and like the flexibility and control you have with it. I also like working in LR and PS to create images. However after watching a recent class on Kelby One by Rob Foldy who is a proffesional and only shoots jpg for sports I am wondering if RAW is really worth the time and effort. For a typical lacrosse game I will shoot 400-500 shots. From that I cull through them and end up with about 150-200 worth processing from that I end up with 60-100 keepers. On average the total time runs about 5 minutes per keeper start to finish. Meaning the total time to go from 400-500 shots to 60-100 keepers is about 5-8 hours per game. So here is my question what do most of you shoot? RAW or JPG? Or a combination? If you are shooting RAW how long are you spending start to finish in your work flow? If you are shooting JPG why? Not a sarcastic why, but a true, please explain what you see as the advantage is. Thank you.

Spider223

I'm not a professional, as can be seen by some of my photos. I generally shoot a combination RAW-JPG-LARGE-FINE, but when I am going to be shooting a lot of movement at high shutter speed, and continuous release (H), I shoot in JPG-LARGE-Fine mode. If I want to start blasting shots of my dog running, I don't have to worry about missing part of her sequence while the camera pauses to write to the SD card (I have the Nikon D5500). With a high shutter speed, I can roll off 80-100 shots in jpg without missing a beat. in RAW-JPG FINE I'm lucky to get eight shots off before it starts pausing to catch up writing to the card (Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB).

I was recently made aware of a menu command in Elements 15 that allows me to open a JPG in Camera RAW format. (FILE - OPEN IN CAMERA RAW), that allows me to treat the jpg as a raw image (yes, even iphone images).

For fast moving sports, and high shutter speed, I personally prefer JPG-LARGE-FINE.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Thank you for your input

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

I used to shoot jpeg because of limited buffer size on my D7100 and later D7200. But since getting the D500, I shoot RAW. Does take a little more post processing time, but helps if I have any white balance issues from changing light conditions.

Toby

I always shoot the largest file I can and in both jpeg and raw. I edit the raw files in LR and if lighting etc are good it goes very quickly. If not I have a raw file that I can do extensive work on. After editing I save in a processed file and then move them to the original jpeg file and overwrite the originals. I usually keep both the original raw and edited jpeg.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

When I started shooting digital at the race track it was because the sports editor demanded that my pics be in by 6:00 pm. That was really hard to do when the race ran at 6:15 PM! But I had to shoot jpeg because there was literally no time for any editing before e-mailing it off from my computer in my truck in the parking lot! Plus, I would do lots of series of rapid-fire and doing the jpeg only got me more shots before the buffer took over. I found that if I had my jpeg rendering set to my liking I'd get very nice pics and NO PP WORK! Yeah!!!!!

However, if you're not facing a time crunch like I was, and you like doing PP, then by all means shoot RAW. There's a lot more detail in those RAW images than come out in the jpeg.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I shoot sports action professionally and I ONLY shoot raw 99% of the time. When I upload from my cards to Lightroom, using a fairly fast iMac, the software takes care of getting the files ready for further processing and I don't believe, from that point, there is any more time involved. A lot of what I do is cropping, and I can process 500 shots in 15 to 30 minutes which is something that comes with experience. On my first pass I grade the shots and then look further into only the ones I selected for further consideration. Depending upon my assignment, I may only be looking for the 10 best shots. By getting it right the first time, in camera, you can save yourself quite a lot of post processing time. Doesn't mean I don't have to spend some time on a photo or two, but not all of them. Experience is the best teacher by far. Best of luck.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Thanks for the input! Ok so what exactly is lightroom doing for you? Do you have the adjustments pre set and applied when uploaded? Or do you just load them and hit the auto adjust? Please tell me how to get this done in 15-30 minutes lol? Can I ask you as a professional, If you were not shooting for an assignment, lets say you were shooting your son or daughters game and just taking shots to share with the players and parents would you still shoot raw knowing you would be not looking for the 10 very best shots but sharing the keepers you got which would number say 60-100? I understand it is your profession and most likely would not be in that position but what would you recomend to someone who is?

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Thank for your input! So I have a different type of time crunch. I want to get the pics out the the players and family as quick as possible because If I let them sit the task becomes too daunting. This weekend for example My son has a Lacrosse Showcase with potentially 5 games. That is potentially 2000+ shots to go through while I do not have a deadline to meet, iff I do not find a quicker way to get through them and get the images out the the parents I am going to lose my mind. I am not selling or making money doing this. I am just shooting my son and happy to share the images I get of the other players with them and their families. Even though I am not getting paid it is still my "art" so I only want to share good shots that I am proud of, "the Keepers" I feel like JPG is the way to go but I am so affraid to lose the processing control.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I shoot the same way in either situation, and I shoot grandkids' sports quite often. I use Lightroom as it was designed, to import, store, store a backup, add keywords and create previews, plus rename my files. All in one step. I finish my post (90%) in Lightroom and use Photoshop as needed. If I sit down and concentrate, I can easily go through 4-500 shots in 30 minutes. My goal is to get it right as I shoot, and I already know what shot(s) I'm looking for. Let's say I want a specific batter hitting a ball. At 12 frames a second, let's say the batter doesn't swing, I can blow by those quickly. There's a saying, let's call it a rule, in sports work, "if you saw it, you missed it!". Best of luck.

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

And that's only of a very few cameras that CAN shoot at full frame rate, while continuously recording Raw files.

Most of us commoners have much lesser camera bodies, and appreciate the faster frame rates/longer bursts that come from shooting jpeg.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

My comment had nothing to do with being a commoner or anything else. Simply a reality of a limitation in the gear I previously had at the time. We work with what we have. If I had a D5, I could hold the shutter down at an even higher frame rate until the battery ran dry. The question was do we shoot in RAW or JPEG and why. I don't see any reason to imply my response was a put down. But if you are feeling insecure, or having gear envy, that's your issue. I sure don't worry because I only have 20 pixels and not 36 like a D810.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

J, I shoot combinations, depending on what I shoot and why. If it's only for myself and portfolio, I shoot only large Raw to both my cards, which seems to be the situation that you are in. I also usually shoot 4-500 or less, as well .
In your situation, here is how I would shoot/process.
I would shoot full raw. I rarely shoot full speed(10fps), but sometimes slow speed.
Then I download to DPP(Canon).
Using small thumbnails, I trash all that is obviously bad.
In DPP, I get into "edit" and in "crop" mode I start going through them quickly. If it has potential, I do a quick crop, which is usually my final crop. At this point I have not selected a designation to anything because it takes to long.
After I've been through all of them, like you, I usually have about 100-150.
Now using a small thumbnail I highlight each cropped image and give them all the same designation, doesn't matter which, just to separate them.
Those go into a "first pick" file.
Then I quickly create 3 or 4 more folders labeled "over, wayover, under, wayunder etc according to need. Those are exposure levels.
Using thumbnails that are easier to see I highlight everything that's slightly overexposed and put into the "over" file.
Anything slightly underexposed goes into the under file. Etc
If it's already good it stays in the first pick file.
Then I pick an average image in each folder and PP in about one minute to use as a recipe and batch process the entire folder.
I do that with each folder.
There are usually a dozen or so that I might touch up separately because the batch was not close enough. That's usually only more or less brightness.
Then I separate into portrait/landscape and convert to Jpeg.
That process take 2+ hours, never more than 3. Not counting the Jpeg conversion time.
Of those 500, I might take 2 or 3, if even that into Lightroom and process for MY portfolio.
I ONLY use LR for portraits or portfolio/contest entries but they are onesies/twosies since LR is so slow.
I do it differently if I'm shooting professionally according to what I'm supposed to achieve. I do most weddings and events the same way. I LR only shots to be printed or album title pages.
But sports is journalism, so it stays fairly real!!!
Maybe my workflow might help yours in some way! Good luck
SS

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Thank you for the reply! Yes your workflow does help a lot. I basicly have been doing everything you have been doing except batching them by exposure. I do 90% of my work in Lightroom then move anything to Photoshop if needed. What I have been doing is letting Lightroom auto adjust exposures of all my "acceptable" ones. Then go through and fine tune the exposure however I will try batching them like you do in over and under etc that may speed up the process. I do get bogged down with my top ones that I keep for my own portfolio. I think I need to set those aside and do them separately because they take more time. Thanks again.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

I know I'm a little late, but I shoot pageantry events ("sports" covers it) and sometimes might get 8-10,000 shots in a day. As my gear changed, my shooting changed as well, along with whatever jpeg/RAW saving in-camera. For the past couple of years, for these events I've been shooting jpeg Fine and have had little or no problems, even correcting WB in LR. I don't burst at max, but go with the low setting and limit it to 3-shot bursts. I own a D5 and lately have moved back to RAW, but to be honest, it's 6 one way, half dozen the other, but importing RAW is still much slower than jpeg. Maybe it's my workflow...I don't go through the images and select goods and bads, I *do*, however, separate my shots into groups (because they really are groups, lol) using the collection/collection set functions. An added benefit to this method is time-of-day/lighting is fairly consistent for each group, which allows me to use presets for entire groups...saves much time and I just go through 'em top to bottom, do some cropping and maybe an adjustment or two, and get a whole bunch of keepers (90% is average). There is one more thing I do that is very helpful; I use a gaming mouse. This device allows me to do the crucial functions (crop mode, enter, advance and go back...and save in addition to the normal R/L clicks!) *really* fast. Because I have a pretty maxed 'puter I blaze through 'em!