MaryAnneW Loc: Central Va

Hi I am very new and wan to shoot in raw setting but I do not understand the raw icons or what to set it on. Suggestions please?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Welcome! What camera do you have?

MaryAnneW Loc: Central Va

Canon 70 D

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Looks like there are 3 choices for raw, and they are related to number of pixels recorded. The M in front is for a medium size, and the S for small.

Pages 116 and 117 of the manual:

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/5/0300011965/01/eos70d-im-en.pdf

Make sure you have a large capacity SD card, then shoot on the highest setting, then learn the steps to process raw files (with the software that came with the camera or other), and then enjoy the gorgeous results :)

bobfitz Loc: Kendall-Miami, Florida

Are you using or do you own software such as Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom that support RAW format? I shoot with Nikon cameras but they should be very similar in this regard. Assuming that you do have the software to process the RAW files, you have to choose a mode in your camera's shooting menu, in the Nikon it's under quality. you have several choices. RAW, RAW + JPG fine, RAW + JPG medium, RAW + JPG basic etc.. When shooting in RAW your camera will ignore all of the camera's presets for contrast, sharpening, white balance etc.. It just captures all of the information from the scene and stores it to be tweaked in the RAW software. However, the preview on your LCD will be corrected but will not look like that when you open the RAW file. Depending upon what you want to do with the file you may or may not want to use RAW. JPG is a compressed format and the camera chooses what info to keep an omit. RAW keeps it all and you get to pick. I personally always shoot in RAW except when shooting action several frames per second because of the file processing capability. If you shoot a scene that you can not recreate later, shoot RAW. RAW requires large memory cards but memory is cheap nowadays. I recommend processing RAW files and then saving them as TIF files uncompressed. JPG files will be degraded each time you open or close them TIF will not. This is my take on RAW. You will get many opinions in the forum. Listen to them all and do what works for you. Good Luck...BobFitz

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Welcome to UHH. Shoot RAW, shoot large and shoot often. Good luck.

MaryAnneW Loc: Central Va

Thank you for the info. I just have the professional processing that came with my canon. I will check out the manual again also. Appreciate your help.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Mary, welcome to the Hog.
The DPP that came with your camera is the best RAW processor for your Canon files. It's not as powerful as many of the aftermarket PP programs, but it will do a fine job to get you started. As long as you keep your raw files, you can always use another program later, down the road.
With DPP, you can also call Canon tech and they are happy to walk you through anything you are having trouble with. Canon tech is outstanding. It's part of what makes Canon the #1 camera company in the world! You can get help here as well, 24/7.
Again, welcome and good luck. :thumbup:
SS

gessman Loc: Colorado

What Sharpshooter said about DPP. It is way more powerful than one might think upon first glance and is a very capable editor, although not without some shortcomings, that can turn out some exceptional results once you know it well.

There are many video tutorials at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=digital+photo+professional+tutorial one of which is all about Raw.

As for which Raw, use the largest option available, usually the first option in your menu. Some of these tutorials are a little behind the ongoing advancements Canon adds to DPP but they will give you the basics and other videos also on youtube can supplement for fill-in.

gessman Loc: Colorado

I think I recall seeing some video tutorials on CanonUSA also which you might use their search facility to locate.

Jackdoor Loc: Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

I don't understand this. I thought RAW was RAW, was the output from the sensor, and therefore couldn't come in different grades and amount of memory used. Is the difference in colour depth? I shoot Nikon, so not familiar with this. Can anyone explain please?

edstubbs Loc: East Coast; 1st state, Delaware

Well said, Bob. Was not my question, but I learned something from reading your response. Thank you.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Canon offers three different Raw resolutions, Normal, Medium, and Small. You can read about it here:

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/eos_qt_small_raw_images_article.shtml

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

I know on my Nikon D7000 there are at least a couple options for bit depth in the RAW settings

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

Not to dissuade you from shooting in RAW but there's nothing saying you have to use it and depending on what kind of photography you do it could just mean extra work that you don't need to do...

I shoot pretty much entirely in RAW but lots of what I do is in difficult lighting situations.