Given the choice, do you always shoot in RAW?

Dean3d said:
I'm not being disrespectful at all, but if you shoot weddings you will soon find out that shooting RAW is pointless.
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I've done about 20 weddings so far and using RAW is definitely an advantage. Not because I can't judge exposure properly but because the camera's auto white balance and presets are rarely accurate, which RAW allows you to adjust. I could setup manual White balance profiles on location but generally you don't get the spare time to do so.

At the end of the day so long as the client is happy then you have been successful. I wouldn't be happy handing over a set of JPEG photos with colour casts.
 
Dean3d said:
I'm not being disrespectful at all, but if you shoot weddings you will soon find out that shooting RAW is pointless.
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I can't speak from experience as I've not done weddings but if you have enough storage to not worry about the amount of pictures you take then surely shooting RAW is far from pointless. I would have thought that it can actually be a bonus as you have so much more flexibility with bringing out shadow detail or lowering blown out areas. Doesn't it allow you to consider the composition more without worrying as much about whether the camera has got the technical details right? If not then why?
 
I think the issue for some here is that shooting speed will suffer when shooting RAW... But with a decent memory card, the rate will still stay snappy.

And tbh, anyone shooting weddings should really be using the right memory.
 
I always shoot RAW for everything. Doesnt matter if its people, weddings, landscapes, architecture etc.

The advantages far outweigh the drawbacks, which for me are none, if you find you dont have enough storage space then there are 2 simple options, shoot less rubbish, or get another card.

As for the speed problems someone mentioned, i can rattle off 5FPS in RAW+JPG on my D200 for long enough to keep anyone happy and never have any problems so its not somthing i worry about.
 
I just constantly shoot in RAW.

I don't see a reason not to personally, i've got two 1gb memory cards and the 256mb one that canon send you. I've got enough space, so in my mind i don't see why i wouldn't shoot raw.

RAW gives you the advantage of pulling back those shots that you may have got, but just missed exposure wise. Rather than scewing around in CS. I don't really do it for quality, i just do it because i like the flexibility it gives you.
 
I never really use RAW, I tried it a few times on some trips out and holidays and found no real benefits over the usual jpeg's I shoot and more arse ache/time spent in the post processing phase to get the same results. I can see the benefits as someone said of batch processing a set of raw images where the same settings can be used to correct the white balance of each, but other than that jpeg is fine and dandy for me.

Our wedding photographer who was wedding photographer of the year 2003 always shoots jpegs at weddings and said he cant see any benefits of RAW.
I guess its very subjective :)
 
Space is not a problem for me, I have 2x 1GB CF Cards and a 20GB Flash Trax which is good enough for about 3000 RAW files. Speed also isn't an issue, the 20D can rattle off 5fps for 30 odd frames and with the Sandisk Ultra cards the buffer soon clears :)

Raymond Lin said:
what size jpeg do you people usually shoot in with RAW?
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It really depends for what reason you want to use the JPEGs for. If it's just for quick thumbnail browsing in your image editor then use small JPEGs, or if you intend using the JPEGs to print and the RAW files as a backup then go large :)
 
Interesting reads so far. I have been shooting so far in just RAW format on my 350d, trying to play with the settings on both the camera and also the PC is teaching me an awful lot everytime I go out.

When the season begins however, my main photographs are going to be Motorsport based and I was intending having a portable storage device running alongside my 1.25Gb worth of Flash cards. Is shooting in RAW only advisable for Motorsport if I have large enough memory on me? I only ask because last year I spent the season shooting on the Fuji S5500 and 256Mb of xD cards...I was constantly going over the photo's on the camera during the day removing ones I didn't like.

Unless RAW can seriously affect the shooting rate of the camera I would still like to think I can take photo's in this.
 
TomWilko said:
Is shooting in RAW only advisable for Motorsport if I have large enough memory on me? I only ask because last year I spent the season shooting on the Fuji S5500 and 256Mb of xD cards...I was constantly going over the photo's on the camera during the day removing ones I didn't like.

Unless RAW can seriously affect the shooting rate of the camera I would still like to think I can take photo's in this.
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I can take 400+ a day easily when shooting motorsport, so I think RAW is only preferable if you have enough space. With the current price of Sandisk Ultra IIs (etc) there really isnt any excuse! :p
 
Think I quite like the look of the Jobo Giga One 30Gb portable storage myself!
 
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