Advice for Shooting Digital Photography
For you budding digital photographers out there, I have a great tip for you to try out: Camera Raw.
Warning: This advice is 1) for photographers using “professional” quality cameras having the RAW setting and 2) for digital users who are into post-production using Photoshop or similar photoprocessing software programs. If you don’t fall into BOTH categories, then forget the whole thing and keep on shooting your standard JPEG shots and having them printed at Wal-Mart. Just don’t be insulted when I call you a rank amateur.
Camera Raw (or the RAW format) is a format like JPEG or TIFF, only better. Shooting in RAW allows you to have much greater control over all the elements of your photograph BEFORE you even open up your processing software.
When you shoot a standard JPEG shot, after importing it onto your computer’s hard drive, the next step in workflow is to open the photograph in Photoshop (or its equivalent) and make necessary changes (brightness, contrast, color correction, sharpness and cropping).
Working in RAW, your camera captures a “raw” version of your image, which can be further manipulated before fully opening a final version in your photo program. You can make exposure changes up to six full stops (that is, your photo can be brightened if it’s took dark or darkened if it’s overexposed, without—and here’s the important part—any destruction to your digital image). Manipulations made later in your photo program WILL further degrade the original photo, so any improvements you can make in Camera Raw first are worth doing for quality prints.
Working in RAW, you can adjust the color tint and get the proper exposure. Then you can make refined adjustments later in Photoshop.
Once you begin shooting in RAW (which is typically a larger digital file, by the way) you’ll wonder why you didn’t start doing it before. I sure did. I’ve been shooting digital for years, but only now bothered to learn about the ins and outs of Camera Raw. Oh well, my loss is your gain.
Find out if your camera will shoot in RAW and if it doesn’t consider investing in one that does. A good camera, lens and photo manipulation program will go a long way toward transforming you from an amateur shooter to a semipro photographer, and shooting RAW images will help you make better pictures in the end.
I hope this helps your photography improve, and I’d love to hear feedback from you if it does. I know I’ve been happier since I began shooting in RAW recently. Any questions you have I’d be glad to answer.
Warning: This advice is 1) for photographers using “professional” quality cameras having the RAW setting and 2) for digital users who are into post-production using Photoshop or similar photoprocessing software programs. If you don’t fall into BOTH categories, then forget the whole thing and keep on shooting your standard JPEG shots and having them printed at Wal-Mart. Just don’t be insulted when I call you a rank amateur.
Camera Raw (or the RAW format) is a format like JPEG or TIFF, only better. Shooting in RAW allows you to have much greater control over all the elements of your photograph BEFORE you even open up your processing software.
When you shoot a standard JPEG shot, after importing it onto your computer’s hard drive, the next step in workflow is to open the photograph in Photoshop (or its equivalent) and make necessary changes (brightness, contrast, color correction, sharpness and cropping).
Working in RAW, your camera captures a “raw” version of your image, which can be further manipulated before fully opening a final version in your photo program. You can make exposure changes up to six full stops (that is, your photo can be brightened if it’s took dark or darkened if it’s overexposed, without—and here’s the important part—any destruction to your digital image). Manipulations made later in your photo program WILL further degrade the original photo, so any improvements you can make in Camera Raw first are worth doing for quality prints.
Working in RAW, you can adjust the color tint and get the proper exposure. Then you can make refined adjustments later in Photoshop.
Once you begin shooting in RAW (which is typically a larger digital file, by the way) you’ll wonder why you didn’t start doing it before. I sure did. I’ve been shooting digital for years, but only now bothered to learn about the ins and outs of Camera Raw. Oh well, my loss is your gain.
Find out if your camera will shoot in RAW and if it doesn’t consider investing in one that does. A good camera, lens and photo manipulation program will go a long way toward transforming you from an amateur shooter to a semipro photographer, and shooting RAW images will help you make better pictures in the end.
I hope this helps your photography improve, and I’d love to hear feedback from you if it does. I know I’ve been happier since I began shooting in RAW recently. Any questions you have I’d be glad to answer.
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