Quick Question about RAW files.

[kevinhhood]

All:

When I asked about backing up files the answers varied from person to person to some degree.

Now I'm curious how different photographers deal with RAW files.  The obvious options are:

• Keep them all
• Keep a selection based on some criteria
• Delete them all

 

• Something else?

I'm starting to get ruthless about getting rid of RAW image files when I triage after a day of picture taking and don't want to miss any reasons to keep them (Terabyte drivers are cheap after all).

Kevin

[Gord]

Kevin, I do not often shoot in RAW unless I am working with a subject that is something I might want to get the full benefit of a RAW image when it comes to post processing and printing. This has disadvantages as sometimes photographic opportunities come along unannounced and may not allow to change the setting to capture RAW. Something to keep in mind.

However as mentioned, I do not usually do RAW because;
-I do not have time to mess around with the processing process for an image that probably wont benefit much from it anyway
-They take up a lot of disk space
-I do not always have time to weed through what I've taken photos of so a few 'shoots' can go unsorted leaving many potentially poor RAW images taking up space.

For my day-to-day photographic needs, shooting in highest-quality .jpg seems to work out. A lot of my efforts are taking documentary shots of what I see and I will not be using these to make big banners. Even still, I have used .jpg images for larger format prints and they have worked out well.

If I had more time to commit to the hobby as well as enough storage space, I may very well shoot in RAW all the time and just discipline myself to regularly auditing what I have on my disks and only keeping any big RAW images that may actually be useful in the future.

I will admit I have a couple pretty nice images that I would be happy if I could have the benefit of having them in RAW.

Hope my rambling thoughts on the matter typing with one hand (baby has dibs on the other) are helpful.

[merlinator]

I have two external drives, on one I keep everything, and the other I have the pics that I deem "Keepable" and deserving of further processing. I always shoot in raw, being retired has certain benefits.LOL

[pkusmin]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.
Hope you don't mind that i don't live in Fraser Valley

I always shoot in RAW with birds, always.
JPEGS if i am shooting people, which i hardly ever do.
I much prefer having all the camera data available when processing, which i get in RAW mode.
I use a couple of external hard drives for storage and label folders by date.
Since i post my shots on Flickr it's easy to look back and find specific images as they all have a date on them.
And yes, i typically keep all the files.

my two cents..

[kevinhhood]

All:

Thanks for the responses. The amount of data that my camera generates is mind-boggling compared to the digital camera we had less than 10 years ago. Since my primary objective has always been identification first and artistic second the RAW files wouldn't seem too critical. However, now that Ken has me only taking pictures in 'Manual' and making heavy use of burst mode, I'm getting more pictures and more better pictures so I feel like I'm being pulled over to the dark side (no offence intended to the professional photographers) where I might want to keep some of those RAW files just in case I get one of those perfect nature shots. It's a good thing that terabyte drives are cheap!

I think that it's time to do some experiments to see for myself what the differences are if you start with a RAW file as compared to a JPEG.

Kevin

[Gord]

Aug 22, 2013 11:19:24 GMT -8 pkusmin said:

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.
Hope you don't mind that i don't live in Fraser Valley

I always shoot in RAW with birds, always.
JPEGS if i am shooting people, which i hardly ever do.
I much prefer having all the camera data available when processing, which i get in RAW mode.
I use a couple of external hard drives for storage and label folders by date.
Since i post my shots on Flickr it's easy to look back and find specific images as they all have a date on them.
And yes, i typically keep all the files.

my two cents..

Paul, good tip on being able to find pictures in the future. Cataloging photos can be a challenge.

You're also most welcome to participate in the forum. Thanks for joining up. Enjoyed looking over your blog there. Great shots and wonderful birding adventures.

[murraybrown]

Hi Paul, Welcome to the site. The last time we met was at Reifel Refuge and we were all looking for the Wood Sandpiper I believe.
For the kind of shooting you do I can see why you would choose raw as a preference. For myself I find that I have enough trouble keeping up with all my reject jpegs and raw would only add to the burden.
Look forward to seeing more of your work.

Murray