Newbie questions on RAW

[nerdie]

Hi, i own a D90.

I started off shooting .jpeg, then read about .RAW and it's powers.
So i started shooting raw, and have decent results with Photoshop CS4..
I've a few questions...

1. I understand that RAW will store information as the sensor captures it. So i can still play with the EV in Camera RAW. Will there be any difference if i shoot in EV -3, 0 or +3 since i can play with exposure in Photoshop? Playing with EV in camera will alter the A/S...

2. What format do most people convert to for archiving? I don't think .NEF is a good format to save photos, propriety!

Thanks!

 

[Rashkae]

Hi, i own a D90.

I started off shooting .jpeg, then read about .RAW and it's powers.
So i started shooting raw, and have decent results with Photoshop CS4..
I've a few questions...

1. I understand that RAW will store information as the sensor captures it. So i can still play with the EV in Camera RAW. Will there be any difference if i shoot in EV -3, 0 or +3 since i can play with exposure in Photoshop? Playing with EV in camera will alter the A/S...

2. What format do most people convert to for archiving? I don't think .NEF is a good format to save photos, propriety!

Thanks!

1. There's only so much you can recover without losing details. Best to get the exposure as correct as possible.

2. Up to you, we've had many threads on this already.

 

[catchlights]

no, you still have to get correct exposure, too over or too under, it is still dead meat one piece.

 

[shaoken]

no, you still have to get correct exposure, too over or too under, it is still dead meat one piece.

Agree, even though I rarely shoot RAW (only once or twice), I can spot a difference.
In terms of exposure between RAW and JPEG/JPG, I can only say that RAW is slightly more forgiving.

RAW: Able to adjust a -/+ 1 EV-stop to a correct exposure.
JPEG/JPG: -1 EV-stop, you're still able to salvage your work to make it a correct exposure. But if it's +1 EV-stop, all I can say is good luck as when you bring it down, it looks weird. :sweat:

 

[stunna88]

Yeah, u can play with the exposures to get the correct one BUT it's impossible to recover the lost details in highlight and black clippings area.

To make sure u get correct exposure the easiest way is to use exposure bracketing, or check for highlights in ur playback menu. Another way is to check ur histogram, u want a small gap between the right end of ur histogram and the extreme right of the histogram axis. Hope this helps

 

[whattokingu]

If the area is completely white or black, you cant recover details from there.

 

[Octarine]

1. I understand that RAW will store information as the sensor captures it. So i can still play with the EV in Camera RAW. Will there be any difference if i shoot in EV -3, 0 or +3 since i can play with exposure in Photoshop? Playing with EV in camera will alter the A/S...

Once the information has reached the state of 'clipping' it's done. Lost details are lost, the light that cannot be captured can also not be recovered. The overblown parts are lost, when the digital information only shows 'white' there's nothing to do anymore.

2. What format do most people convert to for archiving? I don't think .NEF is a good format to save photos, propriety!

Check DNG as a open source and royalty free image format. It's just a conversion of the NEF file without altering the content. Still you can use your favourite RAW converter(s).
Check "Digital Darkroom" here, plenty of threads about the topic.

 

[giantcanopy]

2. What format do most people convert to for archiving? I don't think .NEF is a good format to save photos, propriety!

Hi nerdie

For format wise, some will prefer converting to DNG format championed by Adobe. Adobe has a free DNG converter

ryan

 

[nerdie]

Ah, excellent, thanks for all the replies..
Now i understand that blown areas cannot be rescued no matter what, whereas in between still got hope

 

[night86mare]

Hi, i own a D90.

I started off shooting .jpeg, then read about .RAW and it's powers.
So i started shooting raw, and have decent results with Photoshop CS4..
I've a few questions...

1. I understand that RAW will store information as the sensor captures it. So i can still play with the EV in Camera RAW. Will there be any difference if i shoot in EV -3, 0 or +3 since i can play with exposure in Photoshop? Playing with EV in camera will alter the A/S...

2. What format do most people convert to for archiving? I don't think .NEF is a good format to save photos, propriety!

Thanks!

1. raw is not magic. if it was, i just shoot manual 1/1000 second, iso 100, f/22 every scene, and it will be alright. if you shoot at ev -3, and recover shadow details later on, it will be noisy. if you shoot at +3 ev, and have blown highlights, they're gone. either that or you will get severe posterisation.

2. tiff or jpg. i use jpg, minimal compression.

 

[android17]

Besides ps cs4, is there any easy to use software to convert and edit raw?
Thinking of trying out lightroom.

 

[Rashkae]

Besides ps cs4, is there any easy to use software to convert and edit raw?
Thinking of trying out lightroom.

There's the software that came with your camera, and Silkypix, and DxO, and C1Pro.