What format do you save pictures in and why?

zx7dave

Senior Member
I see you shoot cityscapes...have you ever made it to Seattle area? We have a great downtown area with the Smith tower which is the tallest building west of the Mississippi...and of course the Space Needle...I have a few decent pictures of the city, but you really need to be in the air to get rid of all the "junk" that is always in the foreground. Also from the air you could get Mt Ranier in the background....This was taken as I was at a stoplight with my D1X set on B&W f/12, 1/640sec, +0.3step 72mm range from my 18-105 AF-S.
DSC_1761.JPG
 

pjl

Senior Member
Hah!
The on-going debate!

I started jpeg only when I first picked up the D80.
Enough forum(s) time and I was pulling a Homer 'palm to the forehead': DOHHH!
Went to jpeg large/fine and raw.
Yeah, I've missed a few action shots due to the write times to the card.
But the shots I DID get are much easier to tweak in raw.
Elements 7 (now 8) works just fine for what I need on spifs.

psst: Dave...I've got some nice shots of the Fish Market and the area down at the railyard/harbor.
 

zx7dave

Senior Member
I am finding that in the end..for planned events, or times I am smart enough to bring my D300S then I shoot both Jpeg and RAW...but for the P&S it has no RAW capability...and the D3000 can do RAW, but the buffer fills up to quickly and write tme to the card is too slow..for those I stay with the largest Jpeg the camera is capable of. So I guess that is where I will remain...dictated by what equipment I have with me...preferred shot will remain the RAW when able...
 

KennethHamlett

New member
I see you shoot cityscapes...have you ever made it to Seattle area? We have a great downtown area with the Smith tower which is the tallest building west of the Mississippi...and of course the Space Needle...I have a few decent pictures of the city, but you really need to be in the air to get rid of all the "junk" that is always in the foreground. Also from the air you could get Mt Ranier in the background....This was taken as I was at a stoplight with my D1X set on B&W f/12, 1/640sec, +0.3step 72mm range from my 18-105 AF-S.
View attachment 106

Hey Dave I have been to SEATAC but on other business, not shooting. I do love the views in and around the city. Need to make it back for some photo opps!
 

Snap Happy

Senior Member
Well, I don't know what kind of work you shoot, so it was just a thought. I shoot architecture and cityscapes, so shooting tethered is no big deal.

May I ask what type of tilt/shift lens do you use? Or do you use perspective control in post processing? I shoot a variety of stuff, whatever the opportunity arises. Some things I do for money, some for myself. But as I am not desperate for money I don't take every job. :)
 

zx7dave

Senior Member
So here is another layer of the original question to ponder....is anyone using .dng (Google to read about it) to archive their pictures? I just ran into a friend that told me about it...seems like a great thing....again..your thoughts?
 

badbadman

New member
I shoot everything in RAW, it is the digital equivalent of a film negative so holds all information possible at the time of shooting.

As much as it is preferable to get as much right in camera as possible some post processing might need to be done and working on a JPG file too much will degrade the quality of the image.

Hi speed cards and decent software makes it quite easy to use and process a RAW file so why not use it?
 

Greywoulf

New member
I no longer like to use RAW (NEF) only..!!.

Recently I took a whole boatload of pics with my D40 for a grandson's graduation and I mistakenly used NEF only... And it was a great pain in the butt to convert them all back to JPGs for his impatient parents and friends to view and use!

So I've decided from now on to use JPG's for pics that are chiefly for recording memories, but then will shoot both JPG and NEF (RAW) together for stuff where I'm learning and practicing my photographic art. The JPGs are for quick viewing and sharing with others, and their RAW copies are for later possible tweeking via Elements... (Hey, it's only SD card space, right? ">})

But interestingly enough, so far most of the tweeking I've been doing is only lightening shadows and cropping, and these things work just fine with JPGs too...
 
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Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
I always shoot in Raw, unless it's fast action then I switch to JPG.

Same here. The new version of Lightroom improves Camera Raw significantly. I've gone back and reprocessed a few older images from my D70s and noticed a big difference.

My perspective on shooting RAW all the time is because I want to be able to make the best image every time. Shooting JPG limits your ability to post process. As someone who learned to develop and print in a dark room, the comparison between film/negatives and RAW is unavoidable.
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Recently I took a whole boatload of pics with my D40 for a grandson's graduation and I mistakenly used NEF only... And it was a great pain in the butt to convert them all back to JPGs for his impatient parents and friends to view and use!

It is very easy in Lightroom to export to JPG with just a couple clicks. Another option is a free utility from RAWWorkFlow.com (the makers of the WhiBal card). It allows you to select a bunch of NEF files in Explorer or Finder, right click and export the embedded JPG. Very handy for quick conversions. Here is the link: Digital Photography - RawWorkflow.com - Instant JPEG From Raw Utility
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
So here is another layer of the original question to ponder....is anyone using .dng (Google to read about it) to archive their pictures? I just ran into a friend that told me about it...seems like a great thing....again..your thoughts?

One of my old cameras was a Minolta A2 which shot in a proprietary RAW format. Since Sony purchased Minolta, they no longer support that format. I converted those files to DNG to preserve the images and RAW info.

That being said, I don't convert my NEF files. I'm pretty confident that NEF files will be supported going forward. Also, if I ever wanted to use Capture NX2, I would need NEF format anyway.
 

Greywoulf

New member
It is very easy in Lightroom to export to JPG with just a couple clicks. Another option is a free utility from RAWWorkFlow.com (the makers of the WhiBal card). It allows you to select a bunch of NEF files in Explorer or Finder, right click and export the embedded JPG. Very handy for quick conversions. Here is the link: Digital Photography - RawWorkflow.com - Instant JPEG From Raw Utility

Thanks for that utility; it's made working with NEF considerably easier. ">})
I don't have Lightroom, and (unless I was doing something wrong?) using PSE 6 or Win Live Photo Gallery previously I was only able to convert NEF to JPG files one pic at a time! -Talk about a pain inna butt! ">(
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
My Workflow:

  • Shoot in RAW format
  • Import images through Adobe Bridge
  • Make initial adjustments in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw)
  • Finalize image in Photoshop CS4

Saved formats:

  • Original digital negative (DNG format)
  • Edited DNG
  • Final edited JPEG image @ max size.
  • These are saved both on my laptop and backed up to an external drive.

I shoot in RAW format exclusively because it is a true digital negative. There is no quality loss when editing or correcting things like exposure, contrast, etc. I used to do JPEG only for the sake of saving space, but there really is a huge difference with what you can do with RAW.
 

Wayne

New member
Hi Dave
I shoot most of my photos in the NEF format. I do a quick process of the RAW files in Adobe Elements to tweak the colour balance, exposure, etc then save them as a TIFF file that I can open and close any number of times to work on and not loose anything due to compresion. I delete the RAW file after I save it as a TIFF. I know 20 to 25 MBTIFF files take up a lot of room but high capacity hard drives are pretty cheap!

Wayne
 

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
I guess I'm a little different in the way I shoot. If it is just my typical real estate stuff that will end up in flash shows on a web site (640X480), I shoot jpeg's, if something more important business or pleasure I shoot raw. As far as storage, 1st to my computer (or vosonic if traveling), then to external HD, then a copy to DVD. I also have a computer repair business and see some really sad faces when a hard drive fails, data is lost or the $2-3,000 lab recovery and there still may be some loss. I store my data by date, have a log (excel spreadsheet) with subject. I store both the log, raw and touched in separate folders.
 

Wayne

New member
I delete the RAW file more because of how I save and organize my photo files rather than a space issue. When I download my D80's SD card the file is imported into my Windows 7 "Pictures Library" as just a dated folder with all the photos numbered. These numbered photos are then imported into my Elements 8 organizer. In Organizer, I first delete anything I'm not happy with and then do the RAW adjustments to the "good" shots and save as a TIFF for further work in the regular Elements Editor at a later time. I then "tag" all my keepers so I can easily find them later. In the Elements organizer I have about 20 catagories with each catagory having separate tags, for example under my "Florals" catagory I have about 50 separate tags ranging from Amaryllis to Whisteria and everything in between.
In my Windows Picture Library I have created folders that match the Elements Organizer catagories. I drag the Raw adjusted TIFF photo files into the appropriate created Picture Library folder. TIFF files, (and JPEG) show up in these folders as a thumb nail of the actural photo while the RAW file only shows the photo number because Windows dose not recognize RAW. Having the thumbnail image makes it fairly easy to spot any photos I may want to import into other Windows programs such as Word or Excel or programs such as Print Master etc. while just a number is pretty hard to trackdown. Since I have already made the RAW adjustments and I'm happy with the TIFF image, I just delete the Raw files and the dated folder to keep my Pictures Library uncluttered and easy to access.
This system work good for me and my photography but I'm sure it would not suit everyone.
Hope this explains why I delete my RAW photos.

Wayne
 
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