| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Raw on the road?
Grant Blankenship, Photographer
 |
Macon | GA | USA | Posted: 8:36 AM on 09.16.05 |
->> Seems like I asked this a year or two ago on another one of these lists. But technology changes, and laptops now trump what we edit with in the office in many cases, so.....
Who has a bulletproof Raw workflow they employ on deadline, on the road? A friend said he saw another friend in full Raw mode at a college football game over the weekend, which surprises me. Not the SI, shoot it all Raw and send it to someone else to tone workflow. This was a newspaper guy. Seems like the variations in light under which you edit would make getting that deep on the road a bit sketchy. But, apparently this is starting to happen.
Who else is doing this out there and how? |
|
Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Washington, DC & Seattle | WA | US | Posted: 9:04 AM on 09.16.05 |
->> I can't wait to hear the responses on this one...the "RAW is life" camp vs the "why do you need to shoow RAW for a newspaper" camp vs. "RAW+JPG" camp vs "What is RAW"...
I remember a Leslie Billman (sp?) thread that touched on a lot of the aspects of shooting raw, maybe you could revisit that thread as well.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=14489
http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=15370
I apologize because my respose really doesn't address your specific question but I think you get a lot of info from those 2 threads.
dbr |
|
Neil Turner, Photographer
|
London | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 9:15 AM on 09.16.05 |
->> Grant
I have beeen experimenting with shooting RAW 100% of the time for the last few weeks. It is going pretty well and only adds avery short amount of extra time to my workflow. I'm shooting Canon (1D MkII x2 + 20D) on Lexar 512 and 1Gb cards and a Lexar Firewire reader. I have a Powerbook G4 with Photo Mechanic and Photoshop CS (RAW converter latest version for CS).
Basically it goes like this, shooting RAW only.
1. Ingest discs into pre-destined folder on hard drive using Photo Mechanic
2. Open Ingest disc folder and tag the half decent frames using the preview and the Apple+T keyboard shortcut.
3. Copy the tagged images into another folder and re-naming them as I go in line with the paper's file naming convention.
4. Open folder with selected images - select all (Apple+A) and de-tag them (Apple+-).
5. Batch caption images and then amend those that need more than the basic caption using stationery pad.
6. Go back through using the preview again and tag my final selection.
7. Drag and drop tagged images onto Photoshop CS icon.
8. Images open one at a time in RAW converter window where I make adjustments to exposure, white balance, sharpening etc and click OK.
9. When all of the images are open I do any dust removal and final adjustments in Photoshop before saving.
10. Back in Photo Mechanic the contact sheet shows my selected images as "CR2+JPG" but loses the tag in the saving process. I select ALL images and go to "SAVE AS" where I get an error message telling me that only the JPEG images will be saved and asking if that's OK.
11. I click OK and save the JPEG files into another folder, sometimes re-sizing down to about 66% if I am wiring on a mobile connection.
12. Open the new folder with the re-sized and saved selection, select all and then (having established an internet connection) use Photo Mechanic to FTP my pictures to the pre-set location.
All of this takes a little more time than a JPEG only workflow, but only a few percent and it seems to be working well for me. I hope that this helps you to work out how you are going to do it!
Neil. |
|
Robert O'Rourk, Photographer
 |
Setauket | NY | USA | Posted: 9:17 AM on 09.16.05 |
| ->> I have been shooting raw for over a year. With the D2X, the computer time becomes an issue. When I am a deadline, I save both raw and jpeg, using raw for the improvement after the game and jpeg to transmit. |
|
Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Washington, DC & Seattle | WA | US | Posted: 9:52 AM on 09.16.05 |
->> Neil...you forgot to account for the extra storage space you need with raw files. Aren't they significantly larger than the corresponding JPG files?
dbr |
|
Michael Connor, Photographer
|
Washington | DC | USA | Posted: 10:10 AM on 09.16.05 |
->> I deal with my Nikon NEF files (raw files) in Nikon Capture Editor which sucks because it is so slow. I have always heard that the best way to deal with RAW files is in their programs (Nikon RAW's with Nikon software, Canon RAW's with Canon software...) because a lot of the technology is proprietary. Is that true? Is Photoshop CS just as good -- or even good enough?
I have been shooting RAW+Jpeg and only going to the RAW file when I need to. |
|
Jonathan Castner, Photographer
|
Longmont | CO | USA | Posted: 11:44 AM on 09.16.05 |
| ->> I've been shooting RAW almost exclusively since I started shooting dig. If you have CS or CS2 you have the benefit of using adjustment layers in conjunction with Camera Raw so you can build a set of actions for your standard adjustments and reduce your computer time greatly. The ability to have precise color and exposure control is to me worth the extra 5 seconds to open up a photo. |
|
Neil Turner, Photographer
|
London | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 2:22 PM on 09.16.05 |
->> Delane
There's no doubt that the RAW files take up more space than the large, fine JPEG files that I had been shooting. I guess that's the trade off between quick and a few percentage points better. I use a series of Lacie drives for my main back but the paper stores only the JPEG files that I supply them so there's no storage issue for them.
On balance, I'm going to persevere with shooting RAW because the trade off between that small quality increase and the extra storage and extra time is worthwhile.
Neil. |
|
Marc Browning, Photographer
|
Wichita | KS | | Posted: 2:38 PM on 09.16.05 |
| ->> Neil, if useing Breezerbrowser pro. You can get 3.4 to 9.1meg jeps for my 3.4meg D2Hs raws. |
|
Neil Turner, Photographer
|
London | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 9:42 AM on 09.17.05 |
->> Marc
I'm a Mac user so Breezebrowser isn't an option, but even if it were I absolutely love Photo Mechanic and so wouldn't need to use it. The CR2 files from an EOS1D MkII range in size from just over 6.0 Mb to a little over 9.0 Mb with the average being nearer 7.0 Mb. Compare these to the large level 9 JPEGs as they come out of the camera which range from about 1.8 Mb up to just over 4.0 Mb averaging out at about 3.2 Mb. That means that you are looking at just over double the storage needed to keep the CR2 files. The JPEG files that I send are stored seperately and of course are exactly the same size as they would otherwise have been.
On a seperate note, and I don't know why, but I seem to be less inclined to over shoot when using RAW. Maybe it's because a 1Gb card suddenly only holds between 90 and 140 pictures as opposed to the 240-320 JPEGs that they have space for.
Neil. |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|