Shooting in Raw: Benefits and Techniques for Professional Photographers

Why you should shoot in RAW (most of the time)

Pin Mill Boatyard - Copyright © Steven Dale 2023

Shooting in RAW has several benefits for professional photographers and enthusiasts, including: 

1. Increased Dynamic Range: RAW photos contain more detail in both highlights and shadows compared to JPEG images.
2. Non-Destructive Editing: RAW images retain all of the original data and can be edited multiple times without losing quality.
3. Greater Control: Shooting in RAW gives you more control over exposure, white balance, and other settings, allowing for greater creative control in post-processing.
4. Larger File Size: RAW photos have larger file sizes compared to JPEGs, allowing for more detail and flexibility when editing.
5. Ability to Correct Errors: RAW photos can be used to recover lost detail or correct exposure and white balance errors that may have occurred during shooting.
6. Archival Quality: RAW photos have a higher bit depth than JPEGs, making them more suitable for long-term storage and archiving.

Let's look at each of these in turn: 

Increased dynamic range:

Dynamic range in photography refers to the range of brightness levels that a camera can capture in a single image. It is the difference between the darkest and lightest parts of a scene that can be recorded and represented in an image. A camera with a high dynamic range is able to capture a greater range of brightness levels, allowing for more detail and more accurate representation of the scene. This is particularly important in high-contrast scenes, such as those with bright sun and deep shadows, as it allows the photographer to capture detail in both the highlights and shadows without losing detail in one or the other.

When shooting in JPEG format, the camera's internal software compresses the image and reduces the dynamic range to fit within the limited 8-bit color space of the JPEG format. On the other hand, when shooting in RAW format, the camera captures all of the original data without compressing or reducing the dynamic range, providing more flexibility and control during post-processing.

Non-destructive editing:

Non-destructive editing is a method of image editing where the original image file remains unaltered and the edits are stored separately in a separate file or in a database. This allows for editing to be performed multiple times on the same image without the risk of degrading the quality of the original image.

In non-destructive editing, the original image remains unchanged and is used as a reference for all subsequent edits. The edits are stored in a separate layer or as a set of instructions that can be adjusted, modified or undone at any time. This provides greater flexibility and control over the editing process and allows for unlimited experimentation without affecting the original image.

Common tools used for non-destructive editing include layers, masks, and adjustment layers in image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and others. With non-destructive editing, photographers and image editors can make changes to images with confidence, knowing that they can always go back to the original image if necessary.

Greater control:

Shooting in RAW format provides greater control over the final image by allowing the photographer to make adjustments to the image during post-processing. The RAW format captures all of the original data from the camera's sensor without compressing it, providing a higher level of detail and a greater range of settings that can be adjusted.

When shooting in JPEG, the camera's internal software automatically processes the image and makes decisions about things like exposure, white balance, and color correction. These decisions can be difficult to change after the fact, as the original data has been lost. However, when shooting in RAW, all of this information is retained, allowing for greater control over the final image.

During post-processing, photographers can make adjustments to exposure, white balance, color correction, sharpness, and other settings to improve the final image. This provides a level of control that is not possible when shooting in JPEG, as the original data is preserved and can be adjusted multiple times without losing quality. Additionally, shooting in RAW allows for greater creative control, as the photographer can make more nuanced adjustments to the image to produce the desired final result.

Larger file size:

The larger file size of RAW images provides several benefits for photographers, including:

1. Increased Detail: Larger file sizes allow for more detail to be captured and stored in the image. This is particularly important in high-resolution images, where a larger file size can help to retain more detail and prevent image degradation during post-processing.
2. Greater Flexibility: With more detail in the image, there is more room for adjustment during post-processing. This allows for more flexibility in fine-tuning exposure, white balance, and other settings to produce the desired final result.
3. Improved Editing Capabilities: Larger file sizes provide more data for image editing software to work with, which can improve the quality of the final image and make post-processing tasks such as noise reduction and color correction more effective.
4. Better Printing Quality: Larger file sizes can lead to improved printing quality, as the printer has more data to work with to produce a high-quality print.
5. Archival Quality: Larger file sizes also provide greater archival quality, as the image has a higher bit depth and more data, which can help to prevent loss of detail and quality over time.
6. Overall, the larger file size of RAW images provides photographers with more options and greater control during post-processing, leading to improved final results and a more versatile image.

Ability to correct errors:

RAW images can help correct errors in several ways:

1. Exposure Correction: RAW images capture all of the data from the camera's sensor, including information about exposure. This allows for greater flexibility in adjusting the exposure during post-processing, helping to correct any under- or over-exposed areas in the image.
2. White Balance Correction: RAW images retain the original white balance information, which can be adjusted during post-processing to correct any color cast that may have been introduced during shooting.
3. Color Correction: RAW images provide greater control over color correction during post-processing, allowing for adjustments to be made to specific colors in the image to achieve the desired final result.
4. Sharpness Correction: RAW images provide more detail and sharpness than JPEG images, and the extra information in the RAW file can be used to make adjustments to the sharpness during post-processing.
5. Noise Reduction: RAW images often contain more noise than JPEG images, but the extra detail in the RAW file can be used during post-processing to reduce the appearance of noise and improve the final image.
6. By retaining all of the original data from the camera's sensor, RAW images provide a greater level of control during post-processing, allowing photographers to correct errors and fine-tune the final image to achieve the desired result.

Archival quality:

1. Archival quality refers to the ability of an image to retain its quality over time. RAW images have a higher archival quality than JPEG images because of their larger file size and the fact that they retain all of the original data from the camera's sensor.
2. Larger File Size: RAW images have a larger file size than JPEG images, which means they contain more information and detail. This increased detail can help to prevent degradation of the image over time, leading to a higher archival quality.
3. More Data: RAW images retain all of the original data from the camera's sensor, including information about exposure, white balance, and color correction. This information is preserved in the RAW file, providing a greater level of detail and preventing loss of quality over time.
4. Better Bit Depth: RAW images typically have a higher bit depth than JPEG images, which means they contain more information about the color and tone of the image. This increased information can help to prevent loss of detail and degradation of the image over time.
5. Non-Destructive Editing: RAW images can be edited using non-destructive editing techniques, which means that the original image remains unchanged and all edits are stored in a separate layer or database. This allows for unlimited experimentation without affecting the original image, leading to a higher level of archival quality.
6. Overall, the larger file size, more data, higher bit depth, and non-destructive editing capabilities of RAW images provide a higher level of archival quality, ensuring that the image will retain its quality over time.

Some camera manufactuers provide free software for editing RAW images with their cameras. Indeed some cameras have the ability to save both a RAW and a JPEG version of any photo you take, usually when you have two card slots available. 

You can also use mainstream photo-editing software such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, Affinity Photo and ON1 Photo RAW.

However, there are some better alternatives out there that are free. These include:

1. Rawtherapee: An open-source, cross-platform RAW image processing software that offers a range of features and tools for editing and processing RAW images.
2. Darktable: A free and open-source RAW image editor that provides a wide range of editing tools and features, including support for tethering and tethered shooting.
3. Rawdigger: A free and simple RAW image viewer and editor that is designed specifically for examining and processing RAW images.
4. Lightzone: A free, open-source, and non-destructive photo editor that provides advanced tools and features for editing and processing RAW images.
5. Rawstudio: A free and open-source RAW image editor that offers a range of tools and features for processing and editing RAW images, including support for tethered shooting and image batch processing.

These are just a few of the many free RAW editors available, and each one offers a unique set of features and tools to help you edit and process your RAW images.

In the future I intend to post a review of the free alternative RAW editors. Watch thsi space and thank you for reading this post.