The pros and cons of raw.
Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 04:01PM 
This picture was shot and color balanced in raw.
This is my normal, jpeg. ick!
Some of you have been asking why I have started thinking about switching to raw, and this is the number one reason! It is longer, harder and more storage requirements but I have a feeling that once I get it my images will be pretty cool all the way around.
I am having a mirrored 500 GB raid zero (wireless to connect to all of my platforms) server put together by my lovely computer tech, Larry Brown, so that I can store my most recent weddings and then burn them to a disc.
Millie Holloman is about to start selling her workflow in a set and I would HIGHLY recommend purchasing it right away. She is the most organized person I have ever met and what I have put into practice of hers already has changed my life. Go Millie!
Reader Comments (12)
thanks for this! after all your recent posts on RAW i was playing around with some raw shots and i think its the way to go... just need some more cards. and can't wait for Millie to put out her workflow! thanks for the great info, as always!
Cool, cant wait to read more from you and Millie. Good Stuff...
Sweet. Love hearing about what you are learning.
How awesome if Millie is going to do that!!! I love the flexibility of raw, i just feel like my images look a TAD grainier. Maybe it's just my camera, my settings, my computer.. I dont know. It's subtle, but I notice it!!! I'm sure nobody else does! I'm glad we get to follow you on this journey!! :)
Nicole, mine are DEFINITELY grainier and it is killing me. I think there is a way to fix it though?
Hey guys and gals, you may want to try turning off the automatic sharpening in RAW if you haven't already. It makes the images grainier and doesn't come close to doing as good of a job as the unsharp mask does. You've probably already done that but just in case thought I'd throw that out there. :)
I dont sharpen in camera so that cant be it for me, good thought though. If you find a way to fix that Lauren, I'd LOVE TO KNOW!! The thing is, I dont know about you, but i think you can often tell from other blogs when they shoot RAW. probably not always, but the ones that I know dont have those crispy, smooth, photos. I'm not saying I dont love some of the peoples photos that shoot RAW, but that is their "look". I dont't know if thats the "look" i'm after. Does that make sense?? I will say, the photos you've been taking are really stunning!!
lauren i love the hellos from you guys in your video secion at bald head, it made me smile and made me miss you guys:)
Please post more on pros and cons of raw! It's totally helping me!
Hey Lauren! So, I just went to an Ed Pierce seminar yesterday, and here's what he had to say. (I haven't researched this or tried it beyond what he said, but I'm sharing anyway. ;) ) He said that Lightroom (at least the newest version 1.3?) treats RAW, TIFF, and JPEG the same way - we're talkin' no extra compression, and you can adjust the white balance, etc. Lightroom is also supposed to be super fast to revolutionize your workflow. I plan to compare it to Aperture (which I also haven't tried) and maybe go for it! I hope this helps you maybe keep your beloved JPEGs. :)
Hey Lauren,
Glad you are trying out the raw. I go back and forth between the two. I do have to say that Lightroom is awesome. You can make all the adjustments to jpeg that you can to raw.
Hi Lauren. Found your website yesterday. Super work! Yes Adobe Lightroom (LR) is fantastic so if you haven't tried it download a 30 day trial and go for it. I quit using Aperature when LR came out by the way. The only drawback with LR is it sometimes isn't strong enough to remove the noise so you may need a separate program as well. I actually shoot to both raw and jpeg files and then if I happen to have a high ISO shot I just use the jpeg file instead of the raw one in post. Anyway you'll figure it out I'm sure. Again...Super work! MD.