Photo Management raw & jpg

[grow_old_and_die]

I have a Canon EOS 350D and shoot with RAW and JPG. I use Picasa to index my photos.

Questions:
Do people keep a RAW & JPG file.
Do people edit the RAW and delete the JPG
Would people 'generally' edit the raw by applying an 'auto' or 'preconfigured' white balance with the assumption it does a better job than the camera?
What do you save the modified RAW image as (filetype)?
Do you still keep the original RAW file?
What software do you use?

I realise there is no right or wrong answer but would like people to explain how they process store and manage digital files.

Regards,
Matt

[wvjoe]

Hi Matt

I used to shoot raw+jpg, but stopped and now shoot raw only since I never used the jpg images. I store all raw files on my hard drive and DVD's and rename them to names that incorporate the date. I keep an offsite backup as well. I process all files using Adobe Photoshop (Bridge to incorporate keywords and edit metadata, Adobe Camera Raw for basic processing, then PS for further processing).

I use this workflow because when you shoot jpg it is much harder to correct white balance error, exposure errors, etc. and the jpg image is essentially processed by the camera leaving creative 'darkroom' control more difficult.

Not everyone would agree here, but this works for me.

[mattmyles06]

Do people keep a RAW & JPG file - I keep the original Raw file only...I dont shoot Raw & JPG

Do people edit the RAW and delete the JPG - I edit the Raw original, save it as a .TIFF and then use the processed Raw image to create a .jpg file for web use. I 'save as' .jpg so the original stays intact.

Would people 'generally' edit the raw by applying an 'auto' or 'preconfigured' white balance with the assumption it does a better job than the camera? - I always try all the white balance settings when processing raw to get the best result. I almost exclusively use a custom setting as oppsed to a preconfigured setting.

What do you save the modified RAW image as (filetype)? - 16bit .TIFF

Do you still keep the original RAW file? -Yes

What software do you use? -Adobe Camera Raw

[dougj]

Do people keep a RAW & JPG file - I shoot in RAW without the JPG.

Do people edit the RAW and delete the JPG - I convert the RAW file to 16 bit early in post processing and step through the rest of the processing with what is called an "action" in Photoshop.

Would people 'generally' edit the raw by applying an 'auto' or 'preconfigured' white balance with the assumption it does a better job than the camera? - I shoot most of my work with lighting that does not present white balance problems. I start with auto and adjust if needed.

What do you save the modified RAW image as (filetype)? - I save the file in JPG format, with post processing done to suit the application, e.g. web, or print.

Do you still keep the original RAW file? - Yes

What software do you use? - Pixort to view the raw files and quickly assign codes and sort the files into folders: good, fair, delete. I use Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CS2.

[grow_old_and_die]

OK, I did an experiment converting my raw file to a tiff using Adobe raw and got file sizes of 20mb 8bit and 40mb 16bit from a 10mb raw file. This does not make sense to me! Surely these files are too big for practicality!

[mattmyles06]

OK, I did an experiment converting my raw file to a tiff using Adobe raw and got file sizes of 20mb 8bit and 40mb 16bit from a 10mb raw file. This does not make sense to me! Surely these files are too big for practicality!

It's nice to have a full res .TIFF file as an original. Always convert to .JPG for use on the web.

[halesr]

I agree with Joe Brennskag. I used to shoot both raw and jpg. I primarily use the jpg for a quick preview and to delete the junk. Now with Bridge in CS2 I use the slide show to view the images full screen.

I when to a workshop where we learned a digital workflow. Here are the over all steps.

1. download to HD from camera disk
2. immediately archive a copy of raw files
3. rename raw files on your harddrive (in bridge batch function)
4. add copyright to files (in bridge batch function)
5. add keywords to files
6 do a quick binary rating (one star in no stars out) in bridge this can be done VERY fast
7. sort for 1 star images and rate again 1, 3, 5 (these are the images you are going to work on)
8. convert all images to DNG and back up
9. do all editing you possibly can in ACR
10. finally start to work on your BEST (3 nand 5 star images) in photoshop

I did this from memory so I will go back to my notes and edit if necessary, but this is the jist of the process. We had to do it on all our shoots at the workshop and since some of it is batch processed, you get to where you can do it quite fast.

Rene

[dougj]

My workflow with Pixort and PS-CS2

1. Download RAW (or JPG) files from card/camera.
2. Open a pre-processor program to view & sort images
3. Sort images based on keep/no keep
3. Open processor (e.g. Photoshop, etc. ) for selected keep files
4. Save processed image in a jpg format to meet the needs (web, print)
5 I prefer to maintain the original RAW file as-is to reduce disk space. A TIFF can easily be generated from the original RAW file if needed.

[tim_arbon]

Do people keep a RAW & JPG file.
The option to generate this on a 350D (and 20D and 30D) I think is primarily for backwards compatibility for people who used to own earlier digital cameras. RAW files didn't support embedding of thumbnails until the 350D and 20D. Therefore for previews of images, you needed a JPEG as well. Now I think it makes more sense to just capture in RAW or JPEG (not both)... unless you prefer to shoot RAW but save your images to a portable image viewer that can only preview JPEGs, in which case you would still need both.

Do people edit the RAW and delete the JPG
As the JPEG is the final output, I don't think you would delete that. You may be tempted to delete the RAW file, but then you miss the opportunity to reprocess the RAW file at a later date. I keep mine just in case.

Would people 'generally' edit the raw by applying an 'auto' or 'preconfigured' white balance with the assumption it does a better job than the camera?
I think magazines possibly make too much of getting the exact white balance. If you shoot RAW, you can decide what looks best when you process the image, rather than exactly what it looked like at the time. So I shoot on "Auto" white balanace and then change the colour temperature manually in RAW if it doesn't look right.

What do you save the modified RAW image as (filetype)?
2 JPEGS. One of original size, and the other PBASE size. The PBASE version I sometimes create from RAW, but if I need to process the full size JPEG further after conversion, I'll make a copy of that after processing and resize it instead.

Do you still keep the original RAW file?
Yes.

What software do you use?
I used to use Breeze Browser Pro exclusively to process the RAW files. It worked great on my 20D (and therefore will work great on your 350D). But I've upgraded to a 30D and the RAW images are softer out of the camera on the 30D than the 20D. Breezebroswer only sharpens up to "level 7", while Digital Photo Professional (supplied with the camera) sharpens up to level 10. So until Breezebrowser sorts this out I'm using a combination of both. For post-processing after JPEG conversion, I mainly use Paintshop Pro.

Note that I haven't got Adobe Photoshop as its so expensive, and I'd rather buy lenses with the money at the moment. However I'm seriously considering migrating to Adobe Lightroom when it is released.