RAW files!!

I was of the idea that unedited photos is true photography, as if I knew anything really. But getting this camera has definitely changed my opinion on that. I still prefer "natural" looking photos(where the editing is not overdone, or obvious), but a touch up here and there to make them nicer is fine with me now.

So this camera, amongst its gazillion options, shoots in RAW mode. Which basically means a much larger file, because a JPEG, for example, has 8 bits to a color, per pixel. RAW has 14(some RAW formats, even 16 bits). So obviously, a lot more information. And at first, we wrestled with "is it worth it to shoot in RAW?" You can even shoot in RAW + JPEG at the same time, for easy and quick uploading or use of the pics and still have the flexibility to change them if you wish in 14 bits. But as we are getting familiar with the RAW files, and what you can do with them, I have to say that RAW is totally worth it. In an 8GB memory card, we can only fit like 300 pics, which in Large(18MP) JPG would be like 1000. So it is a significant loss in storage, but you can do so much with it. You can almost choose every camera setting over, as if you were taking the pic again(the shooting mode: portrait, landspace, standard, or the White Balance setting: Auto, Sunlight, Cloudy, White Flourescent, etc, the exposure compensation(EV)). Here is a quick example(I don't have any other before/after comparisons because we delete the RAW files after we are happy with the way they look and converting to JPG. And I wrote this after having done that.

If you think the difference is dramatic here, you should see some of the landscapes, and what not. You can salvage otherwise unusable shots(too dark or too bright), it is quite impressive! So, is this cheating? I honestly don't care anymore. The pics look better, and why leave them like that if I can improve them? I still took them :) I will post more examples later.

So this does take more time, and is more labor intensive. And yes, you have to then convert to JPG(which is not instant). And yes, you lose storage capacity. But if you want better photos(and that we certainly do), then it is totally worth it!