Shooting RAW | Teach Me Tuesdays

Shooting RAW is one of the greatest tools you can use as a photographer.  Not only does it give you total control over your end result, it is also incredibly forgiving when your exposures are not where they should be.  There are times where the lighting changes drastically from one minute to the next and while I work as fast as I can to achieve proper exposure, I don’t always get it.  I am going to blog a little about the benefits of shooting RAW.

RAW files are not meant to be printed directly from your camera.  You do the processing and get it ready for printing with software such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.  When you shoot JPEG you are allowing your camera to process your image, create more contrast, sharpen and add saturation.  You can definitely achieve the images you want shooting JPEG but you will need to have spot on exposure every time.

Here is a wonderful article about the difference in RAW & JPEG that goes into depth about the two:
www.digital-photography-school.com/raw-vs-jpeg

Nash is extremely hard to get good photos of. Every time I pull out my camera he runs the other way. I love his expression here and I rarely capture him like this. So, I was excited to get this shot of him BUT I was facing the other direction taking a shot of Cooper under the bridge in open shade. Moving from open shade to full blown noon sun and not being able to adjust my meter quickly enough created an incredibly overexposed image. Because I shot in RAW though, I was able to save this shot by decreasing the exposure and using the recovery slider in ACR. If I had shot this in JPEG there would be no way possible to recover the highlights that I had blown.

I can’t believe I am sharing this image!  So…my SOOC was underexposed and my white balance?!  Ya, pretty pathetic!  I had just walked into the bathroom to snap a photo for my 365 Project and found Cooper figuring out that he sounded different under water.  I wanted this moment and knew my WB was gonna be way off but I shot anyways.  Thankfully I was able to adjust in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to create the tones I’d seen while shooting the shot. 🙂 Again, if this image was shot in JPEG the recovery of my white balance would have been much harder–if not impossible.

My last image, while exposed properly, is dull and boring.  RAW files capture more data therefore allowing you to create more dynamic images in post production.  With 15 minutes in photoshop I was able to create a much more interesting photo.