42 DIGITAL CAMERA^ APRIL 2020

Master shooting and editing the best file format

for photography, with James Paterson

he modern mind has to deal

with vast amounts of data.

It’s estimated that every

day we ingest five times

more information than

we did 25 years ago. Sifting through and

channelling that data into what’s important

and what is not has become one of the

big challenges of modern life.

In a sense, information overload is also

the main challenge facing the photographer.

A raw file contains around five times the

data of an equivalent JPEG. So if you’re

thinking of making the switch from shooting

JPEGs to shooting raw, you have to be

prepared to sift, channel and manage all

that extra data. It requires a slight shift

in mindset, but it can also spur you into

a more enlightened way of shooting

and editing your photos.

Raw expands your options, while JPEG

narrows them. Shoot in JPEG quality, and

your camera will decide how the image

should look, then dump most of the extra

information it is capable of recording.

Switch to raw, and you retain all the

uncompressed ‘raw’ data. The price

you pay for this is the extra time spent

managing and processing raw files, and

the extra money spent storing them.

Shooting in raw brings with it a level of

commitment that we wouldn’t recommend

for the casual snapper. But for those of us

who want to take complete control over the

look of our photos, raw is by far the better

option. Here we’ll explore the benefits of

shooting in raw, and how to craft that extra

data into perfectly prepared photos. From

shooting to editing and exporting, we’ll

guide you through the complete workflow.

T

SHOOT IN RAW!

CONTENTS

RAW!

PART 1 Why shoot raw files? PART 2 Camera Raw explained PART 3 Image processing

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