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6 Top Reasons For Shooting Raw
One major lesson every ambitious photographer will learn in the course of his career is that professional photography is more than just beautiful subjects and awesome backgrounds. Whether it is fashion photography or product photography, you need to learn how to use various formats to achieve the right results.
In this post, you will learn everything about RAW and when you need to use it.
What is RAW?
A RAW simply means saving your images in an uncompressed image file or recording the data the way it “actually is” with little or no processing. JPEG usually compresses the information. Your RAW file will most probably contain either a 12-bit or 14-bit data but this will depend on your camera. Shooting in RAW will guarantee that no information is compressed so as to produce better quality images. Thus it gives more flexibility if needed to make any changes in the troubled images.
Top 6 Reasons to Shoot in RAW
- Obtain the Best Image Quality
This is the very first reason why you should be shooting in RAW. You can record all the data from the sensor when you shoot in RAW. This gives you an opportunity to make your images better-looking. RAW is different from JPEG where you are bound to lose certain information because of image compression.
If there is any trouble with your image, the RAW format allows you to correct and change such problems to make your image much beautiful.
- Obtain Better Detail
You get the complete detail about your subject while shooting in RAW; after which you can use better editing programs such as Lightroom which has superior editing tools than the one that comes with your camera to edit your photo.
Moreover, editing programs are always improving. So it is beneficial to use the latest updated version of this software to edit your RAW files in the future.
- Achieve Greater Levels of Brightness
The level of brightness has a vast impact on images and the level of brightness and is defined in terms of the bit such as 8 bit, 12 bit, 14 bit. These supplementary steps of brightness give you more elasticity with alterations in terms of exposure, recovery, contrast. This level of brightness is defined with the term “bit”.
- Easily Fix the White Balance
You need to shoot RAW to adjust the white balance without harming the information. RAW records the white balance, but it still gives you an opportunity to make adjustments because you have more data. RAW makes it possible to make adjustments easily and more precisely without ruining your images.
- Adjust Over-Exposed or Under-Exposed Images
Most photographers desire to get the best exposures. However, things are not easy every time. You may get dramatically under-exposed or over-exposed images. In this situation, you will find RAW very valuable.
RAW will provide you an extra information in the file, making it easier to correct the images without making any noticeable reduction in the quality of the images.
- Allows You to Do Non-Destructive Editing
The nicest part of shooting in raw is unlike jpeg all the image editing is non-destructive. All changes made to a RAW image are kept in a Metadata file linked with the raw file, leaving the original file untouched. You can make changes without taking risk of ruining your image. You can also reset your adjustments if you wish to start over again.
Conclusion
No doubt, RAW is good and will also help you to become a better photographer. You should learn how and when to use it. Additionally, you must learn some powerful editing programs which you can use to make your RAW images better so that your effort won’t be a waste.
Make a note that RAW need large space than other formats. This is because the data is uncompressed; it can save the image 2-3 times larger than JPEG files. You should prepare adequately to accommodate the space requirement. Invest in quality memory cards that can allow you save larger files.
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