What file format do you shoot in

I'm curious what format folks shoot in? I've been playing around in Jpeg, RAW, and Tiff. Frankly I'm not messing around in photoshop or anything but I would like to be able to make a decent print if I capture that rare image of something cool. What do folks here do? I have more options on my D700 than I know what to do with and my laptop is rapidly filling up!

Thanks,

Jake

Hi Jake!

I shoot only RAW for better WB and color correction in computer. 95% of the pictures I archive into 1 TB external hard drive, so no problem with low space. With 5% I play around in LR and export them to JPG for uploading and sharing.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Karel

I'm curious what format folks shoot in? I've been playing around in Jpeg, RAW, and Tiff. Frankly I'm not messing around in photoshop or anything but I would like to be able to make a decent print if I capture that rare image of something cool. What do folks here do? I have more options on my D700 than I know what to do with and my laptop is rapidly filling up!

 

Thanks,

Jake

I shoot RAW/JPG at the same time usually. For the reasons Scubamoose mentioned then also to have JPGs right at the time (Of course RAW can be processed to JPG) . The JPG habit is more because on some of my computers I didn't have proper software to work with RAW in certain applications (such as if I am on one with an older iPhoto for instance) but want to be able to scroll. Plus there were a couple of times where a RAW photo got corrupted but the JPG was still okay. Hasn't happened in awhile, but with the cost of cards for cameras so low and storage so low, just my habit.

I'm curious what format folks shoot in? I've been playing around in Jpeg, RAW, and Tiff. Frankly I'm not messing around in photoshop or anything but I would like to be able to make a decent print if I capture that rare image of something cool. What do folks here do? I have more options on my D700 than I know what to do with and my laptop is rapidly filling up!

Jake,

First of all, I would NOT be shooting in Tiff format. The files are extremely large and it would really limit the number of shots you can take even if you have a large capacity card.

On my D300, I generally shoot in RAW + Jpg fine. I don't often use the Jpg files, but if I wanted to send off a few quick files by email then I won't have to go into my raw image editor to convert the RAW files to jpg to send out and/or post on the Internet.

Since you're shooting with a Nikon camera, you may want to check out www.nikonians.org

They have some very helpful forums including one specific to the D700. They have spreadsheets available that can assist you with the settings. Although not specific to uw shooting, they can help figure out how to set up the camera. I used the settings spreadsheet for the D300 that was posted and I found it was a big help to set up the shooting banks.

One thing about www.nikonians.org is that you now have to be a member which costs only $25 per year. I believe there is a trial membership for 30 days before you commit to to membership.

One example of www.nikonians being helpful to me was recently when I was at Wakatobi last fall. I was editing an image in Capture NX when some of the settings disappeared. I hadn't brought my manual with me and I posted to see if anybody could help me out. In less than an hour, someone had posted the fix to my problem.

I don't know if you already have it, but you might consider trying out Capture NX2, the raw image editor for NEF images. I use it all the time to post process my raw images and have found it to be a very powerful program.

Hope that helps,

Ellen

I shoot 100% RAW Jake. I use Lightroom to export whatever file format I need.

Steve

I shoot RAW/JPG at the same time usually. For the reasons Scubamoose mentioned then also to have JPGs right at the time (Of course RAW can be processed to JPG)...

Me, too. Sometimes I just shoot RAW alone, but I NEVER just shoot JPG alone. More often, I shoot both (RAW + JPG-Medium) at the same time. In addition to sometimes wanting to look at/use the JPGs right away, I frankly like to see what the camera did with its internal processing in creating the JPG (which is occasionally quite good). In Bridge, I can look at the RAW and JPGs next to each other...

If I'm just taking "tourist" shots, or topside party photos of people, etc., I sometimes delete all the RAW files right after the fact and just keep the JPGs. But I ALWAYS start out having RAW just in case I get a fabulous photo I didn't expect to. For example, this past weekend, I was at a family picnic, and snapped some photos of family members, a few of which turned out unexpectedly well; my niece might frame one of her, her fiance and their dog and even use it on their wedding invitation. Obviously, for something like that, it will be nice for them to have the best possible file to start with. If you shoot RAW and decide you don't need that level of detail, delete them. But if you don't shoot RAW in the first place, you can never get back to that level of detail.

Of course, RAW files do take up lots of space. I have to offload the stuff from my laptop to external drives after each trip I take, but external storage is so cheap nowadays that space should never be the deciding factor IMO.

, but external storage is so cheap nowadays that space should never be the deciding factor IMO.

Couldn't agree more. With the price of the storage (plus the cards for whatever camera) being so low [even more so especially when discussing dive trips and dive gear, but even in general] I just shoot the RAW/JPG as a matter of course. Terrabyte drives are under $100 (Dell has a sale right now where you can get two 1.5 Terrabyte drives for $200, so $100 per drive) I really do not delete anything. One in awhile I go back and relaize I missed something, plus I learn from my mistakes..sort of

100% RAW

RAW

100% JPEG. No need for RAW.

D700: 14 bit, loss-less compressed RAW

RAW, 100%. With the advent of Lightroom and the like, I can't imagine ever going back to shooting JPEGs.

On the D700, I shoot 14-bit RAW with loss-less compression.

I shoot 100% RAW Jake. I use Lightroom to export whatever file format I need.

Same here.

I always shoot RAW. If I'm on a 1 day dive trip, I'll shoot RAW+JPEG.

I always shoot RAW. If I'm on a 1 day dive trip, I'll shoot RAW+JPEG.

Same here. The ability to manipulate exposure in Photoshop or Lightroom for RAW shots in invaluable, especially when shooting 100% manual (for those times when we don't get it *just right*) Steve

With my terrestrial cameras (Nikon) I always shoot raw native format + jpg. I just ordered the Canon G10 for UW work, and one of the reasons I went with that camera is that it will shoot in raw+jpg mode. Yeah the files are bigger, but large memory cards are getting cheaper and faster all the time. I agree with Ellen on staying away from "tiff" format - they're huge and have no advantage over the native raw formats.

I second the idea of some type of external drive. Personally I have a NAS drive setup with a pair of mirrored 1TB sata hard drives, but the "plug and pray" stand alone backup drives work fine as well.

Tim

I always use JPEG. I did try RAW but it just wasn't the right format for me.

I shoot RAW and use Lightroom 2 to process the photos. In lightroom you can export the photo in jpeg, tiff, etc. My feeling is that by shooting in jpeg you are throwing away some of your photo data (detail) with the smaller compressed file. It make no sense to me to discard photo data on possibly a picture of a lifetime. Also I use two external hard drives, one as my primary photo library and one as a back up, that way I do not fill up my laptop hard drive and slow the laptop down.

Elmer

RAW all the way. RAW + jpg if I know Im not taking many, but you get so much more control with RAW that it makes sense to use it every time.

What other programs are recommend for viewing/editing RAW files? Thanks!