TimsPhotography 101 - Episode 1: Why you should shoot RAW

in photography •  7 years ago 

Welcome my dear Steemian friends to a new series called: TimsPhotography 101!

As you know I am very enthused about photography and what started as an experiment turned into a profound passion. Steemit became the first place of my choice to share my work, simply because of the amazing community. Thanks to everybody. You are amazing!

I got many questions from you, such as: "How do you edit your pictures?" or "What camera do you use?". After some consideration, I came to the conclusion that not only I want to show you my photography but also my work process and tips and tricks. Therefore I started this new series in which I will explain a specific topic in each episode, starting today with choosing the right picture format.

Picture what?

Picture format, right! Shooting with the right format can be the missing part to your perfect shot! Trust me, I speak from experience and also got some nice examples for you. But first, let's have a look at the two most commonly used picture formats: JPEG and RAW.

JPEG stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group." and is a popular image file that is mostly use to store photographs and save space. For every color there are used 8 bits. Since we have red, green and blue (RGB), it is possible to store (2^8)^3= 2^24 colours in the JPEG format. You took out your calucator? The result is 16,777,216! So many colors, amazing right? But that's not all, shooting in JPEG means the picture is being processed right within the camera itself. Settings and corrections such as white balance, noise reduction, sharpening, blacks and much more are being processed by the camera and can't be changed afterwards. There is almost no room left for editing the picture.

Let's have a look at this picture for instance. It represents the JPEG shot of the mountains I took in Austria. It was cold and I was in a hurry. I didn't have enough time to play with the perfect settings and as you can see, the result is poorly.


Here is the exact same shot in RAW. Note that the camera settings were the same. Exposure and aperture were not changed.


The Power of RAW

So while JPEG shots are processed and compressed, RAW files are uncompressed and unprocessed! Quite simple, right? Let's get back to the bits depth. Depending on your camera model you will have either 12 or 14 bits! What does it mean? In the example above with 8 bits we saw that we have around 16,77 millions different tones. In RAW we have (2^12)^3 or (2^14)^3 which results in 68.7 billion or 4.4 trillion different tones! From millions to billions or even trillions, insane! (Hope our market cap will grow the same way). Since RAW files are unprocessed you will notice they are pretty flat in their colors. That's not a problem since we can edit them as we wish! We can change the white balance, blacks, saturation...we can change everything we want! And the best thing is we can save the file and edit it later again.

The camera saves much more information about the scene and due to the nature of uncompressed files the images are much larger than JPEG.


The reason why I shoot in RAW is that I have the freedom to edit my pictures afterwards and save as much information as I can. You get an overall better picture quality because the picture is uncompressed and has less artifacts. If however your memory card is low on space I recommend you to shoot in JPEG. Also take into account that if you want to take rapidly shots, your camera will be faster in shooting JPEG. JPEG for sure offers also a great picture quality and in fact I upload my pictures in JPEG. But shooting, saving and editing them always happens in RAW.

Hope this helped you and you show me your photographs! Don't forget to coin the MyPictureDay photography contest and win big prizes!.

Steem on!

Yours,
Tim

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

Oh my gawd! You guys are fckn amazing! I can't even express my feelings towards you, the only way is that I make a video answer!

Oh My Gawd! Please do Tim!!! You make the sickest videos!

Sweet video, thanks for sharing

wow, amazing! :D best comment to anything I've ever seen so far

So Nice, You Guys are Good. please Follow me forster202

I love! I would like to have a guitar like that too, colleague

Brilliant fellas!

Insanely brilliant! You guys have a talent.

Creative comment

That is Totally Awesome, and very inspiring.

Loading...

Excellent post. Thanks for the education! I've never really shot in RAW format. I will definitely give it a try.

Thanks for sharing these great tips! I always have a problem with noisy photos at high ISOs with my Canon1300D. I suppose shooting in RAW will fix the problem in these photos? I can't wait to buy a bigger SD card.

hey @j-alhomestudio Please Follow and Upvote me

I tries shooting RAW with my Nikon D3400, but when I put them on my computer the photos wouldn't come up. And I could totally tell the difference on my camera, but it's just a bummer I can't see them on the computer. Is there a way that can be fixed?

You need to install Camera Raw

Cool, that explains RAW so well! I have always been a bit confused about when to use it and what it's good for, and I've most often ended up taking pictures in JPEG to save space. I need to start trying to take pictures in RAW :) what editing program do you use btw?

The student version of Adobe Photoshop :)

Do you strickly use photoshop? I hear some photographers talking about workflow and how lightroom is faster for editing. What brings you to photoshop for editing? (I know its called PHOTOshop lol but i always only used it for graphic design)

I tried Lightroom and it's great. But I got used to PS so I'll stick with it

The built-in Windows 10 photo viewer also offers some basic editing pictures but I think it can't read raw files so they don't come up on the PC. Can photoshop display Raw photos exactly as you see them in the camera? Does it make sense to switch to Raw shooting mode only when it's dark or when you have to use high ISO? I ask because I usually want to save space but occasionally aim for a better than average quality photo. I'll be out experimenting tomorrow. Thanks.

it is very cool done))

is it just me - or are most of the comments on this site are just complete utter bullshit, really?
i mean, come on people! nice pic, love photography, oh wow, all great pthotos, beautiful and lovely, please follow me and upvote.
pheeeew
good shots indeed and perfect example of the power of raw - but shiiiiit, people are really desperate...

Thanks for the nice words buddy! Sometimes there is much spam I agree, but to be honest it's not only on Steemit. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube...you got it everywhere

very true, it comes with the crowd i guess. it's just that i never was a big social media guy and it just hit me. well oh well

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Sorry dude but I had to do it:

Bildschirmfoto 2018-02-09 um 21.37.34.png
Bildschirmfoto 2018-02-09 um 21.38.40.png

Most of your comments aren't that different! Not judging anybody at all! Sometimes a few words say more than a huge text but since you are even insulting such commenters I had to say something. Wish you all the best luck!

ahahahaha

lol

they are and they aren't. but thank you justice leage for the fair trial

heheheeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fundamentally I knew that there was a huge difference, but I honestly hadn't looked into it much. These comparisons are great. I'll definetely look into using raw on my devices now.

Wow I was mind blown when I saw that comparison.Wish I could have you for my personal photographer so you could take photos of my cooking,it would deff get so much more attention haha :D

Great post! Most people have the idea that shooting in RAW isn't necessary unless you plan on blowing your photo up to billboard size. Hopefully a lot can learn from your writing.

Can't agree more!
RAW file me mean still alive, and JPEG is dead picture, can't do more.

Your photographic reviews are very good for me. Since I want to work with photography, I think your reviews are very helpful. In the future, when I work with photography, I can ask for help. What will you do to help me?

Sure! Whenever you have questions feel free to DM me on steemit.chat

I will contact you very soon. 😊

Wow

Great post! Can't wait to experiment this with my next set of documentation for my architecture studio. I usually use a point and shoot camera for documenting my process models but can see the benefits of starting with an image with way more information.

Nice!!

I really love your Color grading. can't wait for your tutorials 🙌🏼

Amazing photography tips...

will surely use them !!! :) thanks

Great! Can't wait to see your pictures

Well @timsaid I don't have the luxury of owning a Canon or web tools, but I was as to take this picture so that you can advise on how to use an HTC mini 2 phone for picture edit.please find below.I am an amateur.

(Raw picture)


(Edited picture)

Wow , such a Nice work . please follow me

Incredible, what program is it? the photos look so sharp

I use the student version of Adobe Photoshop

what version your Adobe Photoshop?

This is a good job, you are an artist that looks so beautiful

Thanks!

Beautiful art
👍👍👍👍👍

Nice shot i like it.....

I love I am a lover of photography, and these are great..upvote and resteemd

Here's a free upvote and resteem courtesy of #killerbot e0c.jpeg

RawRawRaw!!!

These are soem of the most realistic photos ever. For some reasons the mis-en-scene reminds me of the playstation game Metal Gear Solid..

Thanks for the walk through @timsaid. I use a X100T and often shoot raw, but at first I didn't really know how to process them using lightroom. But recently the more I read the more I'm beginning to understand. It's starting to pay off in the final photos. Keep up the good work my man :) Looking forward to more from you in the future

Great job of explaining the difference between the two formats.

Interesting aritcle. The thumbnail photo was very eye-catching which is why I happened to notice that this person has copied your post?! https://steemit.com/photography/@gangas/timsphotography-101-episode-1-why-you-should-shoot-raw-a135c0758bb6f

I found this helpful, but i have some feeling which makes me feel less enthusiast about photography. I have feeling that photography even as a hobby take lot of time to learn. Especially photoshop and photo editing :/

Hello @timsaid

Thank you for this amazing post, honestly when I saw this I knew I'm gonna learn something great.
Here it's helpful, even with my knowledge of photoshop. It's so great..... Thank you so much.

I guess you're using cc5 not 2017 because of the photoshoped picture.

nice and steady .. good luck for your success .. do not forget also my post

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

You're back, man! I want to use some of your tips by the way.
Because I'm like a caveman with a club compared to someone who understands what to do with the camera.
Yeah, those snow series were very good. I can't wait for your next travel series.

There is a big thing coming, indeed! Begining of March I will start my 2 months Asia tour.

Excellent post! I hope you can take a look at mine and see what you think and vote it. Regards!

https://steemit.com/photography/@josegrojasl/captured-capturing-the-sunset-fd86f5c433296

@timsaid I'm an amateur photographer. It was a very good guide for beginners in summer. Congratulations.

nice good jod on the photo !!

  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment

Wow , first time reading your posts @timsaid ! . It's inspiring to know your story, I also started in this field of photography with Steemit and knowing that is possible to reach your level through this platform is very cool hahaha. I'm a beginner, but know I know that I have to shoot in RAW haha, also need to start learning how to edit , your post are going to be very useful . Thanks! Regards from Venezuela ;)

I do agree! The only thing I dislike with shooting RAW is the file size is too big! But the results are worth it tho. Thank you for the tips and nice examples, it was well-explained. :D

you are great man . I love your work . I am also fond of photography !!!!!!

Woww that's good fictur

I love! I would like to have a guitar like that too, colleague

I'm about to enter the world of photography, today I had a chat with a friend about cameras and lenses, after hearing some things I decided to buy a camera Nikon reflex D 5500 with a lens of 18- 140, I am a newbie in These questions, everything you share will be very helpful.
Thank you very much for sharing these tips
I wish you a wonderful weekend

enjoying!

Nice explanation. When I recently started in photography I learned RAW was the way to go and never messed with shooting jpeg, now I have a better understanding of why.

Thats such an amazing cause. Im glad you are here to share this stuff with us. Thanks a lot and keep posting.

Is so beautiful

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I love it, I'm a photography lover, and these are great, what's that program called? I've been curious about photoshop but I do not know what program is good, I do not have a workout either

This new series is going to be really amazing wow :)

Amazing photo. Congrat
😉

Thanks for telling us about JPEG and RAW photography in simple words. Raw photography is far superior than JPEG as you have many options available in raw photography. But to use it for your benefit you have to be expert in photo editor. Hopefully you will enlighten us about how to use photography editor in your next posts. Thanks for sharing:)

RAW all the way! :)
It's way easier to use RAW files in post production and squeeze out great results. Unfortunately it's not a cure for poorly shot images...

Congratulations @timsaid, this post is the forth most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Hero account holder (accounts that hold between 10 and 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Hero account holders during this period was 367 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $9897.65. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.

If you do not wish to receive these messages in future, please reply stop to this comment.

this was very exciting to checkout looks perfect :)

Thank you for sharing this, @timsaid ! Very helpful, indeed! I usually use a smartphone to shoot pictures and I have yet to discover shooting RAW images. This will be handy once I start getting serious with photography. ☺️

Whew! I don't know raw image has a such power.
I love photography but I don't care about raw format before reading this.
Now I understand why people prefer to shoot raw photo than JPEG.
I think I need to do some more readings about photography.

This is great info! I will give it a try to shoot in RAW file from now on. Looks like you can edit them alot better. Thank you for this post it was very informative :)

These pictures are beautiful and lovely... I truly love seeing this kinda things, thanks for feeding my eyes with these amazing beauties...thanks for sharing....

We've truly come a long way when it comes to photography & technology, right now even our smartphones have the capabilities of shooting 4k videos and RAW photography. Insane, right?

Love it! We'd love to show some of your work at our Decentralized Art Shows, check it out...

http://meetu.ps/c/3qMFL/z3yMN/f
https://www.decentralizedartshows.com/

interesting it will be try out wonderful idea bro :)

I'm very excited for this series. Thanks for sharing! It was a very interesting one>

Didn’t know much about RAW until reading this! Thanks for this. Will try to use RAW when I got the time to use my old camera again!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I had to leave photography cause i could'nt afford a digital camera ,here in nigeria things like that are very expensive ,even laptops..
Your tutorial today has geared me up.. I'm happy i learned something.
Back then i used to take pictures only in Jpeg format ,i noticed they didnt look nothing like some photos i see on net ,even on steemit blockchain.I actually never knew about RAW format.
I would like to go back into photography again..
I hope this platform helps get back up @timsaid

Beautiful picture

I honestly never understood the benefits of RAW images, thanks for breaking it down for me!

There is a big difference! Jpeg files are pictures and RAW files are information about the light that got captured in our camera! Well done!

I really love photography. but the scenery is like in the picture he was hard to find here. and to ahlian in editing the image was still not good. but after I read this post I want to try more than today so that the results of my photos can be enjoyed by everyone. and the viewer will be drugged with the beauty. thank you for posting. I became more passionate about photography..

Thanks.So beatiful.

Great post on why you should always shoot in RAW!

The difference in the first photo is astonishing. Love the angle you chose for it as well.

I'm only an amateur photographer, but for the last year or so I have decided to shoot in RAW and this is why, the quality is unparalleled.

I look forward to seeing more episodes in the series from you!

amazing informations, so much details! Keep shooting

Thanks for sharing pretty new to photography, but have been interested in learning a few tips and tricks. Hope to continue reading your advice on photography!

wow, what a difference!

great writeup! Changing from jpeg to raw was one of the greatest jumps in my photography a while back. I really wish I had learned about it sooner and stopped that jpeg nonsense, so if you're learning photography, DEFINITELY start shooting RAW ASAP :)

Great... all photos @timsaid

Thanks I enjoyed this post. Simple, to the point, and very informative. I found this to be very helpful and will start using RAW from now on.

beautiful

You have my up vote good art love it peace and love.

The difference is amazing between the two formats, I didn't imagine they could have such a great impact. I currently rely on my phone to take picture but I want to buy a camera at some point this year.

Thank you for the wonderful information.
That is very useful information for me.
I have followed you, and look forward to seeing more.

Thanks for sharing that information. Amazing shots, thanks for sharing!

I've owned a Nikon D5000 for maybe close to 8 years now it feels like, and I haven't learned much. Lately because of Steemit I've wanted to take more pics, so when I found your post it was interesting to me.

I can't believe I never understood the point of Raw until now. Shooting in raw is very Gordon Ramsay too, which is a nice perk.

Thanks for teaching me this, I'm going to follow you. For my next blog post I'm going to shoot in raw : D

WOW. I like that expression very much. I prefer mostly RAW as a photographer. though it takes up a lot of space! but it is worth it!
Keeping photos forward. When it came time to process .. it is one of the most important ingredients for our photographing Raw format.
It would not be wrong to say "digital negative" for a RAW photo file. RAW photo files also carry all the data needed to create a photo such as a film negative, but can not be used alone.

Wow so nice photography.I will make your fan.

great informative post.thanks a lot for sharing...

Photography is my newest hobby. I'm starting from scratch, so I look forward to following along with your photography posts! Thanks for sharing!

I am a JPG shooter. I shot RAW for a long time just because online eveyone says you should, but eventually I felt like I wasn't needing to use it enough to justify the extra space, and steps used in editing. Since I only shoot for myself, and for a stock agency that only accepts JPG, there is literally no one to even request a RAW file. I decided not to bother anymore. But it probably would be a different story if I were a landscape photographer, for some reason I am under the impression it would make the most impact with landscapes as far as pulling out details, and having good exposures.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

It was an excellent article. So happy to see your article about photography. As an enthusiastic beginner all i can say is: Thank you!!!Thank you so much @timsaid!
I never understood the difference between the raw and other picture formats. People just kept saying that raw is the best for a photographer...but why?! now I got it thanks to your example photos!!! It was a great idea!!! I can see the difference now. And what a big difference....
now just have to work on my photoshop skills :)

Hope we'll getting many similar articles about photography from you in the future!!! So looking forward to it:)

all photo is very wonderful.i think that how to posibal.thank you so much post the photos.i love it.

hey @timsaid Please Follow and Upvote me

Awesome post by you nd the information you shared are very helpful for the photogenic peoples.hope to see more good posts from you..

TimsPhotography 101 is a huge success! I can see everyone around the world already talking about this series.
To be frank it really helped me, because I'm trying photography too, thanks sir :)

its briliant :)