Shooting On Vacation

[melinda_gaus]

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I'm going on vacation this Saturday (woooo), and I have a question.</p>

<p>I used to primarily shoot in JPEG simply because that's how the camera came programmed. But I've been experimenting with RAW formats. I shoot with a Nikon D80. Anyways, I have some more questions about RAW, since I'm relatively new to it.</p>

<p>This trip is primarily a vacation. (ie. It is NOT a photography trip). I'm happy to take a camera along and have fun, but it is not the main goal of the trip. I would most likely be taking some "semi-trying-to-be-professional shots", but also the standard vacation snaps.</p>

<p>I would like to, ideally, shoot all in RAW, so I have the most options for pp when I come home. My question is, how time consuming would this be? If I take 300 photos (wild guess), I assume I have to convert them all to JPEG at some point. I've always done this just one photo at a time. Can you batch process this?</p>

<p>Also, I assume I won't be able to take my camera card to WalMart (or whomever) and just print from their machine. I assume it does not recognize RAW. How would I get my prints then? Since many of these will be snaps, WalMart will suffice for my purposes here.</p>

<p>I would like to use the RAW format, though, in case I am lucky enough to get anything special.</p>

<p>I know you can shoot RAW+JPEG, but I'm trying to save data space if possible. I will go this route, if it seems to be the only feasible way.</p>

<p>Any other input would be great. Thanks.</p>

 

[luis_g]

<p><strong>Melinda typed: "</strong> This trip is primarily a vacation. (ie. It is NOT a photography trip). I'm happy to take a camera along and have fun, but it is not the main goal of the trip"</p>

<p> Whaaaat? :-)</p>

<p>Shoot RAW+JPEG. Yes, go & buy more memory cards, more than you think you'll possibly need, before you leave, and be happy. Yes, you can batch process, but you'll still want to spend countless hours of your life tweaking invisible details in each picture after you get back.</p>

<p>Have a great trip.</p>

<p> </p>

[melinda_gaus]

<p>:)</p>

<p> </p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>RAW and JPEG is an option, but I wouldn't.... Install free Nikon ViewNX, treat your camera the same way as you would shooting JPEGs, except that you shoot RAW only. ViewNX will pick up ALL the camera settings, so as long as those are OK, you can batch process them to JPEG. Output will look the same as the camera would have given, but you do have a RAW file with all its advantages.<br>

Running a batch process in ViewNX does not take a great deal of time, and it's fairly easy (select all photos, output --> JPEG).</p>

<p>And you still get way more memory cards than you think you need, because it never hurts :-)</p>

[ellery]

<p>Just so you know - RAW + JPEG only adds I believe about 1mb additional....so it really isnt much more in terms of storage. Converting many raw files to JPEGs is simple and easy - 300 photos may take say 5 minutes or so. Benefit of shooting RAW+JPEG though is the Jpeg will be more ready for simple print use to share with family when you are done. If you shoot in RAW only, you will need to batch process also for focus, saturation, etc.</p>

<p>If you are only shooting 300 photos, just shoot in RAW+Jpeg - perhaps will save you some time. You definately want the RAW file thought to give you the lattitude to tweak later down the line IMO and RAW+JPEG will save you time for those quick prints. Take care - have fun on vacation.</p>

<p>PS - I went out west for the first time and was later told by my wife that I turned it into a "photo trip" - :) - it was worth it! (snicker snicker)</p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>You don't need to convert all your pictures to JPEG, just the ones you want to keep. In practice, for sharing (e-mail, web) you'll normally want to downsize anyway, so this isn't really even an extra step. For printing at the drug store (etc.), yes you'd probably want to export a full-size JPEG. So I generally keep the RAW files and just output JPEGs when I need them, to the size I want.</p>

[ellery]

<p>However, it should be noted that simply converting a RAW to a JPEG after the fact does not give the same result as shooting a Jpeg in camera - when you shoot a JPEG in camera it does apply a number of "picture controls" to the photo - sharpenes, saturation, etc.....this process can be done as a batch process I suppose after the fact - but if you know you just want to share a number of "snapshots" with people on the web or simple prints, I would still shoot in RAW+Jpeg to save alot of time and effort.</p>

<p> </p>

[melinda_gaus]

<p>If I shoot RAW+JPEG and insert the card into the drugstore machine, will it just recognize the JPEGS?</p>

<p>If I plop the card into the machine it won't do anything to the RAW images right? Like, um, delete them or anything crazy!</p>

<p>Sorry, I know that is kind of a dumb question.</p>

[goldbergbarry]

<p>You can delete the RAW images - they are just files.</p>

<p>My reco is unless you are experienced at shooting RAW, that you stay with JPEGs. It is big hassle shooting RAW. For example, you need many more memory cards. You laptop hard drive will be eaton up quite quickly so make sure that you have plenty of hard disk space. It will take longer to transfer the files. It will take much, much post processing time. </p>

<p>I know that there are people who swear by shooting RAW but for ordinary vacation shots, JPEG is the way to go.</p>

<p>Have fun on vacation!</p>

[dan_south]

<p>Another vote for RAW + JPEG **if** you have enough memory card capacity.</p>

<p>There are some options to consider.</p>

<p>First, your JPEG files can be of various sizes and qualities. I like to shoot the best quality possible, but if you need to skimp on space, you can shoot a Medium-quality JPEG along with your RAW.</p>

<p>I'm not sure about the N80, but I think you probably have the option for a "Lossless Compressed" RAW file. That's probably the best one to use. You lost NOTHING and save a little space.</p>

[ellery]

<p>Hmm, I am not sure what happens when you stick it in the photo machine at CVS after you shoot RAW+JPEG - But I know that it wont read RAW so it will not alter the "NEF" file - if it works in the machine at CVS it will be reading the JPEG for certain cause the RAW file has to be converted to JPEG to be recognizable on the CVS (or where ever) machine. </p>

<p>Does someone know what happens if you shoot a RAW+JPEG, then stick the SD card in the drug store machine, what will happen - I am fairly certain it will simply read the jpeg - if it does not and does not recognize anything - you can simply go home and resave the Jpegs as plain ole Jpegs by themselves and then bring to the drug store - problem solved..</p>

<p> </p>

[ellery]

<p>Hmm, I am not sure what happens when you stick it in the photo machine at CVS after you shoot RAW+JPEG - But I know that it wont read RAW so it will not alter the "NEF" file - if it works in the machine at CVS it will be reading the JPEG for certain cause the RAW file has to be converted to JPEG to be recognizable on the CVS (or where ever) machine. </p>

<p>Does someone know what happens if you shoot a RAW+JPEG, then stick the SD card in the drug store machine, what will happen - I am fairly certain it will simply read the jpeg - if it does not and does not recognize anything - you can simply go home and resave the Jpegs as plain ole Jpegs by themselves and then bring to the drug store - problem solved..</p>

<p> </p>

[ellery]

<p>Just went to costco over the weekend, bough a 2 pack - two 8gb scan disc ultra II SD cards for 19.99</p>

[melinda_gaus]

<p>Glad you found such a good deal. I will do a little shopping around tomorrow, but didn't see that good of a deal anywhere!</p>

<p>Either way, I decided to shoot RAW+JPEG. I set up the camera today with a new card and it looks like I can get almost 450 photos this way. Even with the JPEG set to fine/large. That's on an 8GB card. It's worth it to buy one more card and be happy. Rather than me cursing myself out the whole trip! LOL.</p>

[craig_gillette]

<p>You only have to keep the ones you want (RAW or jpg), but you have to convert RAW files to see them on your laptop unless you shoot RAW + jpg. The initial conversion on import to a RAW converter is only a matter of perhaps a few minutes. You only have to do additional post-processing on ones you like or decide to tweak more. And that's whether you shoot RAWs, RAWS + JPGs or only JPGs. Savng data space may be false economy unless you are really short on hard drive space anyways. Which might then suggest that you are running too close to the limit on the hard drive. External hd storage to supplement your laptop isn't terribly expensive, that could allow you to have two copies of the files, one on the internal drive, one on the external drive.</p>